Life — June 17, 1920 — page 11: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# "Too Much of a Job" Cartoon Analysis This sketch depicts two working-class men—a "Striker" and an "Agitator"—discussing labor conditions. The Striker complains about his job being overwhelming, while the Agitator responds with revolutionary rhetoric about "building the whole world anew." The satire mocks radical labor organizers who offer grand ideological solutions to workers' immediate, practical problems. The Striker's response—"Just thinks of it! Perhaps I had better go back and finish that house"—suggests workers find such abstract revolutionary talk ridiculous when they have concrete jobs to complete. This reflects early 20th-century Life magazine's skepticism toward socialist and communist agitation among American workers, positioning such activism as disconnected from ordinary laborers' actual concerns and priorities.