The Wasp — 1892 — page 59: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This is a pro-tariff political cartoon attacking free trade. The image shows a stark contrast: the upper half depicts prosperous British industrial facilities (Birmingham Machine Works, Carnegie & Co.), while the lower half illustrates chaos and starvation among American workers and soldiers. The diagonal line separating the two halves represents the protective tariff barrier. The message is explicit: "Protection does not... nor free trade prevent starving" — arguing that tariffs protect American industry and workers, while free trade allows foreign competition to devastate the domestic workforce. The starving masses with their sign "WE ARE STARVING AND CAN GET NO WORK" represent the human cost of allowing unrestricted British imports. This reflects late 19th/early 20th-century American protectionist arguments against free trade policies.