Life, 1919-10-16 · page 23 of 36
Life — October 16, 1919 — page 23: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes the phrase "passing the buck"—evading responsibility by shifting it to someone else. **Main Cartoon:** Shows a working-man (left, muscular, wearing a cap) standing with arms crossed, while a well-dressed businessman (right) sits anxiously at a desk. The caption reads "THE MAN WHO EARNS HIS BREAD BY THE SWEAT OF HIS EMPLOYER'S BROW"—inverting the Biblical phrase to mock how employers profit from workers' labor while the worker bears the actual burden. **The Point:** The visual joke critiques class inequality and the buck-passing culture of business. The worker physically embodies the work, while the nervous employer takes credit (and profit). **Secondary Dialogue ("Flagrant Example"):** Two characters discuss "poetic justice," with one sarcastically noting free-verse poets deserve punishment—a separate literary jab at modernist poetry trends. The article's wordplay on "buck" (the object passed, the responsibility dodged, the present that's always present) supports the cartoon's theme: those in power avoid accountability by passing blame downward.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
‘LIFE: buck, but never the passing of the buck. Technically, the buck is a present, but to speak of a present that is passed or a passing that is ever present would be confusing. Thus resort is made to the word buck When we pass the buck we make 2 nt of what was passed to us by passing the pres: »mebody else. The act of passing the present fro! ser to passee passes for passing the buck. But the buck thus passed becomes hot a past present but a present Passing the buck was a popular | the past. As there are no signs th popularity is ps at pre: the buck should cont to be passed in a we ffar’> a re< 26/f" THE MAN WHO EARNS HIS BREAD BY THE SWEAT OF HIS EMPLOYER'S BROW Buck Flagrant Example UCK has been in use for centuries as a thing that is MBs CRABSHAW: I often doubt if there is any such passed, yet it has never become a thing of the past. thing in this world as poetic justice. It possesses a unique faculty for passing without pass- Crausuaw: If there were, my dear, something would ing away. surely be done to some of those fellows who write free Hence it is always present. We speak of passing the verse. comicbooks.com