Title of the cartoon above: This is the way the trusts “visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction.” The posted sign in the background reads, “Doctors say children are dying for want of ice.”

Once again we focus on the cartoons by Homer Davenport, found in his 1900 collection, The Dollar or the Man? The Issue of To Day. And not only the “Today” of 1900, but, with the Conservative Activist Supreme Court having thrown away 100+ years of election fundings reform, giving corporations the level of power in election that they had — and abused — more than a century ago, Davenport’s The Dollar or the Man? is now just as relevant in 2012, as it was in 1900.

Yesterday’s focus having been on Summer Heat in pre-air conditioned times, and the importance of the Ice Man / Ice Deliveries, delivering blocks of ice to homes. (How “refrigeration” worked back then.) A few of those cartoons focused on the plight of the urban poor, trapped in overheated cities, and unable to afford regular ice deliveries.

Davenport’s cartoons, depict that plight even more starkly, at a time when unregulated corporations openly colluded with each other, as monopolistic “trusts”, together deciding on what prices they would demand. (As shown by actual history, in an unregulated environment, corporations eschew the “free market”, taking from the people every extra bit they can squeeze out). Pages 25 through 29 of The Dollar or the Man? dealt with the “Ice Trusts” — the companies which manufactured & delivered ice, which rather than compete against each other and truly let the “Free Market” set the price of Ice, instead — as unregulated corporations will do when permitted to do so — decided to only produce so much, and squeeze their customers hard. Davenport here depicts the “Ice Trust” just as he does all other monopolies — embodying them in the person of a giant Goliath-like behemoth, against whom the people are tiny underdogs, whom may some day, like David, win the battle.

Click on the above & below cartoons, to view them in greater detail.

“I can’t get any ice, mamma. The trust man says they won’t sell any more small pieces to poor people.”

No more five cent ice!

The hottest day on record. Yet there is a master far more cruel than heat.

“We simply follow the law of supply and demand. No ten cents, no ice.”

Doug Wheeler

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