Signed Ink Drawing

Pulitzer prize-winning editorial cartoonist with the "Chicago Tribune" (1903-45). Original signed ink drawing, 14½" X 17½", n.p., n.d. [ca. 1919]. Very good. Slight edgewear and minor soiling. Labeled "He would Rather Explain than answer" in cursive by McCutcheon on the lower margin, this handsome single panel piece depicts an angry-looking Uncle Sam in profile in the foreground, poking the shorter man in front of him (identified as "Cox") and demanding, "Are you for Article X -- answer me, Yes or No?" The shorter fellow, sweating, responds, "Let me explain." Uncle Sam points with his other hand at two large placards posted on a wall. The placard at left reads: "Elihu Root on Article X. Article X is an alliance to enforce perpetually through the operations of the League the decisions of Mr. Wilson and his associates in the year 1919. Article X is a throwback to the old discredited alliances of the past. Article X speaks a language of power and not the spirit of progress. Article X is an attempt to do what the Holy Alliance sought 100 years ago (with just as noble expressions of purpose) to impose by force the judgment of the rulers of the present generation upon all future generations." The placard at right reads: "Pres. Wilson on Article X. Article X is the heart of the covenant." Former senator and secretary of state Root, at this time president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, was well known as a strong supporter of the League of Nations -- BUT with strong reservations, mainly about Article X, which he thought highly impractical. Signed simply "McCutcheon" at lower right, as usual.