Life, 1914-11-05 · page 31 of 48
Life — November 5, 1914 — page 31: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This satirical piece critiques American financial opportunism following World War I. The top cartoon, "A Lesson in Manners," depicts wealthy Americans (in top hats) condescendingly instructing a European figure (likely representing France or Britain) on proper behavior—the visual irony underscores the text's sarcasm. The article mocks America's stock-trading position: Europe, financially desperate after the war, wants to sell American stocks back to the U.S. at depressed prices. Rather than allow American investors to profit excessively from Europe's misfortune, the Stock Exchange closed temporarily. The text sarcastically suggests this prevents Americans from accumulating too much wealth—while pretending to give Europe "leisure" befitting its "mature civilization." The bottom cartoon, "Thanksgiving," suggests Americans may awaken from this financial dream. The satire critiques both American greed and the pretense of moral restraint masking self-interest.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Yoon HONE A LESSON IN MANNERS Our Terble Predicament T seems that, owing to the war, Europe wants to sell us a lot of stocks which we once sold to her; and this situation has come upon us so suddenly that unless we do something desperate the price of these stocks will go down so much below their real value that we will all be panic-stricken at the profit that will result to ourselves in buying them. The only thing to do was to close the Stock Exchange and prevent ourselves from being loaded up too advan- tageously. It is hoped that some way will ultimately. be found to induce Europe not to sacrifice her stocks to us, but instead to keep them and be content to allow us to go on accumulating dividends and sending them over to her periodically. Only in this way can we keep our- selves busy and out of mischicf and, at the same time, provide Europe, or the better class thereof, with that liberal amount of leisure to which her more mature and THANKSGIVING seasoned civilization entitles her. 1s IT REAL OR WILL THEY WAKE UP? comicbooks.com