How it happened
In a business office, the president of an oil company talks to a resident of the local community. He is explaining to “Mr. Haysede” why his company has to issue more stock. Caption: Mr. Haysede — I see by your advertisements that you’re going to issue some more stock. What’s that for? / Oil President — What for? Why, my good fellow, we’ve earned so much money in the past six months that we’re obliged to have more stock to pay dividends on it order to get rid of it.
Comments and Context
Gallaway’s cartoon makes a political, or economic, point masquerading as a simple joke. “Hayseeds” and “rubes” were stereotypical uneducated rural types frequently fleeced by manipulative swindlers from the city. In this cartoon, Gallaway engaged in hyperbole, because in 1903 it was not only gullible farmers who were skeptical about stock watering; the middle class, small businessmen, and, increasingly, the federal government under President Theodore Roosevelt who questioned Wall Street’s manipulation of share values.
