Taxes, american cartoons and comics during world war ii. I can remember, from my days in tokyo chapel school, where our pastor gave us a sermon that has stuck with me ever since. The lesson of it drove from two part. To separate to biblical text, one is from second kings if youre interested, chapter 4, where the private 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 eat, for that as of the lord they should eat and have some rest. So he said it before them in the eight, and they 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 bully, 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, bring it up. He gave things 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 to. He was trying to tell us, it did not matter, how little we had. If we use it safely and 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 freaks 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 expert 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, cost 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 it 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 effort met 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 to defeat the enemy. Everybody, both young and old and no matter how much you have or dont 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 american to help pay for the war. Was about talked about taxes, and bonds, and bonds, and texas. 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 have people pay as 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 on to . Bonds . Company people have been given Something Like that for a birthday or graduation or something of that kind . Right . It is a very, very interesting looking piece of paper that is not a toy. You open the 20 the car the, its a very official looking piece of paper and what your 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 . That is a savings bond. With 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 United States government 18. 75 and that hale want to buy a bond, and you waited several years for that want to mature, it would give you back, 25. Is not a bad deal home . Home . a you get 25 back years later but the slow 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 as 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, because for 10 tends watch this , for . 10, you can go ahead and buy one usa being defense stamps. Okay . How does that help . It 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, are going what . Its gonna take you a lot of time to buy 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 a comic 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. 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 are her friends is that, it encourages kids not to spend every dime they have. But, but some of them away. Into u. S. Defense saving stamps. What this stage, among the merits of the u. S. Savings bonds program, was it curb inflation. Because its happening, is that when people are not spending all the money they have, it puts a cap on inflation. World war ii was inflationary time, and it revoked the deflationary program of the Great Depression. So its one thing to have a little bit of inflation to get over the Great Depression but you dont want to much in the way to do that is to encourage americans to keep the money in their pocket. Or save it this book, and other books like it. They represented you putting money away, lending it to uncle sam to help when the war, youre not spending it on stuff. That, over time curbs inflation among kids, and asking adults to do the same thing. There would be payroll savings where, you dont get your complete paycheck, you are part of that paycheck goal for war bonds and things like that. So, that is what the war bonds and the Stamps Program is about. That is what it is about. So when you say defense by bonds and stamps that is what it is about if you are not rich enough to buy a full bond for 18. 75, then go collect stamps . 10 apiece, a dollar piece of five dollars apiece, until you save enough to buy a bond. Okay, everybody clear on what the defense bonds and Stamp Program was about . And how whether you are rich, poor, adult or little kid, you could participate. Of course, the government did not hesitate to say you are doing your part, you may have a brother, an uncle, parent, overseas fighting, you can do a little bit for them. Your little bits, is able to help in this great endeavor. That is where the cartoons come in. U. S. Government was very smart, they said we have to get top 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 of americans dont pay their taxes, put them in jail what is the problem . They said mister disney, yes but what is 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. That will be tough, nobody likes paying taxes. And walt disney is nodding and stuff. And now this is what they wanted well to do, but the character are 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. Donald duck . 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 than 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 made in part on the cantankerous secretary of the interior, how icky. And donald can pay his taxes, anybody can pay their 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 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 . Okay. There he is, new spirit in america. The spirit of a free people, united again in a common cause to stamp tierney from the earth. Our shores have been attacked. Your own country is mobilizing for civil war. Your country needs you okay are you a patriotic american . Yesa you do your part . Yes sir then there is something important you can do. Oh boy oh boy oh boy you wont get a medal for doing it. That is okay. It will be a vital help to your country. Ill do anything. Can i tell you what it is . Yes what is it . Tell me town value . Tell me tell me 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. Oh whats the big hurry . What is a big hurry . Your country is at war, your country needs taxes for guns, taxes for ships, taxes for democracy, taxes to beat the access. Oh boy victory thats the spirit. Yes sir now how about your income tax . Okay give me a minute. So, 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. And 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 axes. The rest of that cartoon will show, it pays for planes, tanks, cannons and guns and all those implements of war. The thing youre not crazy about doing, is vital to this great enterprise. Fighting and winning the war. So for taxes, how about bonds . Other studios got involved as well. I want to show you, a bugs bunny cartoon in which he sings a popular song i want to caution you, even as we are involved in this grant enterprise, to fight the axes power and the totalitarian and the racism that they represented, the United States could still not raise itself entirely above it own racism in that time. All show you why, bugs bunny will perform blackface. After popular performer out jewels then 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 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. [ music ] the tall man with a hi hat, and was his chin, will soon be knocking at your door, and he ought to be and, the tall man with hi hat, will be coming down your way, itll even out when they shalt 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. Bond stands today, in the usa, sammy my uncle sammy, here comes the freedom man, to buy a share freedom today sam, by a bond today. Look at that. I want you to seize your attention on the image here. For the defense by the United States saving bond, 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 is independent as a revolutionary war in 1776. If you want to be in that grand tradition of the patriots of 1776 when you have to do your part for defense and by United States saving bonds and stamps. This was a very prevalent symbol , around the country. Advertising the need, to buy savings bonds and stamps here 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 said, when you see these minutemen 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. 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 Morgan Powell junior. Secretary of the treasury. You see the letterhead here the secretary of the treasury in washington. Boys and girls of america, here is 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. With your fathers, brothers, or uncles, they are using it 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 junior. Is a minuteman symbol again, right on here it says this 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, they 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 that give us wonder woman, the flash, blue lantern, 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 an all star comics number eight, and then her first cover appearance sensation was comics number one 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 want and stamps. This is serious stuff. This is serious stuff. Is serious, because, beyond enjoying the adventures of wonder woman there is 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 box. And, these page