Life, 1920-09-30 · page 36 of 40
Life — September 30, 1920 — page 36: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains a satirical essay called "The Great American Roly-Poly," which uses a wobbling salt shaker as an extended metaphor for the American middle class. The author deliberately knocks over a salt shaker to watch it bob back up, comparing this to how ordinary Americans absorb economic hardship without resistance. The "roly-poly" is the cheerful, resilient working person who suffers from price manipulation, crop gambling, and wealth extraction yet never demands better—just keeps "bobbing up" smiling. The satire's point: the American middle class has the power to resist economic exploitation but chooses not to. They accept inflated prices, unfair practices, and financial instability as inevitable, never striking back hard enough to actually create change. The author critiques this passive acceptance of mistreatment by the powerful, comparing the exploited masses to an inanimate toy designed to absorb blows. This reflects early 20th-century *Life* magazine's tradition of social commentary on capitalism and class relations.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
With ANY TYPEWRITER You can stencil an address in this ELLIOTT INDEX CARD. Chen these cards will automatically address your circulars, statements and other business forms forever after~ When you slide a tray of Elliott Index Cards into the Addresserpress push through the machine. You insert the form which isto be addressed, like thi ink roll prints the stenciled address through each Index card onto the form Ns The trays of Elliott Index Cards are kept in the i filing cabinet: erve in place Send for cur booklet Addresserpressing” The ELLIOTT CO: 149 Albany St. — | Cambridge-Mass. LIFE: The Great American Roly-Poly KNOCKED my salt-cellar over this morning. It bobbed up again, being one of those accommodating affairs that won't down. No matter how hard the blow, up he comes smiling, spilling no salt, ready for another blow—the cheer- ful idiot! If I knew he'd crack, or break, or throw the salt where it would do the most harm, I'd treat him better. As it is, | knock the duffer over just to see him bob, It's a great game. I hate the fellow! To me he is that cheerful fool type of whom I am one— the American middle class, that tremen- dously good-natured class that takes buf- fets on all sides and comes up grinnin, that great body, the strength and life of the nation, which reads the reports of wheat gambles, cotton gambles, gambles with the necessities of existence, knows it is going to be hit, and hit hard, yet falls only to hob up philosophically with- out spilling anything. We know, of course, that the enormous crops of the grain belt, the tremendous commercial prosperity, isn’t going to reach us in the only in which it could reach us, lower prices, but that we must pay for every drought, blight or disaster, straight from our own pockets in the in © of prices—blows that tip roly-poly r, to rise again still cheerful, or, if he hasn't the proper balance (in the bank), to break at last and be consigned to the dump heap. Of course I'll never purposely strike that salt-cellar hard enough to break it is too useful. Neither docs the ma- nipulator of the middle class endanger his salt supplier, but both roly-polies get some pretty severe dents just the same. Of course the lesser roly-poly is help- : the greater—after all I'm not being fair to that. salt- ar. He hasn't the power to help himself. He must bob to my blows; but we who compose the great American bobber have it, and do not use it. We don't have to stand for those knocks, of course, but we will, and they who knock us know we will, just as well as I know that salt-cellar will bob up. T them we are only the chaps that cat sugar, must have flour, must wear clothes. When those go above our dollars, we'll stop Foodstuffs will never go higher than our kind can pay for: they will go to the limit, but they won't jump it. We don’t knock roly-poly clear out There are reasons! MES: LONGTALK: An ideal visit is one where you stay as long as you want to, Ortniw: Yes, or break away when you choose Sit writing—the modern doctor's T srescriptiv fidential Guide will take you st to one of our four convenient cor Mist” rainproofed overcoats (a jour clothes, for that matter) mg ordered by mail. | Free delivery anywhere the P, Post goes. Write for samples and simple measurement blank. *Neyistered Trademark, Mail orders filled. | ROGERS FEET COMPANY Broadway Br at 13th St. “Four Convenient Broadway Corners” at Warren | NEW YORK CITY CheBILT MORE 43rd and 44th Sts. and Madison Ave. The Cascades 49th Floor-—Always Cool Most unique dining room in New York. Beautiful deco- rations and lighting effects Dancing Parties enrolling now. Moderate prices. Most interesting routes. Great success ‘TEMPLE TOURS “ "niin comicbooks.comny