Life, 1919-04-24 · page 31 of 46
Life — April 24, 1919 — page 31: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is primarily a **product advertisement**, not political satire. It promotes Robbins & Myers Motors, manufactured in Springfield, Ohio. The image shows a businessman in formal attire standing beside an industrial electric motor. The headline "If That Motor Drew Wages!" is a playful joke: the businessman suggests the motor is so profitable and reliable that if it *drew a salary*, it would still pay for itself through increased efficiency and reduced maintenance costs. The advertisement emphasizes the motor's 22-year track record and positions it as a profitable investment for manufacturers. It claims the motors are used in home appliances (vacuum cleaners, washing machines) and industrial equipment (factory machinery, office machines). **For modern readers:** This reflects early-20th-century industrial marketing, celebrating mechanization and automation as profit-enhancers. There's implicit humor in the notion of rewarding reliable machinery—anticipating anxieties about automation replacing human labor, though presented here as beneficial cost-saving.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
If That Motor Drew ges!” Before him stands one of the most profitable producers in the place—a Robbins& Myers Motor. He knows this to be so—based on the initial in- vestment, the years of uninterrupted service, the economy of power, maintained production, the low cost of maintenance, and the good-will of the working force toward the operating equipment. And he smiles as he says: ‘‘If that motor drew iges!”? In his selection of R&¢M Motors he finds assur- e in the fact that they are the result of 22 years’ iership in the making of motors from 1-40 to horsepower. Confidence is thus established the outset, to be matched in turn by dividend- pying operation. Robbins & Myers Motors are equally profita- bie in the realm of motor-driven labor-saving de- obbins vices. Makers of the better electrically operated equipment select Robbins & Myers Motors to insure an operating efficiency in keeping with their own high manufacturing standards. That is why when selecting a vacuum cleaner or washing machine for the home, an adding machine or addressing machine for the office, a food chopper or coffee grinder for the store, or a motor-driven machine for the shop or factory, you know that it is a quality product throughout if equipped with a Robbins & Myers Motor. Power users, electrical device makers, and dealers, find maintained profit and added prestige in the Robbins & Myers line. ‘The Robbins & Myers Company, Springfield, Ohio For Taventy-trwo Years Makers of Quality Fans and Motors Branches in All Principal Cities comicbooks.com