The Wasp — 1896 — page 975: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This page celebrates *The Wasp's* satirical cartoons about the 1896 U.S. presidential campaign, particularly regarding the "silver question"—a major political debate over monetary policy. **"The Sliding Scale"** (top) depicts various nations (Guatemala, South America, China, Japan, Mexico) as destinations where American workers could be sent to earn lower wages. The satire argues that free-silver advocates claimed cheaper currency would help workers, but in reality, it would simply force Americans to compete with lower-wage foreign labor. **The lower cartoon** shows a woman at "Democratic Headquarters" distributing propaganda about free silver to different countries, sarcastically mocking the policy's international implications and suggesting Democratic campaign dishonesty. Both target the free-silver platform's supposed economic naïveté.