Life — September 7, 1911 — page 32: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

-LIFE-: Life’s Family Album has so few contributors who live in Boston. Bailey of Texas It is reported that Senator Bail losing his following. The surprising thing in this connection is that Bailey Ralph Bergengren NE of the things that has suddenly struck us, as we write this, is that the brightest paper in the United States (dear, dear, this sounds like an advertisement), we mean one of the most (but we leave this to our readers to fill in) papers in the United States, There is Mr. Crosby, who admits that he lives there. And here is Mr. Bergen- gren, who speaks of it nonchalantly, as if it were a matter of course. But this is not all. Mr. Bergengren is also on the Boston Transcript. We never expected to have the honor of pos- sessing a contributor who also wrote for the Boston Transcript. But then, Mr. Bergengren is a genuine humornst, as those who read him know. We did not dare go to the Transcript office, and instead of this we made an appointment to meet him on Boston Common. “You were born in Boston, Mr. Ber- gengren?” ; in Gloucester, March 2, 1871 “And your education, aside from liv- ing in Boston?” “ Harvard—and Boston since 1897." “Were you always literary?” “Oh, no. I once edited a college pape And since contributing for Lir have you any other activities?” “A few minor affairs. I am a car- toonist, a dramatic critic, an art critic, a short-story writer, an editorial writer and advertisement writer, and also have something to say about music, finance and politics.” ever had a following.—Daily Paper. UT Bailey has excellent brains of a certain. sort, and brains are scarce. He is an able and well-instructed lawyer, and ability and equipment are scarce. He can talk and talk with power, on his feet, and that accomplishment in the de- gree in which he has it is rare. Bailey is remarkable. It is not surprising that he has had a following. The wonder is that with his notable qualifications he should not have been able to keep it. The trouble seems to be that he has no driving inspirations inside of him. He has seen no vision. His value in politics is critical, He can see faults and often sees them true and fights them, but there is no constructive states- manship in him that looks valuable to these times. His machinery is made of good parts, but it isn't assembled right. It seems to be with Bailey as William Archer says it was with Diaz: “He had all the makings of a great man—except greatness.” Bailey is not great, but he might be if only a sufficiently penetrating breeze of consecration should blow through him He has in him much of the ma- chinery of a great man, but it is clogged by too much Bailey. A Card of Thanks Enforcement of Laws the Workers of America, Greeting: We, the duly appointed representatives of the better classes, desire publicly to express our heart- R. GEORGE W. PERKINS has brought us a little nearer to the extrication point by a gencrous state- ment which he made in the steel inquiry. He sai felt thanks to the working men and women of Amer- ica for a most delightful summer. Your great industry, coupled with your heroic self-denial and philanthropic spirit, has provided us with an immense fresh-air fund by which we have been enabled to see the Coronation, the Continent, Monte Carlo and other restfu. spots abroad, to say nothing of the many attractive resorts upon our own shores. We are now returning, buoyed in health and spirit, ready to settle down to hard work. We propose to show that we can merit your con- _ Ido not think it is possible for corporations in this country to properly handle their labor questions and maintain our commercial suprem- acy under a literal enforcement of the Sher- man laws. We consider this quite a concession to the much-mooted Sherman law, or laws, if there are more than one. It is plain that Mr. Per- kins, while finding a literal enforcement non- assimilable, would not object to a figurative en- forcement. Perhaps, indeed, in the bright lexi- con of the magnates, literal is but a synonym of unreasonable and figurative is but a synonym of reasonable. For that matter, is it necessary to enforce any laws literally? If we could agree among ourselves to answer this query in the negative, all the difficulties of Congress would vanish into thin air, And while we were at it, we might keep on and apply the same principle to the moral law. Could we maintain our commercial supremacy under a literal enforcement of the decalog? tinued gencrous contributions of rent, interest and dividends. For full particulars of our work along this line, we refer you to the so- cicty columns of the newspapers during the fall and winter. With renewed thanks and sympathetic regards, Yours affectionately, Spenpersy Cassne, Coxstaxt Le Lusiixe, Committee. No HUMBUG comicbooks.com