Life, 1903-01-08 · page 13 of 20
Life — January 8, 1903 — page 13: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**The Top Cartoon:** A journalist dismisses an elephant's (Mr. Elephas's) absurd story about his wife nearly drowning and being robbed of ivory tusks during an elopement, telling him such fabrications belong "on the stage"—a jab at tall tales. **"Success to Trade":** This is savage satire mocking American imperialist ideology. Life sarcastically celebrates using naval force to collect debts from Latin American nations, particularly Venezuela. The piece ridicules businessmen who advocate military bombardment instead of legal arbitration, framing it as justified by claims of racial and cultural superiority ("Anglo-Saxon," dismissing Latin Americans as "Dagos"—a slur). Life exposes the hypocrisy: American traders had defrauded foreigners through railroad swindles and stock manipulation, yet justify gunboat diplomacy against weaker nations as "civilization" and "trade." The satire condemns this colonial violence masked as commerce and moral superiority, contrasting American claims of righteousness with actual predatory behavior.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Mr, Elephas: YOU MIOUT SAY IN YOUR ARTICLE THAT DURING OUR ELOPEMENT MY WIYE WAS ALMOST DROWNED IN CROSSING 4 KIVEH, AND WHILE I WAD GONE POR ASSISTANCE 8OME ONE KOBBED UER OP A PAIR OF BEAUTIPUL IVORY TUSKS. The Journalist: You Must BE GOING ON THE STAGE. Success to Trade. 'PHE heart of eve grocer, butcher and stock- jobber in America throbs in righteous sym- pathy with the two evangels of civiliz- ation now engaged in collecting bills along the Spanish main. The one dark cloud hang- ing over our pros- perity is the knowl- edge that at any mo- ment our debtors may go into bankruptcy, while we are debarred the international luxury of making them settle with a gun. The principle of cannonading nations who are small enough into a settlement of our de- mands, without the intermeddling of courts and lawyers, is sound, and meets the approbation of every patriot in trade. It saves anxiety, postage stamps, commissions, time and subscriptions to Bradstreet and Dan, to send all bills against fraudulent foreigners to the Navy Department with instructions to collect right off. Business men are out of patience with Spanish America. The inhabitants are foreigners who can’t speak English ; being Latins, they are inferior to us; being black and tan, they are entitled to no consideration ; and their courts and laws should be ignored by us. It is a waste of time to argue with them; arbitration is only for world powers ; and it is an excellent training for our fleets to bombard towns and knock down forts. Naval authorities agree upon the necessity of target practice. Our Anglo-Saxon States never repudiated their debts; we never inveigled foreigners into building our railroads and then swindled them out of their stocks and bonds; we never abused foreigners living under our flag; and no world power has collected its bills from us with artillery, because we have alw been a white man’s country and a guardian of civilization. Venezuela is poor, weak and ungrateful and ought to be cannonade Anglo-Saxon ideas should be encouraged and collections made easy. We have been too considerate with Dagos. Look at the Monroe Doctrine. Because we guarantee the sacredness of tho soil,are we to deprive the honest white trader of his right to grab the fruits of the soil? Never! As a God-fearing, freedom-loving, com- mercial people we rejoice that at last armies and navies are being used as the agencies of trade and civilization in the collection of bills and the discouragement of Dagos. We must impress our superiority and moral worth upon the inferior ra by reproving poverty and disciplining im- pecuniosity. It will be a great day for the Republic, a glorious vindica- tion of the Declaration of Independence, when the honest principles of international bill collecting are applied to our comicbooks.com