Life, 1912-12-05 · page 74 of 116
Life — December 5, 1912 — page 74: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes a hypothetical role reversal where wealthy elites and politicians are forced into manual labor, while immigrants (previously dismissed as expendable) run the nation's industries. The text features quotes from prominent figures—a former senator, John D. Rockefeller, and "President Cook"—who discover unexpected satisfaction in humble work and realize the dignity of labor they previously scorned. The cartoon at bottom depicts a confrontation between a well-dressed man (representing the establishment) and a worker with a red flag (suggesting socialist or labor movement ideology). The caption mocks the elite's ignorance: they don't even understand what a red flag symbolizes. The satire targets both wealthy complacency and anti-immigrant prejudice, suggesting that if the powerful experienced workers' lives firsthand, they'd gain humility and understanding—while simultaneously mocking their potential blindness to labor's political consciousness.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
make all those people who had hitherto been a drug on the republic—that is to say, congressmen, senators, news- paper editors, and the wealthy classes—perform the work which had previously been done by the newly arrived im- migrants. What is the result? Our coal is being mined, our railroads are being run, our factories are being manned by those people who have hitherto spent their time in Duncoing the others.” There is naturally considerable excitement among the people who have heretofore been running the govern- ment to suit themselves; but they are all so busy work- ing in the mines and waiting on people in the restau- rants and doing other menial jobs that they don’t have much time to think. A former prominent senator of the United States, who iting on the table at the Waldorf-Astoria, said “Never was so happy in my life! I am doing real work. I have to pay attention to the wants of others, and when night comes I am so tired that I don’t have time to think about myself. It is true that my position is a hum- ble one, but humility is a quality the value of which I never before realized. Cook and Peary forever!" Mr. John D. Rockefeller, who has secured a job as general superintendent of the grounds at the Pocantico Golf Links, expressed himself in the same way. THE LION AND THE HORNETS “T look back upon all my wealth as a horrible night- mare,” he “Now that I really have to earn a few dollars a week for myself, I feel like a new mai.” “What I cannot help but think of,” said President Cook at a late hour last night, “is the terrible thought that the American people might not have trusted us!” DON’T YE KNow “CO BACK, YE IGNORANT BRUTE! WHAT A RED FLAG’S FoR?” comicbooks.com