Life, 1911-10-26 · page 16 of 50
Life — October 26, 1911 — page 16: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes labor union power and political overreach during the Progressive Era (appears to reference President Taft's era based on context). **The Main Cartoon:** A small illustration labeled "Football - Scoring on a Fluke" shows children playing, seemingly unrelated to the text—typical of Life's approach to juxtapose serious commentary with frivolous images. **The Satire's Point:** Life mocks organized labor's attempt to control band music during Denver's presidential reception by refusing to participate. The magazine argues music should remain "free of political bias" and shouldn't be weaponized for labor politics—even while acknowledging the story may be "odd" or exaggerated. **The Irony:** Life simultaneously publishes a biting definition of "A Reasonable Trust" that sarcastically describes monopolistic practices (pay workers minimum, charge consumers maximum, maximize profits)—suggesting Life itself harbored skepticism toward *all* concentrated power, whether labor unions or corporate trusts. The page demonstrates early 20th-century anxiety about which groups—labor or capital—controlled American institutions.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
=a IaRAE: When the Bands Decline to Play Denver, October 3—The opposition of labor unions to the President was shown’ to-day by the refusal to allow any band to play in any part of the schedule arranged for the President's reception—The World, I ‘TERESTING, if true, and odd. From time to time there are these bits of news about the control of brass band music by the labor organizations. When Mr. Taft was coming to St. Louis there was a threat that unless the boy scouts were excluded from the parade in his honor there would be no band music. There was band music, though the boy scouts were not excluded. Why the Denver bands were called off does not appear, but it is to doubt the judgment of organized labor in trying to tie up band music to one set of political ideas. Music ought to be free of political bias, and it is very much to the interest of professional musicians to keep it so. A Reasonable Trust UR idea of a reasonable trust is one that pays its employees as little as it can induce them to ac- FOOTBALL SCORING ON A FLUKE cept, charges as much for its prod- ucts as it can extort from the pa- tient consumer, and returns the very highest possible profit to its stockhold- ers. Any trust that does not do these things is unreasonable and not worthy of the name. A* argument is an ef- fort of two people to keep each other from finding out the truth. features of our wonderful display. ‘The millinery opening alone was worth the price of admission to the Park. Our collection of birds and ani- mals, from which we draw much of our material, is the largest in the world. First came a street parade of our private ostriches, from which we shall later take the magnificent plumes which our patrons will wear at the opera and at other functions. They were followed by our trained bands of hunters, who ransack the world for new animals to wear. We were able to make a fine dis- play of foreign noblemen, including several live dukes and noble lords, who are now in this country waiting to be placed as the'husbands of Amer- ican girls. We have a practical mo- nopoly of this business, and no Amer- ican girl can get married without con- sulting us and paying a retainer. Our regiment of “ floppers ” followed next. This consisted of young girls of sixteen, who, having seen all there is to be seen, are now tired of life and express the attitude in their clothes and general demeanor. It takes only six weeks to complete the course, and by successive stages we were able to show how a young girl who starts out innocent and crude can in this time be turned into a languid, bored flopper, who knows how to sink down anywhere with an air of utter abandon and wear a thousand-dollar frock with no effort at all. Next came the street parade of the nouveaux riches, showing the gradual development of some of our most prominent families, and after this a corps of our well-known divorcees, with banners which reproduced the most successful headlines that had ap- peared in the papers giving them their envied reputation. No such display has ever been seen on any continent. When it is con- sidered that we began only a little more than a year ago, and that we now control all of the styles in this country, and that through us Ameri- can women no longer have to go abroad, some idea of the marvelous growth of the League may be ob- tained. Now, the lady who lives in Osh- kosh, Kalamazoo or on the confines of the Pacific, does not have to wait for news from Paris, but is always up to the minute. We are working on a new bandage effect, which will shortly be an- nounced. The idea is to have each gown of a single piece, four inches wide, and when you dress you wind yourself up, going as far as you like. This preserves the figure and is sim- plicity itself, which is the highest art. We furnish everything, from a nine- pound rat to a diamond foot-ring. Jewelry is, however, no longer worn by our patrons. Instead of spending a thousand dollars on a diamond orna- comicbooks.com