A Cartoonist Comments on American Economic Priorities (1969)

This December 1969 drawing by political cartoonist Eugene Payne was published in The Charlotte Observer. The cartoon shows a man holding items labeled "Defense," "War," "Foreign Aid," and "Space," representing the spending priorities of the American federal government in the late 1960s. The outstreched hand, asking for change to "eliminate hunger," found no support from the man. The cartoon appeared just weeks after the Apollo 12 returned from the moon, the U.S. and Soviet Union approved a nuclear nonproliferation treaty, and only days after the U.S. affirmed its ongoing commitment to the war in Vietnam by instituting a draft lottery.

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