It is a proud boast of the government-controlled British Broadcasting Corp. that it gives the public, not what it wants, but what it ought to hear (TIME, June i, 1931). The Governors carried this policy a step further last month by presenting a radio feature which they felt not the general public but their fellow politicians ought to hear: a speech by Caricaturist David Low of the London Evening Standard, with the Daily Express’s Leslie (“Jack”) Strube (pronounced Strooby), the ablest of present day British newspaper cartoonists. Excerpts:
“. . . The modern British cartoonist is cursed by tender regard for the sensitive feelings of his subjects almost to the ruin of his art.
“He is careful not to make Mr. Baldwin’s nose too much like a ping pong ball, or not to draw Mr. Thomas wearing a black tie with a white waistcoat. He controls with almost superhuman restraint the impulse to accentuate the Aunt Maria aspect of Mr. MacDonald’s hair, abstains from sharpening Sir John Simon’s head to vanishing point, and from accentuating the vulture glare of Mr. Neville Chamberlain’s eye. . . .
“Where our ancestors dipped their pens in acid we now dip ours in syrup. In statesmanship … it pays to advertise. The medium of caricature is a godsend to ambitious politicians for it exhibits personality in an arresting and compelling manner. . . . The cartoonist draws from physical characteristics their spiritual significance, or, reversing the process, suggestions of abstract qualities which could not otherwise be made plain. It is to be expected that in this translation . . . the translator and his subject should not always see eye to eye. When the subject says. ‘I quite appreciate a good cartoon against myself.’ I feel there must be something the matter with it.”
More Must-Reads from TIME
- Inside Elon Musk’s War on Washington
- Why Do More Young Adults Have Cancer?
- Colman Domingo Leads With Radical Love
- 11 New Books to Read in February
- How to Get Better at Doing Things Alone
- Cecily Strong on Goober the Clown
- Column: The Rise of America’s Broligarchy
- Introducing the 2025 Closers
Contact us at letters@time.com