Life, 1910-09-01 · page 27 of 48
Life — September 1, 1910 — page 27: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes automobile industry defensiveness and capitalist logic. The main article mocks an auto company representative who justifies extravagant auto-buying by claiming other luxuries (soda water, alcohol, chewing gum) cost far more. The implicit critique: this is weak reasoning—the auto industry is deflecting legitimate concern about wasteful consumption by pointing to other wasteful spending. The photograph captioned "She had never seen him in this light before" appears to show a couple in an automobile, likely illustrating the romantic/social appeal driving auto purchases. The lower section, "Characteristic Capitalistic Conservatism," ridicules industrialist Thomas Fortune Ryan's logic about naval expansion: if building two extra warships increases steel profits 2%, then building four would increase profits 4%, and so on infinitely. The final line sarcastically suggests this absurd maximalist thinking would eventually justify every rural crossroads having a library—exposing the circularity and self-serving nature of pure profit-driven reasoning.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Autos eloquent representative of an automobile company re- sents the suggestion that there has been great ex- travagance in the buying of automobiles. Other things much less useful, eS he says, have cost more. 1 water, he says, costs $500,000,000 a year; alcoholic beverages, $1,400,000,- ooo; chewing gum a lot of money ; cigars, cigarettes and tobacco, a lot more. It is generally conceded, he says, that a man whose income is $3,000 a year can afford to bay and maintain a moderate-priced There are 700,000 American says, with incomes from $3.000 to $6,000; 250,000 families with from $6,000 to $15,000, and 479.000 families that take in more than $15,000 a year. And he says that, to date, there have only been about half a muilion autos built in this country and they are not all running. Dut autos are not really in competi- non with chewing gum. That is the lux- ury of the impecunious. Whether autos cut into the soda water, soft drinks and trade appear, They yuld, but they are thirsty toys. truthful statistician ld set forth what is the whole rev- of the country, what are the chief objects of expenditure, how much goes for autos and what are the chief things, formerly bought, that people are going autos. We have heard that the trade in fine watches and pianos has suffered from the di- version of funds to autos, What else? automobile. families, he incomes Kiquor does not We wish some witho in order to have YOU, FOLLOWED BY CLEARING TO-NIGMT SNE MAD NEVER SEEN WIM IN THIS LIGHT BEFORE Bonds? The $3,000-a-year-man can have a small auto, but what must he go with- out in order to keep it? Apparently only about one-half of one per cent. of our population indulges at present in these remarkable vehicles, but they constantly grow in popularity and a very great increase in the use of them 1s as certain as taxes, It may not be a steady increase but it is sure to come. The auto has beaten the horse- drawn pleasure vehicle almost out of sight Characteristic Capitalistic Conservatism _ What we ought to fight for is the upbuild. ing of the navy till it is superior to those of any two nations put together.—Mr. Thomas Fortune Ryan. F outdoing two nations would increase steel dividends, say two per cent., or one per cent. per nation, then outdoing four nations would dends four per cent., and so on until every nation was outdone, and then no cross-roads in the country would have an excuse for being without a library increase steel divi comicbooks.com