Signs of Spring
A circular central panel shows a loaded touring car passing a 'To Florida' sign, with four surrounding panels of spring motoring mishaps: a boiling radiator, a salesman for the 'Dissip-8' launching the 'Big Drive', a family car being lacquered, and convertible tops being folded back on 'Pneumonia' models. The tell, weak here, is euphemism: sales labels ('Dawn-Gray', 'One-Man' tops) are set against the plain outcomes ('dirty Airedale brown', 'Pneumonia models').
Propaganda techniques used in this cartoon
- Date
- March 11, 1928
- Period
- Interwar
- Made by
- Washington Evening Star (cartoonist Jim Berryman)
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Cartoon
- Issuer type
- Media
- Regime
- Coolidge Administration
- Leader
- Calvin Coolidge
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Warn or inform
- Theme
- Economy and finance
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- U.S. National Archives (NARA), Records of the U.S. Senate, Jim Berryman Political Cartoons (NAID 5730852), retrieved October 3, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (U.S. government work)
Jim Berryman, Washington Evening Star. National Archives and Records Administration, Records of the U.S. Senate, 5743093 (NAID 5743093).
Text on the object
WHEN IT GETS TOO BALMY FOR THE OLD BUS, AND THE ALCOHOL IN THE RADIATOR BOILS OVER MR. SLICK, SMOOTH-TONGUED SALESMAN FOR THE FAMOUS "DISSIP - 8" LAUNCHES THE "BIG DRIVE" TO FLORIDA RUMBLE SEATS ARE PRIED OPEN AGAIN AND — "ONE-MAN" TOPS FOLDED BACK ON THE "PNEUMONIA" MODELS DAD SPENDS TWO WHOLE DAYS SMEARING UP THE FAMILY HACK WITH A BEAUTIFUL "DAWN-GRAY" LACQUER, WHICH WILL SOON TURN TO A DIRTY AIREDALE BROWN J.T. Berryman [licence plate: DC 11-A]
