Life, 1919-12-04 · page 47 of 80
Life — December 4, 1919 — page 47: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes American munitions manufacturers during World War I. The top cartoon shows Santa Claus (representing the munitions industry) delivering bullets to a woman, with the caption joking about being "careful in addresses"—likely referencing accidental harm from the weapons trade. The longer narrative (bottom) depicts a salesman who profited by supplying bullets to Germany during the war. Now that his wartime customer (Germany/"Hohenzollern & Co.") has been defeated, he seeks to pivot back to soap manufacturing. The satire criticizes industrialists who: 1. Profited enormously from wartime munitions sales 2. Supplied enemy nations 3. Now expect smooth business transitions without consequences The lower cartoon about the "safe-movers' strike" appears unrelated—a separate labor-dispute joke. The piece mocks American capitalism's moral flexibility: companies willing to arm enemies for profit, then resume peacetime business as if nothing happened.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
ae Ry = AREER MEI AT TT RL a “1 DON'T MIND DOING A FAVOR FOR OLD DOC STORK, BUT, COM FOUND HIM, | WISH HE WOULD BF goods. Why, the existence of your firm was staked on it. If the bullet business failed, what good was your soap? And remember, Hohenzollern & Co, were just itching to expand into the American field. It all depended on offering them a steady enough supply to keep them busy in the domestic market. If you had failed to keep the bullets coming, and we had fallen down in making deliveries, the whole works—soap business and all—would have gone to smash. “Now I have finished my job for you in the foreign field. Your stock of bullets is cleaned out, your chief customer has gone out of business, and you can concentrate on soap again. What's to kecome of me—your hard- working star salesman? You're not going to throw me down, after I've pulled off the neatest and largest- scaled merchandising job the world has ever seen! I’ve made good with bullets. Why not give me a trial with soap?" MORE CAREFUL IN ADDRESSES!” “DID THE ROPE BREAK?" “NO, THEY HAD IT UP TO THE TENTH FLOOR WHEN THE SAPE-MOVERS’ STRIKE WAS CALLED.” comicbooks.com