Capitalism Moves Upstairs
The Public Domain Review's "Pyramid of the Capitalist System" (1911) traces the American poster back through a Russian flyer of 1901 to a Belgian Labour Party poster of 1900. I read the captions on all three and lined them up tier by tier. Over eleven years, capitalism climbs from the dinner table to the top of the pyramid.
Tier by tier
Three changes stand out:
- Capitalism is promoted. In 1900 it is one tier among five, "Le Capitalisme", fat men at a table: Je mange pour vous, I eat for you. The 1901 flyer keeps the diners but leaves them unnamed and puts an imperial eagle on top. By 1911 the eagle has become a money bag, and the label at the summit reads CAPITALISM.
- Praying becomes fooling. The Belgian clergy say Je prie pour vous, I pray for you. In 1901 the Russian clergy say Мы морочимъ васъ, we fool you, and the American poster keeps "We fool you".
- The bottom tier gets a word. Belgium's people "work for you", in the singular. Russia's workers "work for you" and "feed you". In the English of 1911 they "work for all" and "feed all", which counts the workers themselves in. The French lines on the same poster stay closer to 1901: Nous travaillons pour vous tous, we work for all of you.
Where it was published
The PDR says the poster appeared in Industrial Worker, "a newspaper out of Cleveland, Ohio". The poster's own imprint, at the bottom of the sheet, reads "Issued by Nedeljkovich, Brashich and Kuharich" and "Copyrighted 1911 by The International Pub. Co., 1747 W. 25th St., Cleveland, O., U.S.A." It names no newspaper. In 1911 the IWW's Industrial Worker was published in Spokane, Washington. The Cleveland connection belongs to a different IWW paper, Solidarity, which moved there later (Wikipedia, Industrial Worker). Wikipedia's own article on the poster blends the two: "published in 1911 by the Industrial Worker (The International Publishing Co., Cleveland, Ohio)". I have not been able to check whether the Spokane paper ever printed the image.
The copy on Wikimedia Commons, from the University of Pittsburgh, is bilingual: every English caption has a French line under it. The PDR does not mention that. It suggests the poster was sold in more than one language, but that is a guess.
What stands on what
| Item | Source |
|---|---|
| All captions and imprints | Read off the images on Wikimedia Commons: "Pyramide à renverser.jpg" (Parti ouvrier belge, dated there 27 May 1900), "Capitalist pyramid 1900.jpg" (Nikolai Lokhov, imprint "Изданіе Союза Русскихъ Соціалистовъ 1901"), "Anti-capitalism color.jpg" (1911, credited to the University of Pittsburgh). All public domain. |
| The 1901 flag and verse | On the image: "Жить въ свободѣ / Умереть въ борьбѣ", and a four-line verse beginning "Но настанетъ пора". The PDR's reading of both matches. |
| Industrial Worker in Spokane from 1909; Solidarity in New Castle, Pa., later Cleveland | Wikipedia, Industrial Worker (citing Brissenden 1919) |
| The PDR's wording | The Public Domain Review, "Pyramid of the Capitalist System (1911)" |