Life — January 22, 1920 — page 1: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# "The Prince of Profiteers" This January 1920 cartoon satirizes wartime profiteering. A well-dressed man stands in an ornate theater labeled "Our Engagement Brings Sold Out," confronting various business schemes. The left side advertises "Tickets for All Theaters" and "Drink & Heavy Lunch Slush." The right side promotes "Terms Strictly Cash," "Store Samples to Peddlers," and "Cloth Flowers 1200 Doz." The cartoon mocks a businessman exploiting post-WWI economic conditions through multiple schemes—reselling theater tickets, running restaurants, and hawking cheap goods. The "Prince of Profiteers" title derisively crowns this figure as emblematic of war-era opportunists who accumulated wealth through middleman tactics and price gouging rather than legitimate production, a common post-war complaint about profiteers.