Judge — January 29, 1910 — page 16: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This Judge magazine cartoon satirizes the American protective tariff, likely from the late 19th/early 20th century. The multi-panel comic shows rural and working-class Americans blaming the tariff for their hardships: failing farm production (eggs, milk, potatoes), poor imported goods (Havana cigars taste like cabbage), and domestic violence (a man's black eye results from marital discord over tariffs). The satire suggests that tariff supporters falsely blamed external policies rather than accepting personal responsibility—farmers attribute crop failures to tariffs instead of poor farming, a man blames tariffs for bad cigars, and domestic conflict stems from tariff frustrations. The cartoon criticizes how the tariff became a convenient scapegoat for every American misfortune, mocking both the tariff itself and those who used it as an excuse.