Life, 1912-07-04 · page 29 of 44
Life — July 4, 1912 — page 29: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a **tire company advertisement**, not satire or political commentary. The page promotes Kelly-Springfield Automobile Tires through a full-page ad in *Life* magazine. The imagery shows a fashionably dressed woman seated on a large tire, with vintage automobiles illustrated above. The visual metaphor—a woman literally supported by the tire—emphasizes product reliability and quality. The text's argumentative approach is notable: rather than simply praising their tires, Kelly-Springfield makes a philosophical claim that "the desire to make good tires plus the ability to make good tires—makes good tires." They argue tire longevity depends on usage conditions, not brand alone, then position themselves as the company with both desire *and* ability, claiming to be the first to replace iron tires with rubber ones. This represents early automotive advertising's emphasis on technical legitimacy and manufacturing heritage to build consumer confidence in a relatively new product category.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Kelly-Springfield Tire Co. 20 Vesey St., New York Branch offices in York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, is, Detroit, Cincinnati, San Francisco, 's, Cleveland, Baltimore, Washington, Seattle, Atlanta, Akron, O., Buffalo Boss Rubber Co., Denver, Colo. Appel & Burwell Rubbe: ire Co., Dallas, Texas Bering Tire & Rubber » Houston, Texas Todd Rubber Co., New Haven, Conn, ] | | The desire to make good tires plus the ability to make good tires—makes good tires Tt is all there is to the tire question. Some other man’s mileage won’t make your tires last any longer. The longevity of good tires depends upon the conditions under which they are used, the way the car is handled, the kind of roads it travels and the weights that must be carried. Constructive principles are pretty much the same; therefore, in selecting tires, it is well to go back to first principles and find out who wants to make good tires and who can. This company was the first to make rubber tires to take the place of iron tires on all vehicles, and it has been making rubber tires of various kinds ever since. The Kelly-Springfield solid tire has had a longer but not a greater success than the elly-Springfield Automobile Tire Kelly-Springfield Tire Company, 20 Vesey Street, New York comicbooks.com