“The Fishin’ Season”

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." 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.