The Fishin' Season

Political parties try to win elections by choosing and angling for issues that will appeal to voters. When this cartoon was published, the 1920 Presidential election was nearly a year and a half away. There were no clear front-runners and both major parties were in need of a campaign platform that would lead them to victory. The cartoon captures the Republican elephant and the Democratic donkey seated on the same log fishing on different sides of the "campaign issues pool" - issues that will lure undecided voters to their side and away from the other party. The parties did not have to fish long for issues--three weeks after this cartoon was published, the Treaty of Versailles was signed, officially ending World War I, and the great political fight over the League of Nations began.

This cartoon was drawn by Clifford Berryman, one of Washington, DC's best-known cartoonists in the early to mid-1900s. Berryman drew for the Washington Post and Evening Star newspapers. His cartoons touched on a variety of subjects including politics, elections, and both World Wars.

Text adapted from ""Summer Schedule” and “The Fishin’ Season”: Cartoons by Clifford Berryman” in the January/February 2008 National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) publication Social Education.