Life, 1916-10-26 · page 19 of 46
Life — October 26, 1916 — page 19: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes early 20th-century American economic inequality and competing claims about national prosperity. **Main Article ("Prosperity"):** A character named Mr. Absalom Twaddle delivers ironic commentary on widespread prosperity claims. He notes prosperity exists everywhere—"under every foot"—yet everyone scrambles to possess it. The satire exposes the absurdity: laborers strike, capitalists raise prices, landlords raise rents, and burglars break into houses to "annex" prosperity. Twaddle's circular logic ("if there's enough for everybody, everybody has it") mocks hollow political rhetoric claiming universal prosperity while inequality clearly persists. **Cartoons:** The top-left shows leisure-class children at play (suggesting carefree wealth). The fashion cartoon about shorter skirts plays on women's fashion debates. Bottom-right cartoon appears unrelated. The piece targets self-satisfied politicians and economists who proclaim prosperity without addressing structural inequality or the desperate measures people employ to survive economically.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
leaned very far against overpraise of American activities. Dr. Murray is our good friend, and we are friends of him and all of his kind, not on the principle of tit for tat, but because such a spirit as he shows is a precious thing, to be appreciated and recipro- cated by all people who know valu- ables when they see them. E.S.M. “OH, CARRIE, I HEAR THAT SKIRTS ARE TO BE MUCH SHORTER THIS WINTER” “ SHORTER! BUT HOW “A DOG IS A LOT OF FUN” Prosperity R. ABSALOM TWADDLE sailed for Europe yesterday on the Frantic. Before sailing he said to a battalion of expectant reporters: “Yes, there is more prosperity in this country at the present time than I have ever seen before. It is every- where. You will find it on every hand and, I might add, under every foot. “Our only problem now is how to get hold of this prosperity. It ought to be evident to the merest tyro in economics that prosperity is no good to anybody unless somebody has it. Hence the scramble for it. That is the cause of social unrest. The laborers try to get prosperity by striking. The capitalists try to get prosperity by rais- ing prices. The’ landlords try to get prosperity by raising rents. The bur- glars try to annex more prosperity by breaking into a larger number of houses and by selecting a better class of houses. “So you see, if there is enough pros- perity for everybody, then everybody has it, provided, of course, they are able to get it. Now that’s the way I look at it. Gentlemen, I thank you.” B.O.3: Revision S 1T WAS: Thrice is he armed who hath his quarrel just. The latest version: Thrice just is he who armed before the quarrel. CAN THEY BE SHORTER?” comicbooks.com