We are going to look at today the place where the socalled real world with a cartoon and comic World Cartoon and comic world. That is why the title of todays class is songs and taxes, american cartoons and comics during world war ii. I can remember, from my days in chapel school, where our pastor gave us a sermon that has stuck with me ever since. The lesson of it drove from twoparts. Two separate biblical texts, one is from second kings if youre interested, chapter 4, where the prophet elisha, not elijah but elisha, has him bringing 20 rolls of barley and he has to feed 100 men. And his servant asked him, how are we gonna do that . We only have 20 rolls of barley. The prophet says, give them to the men, that they may had some left, just as the lord told them, theres an incident from the new testament where, jesus is confronted with a crowd of people 5000, how will we feed all these people . One of his disciples says heres a young boy, with five barley loaves and two fish. Not a lot. It could take like six months of pay to feed the crowd of 5000. Jesus said, crowd of 5000. Jesus said, bring it up. He gave thanks to it, and the whole crowd was fed and there was more than enough. I remember, my pastor saying, it does not matter how little you are, you can be a little guy, and i was a little guy, you can be a child, boy, girl, it does not matter, when there is a need, if you bring your little bit however little bit you might have, god will use that to meet the need. He was trying to tell us, it did not matter, how little we had. If we use it faithfully for a righteous cause it will help a big need to be met. I have been thinking about that lesson, for a long time as ive been contemplating what are we gonna talk about, in terms of world war ii and paying for world war ii. In the days of world war ii the need was indeed great. Franklin roosevelt as president made a number of speeches to the American People and the weeks right after the attack in pearl harbor and one thing he impressed in the American People, was that everybody, rich, poor, old, young, did not matter had a role to pay play a very important one. In getting this monumental job done of paying for the war, and winning the war. Im giving you an excerpt of his state of the Union Address from 1942. Just a few sentences that will encapsulate what he was talking about here. And how he was urging all americans to do their little bit. Fdr came before congress, and the American People on that occasion, and he said, war, costs money. So far, we have hardly even begun to pay for it. We have devoted only 15 of our National Income to National Defense. As will appear in my budget message tomorrow. Our war program for the coming fiscal year, will cost 56 billion. Or, in other words more than half of the estimated annual, National Income. That means taxes, and bonds, and bonds and taxes. It means cutting luxuries, and other nonessentials. In a word, it means an all out war, by individual effort, and family effort, in a united country. Now, when he was talking about individual effort, and family effort he was talking about kids as well. Family about kids as well. Family effort meant even if you were over here, on the home front, and your loved ones were fighting overseas over there as the popular song went, there was still work, that you could do to help defeat the enemy. Everybody, both young and old and no matter how much you had or didnt have, had a very Important Role to play. In the United States war effort. Roosevelt wanted to make a very, very sure that everybody was clear about that. Early in that new year of 1942, United States treasury is already going to work, trying to figure out how to get americans to help pay for the war. Was about talked about taxes, and bonds, and bonds, and taxes. We know what taxes are right . Its when the government compels you, to pay certain part of your income, to meet the cost of government doing what it has to do. But what are bonds . A bond is a i owe you, write that down and i owe you, its a statement that the United States government owes you money. Basically what uncle sam was doing was saying, we will doing was saying, we will have people pay us taxes to pay for this thing, but, we will also have to go into debt to pay for this thing. Now, a show of hands, how many people have some sort of United States savings bonds . Right . It is a very, very interesting looking piece of which parents may have to explain to you parents may have to explain is that it is a u. S. Savings bonds, which means, you keep it, you dont do anything with it for a while, but in a few years you will be able to cash it, and get money so you can pay for your education, this, that important things is an investment in the future, by having uncle sam go into debt to you. Okay . Go into debt to you. Okay . That is a savings bond. What United States treasury, decided to do, was to initiate a savings bond program specifically for the purpose of collecting money for the war effort. Okay, how much . Well, you can get a United States savings bond at that time for as low in the amount as 18. 75. If you gave lending uncle sam money, to win the war. I dont know about you, but what if youre a little kid in 1942 . A little kid with his hands in his pockets and one thing that i have in his pockets is 18. 75. Because remember 1942, theyre just coming out of the Great Depression. So, am i out of this great state in the u. S. Government says no, you can buy something called United States savings stamps. United states savings stamps . Yes, this is what you would do, you get yourself a Little Green Book like this. In that Little Green Book, you would place every time you would go and buy u. S. Savings stamps, what are you talking about stamps im talking about stamps like this. You could get these they would sell these overthecounter at banks, and other institutions, its like okay, all i have, is . 10 its not much and they say thats okay its enough, say thats okay its enough, because for 10 cents watch this, for . 