Life, 1911-03-23 · page 16 of 44
Life — March 23, 1911 — page 16: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**The cartoon** (top) depicts a woman observing various animals performing tricks—likely satirizing the "private secretary problem" discussed below. The animals represent talented individuals being "trained" or managed, visualizing how difficult it is to find and retain qualified presidential secretaries. **Main article context**: President Taft's administration had experienced three private secretaries in quick succession. Congress refused adequate salary increases (staying at $6,000, later $7,500 rather than the requested $10,000), making the position unattractive to talented men who could earn more in corporate roles. **The satire's joke**: The article humorously proposes inverting the system entirely—making the private secretary's position the primary, powerful role (filled by presidential electors), with the President as an appointee. This absurdist solution mocks both Congress's penny-pinching and the genuine administrative problem. **Secondary item**: "Soda in England" satirizes American cultural invasion, suggesting carbonated beverages and soda fountains threaten England's tea tradition and theatrical culture—likely referencing period anxieties about American commercialism replacing European gentility.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
The Presidential Private Sec- retary Problem The President has had dreadful luck with his secretaries. The third one will be soon appointed, and he will need to be a star to last until the end_ of this administration. \re the Lamonts, Cortelyous and Loehs ex- ct in. the. private, secretary business ?— The Springfield Republicon, HE trouble seems to be that Con- gress will not permit a salary to be connected with the office of Private Secretary to the President which will ttract the degree of talent that the place requires. The salary has heen $6000 a year, President Taft wanted it Congress refused, but consented (we believe) to $7500. Possibly that will do. At any rate a new man is going to take the place. It takes an extremely handy man to be just what the President's private sec- retary ought to be, and handy men of the requisite energy, dexterity, knowl- edge, charm, pulchritude, suavity, judg- ment, foresight, integrity, hindsight and gumption can usually do better from material standpoint by becoming pres dents of corporations, or chairmen of raised to $10,000. THEIR FURS AND FEATHERS Roards of Directors, or accepting part- nerships with J. P. Morgan. Wages of even $10,000 a year don’t tempt them much, much less $6000; and a salary of $7500 must be eked out with a passion for the public service if it is to be ac- cepted. So the job of getting Presi- dents private secretaries has come to be difficult. There is a way in which the difficulty might be solved. If the office of private sceretary was made the one that the presidential electors are to fill, and the office of President was made appointive in the gift of the private secretary, with consent of the Senate—or perhaps of the newspapers—both offices might be filled without trouble. In that case the dig- nity and importance of the private-sec- retaryship would be raised, and it would pay a good man to take the place irre- spective of the salary, just as it pays a rich man to own the stock of the Equi- table Assurance Society, notwithstand- ing it pays a mere trifle, because of the power that ownership confers. Then, for a salary of $75,000 a year and per- quisites, it would always be possible to engage a thoroughly competent person for President. Will the Constitution-tinkers please consider this suggestion? M. Soda in England HE cables throb with the news that the age-long pre-eminence of tea as a social beverage in England is threatened by soda water. Soda, per se, is no new thing there. Almost everything they drink, except ale, is served in a vase full of warm soda water. But the invader is American soda, which means the chocolate sundae, the crushed fruit thingumabob and all the other stuff, including the onyx, marble and silver fountain and the hopeless- looking clerk. Unless this is stopped it means sim- ply that within five years we will have no more imported English society dramas. c Bernard Shaw might write some- thing to halt the carbonated enemy. But he is so contrary he probably will favor it comicbooks.com