Life, 1911-09-14 · page 19 of 46
Life — September 14, 1911 — page 19: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains three editorial commentaries mocking American business and banking practices: **"No Cross, No Crown"** (left cartoon): Depicts a dentist-like figure operating on a prone businessman, satirizing that success requires moral compromise—corruption, child labor, adulteration, bribery, and protectionist tariffs. **"Success"** (text below): Lists the hypocritical prerequisites for business success, ironically praising the rare businessman who succeeds *without* these unethical practices. **"Tests"**: Mocks banker hypocrisy. Banks demand customers prove they can pay off loans annually, yet bankers themselves never demonstrate they can repay depositors. The author sarcastically suggests applying bankers' own "test" to themselves. **"Let Us Learn"**: References England's railway strike response (drafting military to operate power plants). The author proposes America should similarly draft capitalists to run factories during depressions—turning their own logic against wealthy industrialists. The page's overall message: American business elites practice double standards, demanding accountability from ordinary citizens while exempting themselves from similar scrutiny.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Success a is easy enough to be a successful business man, If you are a perfectly porcine per- son, lost to all the finer feelings of humanity. But the man worth while is the man who can be Successful Without misrepresenting his goods, Without adulterating his products, Without bribing public officials, Without making a sweatshop of his factory, Without employing little children, Without asking for a protective tariff. No crown " Tests BANKER writing anonymously in System says that one of the tests of a customer is “ whether he can clean up. Every customer ought to do that once a year; pay up his bank loans absolutely clear. We'll be ready to loan it right back to him. but we want to know that he can do it.” This is such a favorite ideal with bankers that we wonder they do not apply it to themselves. Let there be a rule made that every banker pay off all his depositors once a year. We will be ready to put the money right back, but we want to know that he can do it. NO ADVANTAGE IN GOING TO IEAV! WE HAVE WINGS as 17 18)" Let Us Learn MERICA can learn something from way England handled the big railway strike. for instance, the drafting of blue-jackets 10 equip the de- serted power plants, How admirable some such plan would be in case of Ifa when the the ake, depressions. man closed his just people were most in need of goods, the country could draft capitalists to go in nd run his factory for him. The same Id be done in the case of a closed ank, mine or mill Thus declared Premier Asquith : The Government's first must be the public interests not allow a general paralysis of the rail way system of the country, which we will have to take the necessary steps’ to prevent. panics or industria tory consideration We can- Let us be than It is a noble ent, guided by it, even when others laboring men are the offenders. &. 0. J. sen WE WAS QUITE OVERCOME BY NEWS comicbooks.com