Life, 1914-11-12 · page 8 of 48
Life — November 12, 1914 — page 8: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains political satire from *Life* magazine critiquing government spending and military expenditure. **"The Easy-Payments Plan"** (top) uses telescopes as metaphor: figures strain to look through them, illustrating difficulty observing distant government waste. **"The New Game"** (bottom left) depicts a mother and child discussing pretend play—the boy imagines mistreating his sister while claiming she's "an American lady traveling abroad" and he's "a German soldier." This satirizes how Americans might rationalize aggressive foreign policy under patriotic pretense. **"A Suggestion"** (right) directly proposes eliminating Senator Aldrich's promised "$300 million per year" government plan to address economic problems, arguing such spending worsens the financial crisis rather than solving it. The cartoons collectively mock government fiscal irresponsibility and jingoistic militarism during an era of economic strain.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
THE “EASY-PAYMENTS” PLAN—TWO VIEWS BEFORE AND AFTER CONTRACTING The New Game “KATOW, Willie, I am simply astonished that you should ill-treat your little sister and pummel and insult her so.” “But, mother, it’s a game. We're playing that she is an American lady traveling abroad and I am a German soldier.” Parson: HAVE DONE’ —— “DOES HE MEAN ME, MOTHER?” ‘WE HAVE LEFT UNDONE THOSE THINGS WHICH WE OUGHT ‘TO HAVE DONE, AND WE HAVE DONE THOSE THINGS WHICH WE OUGHT NOT TO A Suggestion HILE we are on the subject of increased expenses and increased taxes and decreased receipts, why not make another effort to wheedle out of former Senator Aldrich that promised plan of his to save the government three hundred million dollars per year? NO, THIS YOUNG LADY DID NoT SIT ON A PIN-CUSHION. SHE IS TRYING A DIFFICULT NEW DANCE STEP comicbooks.com