Judge — March 15, 1919 — page 3: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Analysis of "The New St. Patrick" Cartoon **Publication:** Judge magazine, March 15, 1919 **The Image:** A figure dressed as St. Patrick (with bishop's mitre and stars-and-stripes cape) wields a staff, striking at a writhing mass of snakes labeled with names including "Bolshevism," "I.W.W." (Industrial Workers of the World), and what appears to be "Anarchy" and "Syndicalism." Industrial smokestacks line the background. **The Satire:** This is anti-radical propaganda from the post-WWI "Red Scare" period (1919-1920). The cartoon presents American patriotism as a modern St. Patrick "driving out snakes"—here representing socialist, communist, and anarchist movements perceived as threatening American society. The Irish saint reference likely plays on St. Patrick's Day timing, while the industrial setting emphasizes labor radicalism as the target. The cartoon advocates aggressive suppression of leftist ideology.