---
title: Nice work...If he can get it!
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/nice-workif-he-can-get-it-1958/
description: A frightened elephant clings to a totem pole topped with a hat labelled 'Alaska' and crossbars reading 'Party Control'.
section: Collection
---

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3. Nice work...If he can get it!

**Content note:** 1958 US newspaper cartoon using a totem pole as a symbol of Alaska statehood, shown as published. This object is shown as it was published. [Why](https://propagandaarchive.org/about/#as-it-was)

[![Nice work...If he can get it!, 1958 US cartoon: A frightened elephant clings to a totem pole topped with a hat labelled](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/nice-workif-he-can-get-it-1958.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/nice-workif-he-can-get-it-1958.jpg)

# Nice work...If he can get it!

A frightened elephant clings to a totem pole topped with a hat labelled 'Alaska' and crossbars reading 'Party Control', while a figure in a fur-trimmed parka labelled 'Nixon' holds its feet and tries to keep it up. The cartoon argues that Alaska's vote bears on which party controls Congress, and that the Republican elephant is nervous about it.

## Propaganda techniques used in this cartoon

[Fear appeal](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/fear-appeal/)

## Text on the object

Original (English) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
ALASKA
PARTY CONTROL
NIXON
JIM BERRYMAN
WASHINGTON ST
```

[← Now I've Really seen everything](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/now-ive-really-seen-everything-1958/) [Pictorial Review No. 15: Coronation anniversary of Emperor Haile Selassie I (Amharic-English poster distributed in Addis Ababa) →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/pictorial-review-15-haile-selassie-coronation-amharic-ethiopia-1958/)

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- [Miniature of Pope Urban II at the Council of Clermont, Les Passages d'outremer (BnF Fr. 5594, fol. 19r)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/passages-doutremer-council-of-clermont-colombe-1474/) (France · 1474 · Testimonial, Fear appeal). Content note: Medieval religious imagery and a French text describing alleged killings and captivity of eastern Christians, as used to argue for the First Crusade; the text is shown as written.
- [Anacoana fut pendue sans raison (engraving in Le miroir de la cruelle et horrible tyrannie espagnole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/anacoana-hanged-miroir-tyrannie-espagnole-1620/) (Dutch Republic · 1620 · Fear appeal, Name-calling). Content note: Engraving of a hanged, bare-breasted Taino woman, burning huts and people being killed by Spanish soldiers.
- [Der Warner (broadsheet lampoon on the Jesuits after Breitenfeld and Rain)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/der-warner-anti-jesuit-broadsheet-1632/) (Holy Roman Empire · 1632 · Scapegoating, Fear appeal)
- [Sans-Culottes, feeding Europe with the Bread of Liberty (James Gillray)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sans-culottes-bread-of-liberty-gillray-1793/) (Kingdom of Great Britain · Jan 12, 1793 · Fear appeal, Name-calling)
- [Proclamation de Sonthonax en créole, Cap-Français (Proclamation of Commissioner Sonthonax in Creole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sonthonax-proclamation-creole-1793/) (France · Aug 29, 1793 · Fear appeal, Scapegoating). Content note: Colonial-era proclamation on slavery and emancipation in Saint-Domingue; speaks of slaves, whips and 'Nègues' in period terms.
- [Gazette of the United States, "The Jeffersoniad" no. VIII, 14 August 1800](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gazette-us-jeffersoniad-1800/) (United States · Aug 14, 1800 · Name-calling, Fear appeal)
- [Tyrants Prostrate, Liberty Triumphant (pro-Polk cartoon on Dorr), 1844](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/tyrants-prostrate-liberty-triumphant-polk-1844/) (United States · 1844 · Name-calling, Fear appeal). Content note: Speech balloons contain anti-Catholic and nativist wording ('the ruins of Popery') in the mouths of the Whig figures, written by a Democratic cartoonist and shown unaltered.
- [Brolej Žemajčiaj! (Brothers Samogitians!): hand-painted broken-cross poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/brolej-zemajciaj-broken-cross-1862/) (Russian Empire · 1862 · Fear appeal, Transfer)