Judge, 1915-01-23 · page 4 of 24
Judge — January 23, 1915 — page 4: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes **government oversight of the Panama Canal Zone**. The main article "Mixing Government and Society" criticizes the *Canal Record*, the official publication of the Panama Canal Commission, for publishing frivolous social gossip—club teas, marriages, divorces, births—alongside serious engineering content. The central cartoon depicts a figure climbing a tree labeled "REALISM," with the caption suggesting someone should "have it" while another person says "that's just the touch we need." This likely mocks the tension between the *Record's* romantic social coverage and its role as an official government journal. The satire criticizes mixing governmental communications with entertainment-style content, suggesting the publication lacks appropriate seriousness for official canal administration.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
E Mixing Government and Society O* E BY ONE our joys are trampled underfoot by the relentless prog- ress of reform. The last blow comes from our most frivolous exchange, which announces: ocial, personal and church news will not be published in future issues of the Canal Record."" This gay publication is the official organ of the Panama Canal Zone and is published by the Isthmian Canal Commission. Probably no other jour- nal in the world is so c'osely inter- woven with the romance of govern- mental life. Not even the Congressional Record is one-half so completely the living embodiment of Uncle Sam. Through the years of canal digging we have watched its record of the weekly struggles that finally crowned with success the stupendous Panama enterprise. From it have been culled the touch- ing details of the daily earth excava- tions and the romantic account of the number of cubic yards of concrete laid, or the length of the piston stroke of the newest engine that chugged behind a dipper in Culebra Cut. Nothing was too grave or too gay for the busy com- piler. No figures were too dry, no sta- tistics too unwieldy for his presenta- tion. Nothing pleased him better than a couple of columns of solid agate statistics that must have delighted all the oculists who saw them. Then, lest these frivolous byp of mathematics might make the official journal too light for government circu- lation, its editor would regale the REALISM the dashing social life of the Canal Zone. There was excitement for you. Never were there young men’s clubs that were half so busy as these; the Mrs. Binkelshapenslater gave were quite the latest for that latitude. Marriage and divorce, births and deaths, all filled impartially their allot. ted columns of the weekly record. ‘¢ Now that is to be no more. Now we shall have to read such thrilling ‘New Diesel Engine Ves- anal,’’ and ‘'Repatriating Laborers,"’ and ‘Rules of Procedure of Joint Land Commission,"’ and “Hookworm Campaign,’’ and ‘‘Pro- posals for Drilling Holes,’’ without any of the dessert of sunshine and frills which the socicty editor of the Canai Record used to furnish, Mayhap it is better so, Working for Uncle Sam is far too pleasant, anyhow, to add social advertising tovits allurements. Brief Decisions EY" YTHING comes to the man who but nothing seems to over- take the man who is always behind time. a By the time the average man has enough money to retire on, it is time for him to go to bed early, a No use of a man consulting a phre- nologist until he gets his bumps. The man who Jaughs last usually makes up fgr lost time. Most men who marry for money Euthusiastic movie director—Lat him have it, George, let him have it! ‘That's just the touch we need. have seen better days. readers with the latest happenings of comicbooks.com