Life, 1911-07-20 · page 35 of 40
Life — July 20, 1911 — page 35: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page primarily contains **advertisements and satirical commentary** rather than political cartoons. The main editorial content is "Moulders of Public Opinion," a cutting satire attacking American press freedom as illusory. The piece sarcastically lists the powerful interests that newspapers cannot offend—the government, banks, railroads, Standard Oil, the Associated Press, and wealthy industrialists—concluding that editors must maintain secret lists of forbidden topics. The joke is dark: despite constitutional press freedom, newspapers are actually controlled by corporate and political elites, making ownership more interesting than editorial independence. Secondary content includes humor pieces on hat-making and cigarette advertisements (Egyptian Deities brand), plus a large **Budweiser beer advertisement** featuring an eagle, claiming it occupies "absolutely alone at the top" of bottled beers. The page reflects Progressive Era skepticism about corporate power and media manipulation—concerns that remain relevant today.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
TINE SAME OLD Noy ood co. toe borage ‘The boy Waving aloft bis bagease check, © my trunk.” he cried aloud, Sits full of "tad-Bridges and 1" ‘To have it near t NEW "BASKET WE Moulders of Public Opinion From the Coming Nation we clip this painful thought Every newspaper in this country is free to express. any opinion it pleases so that opinion does not offend the ad tion, nor Mr. Morgan, nor the ban! the ‘railroad companies, nor, the department stores, nor the advertisers, Post- master.General “Hitchcock, nor the. manage: ment of the Associated Press, nor the Gug- genheims, nor the Standard’ Oil interests, nor the Merchants’ and Manufacturers’ As: sociation, nor the Chamber of Commerce, nor the Stock Exchange, nor influential Sen: rs, nor a few other interests, unassorted. od bless our free press! What should we do_without it? These_must be lively times in most news- paper offices where long lists are kept of the men and interests that must not be offended and the topics that must not be discussed. I am told that in some places the lists grow so long that no one mind can keep the run of them, Perhaps this explains why there is more interest taken nowadays in who owns a newspaper than in who edits it To Create a Modern Hat THE ONLY way Take any shape of straw that pretends to be the foundation of a hat. Give the thing to the baby or any other inquisitively destructive animal to play | Egyptian Deities Cigarettes” The attain- ment of the highest ideal in a cigarette Cork Tips or Plain ABSOLUTELY AL ONE. At. THE Top of the world’s bottled beers is the supreme position occupied by Old Reliable Budweiser Its high reputation is due to its exclusive Saazer Hop flavor, its low percentage of alcohol and thorough ageing in the largest storage cellars in the world, Only the very best materials find their way into our plant. Bottled only (with corks or crown caps) at the Anheuser-Busch Brewery St. Louis, Mo. with for ten minutes on a well-washed, dry floor. Choose a large collection of incon: gruous odds and ends, very big and all ugly. Lay them on the middle of the table. Randage your eyes and draw ends and odds alternately with cither hand, but perfectly at random. With the eyes still bandaged, sew oF gum all the odds on one side of the thing and the ends on the other. Remove the bandage from your eyes, and throw the confection vertically up- 3. wards with a spin on it, and catch it on your head as it descends Pin it there instantly. This decides which is the front, and also on what re- gion of the head it shall be worn Avoid cor tion with persons of taste and judgment during the critical stages of construction. If at the end your fi jealous) says, “That's something muni end (not known to like a hat,” you may know you have failed There should be no resemblance. —Punch, comicbooks.com