Robert “Fighting Bob” Minor developed into one of the nation’s best political cartoonists in St. Louis, but he didn’t stay long. In 1911, he quit the Post-Dispatch for the New York World; he exited the World a few years later because he wouldn’t draw pro-war cartoons. His politics continued to shift left; he joined and later became a leader of the nascent communist movement in the United States.
Signs of his progressive tendencies are evident in his work during his final year in St. Louis. His cartoons attacked monopolies, child labor and a justice system that favored the rich; he embraced women’s suffrage and supported an income tax. He also frequently featured airplanes; one cartoon, published Aug. 15, 1911, has the Post-Dispatch mascot, the Weatherbird, joining aviation pioneer Harry Atwood on a flight sponsored by the newspaper. (Originally published April 30, 2022)
Roland Klose 