Life, 1918-03-28 · page 15 of 40
Life — March 28, 1918 — page 15: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This satirical cartoon critiques the **Baby-Carriage Trust**—a monopoly controlling infant carriage prices. The accompanying text presents a cynical "defense" from a trust head claiming the price increase (from two to four dollars) represents a reasonable "personal exemption" that saves families money overall. The cartoon shows a large, personified money bag labeled "J.D. ROCKEFELLER" (or similar industrial figure) with "NOT TODAY" written on it, holding "MINT JULEPS." It confronts distressed working-class figures on the left—representing ordinary families burdened by inflated baby-carriage costs. The satire exposes the absurdity of monopolistic price-fixing justified through circular economic reasoning, while the title emphasizes that ordinary citizens bear the financial burden of corporate greed.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“LIFE: 51 WHERE THE RLOW FALLS HARDEST The Way It Is Done D OF THE BABY-CARRIAGE TRUST: You ¢ is a perfectly good reason for raising the price of haby-carriages four dollars. Trust Statistician: Yes. In looking over the income- tax data [ find that there is a personal exemption of two hundred dollars for each child. Now two per cent, of that is four dollars. Hence a f, new haby; and somebody nily saves four dollars on every ought to get this money. Why shouldn't we? Recipe for a Hoover Sandwich HE latest thing in light refreshments is the Hoover sandwich. It is made by placing a very thin slice of meatless Tuesday between a slender picce of wheatless Monday and a still more slender piece of wheatless Wed- nesday. Camouflage with a little aper dressing and serve cold d la Garfield. The idea is not entirely new, as sandwiches quite similar to the “ Hoover” have been sold at the baseball parks for many years, comicbooks.com