Life, 1914-11-05 · page 30 of 48
Life — November 5, 1914 — page 30: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**"Following Fiscalization"** satirizes railroad industry financial manipulation. A Man from Mars (outsider perspective device) questions a young man struggling with newspaper editorials about railroad rate increases. The youth explains that railroads engaged in financial "watering" (inflating stock value), issued excessive bonds, deliberately let infrastructure deteriorate, then demanded public rate increases to pay unearned dividends. The satire targets both the railroads' deceptive practices and newspapers' confusing coverage thereof. **"The Triple Alliance"** depicts a large whiskey bottle flanked by figures labeled Crime and Poverty, suggesting alcohol fuels both social ills—a prohibition-era argument. **"An Inauspicious Period"** ironically requests postponing crime until after peace is declared, so newspapers can properly publicize criminals. This mocks wartime chaos and suggests crime reporting becomes secondary during conflict. All three pieces critique institutional failures: financial corruption, substance abuse, and justice system dysfunction.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“LIF E* Following Fiscalization TH Man from Mars came upon a well-dressed young fellow of average intelligence who was trying to decipher an editorial in the New York Obscurer. “Why do you knit your brows so tensely, my good fellow?” inquired the Man from Mars. “I am trying to make head and tail of this argument for increased rates on the railroads,” replied the youth, starting to re-read the editorial from the beginning. “And is the question so difficult?” “It must be difficult. Every editorial writer has a dif- ferent opinion about it, but as none of them seems to know what he’s taking about, and as each editorial is more nebulous than the others, the ‘more I read the more con- fused I become.” “Can you explain to me the result of your investigations thus far?” requested the Man from Mars. “I can try,” responded the young fellow heroically. “As I make it out, the railroads have just passed through a most remarkable and unprecedented period of fiscaliza- tion, or high finance, in which great combinations have been made and watered stocks have been scattered about and excessive bond issues have been put out, all entailing exorbitant fixed charges on these great transportation properties. And in order to make these securities salable in the market at a high figure, they adopted the policy of letting the properties run down and of paying out dividends that weren’t earned.” “And what is proposed now?” queried the Man from Mars. “Tt now seems that they have reached a point where the Properties can no longer be neglected without going to rack and ruin altogether, and so the only way the rail- roads can continue to pay dividends they haven't earned is to get more money from the public in the way of increased rates.” Ellis O. Jones. Puritan: WELL, THANK HEAVEN, I'M NOT IN THE HANDS OF THE GERMANS OF I914! HOW FORTUNATE FOR THE PILG?IM FATHERS THAT ART SELDOM RECORDS THEM IN THEIR AWKWARD MOMENTS An Inauspicious Period T! = reports that crime is increasing on account of the war would seem to illustrate one of those eccen- tricities of human nature for which there is no accounting. We beg those who have in mind any large crimes to wait until peace is declared and we have settled down into the usual routine. Then the newspapers can advertise the perpetrators properly and do justice to the crime. “THE TRIPLE ALLIANCE” comicbooks.com