Life — March 20, 1919 — page 7: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Analysis of Life Magazine Page This page contains several satirical pieces about labor and politics during the early Soviet era. **"Ballade of Bolsheviki"** mocks the difficulty of writing poetry about the Russian Bolsheviks—the poet claims the subject is too crude or chaotic to capture in refined verse. **"Some Crossings"** lists famous historical river crossings (Caesar, Napoleon, Washington) alongside "The Prohibitionists double-crossing the United States"—satirizing American Prohibitionists as betrayers of the nation. **"'Twas Ever Thus"** depicts capitalists resisting worker demands for shorter hours, with a factory owner literally locking himself away rather than negotiate. The joke: Labor's hours become absurdly short as a consequence of this stubbornness. The large illustration shows a worker waiting—possibly depicting the labor struggle itself. Overall, the page satirizes both radical Bolshevism and capitalist intransigence regarding worker conditions.