Life, 1915-01-14 · page 8 of 44
Life — January 14, 1915 — page 8: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes American optimism about economic prosperity following implementation of the Federal Reserve banking system. The text presents quotes from prominent businessmen (Colonel Uall Yessah, Dr. J. Fingerson Foss, I. Loositan Havit, and Isabore Goldbrab) who claim prosperity is assured and concerns about unemployment or bread lines are unfounded. The cartoons mock this false confidence: one shows a well-dressed man amid poverty, another depicts an elephant with tiny humans below (suggesting disproportion between wealthy institutions and ordinary people). The bottom dialogue joke about a wife asking her husband to button her dress—"you never had a dress that buttoned before"—implies the couple is newly poor, undercutting the prosperity narrative. The satire suggests these businessmen are delusional about actual conditions.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
(USER ES Prosperity Everywhere Indicated HE following interviews, collected from leading thinkers all over the country, undeniably show a hopeful feeling regarding the business situation: Colonel Uall Yessah, of Memphis, naturally looks at the welfare of the entire nation through cotton eyes. He said: “The only drawback to the prosperity of everybody is the presence of too much cotton. If this were only cleared away it would Qe: be grand. Cotton in proper proportions a per capita is a beautiful sight, but when 4 it begins to litter up the landscape to too great an extent, prosperity becomes so heavy and so widespread as to be bur- densome.” Dr. J. Figgerson Fogg, the well-known statistician and confuser, declared: “Now that the Federal Reserve plan is in operation, it can be mathematically demonstrated that there is absolutely no cause for unrest. Its inauguration was well called the economic Fourth of July, and, though few of us may know it, we have all been set free eco- nomically. If any great number of poor people are still dissatisfied, it is merely because they haven't yet realized that what was the matter with them is the matter with them no longer.” Mr. I. Loositan Havitt, the well-known exporter, was unusually optimistic. He said “The prosperity of a country is measured by its export trade. Never in our history have we shipped abroad so much wheat and other foodstuffs as during the past sixty or ninety days. How could there be any starvation or high prices at home when we are getting rid of food so satisfactorily abroad? We hear talk of unemployment. What of it? Under such auspicious circumstances, why should we work? And as for bread lines, they are positively unthink- able.” Mr. Isabore Goldgrab, senior member of the fiscal firm of Goldgrab, Silverstein & Diamondbloom, believes that the prosperity of a country is measured by the location of its gold. He said: “ For a while the entire population was hovering on the yawning brink of a horrible critical crisis which was only made to stop yawning by the prompt actidn of the bankers in gathering up a lot of gold and taking it to Montreal, or some place like that. As soon as everybody found that the gold was at Montreal, or wherever it was, it was a great source of happiness and contentment to all.” IFE: Please hurry up. Haven't vou ever buttoned a dress behind before? “at's A NELEPHANT—YOU CAN TELL BY THE WAY Hussy: No; you never had a dress that buttoned be- HE STANDS” fore behind. comichooks.com