A Jim Berryman cartoon for the Washington Evening Star, dated 5 July 1938, puts an armoured knight on a horse labelled "New Deal" in a charge at three men labelled Smith, George and Chandler. His squire, labelled Garner, warns: "But boss, them ain't windmills! Them's Democrats!" (NAID 5743109).
The joke
Berryman borrows Don Quixote. An armoured knight on a horse labelled "New Deal" levels a lance. In front of him, behind a bank, three men labelled Smith, George and Chandler throw up their arms. Beside the knight rides a squire on a donkey, his hat labelled "Garner," and the squire gets the only line.
---BUT BOSS, THEM AIN'T WINDMILLS! THEM'S DEMOCRATS!
NEW DEAL
GARNER
SMITH
GEORGE
CHANDLER
Jim Berryman
The archive reads the scene as the story of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, lent to politics so that the charge looks like a mistaken fight. The squire's correction is the punch line: the targets are not windmills, they are Democrats. The archive files the cartoon under transfer for that borrowing. Its catalog lines give the theme as elections and party politics and the purpose as persuading or winning support.
What the record does not say
The labels are surnames only. The FRAME record does not give first names for Smith, George, Chandler or Garner, does not name an election, and does not explain what the charge was about. This page does not fill those gaps. A reader can still see the shape of the argument: the cartoon treats the charge as a mistake by the rider holding the lance.
A newspaper mocking a program
Whatever the occasion, the sheet is a newspaper drawing the New Deal as a knight who has lost track of his targets. The Roosevelt administration essay notes that newspapers were privately owned in these years and that most of them, by number, endorsed the Republican in 1936, 1940, and 1944.
Two other Berryman cartoons have pages here: WPA money sown across the South, dated later the same month, and a 1936 baseball preview.
Sources
- FRAME object record, But boss, them ain't windmills! Them's Democrats!, 5 July 1938. Washington Evening Star (cartoonist Jim Berryman). Rights as recorded: public domain (U.S. government work).
- U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Records of the U.S. Senate, Jim Berryman Political Cartoons (NAID 5730852), item NAID 5743109, retrieved by the archive 3 October 2026.
