Life — March 18, 1920 — page 19: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This is a single-panel cartoon satirizing business practices in the early 20th century. A senior partner (seated, elderly man) tells a junior clerk he must be let go, stating: "Young man, we are cutting out all the dead wood in this business." The junior clerk responds: "I shall be sorry to have you leave us." The humor is situational irony: the senior partner announces he's eliminating "dead wood" (inefficient employees), but the junior clerk's polite response implies the senior partner himself is the "dead wood" being removed. The cartoon mocks corporate euphemisms for layoffs and suggests older executives are often the least productive members of firms—a commentary on generational tensions in business.