1938.10.01 "California Here We Come"
by Harry Frank (Hy) Gage (1878-1971)
5.5 x 7.75 in, ink on board
Coppola Collection
His first known comic was 'Breeches Boys', which appeared in the Philadelphia Press newspaper in 1901. During the early 1900s, he did at least five other comic strips: 'Doctor Peach' (briefly, in 1908, for the Philadelphia Evening Telegram), 'Generous George' (1906-07), 'Up in the Air with Hungry Halley' (revived as 'Hungry Halley', 1913-14, syndicated through the Chicago Tribune syndicate), 'Mr. Grouch' (1907-08), 'Mrs. Rummage' (1907-13). In the twenties, he came up with 'Miss Information' (1924-30, syndicated through the Ledger syndicate), and 'Doc' (1925). He produced many comics from 1900 to 1930 for several newspapers.
This is very much a California-politics cartoon. The Big Goose: “Something for Nothing”… the public appetite for free or unrealistic benefits. The Hatchlings: each corresponds to a well-known Depression-era populist plan or movement. “Sinclair’s Utopia” refers to Upton Sinclair’s EPIC plan (“End Poverty in California”), part of his 1934 run for California governor. “Townsend Plan” was Dr. Francis Townsend’s plan (mid-1930s) that every citizen over 60 should get $200/month pension. “Share-Wealth” was Huey Long’s national populist program of wealth redistribution. While Long was assassinated in 1935, his ideas circulated widely in California and elsewhere. The new kid on the block is “$30 a Week,” a reference to the Ham and Eggs Movement (1938), which proposed a $30 weekly pension for Californians over 50, funded by issuing special scrip.
From a contemporary report: The slogans-"Ham and Eggs" and "Thirty Dollars Every Thursday," together with two others, "Life Begins at Fifty” and “$30 a Week for Life”-are plastered across billboards and posters and shouted day and night over the radio from one end of the State to the other. Nearly 1,000,000 persons signed the initiative petition required to get the measure on the ballot, although several hundred thousand of the signers are said not to be qualified voters. The promoters say they have 250,000 members who pay a penny a day each as dues. This amounts to $2,500 a day, or nearly $1,000,000 a year. Donations of $1, $5 and $10 bills roll in daily in response to appeals by radio and at mass meetings attended by thousands here, in San Francisco and in other cities. The "ham-and-eggs' pamphlets sell like hot-cakes at 25 cents each. The proposed amendment provides that the Governor must appoint one of the promoters as State administrator of the plan. The administrator could draw on the State Treasury for $700,000 (in real money) for the general expenses of getting the plan started, plus $200,000 (real money) for the specific purpose of advertising it by newspapers, radio, billboards and direct mail.
The election on the Ham and Eggs initiative was defeated in November 1938.
