Life, 1910-08-04 · page 19 of 44
Life — August 4, 1910 — page 19: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This August 1912 *Life* magazine piece satirizes American presidential politics by proposing "insurance against defective Presidents." The text argues that England's sophisticated insurance system (referencing Lloyd's of London) could solve a uniquely American problem: voters have no protection against incompetent or unwilling presidents who, once elected, must serve their full term regardless of performance. The author sarcastically suggests insuring the nation against presidential failure—noting that bad presidents have cost "a hundred millions or more" and that even a defective president cannot simply resign. The accompanying illustration ("Troubles Never Come Singly") shows a chaotic rural scene with wagon trouble, visually reinforcing the essay's theme that misfortunes cluster together. This reflects genuine 1912 frustration with presidential power and the lack of mechanisms to remove failing leaders mid-term—a concern that would eventually inspire the 25th Amendment (1967).
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
A Hint to the Wise HE English people are ahead of us in some things. For example, there is insurance. You can get insurance against almost any known evil or lisaster in England. Recently the King died and the trstdes- people were made secure because they had taken out insur: uiast this very calamity. They say over in London that sere is nothing that Lloyd's will not insure you against. Here is our chance, then. Why doesn’t the United States sure itself against its Presidents? It is true that we should have to pay a high premium, but tis worth a high premium And is there anything more uncertain than the kind of 1 President we are going to get? Why, he doesn’t know elf beforehand whether he is going to make a good Presid or not. He may not want the job very much after he has it, but he has got to hang on. He can’t let go just because he is incompetent and he may be incompetent for no fault of his own, A defective President—and Lord knows we have had cnough of them—may cost us a hundred millions or more. All we would have to do, after he had been run year, would be to have another election, to determine company could fork over to each voter say on the average, or so much according to our respective ing. That wouldn't help our feelings very much, but it would make us more comfortable and it might avoid a panic. I lish gold, at the right moment, always can prevent a panic Let's agitate this reform comicbooks.com