Life, 1917-06-14 · page 25 of 38
Life — June 14, 1917 — page 25: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**Top Illustration ("Discipline"):** Shows military recruits in formation being inspected by a sergeant—standard military discipline imagery. **Main Article:** This is serious satire about **food speculators** during what appears to be WWI-era food shortages. The piece argues that profiteers who corner markets on eggs, wheat, and meat exploit the public, generate brief outrage, then face no real consequences. The author sarcastically proposes the "best way" to stop them: execute speculators caught hoarding. The satire's dark humor lies in advocating summary execution as more efficient than the government's slow legislative process. **"To the Ladies" Cartoon:** Appears to be unrelated domestic humor about marriage, using circular logic to suggest wives should ultimately divorce their husbands—mocking both marriage advice columns and gender relations of the era. **Germany Reference:** A brief editorial quip about Germany not declaring war on the US, likely from the pre-1917 period. The page mixes wartime economic frustration with lighthearted domestic humor.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
DISCIPLINE Line Forms on Right MONG the favored few may be counted the food speculator. This gentleman corners eggs, wheat, meat and other foods. When his corner is ready to market he sells his product at huge profits. The newspapers publish picturesque stories about his activities, giving the estimated amount of his profits. Those who have been cheated—that is, about all the peo- ple—are very angry for a few days, and then the affair subsides, This has been going on for years. It ig proposed now to stop it. It probably will be stopped, in accordance with the usual lengthy process with which we are so familiar. Suggestions will be made, bills will be introduced, there will be long debates, committees will be formed, and so on. The best way to stop a food speculator from robbing the people is much shorter than this. Let every food speculator caught with the goods be taken out and shot. There need be no preliminaries, The fact of his having a corner will be enough. This idea may be primitive, but after the first shooting food speculators will be scarce in this country, ERMANY still refuses to declare war on the United States. We must have offended her in some way. To the Ladies ADIES, if you love a man, marry him. If you marry him, know him. If you know him, study him. If you study him, humor him. If you humor him, flatter him. If you flatter him, you will humor him, If you humor him, you will study him, If you study him, you will know him. If you know him, you may divorce him. WHEN YOU'VE HAD NO PRACTICE FOR THIRTY YEARS comicbooks.com