Beauty Trends and Economic Betrayal
A critique of how the public's obsession with celebrity fashion distracts from the economic harm of the Payne-Aldrich Tariff.
Two facts are before us today: Mrs. Clarence Mackay, one of New York's richest women, has adopted a new cosmetic fad, painting her face with gray powder and her lips with bright carmine red. Meanwhile, the tariff revision which Congress is about to perpetrate will be the most vicious fraud since 1892. This bill will increase the cost of the salaried man's living and heavily tax the woman of moderate means, but will be perfectly satisfactory to the trusts. Congress passes these measures because the majority of citizens are not concerned with the serious questions, preferring to focus on the trivial. You may pass over the tariff discussion, but will you miss the item concerning Mrs. Mackay's powder and paint? We think not. This is why a little minority of rich men is able to dominate and rob the great majority of people in this country year after year.
“You will remember the pallid Mrs. Mackay after you have forgotten that you are paying absurd tribute to the trusts as a result of the thievish tariff revision.”
The editorial's argument that sensational celebrity news functions as a distraction from structural economic policy remains a major subject of modern media criticism.
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