Judge, 1932-01-09 · page 8 of 36
Judge — January 9, 1932 — page 8: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Analysis of Judge Magazine Page This page satirizes consumer culture during economic depression (likely 1930s). **"The Machine of All Work"** mocks the era's obsession with labor-saving gadgets. The author humorously describes an absurdly over-engineered contraption supposedly combining phonograph, radio, television, refrigerator, and other devices—all crammed into something the size of a steam piano. The joke is that consumers keep buying unnecessary gadgets despite financial hardship, hoping each new invention will solve problems. **"In Congress Anyway"** cartoon shows a toy merchant exchanging children's boxing gloves, satirizing crop-reduction policies. The pun suggests that while Congress debated agricultural reforms, ordinary people still faced economic struggle—the solutions felt as trivial as children's toys compared to real needs. Both items critique Depression-era thinking: blind faith in technology and government solutions failing ordinary citizens.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
The Machine of All Work I Have stopped buying things. know this is a time of depression, when everyone should be buying his head off; I realize that money i scarce and wi little there is of it should be kept circulating; but still I am not buying t And I'll tell you why. No sooner do you purchase the latest thing in radios—superhetero- dyne, non-distorting, vernicr driv variable Mu tube, ete., ete.—than discover that some other company h: put out an even newer product while yours was being wrapped up by the clerk. The new set has push-pull pentode output, sits on a six-legged console table, comes complete with a grandfather electric clock, and so out- modes all its predecessors that a man who owns one of the old type feels as if he had made it himself out of a set ef Meccano, The same applies to phonographs. If you buy a phono- graph that automatically turns the records over and plays ten of them whether you stay in the house or not, next day another instrument+a on the market which plays your rec- ords backwards and upside down, so that the first movement of a symphony comes last and the whole th with a crashing finale. And I need hardly speak of electric refrigerators. If you use an antiquated type of water in these new-fangled ice boxes, you are likely to wake up some morn- ing and find the kitchen full of snow. So I have determined to buy no more contraptions until they are all combined into one complete, definite JUDGE “Don't call me your great white father! Do you want to get me court-martialed?” product. This will be the last word in everyth’ and will be called “The Machine of All Work.” Let me de- seribe it for you. The Machine of All Work is a com bination phonograph, radio, televisor, refrigerator, thermostat, dish-washer, humidor, and moving picture pro- jector. It has ball h free wheeling, volume control shield-wip. It uses only ethyl and when not in use is no bigger than a steam piano. It plays records that go on forever. Th > cubes turn over and over, as on a spit, and every five minutes a cuckoo shoves his head out and gives you the correct Naval Observatory time all over the world. Of course, it is npletely wrapped in cellophane, with hardwood finish. Just pull th , and all the lights in the house go out. Most important of all, this device has a small button on the side which, if pressed, transforms the whole co traption into a sereen-grid day bed with compensated crankshaft, de signed by Rachmaninoff, in- dorsed by Clark Gable ranteed to remove freckles. me » of All Work is truly the Instrument of the Immortals and will never, under any circumstances, be supplanted by the horse. —Norman R. Jarrray In Congress Anyway Crop reduction has been suggested as a cure for some of the evils of the country. Crap reduction wouldn't be a bad idea either. “Can I have these boys’ boring gloves exchanged?” a comicbooks.com