Judge, 1923-03-10 · page 12 of 36
Judge — March 10, 1923 — page 12: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# "Preparing for the Rainy Day" - Judge Magazine This is a satirical article by Heywood Broun mocking stock market speculation during what appears to be the early 20th century (likely pre-1929 crash era). **The satire targets:** - Investor naiveté: The author describes being sold worthless stocks like "Aztec Gold" by con artists who claim safety while treating investors "as if we were a widow or an orphan" - Semantic dishonesty: The distinction between "investment" (stocks that go up) and "speculation" (stocks that go down) is purely retroactive—impossible to distinguish beforehand - Gullible readers: The author admits following mining stock prices obsessively through afternoon papers, even as the share price crashed from 73 cents to 3 cents **The cartoons** (by "Weed") illustrate frivolous financial activity: "A brisk day on the floor" shows stock exchange chaos, while "Put and Call" depicts option trading as physical comedy—the whole enterprise presented as absurd theater rather than legitimate investment. The piece warns readers against speculative traps dressed up as safe investments.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
A brisk day on the floor. SPORT PAGE Preparing for the Rainy Day by Heywood Broun harm in investment. If you buy a stock and it goes up, that’s investment. Naturally if it goes down that’s speculation. The only difficulty is to tell in advance whether a stock is a speculation or an investment. For instance, the man who told us to buy Aztec Gold said he wouldn't think of making the suggestion if it were not absolutely safe. He said that he planned to treat us exactly as if we were a widow or an orphan. At the time we felt that there was nothing in common between us and investors of these preferred classes. It was not until later that we realized that we too were among the bereaved. Still it was a good lesson for us. Hereafter we shall try no experiments with such treacherous commoditi as gold or silver, but reserve our hard earned savings for in- vestments in oil. ‘ > ten is a terrible thing, but of course there is no Sketches by Weed Why should we want to be shrewder than anybod. In all the stories which appear under the headline Two Million Dollars” there is invariably that among the great man’, ort less mining stock. If this is a requisite in the acquisition of any great fortune we have already made the first step toward wealth and fame. However, we have always wondered as to just whi of Aztec Gold. One it was booming alo: nty-three cents a share. And it was sc rges were a distinct burden. It was our custom to buy every edition of each afternoon paper in order to follow the fortunes of our mine. We lived in an enchanted world. And, then in a week it fell to three cents. That didn’t distuwb us in the least. As a student of all the plays of Samuel Ship- ved what was happening. The big fellows were Put and Call. comicbooks.com