10, you can go ahead and buy one usa being defense stamps. Okay . How does that help . Helps because you get this Little Green Book, your stamp book you put the stamp, right in here, maybe you have another stamp 80s to get there, these stamps, watch these stamps are various denominations some of them are . 10 on the dollar, some of them . 50 and you get them, get them, get them and you fill the book full, when it comes up to 18. 75, you walk over to the place with that 18. 75 you can buy yourself a war bond. Those of you that are math experts, enough savings stamps for 18. 75. That is why the stamps came in various denominations larger than that a dollar, five dollars and like that. But, what if you are strictly at . 10 kind of person . What it did was, and we will see, the cost of book and was . 10. Action comics number one, superman, it has at . 10 price sticker on it. Is worth a whole lot more now. But . 10 then. If you only have . 10, this is what you do, you might spend one dime on a comic book, maybe another dime on Something Like a cookie or ice cream and then another dime, you would spend on this, but what you did, is you had friends, i bought superman for . 10, you may have bought batman. You may not wonder woman. What we would do, is swap and trade. See . Whats happening even on a level of a little kid and his friends or her friends is that, it encourages kids not to spend every dime they have. But to put some of them away into u. S. Defense they called it defense saving stamps. And what this did, among the merits of the u. S. Savings bonds program, was it curbed inflation, because whats happening, is that when people are not spending all the money they have, it puts a cap on inflation. World war ii was an inflationary time, and it reversed the deflationary process of the Great Depression. So its one thing to have a little bit of inflation to get you over the Great Depression but you dont want too much in the way to do that is to encourage americans to keep some money in their pockets or save it and this book and other books like it represented you putting money away, lending it to uncle sam to help win the war. Youre not spending it on stuff and that, over time curbs inflation among kids, and theyre asking adults to do the same thing. There would be payroll savings where, you dont get your complete paycheck, you let part of that paycheck go for buying was bonds and things like that. So, thats what the war bonds and the Stamps Program is about. That is what it is about. So when you say buy defense bonds and stamps, that is what it is about. If youre not rich enough to buy a full bond for 18. 75, then go collect stamps . 10 apiece, a dollar piece, five dollars apiece, until you save enough to buy a bond. Okay, everybody clear on what the defense bonds and Stamps Program was about . And how whether you are rich, poor, adult or a little kid, you could participate, and of course, the government did not hesitate to tell you that youre doing your part, you may have a brother, an uncle, parent, overseas fighting, you can do a little bit for them. Your little bit, is able to help in this great endeavor and thats is where the cartoons come in. U. S. Government was very smart. They said well, weve got to get taxes and bonds and bonds in taxes and they went to walt disney. They said walt, we need your help to get americans to pay their taxes. Walt disney was thinking well, if americans dont pay their taxes, put them in jail what is the problem with incentivizing here . I sure pay mine they said mister disney, yes walt is very informal. We cannot arrest and jail the whole country if we are going to just rely on fear and intimidation, it will not work. We cannot jail every last person in the country. We have to get people to want to pay their taxes and thats going to be tough, nobody likes paying taxes. And walt disney is nodding and now theyre saying this is what we want you to do, a character called mister taxpayer and we want that and walt said no, no, no im not creating a new character. They said no . He said no, we already have the perfect character for you. Donald duck. They said, donald duck . He said, listen folks, he said the disney studios like any other studio. We are giving you one of our star actors right now. Just look at it that way. Because if cantankerous donald duck can pay his taxes then anyone can. Remember in previous weeks we looked at the history of animation, we saw some animated cartoons of donald duck and we saw how cantankerous he could be. We saw how he was based in part on the cantankerous secretary of the interior, harold ickes. If donald can pay his taxes, anybody can pay his taxes. So that what we will do, is i will show you a bit of a clip of a cartoon that walt disney, created, involving donald duck persuading him and through persuading him, persuading the American People to pay their taxes. I want to show you how its done. How did they do that . How do they work into the argument . All right. There he is, a new spirit in america. Thats right. The spirit of a free people, united again in a common cause to stamp tierney from the earth. Our shores have been attacked. Your whole country is mobilizing for total war. Your country needs you. Okay im ready. Are you a patriotic american . Yes sir , do your part . Yes sir , then there is something important you can do. You wont get a medal for doing it. But it will be a sacrifice on your part. Oh boy oh boy oh boy , that is okay. It will be a vital help to your country. Do anything. Can i tell you what it is . What is it . Tell me , town value . Me tell me , your income tax. Income tax . Yes your income tax. It may not seem important to you, but it is important. It is . Yes and it is your privilege, not just your duty but your privilege, to help your government by paying your taxes, and paying it promptly. Whats the big hurry . Whats the big hurry . Your country is at war, your country needs taxes for guns, taxes for ships, taxes for democracy, taxes to beat the axis. Oh boy