1940s Capitalism Cartoon Makes a Comeback

A 1940s capitalism cartoon
is making a comeback with over 7 million views on YouTube. The
cartoon “Make Mine Freedom” was produced by Harding University, a
private university in Arkansas in 1948 extolling the virtues of
free-market capitalism and inveighing against “isms” particularly
communism and statism more generally.

The cartoon mixes humor with serious philsophy as it defines
what freedom means: “America is the freedom to work at the job you
like, freedom of speech and to peacefully assemble, freedom to own
property, security from unlawful search and seizure, the right to a
speedy and public trial, protection against cruel punishments and
excessive fines, the right to vote, and worhip God in your own
way.”

The cartoon shows how freedom fosters entrepeurship giving the
example of a fictional Joe Doakes, just a “regular guy” who some
viewed as “lazy” but liked to “tinker around his barn.” But then
“one day he had an idea, and because he was free to dream and
tinker” he invents a car. However, he needs additional resources to
build more of these cars, so he gets money from people in the
community, making them “capitalists.” With the money, he hires his
unemployed friend Willie to help build the cars, and Willie becomes
a skilled auto expert. Joe’s idea grows into a large company
providing thousands of jobs.

It goes on to warn that internal conflicts, such as tensions
between labor and management, classes, races, and religious groups
often leads individuals to seek statism as their solution.

The cartoon cautions not to drink the “ism” or statism kool-aid
because it will squash their freedom by banning labor strikes,
taking away private property, and rescinding voting rights from
political dissidents. It humorously shows a protestor railing
against the big blue fist symbolizing statism when the fist smashes
him with a “State Propaganda Speaker” forcing him to regurgitate
“Everything is Fine, Everything is Fine.”

The cartoon makes a point to not only explain why freedom should
matter to just the capitalists, but also the laborer and
farmer. 

While clever, the video doesn’t fully speak to today’s context
where the Cold War is over and most generally agree communism and
authoritarian regimes are a bad idea. Today, it needs to be
explained why freedom and free-market capitalism better meet the
needs of people than the soft paternalism of a well-meaning social
democracy.