Life, 1914-11-19 · page 11 of 44
Life — November 19, 1914 — page 11: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes post-World War I financial anxiety. The main text warns of catastrophic consequences if banks exhaust their gold reserves—predicting economic collapse, job losses, and social breakdown. The cartoon vignettes humorously illustrate this dread scenario: - **Panel 5**: A man asks for a car, suggesting consumer demand when finances are stable - **Panel 6**: A garage advertises a "self-starter" car—a novelty feature - **Panel 7**: "The Last Stage" shows deteriorating conditions as wealth disappears The satire critiques both banking institutions and public anxiety about financial stability. The piece, signed "E.O.I.," appears published when post-war economic concerns dominated American discourse, mocking the cycle of prosperity-dependent confidence and fear-driven pessimism.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
5 Wry dont you get a car, Henry ? Guess I will, Frank. 891 F.E° And Then ? W te will happen when the time comes that we have * nothing more to give the bankers? After the na- tion has deposited with them all the money that we own and all that we have becn keeping in reserve and all that we need for daily expenditures and all that has been intrusted to us and all that we can borrow: and after we have mortgaged our post-offices and other public build- ings and pawnec. our public monuments and other sou- venirs and sold off everything that we can spare to the second-hand dealers: and after we have allowed the bank- ers to issue money on what they possess and what they don't possess and what they used te gcssess and what they hope to possess and on the:r dread of the next world and on their grandmother's rheumatism and on the family wash, and when the cupboard is absolutely hare—what_ then? After rearing them to do business only on the basis of more and more, what will happen when they come around for assistance when all is gone? What will happen when they come around and tell us that an emergency exists and that unless we fork over handsomely, all is lost? What will happen when they have to meet by themselves the emergencies of their own making? Anyone having correct answers to these questions will please send them in at once, as we may need them any time, E. 0. J. Saved! 'HE stoppage of the outflow of gold to Europe and other barbarous points was effected just in the nick of time. If but a few ounces more had left our shores. a great cataclysmic shiver would have gone up the national spine and immediately the crops would have stopped growing and the wheels of railroads would have ceased to turn and the coal supply would have run out and the demand for clothing and fuel and shelter would have fallen off six hundred and ninety-two per cent. and work- men would have been unable to hear their early-morning alarm-clocks and doctors ‘vould have had to abandon the germ theory and General Welfare would have had to he removed from his high rank and General Havoc appointed to his place. But it is all right. Heroic measures were promptly adopted by those whose duty it is to be heroes at such times. Consequently, even those of us who see no gold from one year’s end to another can go about our tasks in peace, potently calm in the knowledge that there is plenty of gold, that it is in exactly the right places, that high finance reigns and the gold superstition still lives. comicbooks.com