Nowadays the approximate equivalent within this scene would be a flat screen monitor, a couple cheap curly-cue compact fluorescent lights with a cell phone (and/or flimsy electronic office bird-chirping telephone), sheet-toe table fans that hardly endure spinning more than one summer season, an IKEA desk (or its pressboard equivalent) that would not last more than a few years...etc! Unfortunately all of this s*** seems to be the business standard and of course made in China. Everything you see in this photo from 100 years ago was without doubt was made in the USA and built with long-lasting pride.

Were things better and simpler in 1912?