Judge, 1920-01-03 · page 33 of 36
Judge — January 3, 1920 — page 33: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
The main cartoon on this page satirizes post-World War I American consumer behavior and profiteering. Titled "Four Items of General Interest," it targets three groups exploiting public desperation: fashionable tailors charging $150 for suits costing $90 in materials and labor, raisin growers doubling prices despite larger crops, and profiteers generally. The satire's sharp point: Americans loudly complain about "excessive costs" yet paradoxically continue purchasing at inflated prices, making themselves "easy marks." The author (Kenneth L. Roberts) argues this irrational behavior—people "roaring like stricken bulls" while acting "extremely goatish"—enables continued profiteering. The cartoon exposes the gap between public complaint and consumer action, suggesting Americans deserve the exploitation they receive through their own market choices. This reflects genuine 1920 post-war inflation anxieties and criticism of wartime profiteers.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
January 3, 1920 “Gosh! it seems ten year Four Items of General "Interest By Kexsetu 1. Rowerts Irem 1: Fashionable tailors are extracting one hundred and fifty dollirs from their cus: tomers for a single suit of clothes without the id of forceps. The cost of enough of the best English worsted to make a suit, plus the cost of the labor to make it up, plus sufficient money to cover the rent of a fashionable shop, plus twenty per cent. profit, amounts to not more than ninety dollars. Irem 2: Wylie M. Giffin, president of the California Raisin Growers’ Association, plains a 100 per cent. increase in the pri raisins over last year’s prices, in spite of a crop much larger than last year, in the following manner: “The consumer is paying such a high price for everything else that we do not believe he will hesitate to continue using raisins at what may seem to us like a very high price.” Ives 3: The fashionable tailors and Wylie M. Giffin and most of the remaining people this country who have anything to sell are unanimous in thinking that the American public are such easy marks that they won't hesitate to pay twice what things are worth The people are lifting up their voices to high heaven and roaring like stricken bulls at ex- cessive costs; but they are continuing to be extremely goatish in’ their actions, and are Cuticura Soap is Easy Shaving for Sensitive Skins The New Up-to-date Cuticura Method ROMEIKE’S PRESS CUPPING BUREAU | We a so all newspaper | clippings which may appear about you, your friends, oF ject’ on which you may want to be Eve paver and peniotical of importanc HENRY ROMEIKE, 106-110 . New York | Complete Musical Outfits On Trial — you may have your choice of instruments and a complete musical outfit for a week's free trial in your home, Outht includes case, music rack, allaccessones, instruction book, etc, at factory price. Tremendous saving. Pay a Few Centsa Day Trial docs not oblate you. After trial return the outfit at eur ¢x f you decide to buy you may pay the low direet-from-manufactaree price ia ee Send this Coupon ae fet your name and address in the cou; We will mi ihostoblieation, the intereeting Woritace re catalogs Every inatroment and oxtht trad tae dewcibe Malthe coupon today Rudoioh Wortitzer Co. Ey Parris Tae Ke. Cblcaes tn WurRUIZER ke rex Of, justifying the casy mark diagnosis by not hesi tating to buy) one hundred-and-fifty-dollar suits and raisins that have doubled in price without reason. Irem 4: The profiteers will cease profiteering when the American people cease making fools of themselves, and not before The Days of Real Literature Ry Max Laer HOSE were the d. Optic and of Henty, The Rover Boys and of their quest for gold hat furnished thrills and n moments plenty With tales of buccancers and pirates bold Chesterton bores, and Joseph Conrad wearies G. Bernard's irksome as IE think onee mor When I read Alger and you the Elsie Seri Beneath the old oak on the river sh How gladly I would risk another hiding Drown by KW. Prue L often got for reading Deadshot Dick royce that you Wille dirty, sneak faced red-head ay so—good-bye! ere father'd enter with a heavy stick BECOME AN EXPERT Friends of my youth! Frank Meriwell and Carter! You had a heap of literary flaws, | But as to sheer delight I would not barter, Nay, would not trade you for a hundred Sere Oy ee cages aad Bie ary Shaws! | SR i sip evaah fers Wits sow fer ater | 162-4 Chicago Remarkable — Seine raeceeensete Hokus—Gentie Gotrox prides herself on her For 1GAR ARs memory for. faces her last summer at the shore, and today she “MADE AT al GARS “Two shots rang out and up there came a-rid cH actually recognized me on the street. B comicbooks.com