Life, 1914-05-28 · page 9 of 44
Life — May 28, 1914 — page 9: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This Life magazine cartoon satirizes the "car-fare" scheme—a financial scam involving installment-plan automobile purchases. The illustration shows a well-dressed man confronting a woman at a charity bazaar, with the caption: "Why do you charge me five dollars when you sold Mr. Flint one for two dollars and a half?" / "You look twice as generous as he does." The accompanying text explains how car-fare operates: citizens vote to elect officials who sell car-fare privileges to insiders for profit. Passengers then pay inflated prices, with the excess funding stock manipulation. The scheme is characterized as "a game of uplift: A put-up, a stand-up, and a hold-up"—meaning it's rigged corruption disguised as public benefit.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
THE CHARITY BAZAR “WHY DO YOU CHARGE MF FIVE DOLLARS WHEN YOU SOLD MR. FLINT ONE FOR TWO DOLLAKS AND A HALF?” “YOU LOOK TWICE AS GENEROUS AS HE DOES.” Car Fare CAR fare is something you hand indirectly to a group of gentlemen to manipulate the stock of a company that is paying on the installment plan for the car which you buy the privilege of entering. The process is simple. First, as a citizen, you vote to elect to office a man who votes to sell the car-fare privilege to others, who, in turn, votes to water the stock for the benefit of certain insiders. Second, as a passenger, you pay twice as much as the service is worth, to provide enough money to pay interest on the stocks and bonds watered beyond the labor spent on the road. Third, you stand up while doing it. It's a game of uplift: hold-up. A put-up, a stand-up, and a