Life — March 1932 — page 8: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# "Try These on Your Depression" This satirical article mocks Depression-era "solutions" by proposing absurd business ideas. The author suggests that tired, impractical notions—like developing non-stick glue, breeding miniature pigs for football, or creating wallpaper that sticks to walls—could somehow lift the nation out of economic crisis. The accompanying cartoons illustrate the ridiculousness: one shows a figure labeled "Sleepy-eye" with a drum, another depicts someone attempting Gandhi's goat as a prohibition basis. The satire targets both the desperation of Depression-era thinking and the business establishment's disconnection from ordinary people's suffering—particularly farmers struggling to survive while city merchants propose frivolous "innovations." The piece is darkly humorous commentary on economic collapse and failure of leadership.