
Herblock Looks at 1973: Fifty Years Ago in Editorial Cartoons
As Richard M. Nixon began his second term as president in 1973, he had support throughout the United States. Evidence mounted for his knowledge and participation in such 1972-reelection scandals as the break-in at the Democratic National Party headquarters in the Watergate hotel, dropping an International Telephone & Telegraph (ITT) investigation in exchange for a campaign donation, and accepting campaign contributions from milk producers. During the Senate’s Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities televised hearings, White House aides implicated the president in wrongdoing. Federal Grand Jury trials began and aides resigned. Nixon turned to radio and television to assert his innocence. However, his hegemony started to collapse with the knowledge that he had recorded private conversations held in the Oval Office.
Herblock also lifted his ink brush and pen to address issues of the 1973 influenza, inflation, minimum wage, gasoline, and pollution. When he believed the Nixon administration had inserted itself into issues to the detriment of the American people, Herblock relentlessly expressed his opinion.
These ten cartoons—with new drawings introduced into the exhibition every six months—have been selected from the Library’s extensive Herbert L. Block Collection in the Prints and Photographs Division.
March 25, 2023–September 2023
“WHAT A WALLOP! IS THAT STUFF IMPORTED OR DOMESTIC?”
Reacting to the epidemic level of flu cases in January 1973, Herblock repurposed a cartoon drawing that he had published in reaction to a flu epidemic in 1968 in which he had used alcohol as a metaphor. Dubbed the “London Flu” by the press, the 1972–1973 outbreak was not as severe as the 1968 pandemic but still led to somewhere between 6,000 and 23,000 deaths from the flu and pneumonia.
“What a Wallop! Is That Stuff Imported or Domestic?” 1973. Published in the Washington Post, January 7, 1973. Graphite and ink brush with opaque white and blue pencil over graphite underdrawing with paste-on. Herbert L. Block Collection, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress (001.22.00)
LC-DIG-hlb-08132 A 1973 Herblock Cartoon, © The Herb Block Foundation
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“THINGS ARE PICKING UP”
By showing business people aloft in a hot air balloon having hooked a consumer who frowns at “living costs,” Herblock compared differing expectations between those who made goods and those who had to pay for them. Economists, in looking back, acknowledged that wholesale prices did not rise as much as consumer goods, leading to larger business profits. A combination of high international demand and bad weather led to skyrocketing food prices in January 1973.
“Things Are Picking Up,” 1973. Published in the Washington Post, January 10, 1973. Graphite and ink brush with opaque white over graphite underdrawing. Herbert L. Block Collection, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress (002.22.00)
LC-DIG-hlb-08134 A 1973 Herblock Cartoon, © The Herb Block Foundation
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“WE’VE GOT TO HOLD THINGS DOWN”
Arguing that increasing the minimum wage from $1.60 to $2 was inflationary, President Nixon vetoed congressional legislation. Herblock contrasted a low-wage worker anchored to the floor and stretched by inflationary prices with the cocktail-drinking businessman standing next to the president. Given that inflation had driven up the cost of living 35% since the previous minimum wage increase in 1967, union leaders reacted, calling the veto, “a callous, cruel blow to the worst paid workers in America.” Under pressure of increasing inflation, Nixon acquiesced to the increase in 1974.
“We've Got to Hold Things Down,” 1973. Published in the Washington Post, September 9, 1973. Graphite and ink brush with opaque white over graphite underdrawing. Herbert L. Block Collection, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress (003.22.00)
LC-DIG-ppmsca-17210 A 1973 Herblock Cartoon, © The Herb Block Foundation
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GAS STATION AND THREE LARGE AUTOMOBILE BILLBOARDS
Before the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC) imposed an embargo on the United States on October 19, 1973, oil companies waged an internal war on independent gas stations. Independent stations had been purchasing excess gasoline not sold to branded stations. Producers imposed supply limitations to support their own brands of gasoline, which forced hundreds of independent stations, mostly in rural areas, to close. Herblock juxtaposed advertisements for large vehicles with the lack of available gasoline.
Gas Station and Three Large Automobile Billboards, 1973. Published in the Washington Post, June 7, 1973. Graphite and ink brush with opaque white over graphite and blue pencil underdrawing. Herbert L. Block Collection, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress (004.22.00)
LC-DIG-hlb-08238 A 1973 Herblock Cartoon, © The Herb Block Foundation
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NIXON AND TWO MEN RIDING IN AUTOMOBILE
When the White House requested to further delay implementation of the Clean Air Act of 1970 controls on automobile pollutants, Herblock used the visual metaphor of President Nixon tossing a bag of garbage into the face of a hiker. The automobile industry wanted to delay installation of catalytic converters on tailpipes, which put it in direct conflict with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Nixon had created the EPA in 1970.
