Biography
Wisconsin-born socialist cartoonist for Puck, Life, The Masses, and later The Liberator and The New Masses. Indicted in November 1917 along with editor Max Eastman, John Reed, and the staff of The Masses — the radical New York socialist literary magazine — under the Espionage Act of 1917 for conspiracy to obstruct military recruitment. The Post Office had already revoked the magazine's second-class mailing privileges, effectively shutting it down. The first trial (April 1918) and second trial (October 1918) both ended in hung juries; the government declined a third prosecution and the charges were dismissed. The Masses re-emerged as The Liberator under Eastman's editorship. His famous anti-war cartoon "Having Their Fling" — depicting an editor, capitalist, politician, and minister dancing to a chord struck by the Devil — was specifically singled out in the prosecution.