victory, taxes to beat the axis thats the spirit. Yes sir , now how about your income tax . Okay give me a minute. How about everybody attacked the issue of paying your income tax with that much enthusiasm . And early tax payments went up after the release of that cartoon. It worked. And walt disney made sequels to it with donald duck paying his taxes and the catchphrase you heard was taxes to beat the axis and the rest of that cartoon will show, it pays for planes, tanks, cannons and guns and all those implements of war. The thing that youre not crazy about doing, is vital to this great enterprise of fighting and winning the war. So much for taxes, how about bonds . Other studios got involved also. I want to show you, a bugs bunny cartoon in which he sings a popular song, and i want to caution you about something, even as we are involved in this grant enterprise, to fight the axis powers and the totalitarian and the racism that they represented, the United States could still not raise itself entirely above its own racism in that time. Ill show you why, bugs bunny will perform in blackface patterned after the popular performer of the time, al jolson, who sing a song called my mammy in the 1927 ground wrecking talking feature the jazz singer. The film that signaled the end of the same era and the beginning of the talking era. For one bugs bunny does that blackface impression hes imitating a specific performer. He saying, uncle sammy instead of mammy but still the racism is inexcusable. Its why you do not see this cartoon too much, and is one of the very few cartoons, with money that uses this offensive form of humor. The tall man with a hi hat, and whiskers on his chin, will soon be knocking at your door, and he ought to be and, the tall man with high hat, will be coming down your way, get your savings out,bring bonds today come on and stamp folks come on folks. Any bonds today, bonds of freedom is that what im selling its bond today, scrape out the most you can, here comes the freedom man to buy your share of freedom today. Money stamps today, in the usa, sammy my uncle sammy, here comes the freedom man, wanting us to buy a share freedom today any stamp, any bonds today. Look at that. I want you to seize your attention on the image here. For defense, buy the United States saving bonds and stamps. U. S. Treasury this is a minuteman soldier, this is from the revolutionary war days. They said, you know we have to impress upon you some people that this world war ii that we are involved in now, is just as important a fight for freedom and independence as was the revolutionary war in 1776, so if you want to be in that grand tradition of the patriots of 1776 when you have to do your part for defense and buy United States saving bonds and stamps. This was a very prevalent symbol, around the country. Advertising the need, to buy savings bonds and stamps. It even made its way, into the first issue of wonder womans own magazine. This is a panel, from a story of the end of the story of one of the adventures wonder woman have in wonder woman number one. And wonder woman says when you see these minuteman posters, boys and girls remember, hes talking to you. So yes the superheroes that we have been sending, a number of days in this class researching the origins of, and getting the background of, they too are joining in this effort and i will tell you something. It is not as if the comic book company was just well, lets slap that in there. No, there was cooperation with the u. S. Government because the back cover, the back cover of wonder woman number one, was dedicated, to the boys and girls of america from the secretary of the treasury himself. A special message to the boys and girls of america from henry morganthal junior, secretary of the treasury. You see the letterhead here, the secretary of the treasury in washington. Boys and girls of america, heres a way for everyone of you to help your country. Every time you buy a saving stamp, you are helping uncle sam to pay for a part of a gun, plane, or ship, which your fathers, brothers, or uncles are using for the defense of the country. If every one of you, 40 million boys and girls, would buy at least one . 10 saving stamp every week, you would be lending your uncle sam, 200 million every year. Think, of all the guns, planes, and ships he could buy with that. Remember, you can help to keep them flying, by buying a defense stamp every week. Sincerely, henry morgenthal jr. There is a minuteman symbol again, right on here it says this space is donated by the publishers of the magazine. In the interest of National Defense and victory. Okay . It costs of course the company was dc comics. Dc comics had some levels to his organization at the time. Was the there was the National Comics wing that gave the superman, batman aquaman, and green air arrow and then there was the allamerican comic wings which give us wonder woman, the flash, Green Lantern, and a number of other heroes. But the two companies were very interrelated. They were very close, and these are the publishers that said, lets donate the back cover, of the first issue of wonder womans own magazine she appeared of course in allstar comics number eight, and then her first cover appearance sensation was comics number one in 1942, they said she is such a runaway hit, we will give her her own magazine. First edition of her own magazine, they are donating space to tell every boy and girl in america to buy defense savings bonds and stamps. This is serious stuff. This is serious stuff. Its serious, because, beyond enjoying the adventures of wonder woman theres really something you can do to be a hero lets look at a few other covers. Now here, we have worlds finest comics. You will notice a few things. Number eight, winter issue, a superman dc publication, right . You have superman, and batman and robin, handing out things that kind of look like these books, these little, green books and these pages of stamps. Thats what theyre doing. Theyre handing these out. But, what ar