"The Ring Master"

Cartoon from the Kansas City Journal-Post before the local election on March 25, 1930. The drawing depicts Tom Pendergast as a ringleader in a circus with his assistant Cas Welch by his side. Their pockets are stuffed with local infrastructure contracts. Spectators to the circus include Henry F. McElroy, Alfred N. Gossett, Charles H. Clark, Bryce B. Smith, Ruby D. Garrett, Elliott H. Jones, Byron Spencer, Frank M. Eviston, James B. Shoemaker, and Joseph B. Shannon. These politicians sit in a grandstand built from "City Hall contracts, padded payrolls, Ready Mix Penjac Oil, country bookkeeping, Ross Construction Co, hospital supplies, and Welch-Sandler Cement." The Kansas City Star is depicted as being complicit in the circus, even though it carries a mask of disapproval.