Life, 1924-02-28 · page 21 of 36
Life — February 28, 1924 — page 21: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This cartoon illustrates a satirical commentary on economic theory, specifically the proverb "money makes the mare go." The image depicts a literal test of this saying: a horse stands before a suspended platform containing figures (appearing to be scientists or "skeptics"), with money dangling above the horse as bait on a pulley system. Below, a crowd of onlookers watches the experiment. The satire targets both economic determinism—the idea that money is the primary motivator of all action—and the pseudo-scientific approach to testing social theories. By literalizing the figurative expression, the cartoonist mocks those who reduce human and economic behavior to simplistic cause-and-effect relationships. The "Skeptics Society" framing suggests ironic doubt about whether this crude materialist theory actually explains complex social phenomena, reflecting early-20th-century debates about economics, science, and human motivation.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
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