Life — November 13, 1902 — page 5: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Political Cartoon Analysis The central image is titled "Portrait of a Gentleman" and depicts a bloated figure labeled with terms like "Oil Trust," "Coal," and "Over Capitalization." This appears to be a Gilded Age satirical attack on industrial monopolists and corrupt capitalists who accumulated excessive wealth through trusts and overcapitalization schemes. The cartoon criticizes wealthy industrialists for their predatory business practices. The grotesque proportions suggest moral corruption accompanying financial excess. The specific labels reference actual business abuses of the era—oil and coal trusts that dominated American markets through anticompetitive practices, and financial manipulation through inflated capitalization. This reflects Progressive Era anxieties about unchecked corporate power and wealth inequality, likely from the early 1900s.