Nixon and Two Men Riding in Automobile”, 1973. Published in the Washington Post, December 4, 1973. Graphite and ink brush with opaque white over graphite and blue pencil underdrawing. Herbert L. Block Collection, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress (005.22.00)
LC-DIG-hlb-08363 A 1973 Herblock Cartoon, © The Herb Block Foundation
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FIRM STAND ON CRIME
In 1973, Nixon addressed the nation seeking congressional legislation to restore the death penalty after the Supreme Court had ruled it “cruel and unusual punishment” in violation of the Constitution. Nixon also called for longer sentences, castigating “permissive judges.” At the same time, he invoked the privilege of “executive power” to prevent his counsel, John W. Dean III, from testifying during the Senate nomination hearing for FBI director L. Patrick Gray III. Herblock used the visual metaphor of a garbage can to express his opinion.
Firm Stand on Crime, 1973. Published in the Washington Post, March 15, 1973. Graphite and ink brush over blue pencil underdrawing. Herbert L. Block Collection, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress (006.22.00)
LC-DIG-hlb-08180 A 1973 Herblock Cartoon, © The Herb Block Foundation
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LATE RETURNS
Republican Senator Lowell Weicker of Connecticut opened the televised Senate Watergate hearings on May 17, 1973, with the statement, “So the story to come has its significance not in the acts of men breaking, entering, and bugging the Watergate, but in the acts of men who almost stole America.” Herblock, too, compared the somber hearings with the celebratory victory six months earlier, using the term “election return” not as a vote tally but as a moment to consider the machinations affecting the electoral process.
Late Returns, 1973. Published in the Washington Post, May 18, 1973. India ink, graphite, and opaque white over graphite underdrawing. Herbert L. Block Collection, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress (007.22.00)
LC-DIG-hlb-08225 A 1973 Herblock Cartoon, © The Herb Block Foundation
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ABOVE ANY OFFICE
On August 29, 1973, as Richard Nixon resisted handing over his Oval Office tapes, Judge John Sirica, Chief Judge of the United States District Court in Washington, DC, ordered their release to him for review before deciding whether to turn over to the grand jury. The Nixon administrative invoked “executive privilege” and a constitutional doctrine of separation of powers, but failed to persuade both Sirica—and upon appeal, the Supreme Court. Herblock approved of the judge’s decision, seeing as one of the cartoon’s proposed titles suggested, “government of laws.”
Above any Office, 1973. Published in the Washington Post, August 31, 1973. India ink and graphite over graphite underdrawing. Herbert L. Block Collection, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress (008.22.00)
LC-DIG-hlb-08297 A 1973 Herblock Cartoon, © The Herb Block Foundation
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THE OVERLOADED SHREDDER
Using a plumber as an allusion to the break-in at the Democratic National Party headquarters at the Watergate Hotel the previous year, Herblock depicted the efforts to which the Nixon administration went—unsuccessfully—to hide corruption and scandal. As testimony to the Senate showed, the Nixon administration was complicit in a number of illegal reelection schemes and other actions that abused executive power and undermined the electoral process.
The Overloaded Shredder, 1973. Published in the Washington Post, August 8, 1973. Graphite, India ink, and opaque white over blue pencil underdrawing. Herbert L. Block Collection, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress (009.22.00)
LC-DIG-hlb-08280 A 1973 Herblock Cartoon, © The Herb Block Foundation
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“I HEREBY GRANT YOU EXECUTIVE CLEMENCY”
As testimony to the Senate Committee increasingly implicated President Richard Nixon in the Watergate break-in, as well as other election scandals, the president resolutely denied involvement. In a television speech on August 15, 1973, he insisted that he had made no offers of executive clemency to those involved in the break-in, despite testimony to the contrary. Here, Herblock turned the tables on the president’s speech, having him facing a mirror and offering himself a pardon with the evidence of his illegal actions surrounding him.
“I Hereby Grant You Executive Clemency,” 1973. Published in the Washington Post, August 17, 1973. India ink, graphite, and opaque white over graphite and blue pencil underdrawing. Herbert L. Block Collection, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress (0010.22.00)
LC-DIG-hlb-08287 A 1973 Herblock Cartoon, © The Herb Block Foundation
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HERBLOCK’S PEN
Pen used by Herbert L. Block (Herblock). Gift of Brian Noyes, 2010. Herbert L. Block Collection, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress (011.00.00)
Pen Used by Herbert L. Block (Herblock). Gift of Brian Noyes, 2010. Herbert L. Block Collection, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress (011.00.00)
LC-DIG-ppmsca-67916.
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