Judge — June 8, 1907 — page 2: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Political Cartoon Analysis: "If We Are Poor We Worry, and If Rich We Worry More" The cartoon depicts two figures fishing by a pole—one appearing shabby (poor) and one well-dressed (rich)—illustrating the article's central thesis about universal American anxiety. The accompanying essay "On the American Disease of Worry" argues that worry pervades all social classes regardless of wealth or status. The satire targets American anxiety culture specifically, suggesting that both poverty and prosperity generate distress: the poor worry about survival; the rich worry about losing position. The cartoon humorously visualizes this paradox through the contrasting figures sharing the same predicament, suggesting that worry is an inescapable American condition transcending economic class.