Cartoons by Bradley/Bradley as a Cartoonist

by Charles H. Dennis

 

 

 

 

FINISHING THE DAY'S CARTOON

 

Luther D. Bradley as He Appeared at His Desk in The Chicago Daily News Office

 

[By Clyde T. Brown, staff photographer of The Chicago Daily News]

 

 

BRADLEY AS A CARTOONIST

THOUGH the word "cartoon," as used to designate certain kinds of satirical drawings, has strayed far from its original meaning, it has achieved in its present uses an adequate definition which the public profitably may bear in mind. That effective instrument of the artist turned satirist, "must always figure," according to an authority, "as a leading article transformed into a picture." It is, in short, an editorial expressed in line. By this rule, then, should be judged the cartoon, properly so called. By this rule the work of Bradley's brain and pen invariably measures true.

To the writer, whose privilege it has been for more than twenty years to confer almost daily with some cartoonist of proved ability or of excellent promise while the latter was developing the idea which was to take pictorial form under his skillful hand a few hours later, it is a pleasure to record here the belief that, like Abou Ben Adhem, the successful producer of cartoons loves his fellow men. It follows that he is continually seeking for truth and not in the mood of jesting Pilate. This may serve to explain why the older term "caricature," which sufficed to describe, for example, the tremendously effective brutalities of Gillray and Rowlandson in Napoleon's day, cannot be applied with entire propriety to the work of enlightened and conscientious artists of the present, who make pictures which are leading articles. Truth if caricatured becomes a lie. In the successful cartoon everything may be distorted except the truth.

Bradley had a high respect for his art and for his position as a teacher through his art. He was a student of cartooning, historically and otherwise. It was a source of satisfaction to him that as an American cartoonist he had among his predecessors men of such strong convictions as Paul Revere, Thomas Nast and Joseph Keppler. He had no patience with milk-and-watery cartoons. Whatever came from his pen had to deliver a message of no uncertain kind. Any idea which could not prove itself worth while when roughly sketched out in half a dozen pencil strokes was straightway banished as unworthy. He took an honest pride in the fact that he did not have to fall back on makeshift or second rate ideas when he squared his elbows above his drawing board for the day's work. At that particular moment he was far more likely to find himself suffering from an embarrassment of riches in the form of many inviting subjects for treatment than from a dearth of ideas.

WHEN he joined the staff of The Daily News Bradley was already a cartoonist of experience, having won notable success in Melbourne and having worked on other Chicago newspapers for several years. After he became the head of the art department of The Daily News, with general supervision over a considerable staff of artists and photographers, he attended to the many details of executive management along with his daily task of conceiving and executing a cartoon. Up to 11 or 12 o'clock each day his mind was busy with ideas for possible cartoons in the midst of the distractions of other duties. These ideas he would sketch out in the crudest way with a soft pencil, each rudimentary cartoon on its own sheet of ordinary rough paper. With the penciled sheets, usually numbering from three to half a dozen, he would come to my room, usually a little before noon, and we would talk over these ideas and perhaps other ideas would be developed.

Questions of clearness, appropriateness, vigor, unity and timeliness would commonly arise and often there was a choice to be made among a number of acceptable subjects. Frequently several different methods of treating the same subject would be considered and each would be sketched out in pencil or rearranged on the sheet with a few swift strokes by Bradley in the course of the conversation. The fertility of Bradley's mind, enriched by much reading of history, biography and other substantial works, and broadened by travel and observation as well as by thought which had produced in him strong convictions, was continually in evidence at such times. I frequently said to him in our discussions that I conceived it to be my part to assume the role of devil's advocate, suggesting possible weaknesses in ideas that were up for consideration, flaws in deductions from given facts, points of seeming injustice to men or measures and such other features of the cartoon in embryo as might be entitled to consideration before the picture began to develop under his careful pen. As a conscientious man he entered heartily into this trying-out process, engaging with animation in the task of weighing ideas and possible methods of treatment. The caption for the chosen cartoon was given equally careful thought in order that in few words it might clarify the meaning of the picture. Often, however, there was nothing for me to do at these conferences except approve some admirably clear and vigorous sketch which presented a timely subject with the vividness of a lightning flash. It was not uncommon for this man who seemed to think in pictures to present a veritable sheaf of sketches, each relating to a different subject and all so good that he was speedily invited to choose from among them the one which made the strongest appeal to himself.

THE questions most commonly debated in these daily meetings were, first, "Is this a true and just presentation of the case?" and secondly, "Will the average newspaper reader readily catch the point in the picture?" Unless these questions were affirmatively answered there was no chance of the artist's choosing to develop the idea. He was incapable of compromising with his convictions, but he was always ready to consider evidence tending to show that his convictions were wrong. Always looking for good causes to help, he frequently expressed the desire to "strike a blow" for this or that. In a world with so many wrongs to be combated he had no patience with frivolous subjects for cartoons. He took his talent too seriously, he took life too seriously, to waste his time on littlenesses. He was eager to attack any piece of injurious folly or any social tendency indicating deterioration of the mental, moral, or physical fiber of Americans. Cartoons of the type of the one in which he contrasted the sturdy boy of an earlier generation trudging to school through snowdrifts with the languid stripling of to-day stepping into an automobile and saying, "School, James," gave him particular pleasure.

A consistent enemy of individual and national flabbiness, he rejoiced in honorable achievement of every sort. For the great men of the past he had a particular reverence. The birthdays of Washington and Lincoln seldom or never passed without his drawing lessons from their lives for the profitable consideration of the people of to-day. For Roosevelt he had an unwavering admiration and he never grew weary of depicting that virile American in the act of doing some strenuous thing or other. This big, gentle hearted artist dearly loved also to picture women admonishing their husbands on matters of public duty or serenely setting them right when they were in the midst of some wrongheaded action typically masculine. He believed that women commonly had a finer, truer sense in matters of social service than had men, and he championed their cause effectively by expressing in many ways his conviction that as a rule they were no less clear of vision than pure of purpose in dealing with public affairs. On behalf of children, misunderstood at home or mistreated anywhere through poverty or neglect or the barbarities of war, he was always ready to fight in flaming indignation.

When the European war broke out Bradley, in the full enjoyment of his ripe creative power, turned with passionate energy to the task of depicting the gigantic criminality of militarism. The scathing indictments which he drew against it were reproduced in publications throughout the world. Their remarkable merit brought him wide fame and soon he was proclaimed by many the greatest of American cartoonists. From the earlier war cartoons—such as the one entitled "The Harvest Moon," showing a skull-shaped luminary pouring its rays down upon an illimitable plain covered with corpses—to the last three or four of the wonderful series, including "Just Another Little Fellow," showing the slender corpse of stricken Roumania over which the ponderous wheels of war has just passed — they met with wide recognition as masterpieces of the cartoonist's art. Bradley's life went out suddenly but peacefully while his creative power as an artist was at its height. In taking him death ended the career of a devoted champion of goodness, simplicity, and gentleness, of progress and truth.

Charles H. Dennis.