Life, 1912-05-23 · page 20 of 44
Life — May 23, 1912 — page 20: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
The main cartoon depicts Egyptian figures in a chariot being pursued across water, likely referencing the biblical Red Sea parting. The satire targets labor reform and rate-setting: Life argues that despite reforms supposedly benefiting workers and consumers—like wage increases for coal miners or a new parcels post system—companies simply pass costs to the public through price hikes. When miners gained a 10% wage increase, coal companies supposedly raised public prices 50%. The cartoon suggests this cyclical pattern will repeat with the parcels post: rather than lowering shipping costs from forty cents, prices may double to eighty cents. The page also includes humorous advice on "acquiring an education in a trolley car"—satirizing American life by suggesting people learn only through advertisements, avoid newspapers and conversation—mocking contemporary consumer culture and reading habits.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
ANOTHER RED SEA EPISODE to be some way in which the people will still be made to pay as much as they have paid? We suspect something of this kind. It has been our experience that every so-called reform which ought to have the tendency to lower rates is usually followed by a raising of rates. For example, when we have a coal strike and the men A POPULAR NOVEL “THE FRUITFUL VINE” get ten per cent. increase in their wages, the poor old coal companies assuage their wounded feelings by charging the public fifty per cent. increase. And so we would not be at all surprised if the advent of a parcels post would usher in a new era in which, instead of paying forty cents for a twelve-pound package carried fifteen miles, we might have to pay eighty cents. How to Acquire an Education in a Trolley Car A\VOID reading the papers. They are too hard on the eyes. Turn a deaf ear to all conversation. will learn to mispronounce. Otherwise you Read all the advertisements. It is the only way the American people have of acquiring a knowledge of litera- ture, comicbooks.com