Editing James Cagney (section)

==Political views==
In his autobiography, Cagney said that as a young man, he had no political views, since he was more concerned with from where his next meal was coming.<ref name="Cagney183">Cagney, page 183</ref> However, the emerging labor movement of the 1920s and 1930s soon forced him to take sides. The first version of the [[National Labor Relations Act]] was passed in 1935, and growing tensions between labor and management fueled the movement. Fanzines in the 1930s, however, described his politics as "radical".<ref>McGilligan, page 193</ref>

This somewhat exaggerated view was enhanced by his public contractual wranglings with Warner Bros. at the time, his joining of the Screen Actors Guild in 1933, and his involvement in the revolt against the so-called "Merriam tax". The "Merriam tax" was an underhanded method of funnelling studio funds to politicians; during the [[California gubernatorial election, 1934|1934 Californian gubernatorial]] campaign, the studio executives would "tax" their actors, automatically taking a day's pay from their biggest earners, ultimately sending nearly half a million dollars to the gubernatorial campaign of [[Frank Merriam]]. Cagney (as well as [[Jean Harlow]]) publicly refused to pay<ref>McGilligan, page 192</ref><ref>Cagney, pages 185–186</ref> and Cagney even threatened that, if the studios took a day's pay for Merriam's campaign, he would give a week's pay to [[Upton Sinclair]], Merriam's opponent in the race.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pn1CuZUHk9MC&q=merriam+tax+hollywood&pg=PA74|title=Hollywood Left and Right: How Movie Stars Shaped American Politics|isbn=9780199911431|last1=Ross|first1=Steven J.|date=September 6, 2011|publisher=Oxford University Press |access-date=October 22, 2020|archive-date=November 7, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211107052821/https://books.google.com/books?id=pn1CuZUHk9MC&q=merriam+tax+hollywood&pg=PA74|url-status=live}}</ref>

He supported political activist and labor leader [[Thomas Mooney]]'s defense fund, but was repelled by the behavior of some of Mooney's supporters at a rally.<ref name="Cagney183"/> Around the same time, he gave money for a [[Spanish Republican Army]] ambulance during the [[Spanish Civil War]], which he put down to being "a soft touch". This donation enhanced his liberal reputation. He also became involved in a "liberal group...with a [[Left-wing politics|leftist]] slant," along with [[Ronald Reagan]]. However, when he and Reagan saw the direction in which the group was heading, they resigned on the same night.<ref>Cagney, page 184</ref>

[[File:James Cagney Humphrey Bogart in The Roaring Twenties trailer.jpg|left|thumb|Cagney and [[Humphrey Bogart]] in ''[[The Roaring Twenties]]'' (1939)]]

Cagney was accused of being a communist sympathizer in 1934, and again in 1940. The accusation in 1934 stemmed from a letter police found from a local Communist official that alleged that Cagney would bring other Hollywood stars to meetings. Cagney denied this, and [[Lincoln Steffens]], husband of the letter's writer, backed up this denial, asserting that the accusation stemmed solely from Cagney's donation to striking cotton workers in the [[San Joaquin Valley]]. William Cagney claimed this donation was the root of the charges in 1940.<ref>McGilligan, page 194</ref> Cagney was cleared by U.S. Representative [[Martin Dies Jr.]] on the [[House Un-American Activities Committee]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=2012-06-30 |title=Froma Harrop: Cagney one tough American |url=https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2012/jun/30/froma-harrop-cagney-one-tough-american/ |access-date=2025-02-14 |website=Spokesman.com |language=en}}</ref>

Cagney became president of the Screen Actors Guild in 1942 for a two-year term. He took a role in the Guild's fight against the [[American Mafia|Mafia]] and the [[Chicago Outfit]], which had been using the threat of [[strike action]] by a mob-controlled [[labor union]] to [[extortion|extort]] [[protection money]] from Hollywood studios. His wife, Billie Vernon, once received a phone call telling her that Cagney had died in an automobile accident.<ref name="Warren166">Warren, page 166</ref> According to Cagney, having failed to scare off the Guild and him, the Chicago Outfit allegedly sent a [[Contract killing|hitman]] to kill him by dropping a heavy light onto his head. Upon hearing of the rumor of a hit, [[George Raft]] made a call, and the contract was supposedly canceled.<ref name="Warren166"/><ref>Cagney, page 108</ref>

During [[World War II]], Cagney raised money for war bonds by taking part in racing exhibitions at the [[Roosevelt Raceway]] and selling seats for the premiere of ''Yankee Doodle Dandy''.<ref name="auteur94"/><ref name="Warren, page 155">Warren, page 155</ref> He also let the [[United States Army]] practice maneuvers at his [[Martha's Vineyard]] estate.<ref>McGilligan, page 195</ref>

After the war, Cagney's politics started to change. He had worked on [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democrat]] [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]]'s presidential campaigns, including the [[1940 United States presidential election|1940 presidential election]] against [[Wendell Willkie]]. By the time of the [[1948 United States presidential election|1948 election]], he had become disillusioned with [[Harry S. Truman]], and he voted for [[Thomas E. Dewey]], his first non-Democratic vote.<ref>Cagney, page 185</ref> He would also support [[Ronald Reagan]] in the [[1966 California gubernatorial election]].<ref>{{Cite book| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QfHXAAAAQBAJ&q=james%20cagney| title=When Hollywood Was Right: How Movie Stars, Studio Moguls, and Big Business Remade American Politics| isbn=9781107650282| last1=Critchlow| first1=Donald T.| date=2013| pages=191| publisher=Cambridge University Press| access-date=March 19, 2023| archive-date=July 14, 2023| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230714094157/https://books.google.com/books?id=QfHXAAAAQBAJ&q=james%20cagney| url-status=live}}</ref>

By 1980, Cagney was contributing financially to the [[U.S. Republican Party|Republican Party]], supporting his friend Ronald Reagan's bid for the presidency in the [[1980 United States presidential election|1980 election]].<ref name="Newsmeat">{{cite web|url=http://www.newsmeat.com/celebrity_political_donations/James_Cagney.php|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050406012855/http://www.newsmeat.com/celebrity_political_donations/James_Cagney.php|url-status=dead|archive-date=April 6, 2005|title=Campaign Contribution Search – James Cagney|publisher=Newsmeat|access-date=January 14, 2009}}</ref> As he got older, Cagney even began referring to himself in his [[autobiography]] as "arch-conservative". He regarded his move away from [[Marxism]] as "a totally natural reaction once I began to see undisciplined elements in our country stimulating a breakdown of our system... Those functionless creatures, the [[hippie]]s ... just didn't appear out of a vacuum".<ref>Cagney, page 186</ref>