The cartoon is entitled : "After the war, a medal and maybe a job"

The years prior to World War I marked a period of intense political activism among American artists. Radical art and politics met in the pages of The Masses, a socialist journal that appeared on newsstands from January 1911 through December 1917. As Europe moved inexorably toward militarism and war in 1914, John Sloan contributed this cartoon damning the capitalist "fat cats" made fatter by war. Such visceral and disturbing images led to the temporary suppression of the journal during World War I, when the U.S. Post Office used the new Espionage Act (1917) to ban its distribution. The act outlawed any public expression of opposition to the war and allowed officials to prosecute anyone who criticized the president or the government. In all, more than fifteen hundred people were arrested in 1918 for the crime of criticizing the government, and citizens' groups rooted out disloyalty by prying into the activities of their neighbors, opening mail, and tapping telephones.

Medium : Reproductions are made from a scan of a charcoal and crayon drawing

Created/Published : 1914

Creator : John Sloan, artist, 1871 - 1951

Part of the Cabinet of American Illustration and housed in the Prints and Photographs Division of the Library of Congress.

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Product #: cph3g12974