Untitled (National Park Service ranger bars a housing-seeker from Montezuma Castle)
A National Park Service ranger holds up a hand to a sweating traveller labelled J. PUBLIC, who carries a bedroll and a bag of money, in front of the Montezuma Castle cliff dwelling and its signboard. The ranger says Secretary Krug will not let rooms be rented there however acute the housing situation. The everyman figure 'J. Public' is a plain-folks device; fit is weak, as the cartoon is mainly satire of an administrative rule.
Propaganda techniques used in this cartoon
- Date
- March 4, 1946
- Period
- Cold War
- Made by
- Washington Evening Star (cartoonist Jim Berryman)
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Cartoon
- Issuer type
- Media
- Regime
- Truman Administration
- Leader
- Harry S. Truman
- 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, 5743138 (NAID 5743138).
Text on the object
I'M SORRY, SIR, BUT SECRETARY KRUG SAYS NO MATTER HOW ACUTE THE HOUSING SITUATION MIGHT BECOME.....WE CAN NOT RENT ROOMS IN THERE! MONTEZUMA CASTLE NATIONAL MONUMENT ANCIENT CLIFF-DWELLING PROBABLY BUILT ABOUT 1000 A.D....ABANDONED OVER 500 YEARS AGO.... Dept. of Interior [labels:] NPS; J. PUBLIC; JIM BERRYMAN (VERDE VALLEY, ARIZ.)
