Life — February 20, 1902 — page 8: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Political Cartoon Analysis: "Some Trusts We May Expect" This page satirizes corporate monopolies ("trusts") through multiple vignettes. The cartoons depict various industries being consolidated under single corporate control: - **Bathing Trust**: A rotund figure labeled "Bathing Trust" stands in water while small figures scatter - **Front Street Trust**: Shows figures being squeezed or controlled - **Consolidated Earth Trust**: The largest image depicts a figure controlling a massive globe, with text "every body else get off the earth" - **American View**: References trust control over viewpoints/media The satire critiques the era's massive monopolies (likely early 1900s), suggesting that if consolidation continued unchecked, corporations would eventually monopolize even basic human activities like bathing and land itself. The phrase "Some Trusts We May Expect" sarcastically predicts absurd future monopolies if antitrust regulation failed.