Judge — March 28, 1914 — page 13: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This cartoon satirizes urban living costs by proposing rooftop gardening as a solution. The illustration shows an aerial view of a city building's roof transformed into a productive farm with multiple garden beds, planted rows, and people actively cultivating vegetables. Smaller rooftop gardens are visible on surrounding buildings. The caption's rhetorical question challenges wealthy city dwellers: if food prices are so high, why not use their building's unused rooftop space for farming? This reflects early 20th-century Progressive Era concerns about urban poverty and inflation. The satire mocks the impracticality of such suggestions—expecting busy urbanites to become farmers—while highlighting the disconnect between proposed solutions and real working-class struggles with food affordability. The cartoon suggests well-meaning but unrealistic approaches to addressing economic inequality.