Life, 1919-05-29 · page 19 of 42
Life — May 29, 1919 — page 19: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**Top Cartoon ("The Empty Manger"):** Shows a gaunt, skeletal Uncle Sam figure bending over an empty manger labeled "U.S. CONGRESS" and "TREASURY," with a small goat nearby. This depicts American financial depletion—the government's coffers exhausted after war bond campaigns. **Bottom Cartoon & Article:** Satirizes American methods of raising war loans through aggressive noise and publicity campaigns, contrasting them unfavorably with French quieter fiscal operations that still succeed. The text suggests Americans over-rely on propaganda and public pressure rather than sound financial methods. **The Secondary Cartoon** shows an irritated passenger offering his newspaper, humorously illustrating how invasive these loan-raising efforts had become in daily life. **Context:** Written during or shortly after a major World War I bond drive, the satire warns that aggressive fundraising habits may persist in peacetime, troubling citizens with remaining wealth. The article critiques American financial "exploitation" methods while acknowledging their temporary effectiveness.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
FOFMPTY MANGER Noise and Finance Now that the last) popular vernment loan has been successfully put over, it may not be out of order to wonder whether the means devised ior raising War-money will permit themselves to fall into desuetude. There is still money left in the pockets of the country, and there are still objects of merit for its expenditure, and the money raisers may turn out to have acquired habits of which they cannot immediately break themselves. To people who still have some money left, or expect it to come in, this is a thought that hreeds disquietude. For their reassurance the suggestion may he offered that per- haps the methods of money-raising and the activity of those who use them are less potent than they have seemed. Possibly the last loan went over not entirely because of the din t it, but considerably because good, and people knew that it was an imperative public obligation, and that they must take care of it Our method of floating loans is to float them on an immense noise. It’s very like the Chinese method of curing disease. We laugh at the Chinese, and if they know about our habit of financial exploitation, they probably laugh at us, The French are very much quieter in their fiscal opera- Irate Passenger: AF YOU WANT TO READ MY PAPER SO BADLY tions, but they get the money YOU CAN HAVE IT! comicbooks.com