Life, 1917-01-04 · page 33 of 38
Life — January 4, 1917 — page 33: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This untitled cartoon satirizes financial manipulation and banking corruption during the early 20th century. The "Egg King" represents a speculator or financier engaging in what appears to be a pyramid scheme: he purchases eggs cheaply, uses warehouse receipts as collateral to borrow from banks, then reinvests borrowed money to repeat the cycle. The satire's point: bankers knowingly finance these speculative schemes using depositors' money, essentially allowing financiers to "rob" ordinary people. When the Egg King claims he "couldn't pyramid" profits without banker cooperation, the dialogue reveals that banks prioritize profits over their fiduciary responsibility to depositors. This reflects Progressive Era criticism of unregulated financial practices and banker complicity in market manipulation—concerns that would intensify toward the 1929 stock market crash.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
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