Life, 1912-11-28 · page 15 of 44
Life — November 28, 1912 — page 15: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a satirical dialogue between "Life" (the magazine, personified) and representatives of the Coal Trust—the major coal companies monopolizing American energy supply. The joke exposes corporate dishonesty: the Coal Trust blames absurd external factors (Abyssinian fig crops, planetary conjunctions, Kansas corn) for coal shortages, when the real cause is deliberately withholding supply to artificially raise prices. Life's interviewer pretends to accept these ridiculous excuses while sarcastically pointing out the monopoly's true motive: profiteering. The Trust's complaint about having "too much money" from dividends is presented as laughably absurd. This mocks early 20th-century monopolistic practices and the public relations spin companies used to justify price gouging during shortages. The cartoon's female figures represent wealthy beneficiaries of the scheme, indifferent to ordinary citizens' suffering.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
ASS WALIKE R= RIVALS. Butlerette; Te HONORABLE, MISS SMYTH, On Life’s Wire LLO, Lire?” Lire. At your service. is is the Coal Trust speaking.” “Oh, hello. Glad you called up. We wanted to ask you about that coal shortage.” “That's exactly what we wanted to tell you.” “We have heard conflicting reports. Some say it is due to the failure of the fig crop in Abyssinia, while others ascribe it to the wreck of a whaling vessel off Newfoundland.” “Both of these events have had their effect, Lire, but—” “And then we have heard that the 1916 corn crop in Kansas had some- thing to do with it, while one of our correspondents who was born under the Gemini, avers that it is due to the peculiar tangential conjunction of Jupiter with the Pleiades. Would you care to confirm these reports?” “ By all means, Lire. Coal is a very sensitive commodity. Everything af- fects it more or less. The real truth is—” “Don't bother. We know the truth. The real truth is that, for a variety of reasons, a vast amount of hitherto perfectly tractable coal has suddenly become recalcitrant and refuses to be taken from the ground.” “That's partly it. You see, Lire, we are very fond of the public.” “And if, perchance, a few carloads should be lured from its lair, it will not allow itself to be hauled to mar- ket.” “Now you're getting at it, Lire. It is @ most annoying situation. We are worried to death about it.” “We want you to understand that we do not believe you are doing it de- liberately. Friends have tried to make us believe it is just another bit of mon- opolistic skulduggery in order to give sor you an excuse for raising the pri But we said no; emphatically ni “Thank you, Lire, for your confi- dence. We are powerless in the mat- ter. You understand—if you don't you can read about it in any political economy in the chapter on supply and demand—that just as soon as coal gets to acting so foolishly nothing on earth can prevent its price going up.” “We understand perfectly. brings you in more money.” “Yes. The result is that more money is coming in than we know what do do with. Nobody will have it except the stockholders, and, just to get rid of it—we hate money—we have to pay it out in dividends. You can’t realize what a painful process it is.” “You have our sympathy. By the way, what's the chance of our getting a few tons the last of the week?” “ Pretty poor, Lire. Wait a minute. Now that we stop to think, we might be able to send you a few tons if you This comicbooks.com