“The workingman between two fires.”

Many nineteenth-century labor reformers rejected corrupt political machines like New York City’s Tammany Hall, despite the tangible benefits they often presented to working-class citizens in the way of jobs and social services. To protest party machines, New York’s Central Labor Union launched an independent labor party in 1886, choosing reformer and author Henry George as their candidate for mayor. During the campaign, many workingmen faced a dilemma when the Catholic Church hierarchy attacked George. As this cartoon from the humor weekly Judge indicates, although the ULP lost the election, the sizeable turnout for George (the figure on the left) showed that many Catholic voters had ignored the denunciations of Archbishop Michael A. Corrigan (the figure on the right).

Source: Grant Hamilton, Judge, 1886—American Social History Project.