1941.09.04 “Rough Crossing”
by Ralph Lee (1906-1947)
14.6 x 23.2 in., ink on board
Coppola Collection
Ralph Lee was an editorial cartoonist for the Portland Oregonian. He died suddenly, at 41, in January 1947. His cousin, Art Bimrose, was the editorial cartoonist for the Oregonian for more than three decades. In 1937, the Oregonian hired him part-time to work on printing plates. Following Lee’s death, Bimrose was hired as the Sunday editorial cartoonist.
In September 1941, while the US was still technically neutral, its defense preparations were hampered by bureaucratic red tape. Despite the growing threat from Japan and the looming war in Europe, the US struggled to efficiently mobilize its resources and manpower, leading to a delay in the military's ability to respond to the rapidly changing global situation.
Virginia Chronicle, The Daily Review, Volume 37, Number 13811, 12 September 1941
We are slowly becoming, in the President's phrase “the arsenal of- democracy." The possibility of our actually going to war in Europe seems to lessen rather than grow greater. As yet, at least, Britain and her Allies have no need for additional manpower. What they need is munitions, and more munitions - aircraft and still more aircraft. Today Britain to carrying the war to the Continent - and she is carrying it there partly with American bombers which can fly at 30,000 feet above the range of antiaircraft fire, and above the efficient fighting level for pursuit planes.
British spokesmen have been saying lately, however, that we are not doing enough. American help, they observe, to as yet only a stream -not a surging river. And there can be no question but what the arms programs has been held back by unnecessary delay, labor trouble, indecision, red tape, buck-passing. The lack of a single executive head for the multitudinous overtopping defense boards and commissions is still an extremely serious deficiency. Even so, production to coming up, especially in the aircraft field.
Some believe that the coming year win decide this war. Hitter is not only fighting a war on two fronts - something he always said he would avoid at all coats — he must face a third front, too. The third front is the growing underground anti-Nazi movement in the occupied countries. Reports filler out from Europe of sabotage, the assassination of Nazi troops and police, the slow-down of work in factories in occupied lands which have been toned to produce for Germany.
