The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1928-05-12
ELLIS OUTSTANDING
IN RED CARTOONS"

need hardly be added that Ellis never
has and probably never will receive
the Pulitzer prize for the best cartoon
of the year.)
/ should say that Ellis work has
something more than touch of gent
us. And he is something more than a
great political cartoonist. He is a
revolutionary artist who in society
in which even revolutionary art rarely
escapes some faint of the febrile es-
theticism of the dominant bourgeois
class, has retained the simplicity, the
vigor, the massive creativeness of the
revolutionary proletariat. And it is
this which makes Ellis in certain as
poets of his art greater than any of
his contemporaries. Chopper, for ex-
ample, a much more versatile, more
subtle artist, seems almost an esthete
beside him. There is nothing of Crop
per's intellectual restlessness, the con-
flict between lyricism and satire, in
Ellis. Ellis seems stolid by compar-
ison. But it is the stolidity of assur-
ance and strength rooted deep, the
stolidity that shakes worlds the
beaten, cropping stolidity of the work
ingclass struggling inexorably to it's
power.
Ellis is the most ''proletarian" of
all American revolutionary artists.
His best cartoons are usually vivid
dramatizations Of simple mass emo
tions. Hate and love, ridicule, pity
these are his stock in trade. Strikers
have referred to scabs as "rats" for
years. Ellis has taken this simple,
obvious idea and built out of it what
is perhaps the most powerful cartoon
in the entire volume. The drawing
shows an ell train in the background
and huge sign: 81. R. T. Strike
Breakers Apply Here" Facing the
sign, with backs to the foreground
and Shiny tails sticking out, is hord
of rats. And the perfect caption:
"To Take the Place of Men,"
The effect Of this cartoon is like
whip across the face. Bitter and
sardonic, the entire class struggle is
presented in flash. The bitterness
of this picture holds the secret of
Ellis peculiar power. 1t is what l
mean when l say that he is the most
"proletarian" Of all our revolutionary
cartoonists. 1t is as a tragic rather
than satiric artist that Ellis touches
greatness. And he has the capacity
of lifting himself up to crucial and
tragic moments in the life of the
workingclass as in his magnificent
Sacco-Vanzetti drawings. (These have
been included in a separate volume.)
Not only the tragedy of the exploit
ed workers, but their hidden power,
the menace of their instruction loom
large in the drawings of Ellis. The
Chinese peasant rises with pitchfork
to carry on the betrayed revolution,
and the Nicaraguan dies with his fist
thrust towards the plane of American
imperialism circling overhead. The
drawings of defeat are never draw
ings of despair. Always there is the
call to battle. And even in the I'M
.evenness of his work-and Ellis work
lis not always good, it says visibly at
times--there seems to be reflected the
uneven progress Of the struggles of
the workingclass.
I have some faults to find with the
editing of Red Cartoons, 1928. There
is not enough variety in the selection
of cartoons, too many of them express
sing approximately the same idea. And
several of the most powerful Of Ellis
cartoons have been omitted. l under
stand that loss of cuts and other
mishaps have prevented them from
being included This is not the fault
of the editor of Red Cartoons, but it
seems to me some provision should be
made for preserving every DAILY
WORKER cartoon.