Life, 1911-04-27 · page 13 of 44
Life — April 27, 1911 — page 13: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This satirical piece by Harold Everett Porter critiques what appears to be a financial scheme or corrupt railroad venture. The cartoon traces how a single dollar—made by someone named "Bill"—circulates through various institutions: a bank, a bondhouse, an insurance company, and finally a railroad directorate. The progression shows how these financial entities grow "genteel and rich" by borrowing and speculating with Bill's original dollar. The final panel depicts "Bill" voting (with a ballot box), with the author asking sarcastically if readers wonder "when you see him vote, That Bill's a Socialistic goat?" The satire attacks financial manipulation and suggests that ordinary workers like Bill are exploited by interconnected banking and corporate systems while paradoxically blamed for socialism.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“LLP E This Is the Thing That Bill Built H ERE is a dollar that Bill made. is the bank that will gladly take As many dollars as Bill can make. This is the bondhouse that made a loan From the bank that we have concisely shown Takes money from Bill that was all his own. This is the railroad whose bonds were sold By the house that borrowed the heap of gold From the bank of the overflowing tills Of hard earned money—some of it Bill's. “This Is the Railroad Directorate.” This is the railroad directorate That built more road from the very date On which the issue of bonds was made, And sold by the house that was not afraid To take the chance of a loan, secured From the bank whence Bill’s one dollar was lured. This is insurance stock, controlled By the railroad men, directors bold, Who issued the bonds to the bond- house, which Is likewise growing gentcelly rich, And borrowed from banks like the one you know Had promised grow. to watch Bill's dollar This is three dollars, made perchance By a quick display of the best finance, By one little dollar unknown to fame, In a gentleman's quiet insurance game. And here is a dollar and fifty cents That came from the cleverly large ex- pense Of the railroad; made by a dollar note That came from the bonds that were taught to float By the house that earned one-third that sum Of the railroad—here is a humble crumb, A quarter—made by the banking rings By loans, and buying stocks and things. And here is the end of the tale of ills— Three cents—for interest—and that is Bill's BUT, it isn’t fitting that you forget That Bill, when he haply falls in Pays more for a loan than the bond house pays; That Bill pays high for the bonds he buy Insurance against his own demise, Or to travel the railroad ways. BALLOT BOx Do you wonder yet when you sce him vote, That Bill's a Socialistic goat? Harold Everett Porter comicbooks.com