Life, 1918-05-23 · page 19 of 40
Life — May 23, 1918 — page 19: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains two satirical cartoons about wartime profiteering. The main illustration shows a figure labeled "Ukraine" being chased by two men stealing money from his pocket—likely representing different nations or entities exploiting Ukraine's resources during World War I. The accompanying text discusses Red Cross fundraising and U.S. war financing. The cartoons satirize how wealth circulates during wartime: money pours in for war efforts, then mysteriously reappears elsewhere, suggesting corruption or misappropriation by those managing funds. The Shakespeare quote title suggests the theft of a nation's resources ("purse") is being treated as trivial. The satire critiques how wartime necessity enables financial exploitation, with willing contributors unknowingly funding both legitimate war efforts and private enrichment by middlemen and profiteers.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
t the war, puch sit Taw and nent ‘reel Tee his the into son, who But pin- able his and him law trip ren he ms ght m- jon nat ng no at “Who steals my purse steals trash” Jown nowadays to a daily feast on its own words, and cats them to repletion HIS is Red Cross week with a hun- dred millions to raise, and no doubt The Red Cross work is so important and so successful naged, that A it will be forthcoming. and nowadays so well m if voluntary contributions failed to more support it there could hardly he a heneficial use of government money than to keep it going. But government support would mean government con- trol and direction, and we have enough of that in this war, and it is better that the Red Cross should stay outside of it. Sometimes it can do w the gov- ernment could not do at the time, as in the case of its work in Italy before we were at war with Austria. Often it has heen able to beat the government in provision and transportation. Tt ean do things as “business” does them, and it is not tied up with red tape. So the money must come, and will come of course. If the energy and strategy and ingenuity that are shown in these States in raising moncy could he directly applied to killing Germans we should win the war in a couple of months. One would think that our great army of drivers, solicitors, ad- vertisers and exhorters for the war funds would soon have the country’s bottom dollar in their prison camps, but somehow other dollars are always forthcoming, and the disposition to let of them seems to he increasing. In the great destruction and conse- cration of wealth that is proceeding throughout the world the United States seems insistent not to be behindhand. It pours in, and then rests a spell, and then pours in again. The love of money, so long reproached as the root of all evil, seems to have got a body blow. All the world’s present suffer- ings are commonly laid to materialism and overgrown aspirations for national prosperity. If wealth makes for deca of character, and poverty for sturdi- ness and virtue, certainly the renova- tion of mankind is proceeding hot foot, 839 for the world’s wealth is being shoveled into the furnace, and what guns do not destroy willing hands contribute. HE news at this writing is fairly good. The recent exploits of the British navy at Zeebrugge, and more recently at Ostend, show enter- prise and vigor, It is reckoned not an accident but an avoidable error in 1 by the Allies that the Ger- s far as preparati man drive went so far, but valor could make reparation it has been made, and with a united Allied com- 1 the rest of the German effort is Iv to he better handled. And our matters are going better When Mr. Baker says we have not less than half a million men in France he xoes into no particulars, and does not say how many of them are fighting troops, nor yet how many m than that we have put over. But what he does say confirms the general impres- sion that our men are getting where they helong in numbers that will really count And the shipbuilding situation has come at last to be really hopeful, and facturing seems to be all our war-m: coming out of twilight into Tt was time, to be sure; yes, it was time; and about some things this ad- ministration has seemed almighty slow. had some other ad- Tf we had ont, ion doing the same job under minist! the same circumstances we should know how slow it has been. Unluckily, there is nothing by which to measure its efficiency, or lack of it. We can't tell how long it would have taken Mr. Roosevelt to accomplish what has been done up to the present time. Only Mr. Roosevelt knows, and he can't he sure, because he was not tried, Fast or slow as it may be about its business, the country is getting many incidental benefits out of the war. Its people are being shaken together and made to know one another, and taught to work together. And cranks, anarch- ists and fanatics are at a discount. The hyphens are dropping out of the hy- phenated, and all citizens who are not for the United States and its Allies are finding out where they belong, and going there. comicbooks.com