Life, 1918-10-10 · page 17 of 33
Life — October 10, 1918 — page 17: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
## Main Cartoon: "Bloated Bond-Holders" The large sketch shows well-dressed men emerging from a National Bank, depicted as corpulent and wealthy—caricatured as profiteers benefiting from war financing. The title "Bloated Bond-Holders" explicitly identifies them as financiers growing rich from government war bonds during World War I. ## Political Context The text discusses President Wilson's push for women's suffrage as a "war measure," arguing it's vital to winning WWI. The article notes Wilson is using political pressure against senators opposing the amendment, having already defeated certain candidates in re-election campaigns. The cartoon satirizes the apparent contradiction: while ordinary citizens sacrifice in war, wealthy bond-holders accumulate fortunes through financial instruments. The satire suggests that war profiteering by the financial elite undermines claims that suffrage is truly "vital" to winning—implying the war effort serves multiple interests beyond stated noble purposes. This reflects Progressive-era skepticism about whether wars primarily benefit working people or financial elites.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
521 the way things are going it does not look, to the average mind, as though the war would be perceptibly affected one way or the other hy the Senate's vote. Mr. Wilson has picked up and put in his bag a stone that Colonel Roosevelt might presently have thrown at him if he had left it in the road. More than that we do not sce in this deliverance But Mr. David Lawrence, the syndi- cate correspondent, sees much more He says the significance of Mr. Wil- son's message is far-reaching in Amer ican politics, and that as the President defeated Hardwick and Vardaman for re-election to the Senate, and Blease in South Carolina, so now he will re- fuse support to senators who do not vote as he says on this suffrage te ter which he has defined “vital to the winning of the war.” One may doubt if Mr. Wilson will value Da assistance in planning his licy in. this particular “War mew may becom 1, pr and we s her rT 1 lo dem 1 an eq and that th tus untess w hat was his onl. M WILSON m nother speecl at this measure which | difficult a » upon you is vital to the winning — public infors placed He made it to the Senate on Sep hy tember goth, urging the 4 of the of the war, and to the ene aration and of battle every man prefers to be ed to alike he was in distinguished company Woman Suffrage amendment as a war of pre measure. The reason he gave for con Anyone who thinks that the war cannot be won unless the Senate passes another, however illustrions the family he belongs to, and not to sidering ita war measure was that 30: we “the plain, struggling work-a-day folk — the suffrage amendment is entitled to asies of that opinion. But Mr. Creel’s racial derivation regret to have been misinformed about think in their logical simplicity that all the ¢ comicbooks.com