The Hand of Privilege 

• 1928 
• Bishop, Daniel 
• Drawing 
• Historical item 

6850819

Drawings / paintings

The Hand of Privilege

37 x 29 cm

1928

Original editorial cartoon on card in ink and crayon for the St. Louis Star Times, 1928, shows a farmer being robbed and held by the throat by the brutish figure of ‘predatory privilege’ looking for ‘plunder’. The caption: ‘the hand of privilege shall be taken out of the farmer’s pockets and off the farmer’s throat’ refers to a speech made by one of the keynote speakers, Claude Gernade Bowers, at the Democratic Convention of 1928 where Alfred Smith was nominated as presidential candidate for the party. Although the economic depression was yet to begin, farmers in the United States had been struggling throughout the decade because of overproduction, protective tariffs and other factors resulting in low prices and hundreds of thousands of farmers going out of business. The standard joke about the Republican administrations of the previous years was that “the Republican party has done much to relieve the farmer - of his farm”, and the Democrats were intent on rectifying the situation. Smith was not elected however, and it would still be many years before American agriculture fully recovered. Card size 37 x 29 cm (14.5 x 11.5 inch), image size 27 x 23 cm, signed lower right with caption in pencil in upper border. Some age toning, otherwise in very good condition.