Out! (1943), the Bressler cartoon that kicks "Tom Trouble" off the shop floor

Out! Don't listen to his song and dance. Give the goof a kick in the pants! is a 1943 cartoon poster copyrighted by Bressler Editorial Cartoons of New York and signed Packer. A giant shoe marked "All of Us" boots a workman labeled "Tom Trouble" through a factory door as his co-workers laugh (NAID 515160).

The kick

The kicker here is a giant shoe, and it is labeled with the group that delivers the kick. The archive describes its target as a workman with a long nose and a wide mouth, sent out through the factory door as his co-workers laugh from the doorway. The words fill in the rest.

Out !

TOM TROUBLE

ALL OF US

DON'T LISTEN TO HIS SONG AND DANCE

GIVE THE GOOF A KICK IN THE PANTS !

Who Tom Trouble is, and is not

The poster never says what Tom Trouble's "song and dance" is. The sheet gives no example, so a reader could put any complaint into his mouth. The archive reads the labels as naming a type of shop-floor complainer and tags name-calling and scapegoating: a label and a funny face stand in for an argument, and the remedy offered is that the group throw him out.

A plant poster can fairly ask workers to ignore a loudmouth and keep at the job. This one goes further. It shows collective expulsion as the answer, and it pictures the crowd enjoying it. A worker who raised a real grievance in a 1943 factory had every right to raise it, and nothing on this sheet distinguishes him from the goof.

A private cartoon in a public file

Bressler Editorial Cartoons, Inc., of New York holds the copyright, and Packer signed the drawing. No government office is named on the sheet. The archive records the issuer type as "Mixed," the audience as "Domestic public," and the purpose as "Mobilize or secure compliance." The National Archives holds it with the World War II posters in Record Group 44.

Another privately made plant poster from the same year, Heppenstall's Why Should I Work Any Harder?, also pictures a reluctant worker. Two 1943 federal sheets on this site concern the coal mines, United States Property! and the President's May 2 statement. Earlier fights over organizing are in the case study on union and open-shop campaigns, 1910–41.