Life, 1911-03-02 · page 20 of 52
Life — March 2, 1911 — page 20: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes early 20th-century American corruption and reform movements. The top cartoon, "Boy Grafters of the Past," mockingly compares contemporary American corruption to historical villains (Judas, Julius Caesar, Nero, Napoleon, Henry VIII), suggesting modern "grafters" (corrupt businessmen) are similarly infamous. The text sarcastically presents a fake "Boy Grafters" organization with courses like "How to Loot a City" and "Controlling Congress," explicitly naming J.P. Morgan and Rockefeller as philosophical leaders—exposing how wealthy industrialists openly practiced corruption while claiming noble intentions. The accompanying articles mock specific reform proposals: Kansas's professor seeking Carnegie's funding to breed "superior" children through state control, and Charles Eliot's criticism of Biblical teachings about original sin. The satire suggests these reformers are as dangerous as the grafters they oppose, revealing Life magazine's skepticism toward both corruption and naive progressive remedies.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Judas 440 Julius Caesar Nero = MESES Napoleon Zenry Vt “BOY GRAFTERS OF THE PAST” represents the East; but our friends do not realize what a Franken- stein they have raised. We urge boys all over the West to organize at once, so that in a short time the Boy Grafters of the West shall dominate those of the st, and the future of this great country lie west of the Mississipp The official guide for the Boy Grafters is now in preparation. It will be issued te all members. The printing of the guide has afforded some of the leading splendid opportunity. for graft, and they expect to realize quite a sum; but in order to start the organiza- tion they will divide half of this with the heads of companies in each district. A course of lectures will soon be given members a GRAPT—A PIULosority in all of our leading cities. Some of the subjects are: “Controlling the Speaker of Congress.” “ How to Loot a City.” “Methods of Buying Up a tur “Inside Management of the Press. “ Creating a Panic at the Psychological Moment.” “ Lending Money to the Government— How to Make the Greatest Profit.” “Various Ways of Utilizing the Chil- dren of the Poor in Order to Increase Legisla- “One Thousand Ways of Subsidizing Special Interests.” “Ways and Means of Electing a Presi- ROBRERY—A crime “ Moral Abuse.” It should be understood that no pam- phlet will be issued for the use of Boy Grafters that does not have the personal indorsement of Mr. Morgan. “The word graft has entered upon a new and significant phase,” says the Westminster Gazette, “ with the inaugu- ration of the new movement in America, namely, the Boy Grafters. Hitherto the word has stood for bold robbery, which has been exposed or not as the case may be; but in its newer meaning it stands for a higher kind of philosophy, of which the chief exponents are Mr. Ryan, Mr. Morgan, Mr. Rockefeller, Mr. Carnegie and many others. It is a union of lofty ideals with the principles of combination which declares that the mass of people must give way before the development of capital. Under the new idea America will doubtless receive a fresh impetus.” Thrifty Kansas The person who would have a_ State bred people comes from Kansas and is a professor in the agricultural college of th State... .. The professor wants Andr Carnegie to give $10,000,000 to permit the experiment of breeding —children.—Daily Peper. Maxims—Their Use and AS is a smart State. Here in New York when people have delu- sions like this one about State supervi- sion of child breeding, the State feels obliged to take care of them in expensive institutions at a cost of a couple of dol lars or more a day. But in Kansas, it seems, they put them into the State agri. cultural college and similar places, and send them out to lecture. That is thrifty, and is a great deal healthier for the pa tients. Kansas believes in the Chautauqua treatment for the unsettled in mind. Make lecturers of them, and so get the poison out of them. Leviticus Flouted HERE is nothing about the Carnegie Foundation that hinders free specch. Dr. Pritchett, the head of it, has made daring reports of colleges and especially of medical schools, and here is President-Emeritus Eliot, who draws a retiring salary from it, speaking dist spectfully of Leviticus, “ Eliot assails Leviticus” runs the The charge in detail is that he said Leviticus “ maligned motherhood" by its assertion that children were born in sin. We must get rid of these monstrous things Drought down to us from the Bible in Leviticus,” said Dr. Eliot. He wants new kind of teaching by a new kind of teachers to do it, headline, comicbooks.com