Life, 1923-03-15 · page 17 of 36
Life — March 15, 1923 — page 17: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This cartoon satirizes America's struggle with post-WWI economic recovery and foreign debt policy. The image depicts a cart labeled "Foreign Policy" stuck in mud labeled "Post-War Muddle," pulled by a confused horse labeled "Falseness" while figures (likely representing the Harding administration and Congress) struggle ineffectually around it. The accompanying text discusses Senator Borah's position on European war debts—he advocated canceling obligations owed by impoverished European nations rather than imposing long-term bonds, arguing economic reconstruction mattered more than debt collection. American farmers had lost billions since 1920. The cartoon's caption—"Why ain't you gettin' somewhere?"—mocks the administration's inability to resolve these tensions. The satire suggests that despite talk of conferences and policy adjustments, the government remains paralyzed by competing interests, unable to move forward on either debt relief or economic recovery.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
that side of things—as valuable, probably, as Senator Borah, whose feelings have undergone very much the same sort of change. To be sure, Senator Borah voted against the settlement of the British debt, but his reasons for doing so seem to have been that he was in favor of a still more liberal policy. He said in an interview, “I would rather see every dollar that Europe owes us cancelled, if European conditions could be adjusted and European ye ~ D) LIFE markets opened, than to have these long-term bonds upon an impover- ished and bankrupt continent. In- finitely more important than debts is the adjustment of the economic con- dition of Europe. Our farmers since 1920 have lost over eight and a half billion dollars in deflated prices. That is more than England and France both owe us.” All that is proper to be said, and Senator Borah is a proper person to say it. Somehow the adjustment is 15 coming. The necessary preliminary to it seems to be a conference. A conference let us have, then, as soon as possible. It may be the great achievement of Mr. Harding's ad- ministration. An achietement of which we now see evidence many times a day is the new two-cent stamp. It is nothing like as hand- some as the old one and will not bring the Republican party enough credit to rest upon. It must achieve something else. E. S. M. “Why ain’t you gettin’ somewhere ?” comicbooks.com