58 | OCTOBER 10 • 2024 J
N
Looking Back
From the William Davidson Digital Archive of Jewish Detroit History
accessible at thejewishnews.com
An American Tradition
P
araphrasing a holiday song, “Tis the Season.” The season for political
advertisements, that is. The long, tedious, unrelenting, bombardment of
political ads that will continue until election day.
By now, unless you have been totally isolated from radio, TV or social media,
or have been on a safari in Africa or living in Antarctica for the
past few months, you have been confronted with the usual slew
of political ads. While some ads might have some bits of useful
information, following two centuries of American political tradition,
most ads have a singular purpose — to paint the opposition as a
monster that you cannot let into office lest the results be that the
nation will fold like a cheap suit.
I decided to explore the phenomenon of political ads in the
William Davidson Digital Archive of Jewish Detroit History. Were
things different, say, 100 years ago?
One ad in the Nov. 18, 1921, Chronicle began with a simple message: “END
PROHIBITION.” The 18th amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the Volstead Act,
had become a national law in 1920. It prohibited the manufacture, transportation
and sale of liquor in America. Prohibition also ushered in an era of gangsters
who saw the immense profits in illegal booze. Lasting until 1933, it still holds the
record for largest Constitutional fiasco in American history.
Another interesting ad in 1923 urged voting “yes” for Police Pensions (March
2, 1923, Chronicle). It seems like the least we could do for Detroit police officers,
but in that era, company and civic organizational pensions were very rare.
A year later, a full-page political ad for Detroit mayoral candidate John W.
Smith appeared in the Oct. 31, 1924, Chronicle. A rather lengthy read, this ad was
specifically directed “to the readers of ‘The Jewish Chronicle.’” More to the point,
it was “addressed to the Jews of Detroit,” and stated that it was “written by a Jew”
and “paid for by Jews.” The ad is most interesting because it points to a threat
from the KKK if one voted for Smith’s opponent, Charles Bowles. In the end,
Smith won and was mayor of Detroit, 1924-27.
Bowles lost but would be elected mayor in 1930. He was indeed openly
supported by the KKK, which reached peak membership across America and in
Detroit in the 1920s. An example of this was when 30,000 KKK in their pointy
hats and robes brazenly marched down Constitutional Avenue in Washington,
D.C., in 1925. It was reprehensible that someone like Bowles was elected mayor.
Sensible Detroiters, however, recalled him after six months in office.
Another ad mentioned the KKK in 1925. Its title is intriguing: “I’m Bid $24
for This Man’s Vote.” The ad proceeded to explain the logic of this statement.
The message was — one needs to vote to prevent an “UNAMERICAN
ORGANIZATION known as the k.k.k,” that has “plenty of money to spend in this
campaign,” from electing a particular candidate for mayor [Bowles]. It asked: “Are
you going to sit idly by and let them ‘get away with it’ when all you need to do …
is go to the booth and VOTE?”
Current election ads can be nasty, to be sure. But they do appear to follow American tradition. As Mark Twain
said: “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.”
Want to learn more? Go to the DJN archives, available for free at thejewishnews.com.
Mike Smith
Alene and
Graham Landau
Archivist Chair