The Press: Teamster & Dobbins

After Teamster Boss Jimmy Hoffa threatened a general strike if Congress passes a labor reform bill (TIME, June 1) Editorial Cartoonist Jim Dobbins, 34, of the Sunday Boston Herald (circ. 293,904), drew the tough trucker as a club-carrying cave man guarding a skull-littered tunnel labeled “Truck Route, U.S.A.” (see cut).

Enraged, Hoffa bristled into Boston last week to exhort Local 25 and excoriate the press. With a glare at reporters, Hoffa roared that the press’s spleen might well stem from the fact that in some communities his drivers make more than newsmen. Cried he: “My responsibility is far and beyond some cartoonists or editorial writers, who want to display their high school skills to embarrass you and possibly put you in prison.”

Jim Dobbins, a frequent baiter of labor bosses though an American Newspaper Guild member himself, quite plainly saw his own responsibility, sat down at his drawing board and, with his characteristic heavy-lined style (“I can’t draw tiny lines—I’m six feet four”), once again exposed Jimmy in his bearskin (see cut). Said Dobbins. “I’m pleased that I scored—he seemed such a hard guy to penetrate with ridicule.”