# Jim Berryman's 1950 Labor Day cartoon on the holiday toll and Korean War casualties

Jim Berryman drew this Washington Evening Star cartoon for 5 September 1950. A hooded Death labeled "U.S. Holiday Toll" sits beside the Labor Day casualty lists and boasts that it will beat the Korean War casualty figure through August 25, given on a sign as 6,886.

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      U.S. Holiday Toll vs. Korean War casualties through Aug. 25: 6,886

      Jim Berryman's 1950 Labor Day cartoon on the holiday toll and Korean War casualties
      Jim Berryman's 5 September 1950 Evening Star cartoon: Death as the "U.S. Holiday Toll" vows to beat 6,886 Korean War casualties. NAID 5743149.

## Techniques named on the archive record

Fear appeal
      DateSeptember 5, 1950Made byWashington Evening Star (cartoonist Jim Berryman)MediumCartoonCountryUnited StatesRegimeTruman AdministrationNARANAID 5730852; NAID 5743149SourceIdentified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they areSourceU.S. National Archives (NARA), Records of the U.S. Senate, Jim Berryman Political Cartoons (NAID 5730852) , retrieved October 3, 2026SourcePublic domain (U.S. government work) Jim Berryman, Washington Evening Star. National Archives and Records Administration, Records of the U.S. Senate, 5743149 (NAID 5743149).
      Object, image, and catalog record from the FRAME archive. Text on this page is CC BY 4.0. Image rights are as the archive records.

      Full record at propagandaarchive.org

  Jim Berryman drew this Washington Evening Star cartoon for 5 September 1950. A hooded Death labeled "U.S. Holiday Toll" sits beside the Labor Day casualty lists and boasts that it will beat the Korean War casualty figure through August 25, given on a sign as 6,886.

## What the cartoon shows

Death sits at a desk in a hooded robe, scythe at hand. The robe is lettered "U.S. Holiday Toll." Beside him lie the casualty lists for the Labor Day weekend. On the wall hangs the war's count, and Death gives it a thumbs-up.

KOREAN WAR CASUALTIES THROUGH AUG. 25

6,886

YES-SIR! I THINK I'M GOING TO BEAT THAT!

U.S. HOLIDAY TOLL

LABOR DAY WEEK-END CASUALTY LISTS

FRAME transcription. Signed "Jim Berryman." Full record at propagandaarchive.org. National Archives, Records of the U.S. Senate, Jim Berryman Political Cartoons (NAID 5730852), item NAID 5743149.

## The argument

The cartoon makes a comparison and lets the reader feel its edge. A country at war might, by Berryman's reckoning, suffer more casualties over one holiday weekend at home than the war had produced through 25 August. The figure on the sign is the cartoon's own, and the word "casualties" in it is broader than deaths. This page does not check the number or add a holiday total the cartoon does not give.

The archive tags it as a fear appeal, carried by the figure of Death. The fear here is not of an enemy. It is of ordinary carelessness, and the cartoon uses the war as a yardstick to make that carelessness visible.

## Who made it

This is newspaper work, not government work. Berryman drew for a private daily, the Washington Evening Star, and the archive classes the source as openly identified. The original drawing is held among the Senate's records at the National Archives, and the rights line records it as public domain.

A free press using a war to scold the home front is a different thing from a government doing it. Berryman had no authority over his readers and no power to punish them. He could only argue, and he argued with a skeleton. Readers were free to find the comparison apt or tasteless. For government messaging from the same war, see MacArthur's letter on prisoners and the Pyongyang air-raid warning.

## Sources

- FRAME object record, "U.S. Holiday Toll vs. Korean War casualties through Aug. 25: 6,886," 5 September 1950. Washington Evening Star, cartoonist Jim Berryman.

- U.S. National Archives, Records of the U.S. Senate, Jim Berryman Political Cartoons (NAID 5730852), NAID 5743149, retrieved by the archive 3 October 2026. Rights as recorded: public domain.

Canonical: https://americanpropaganda.org/collection/us-holiday-toll-korean-war-casualties-1950/