National Affairs: Political Fair

The political significance of the great electoral campaign of 1938 (see accompanying article) is half its history. The other half is the story of 128,000,000 people on a political romp, attending a great U. S. political Fair where there are not only prize stock and sound produce, but 48 sideshows crammed with freaks and cranks and mountebanks, exhibitions of exhibitionists, comedies of public error, Democratic Punches and Republican Judies and plenty of good dishonest mudslinging—the living picture of workable Democracy at work with the Outs smearing the Ins. To help portray this great aspect of social history, the Editors of TIME last week commissioned Artist Tony Sarg. Instructing him to put on the quizzical spectacles through which he looks at World’s Fairs and marionette shows, they turned him loose with pen and India ink on a large sheet of white drawing paper. The resulting social document, a Sarg’s eye view of the U. S. political scene, titled “Our Country Fair—or Unfair” appears on pages 32 & 33.