Life, 1915-02-04 · page 16 of 44
Life — February 4, 1915 — page 16: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains three distinct satirical pieces: **"A Professor's Money"** mocks Yale economist Irving Fisher for treating money as an autonomous force with its own "mind" and "will," independent of human action. The satire suggests Fisher's economic theories are overly abstract and impractical—reducing real financial systems to theoretical abstractions disconnected from working people's actual lives. **"Ashamed"** is a brief commentary on World War I, sarcastically observing that modern warfare has become hidden (submarine and underground combat) rather than openly displayed, suggesting the war itself is "ashamed" of its brutality. **"Find the Man"** is a social joke about a man still paying installments on an expensive pearl necklace he gave to a woman—likely implying he's been abandoned or the relationship has failed, but he remains financially obligated. The "Courting an Inquiry" cartoon depicts a formal social interaction, while the bottom illustration shows a formal church or legal proceeding. These complement the page's satirical tone about society, economics, and relationships.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
COURTING AN INQUIRY A Professor's Money PROFESSOR IRVING FISHER, of Yale, is perhaps doing more than any other one professor to make the money question difficult. "Mr. Fisher has a great respect for money! He treats it as if it had a mind, a soul, a will and a greed of its own which cause it to rush about the world acting quite independently of all human considerations, to be just as logical and dignified and well-bred in the hands of the reckless spender as in the hands of the niggardly miser. Thus Mr. Fisher bids us study the rate of increase of money and the velocity of its circulation and the velocity of bank deposits as if, like Galileo, he could drop a bank deposit from the top of 26 Broadway and figure exactly how long it would take to reach the pocket of a proletarian, or vice versa. In short, no matter what trust magnates or labor agitators or fiscalizers may be, money will go right on conscientiously pursuing the unruffled tenor of its way. Lead on, professor, the fog is becoming denser every moment! CONGRESS has an infinite capacity for making investi- gations and failing to use the information acquired. “biG ¥’ ouT, MISS?” Ashamed CAN it be that the war is getting ashamed of itself? It certainly seems to be hiding its ugly head more and more—at sea the fighting is now mostly submarine, and on land subterranean, FIND THE MAN WHO IS STILL PAYING INSTALMENTS ON THE PEARL NECKLACE HE GAVE HER