Life, 1912-07-18 · page 15 of 44
Life — July 18, 1912 — page 15: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This Life magazine satire mocks the corruption of American journalism by wealthy industrialists. The cartoon depicts elephants (representing major magazines) being controlled by a tiny handler, illustrating how business interests are "buying up the magazines" as stated in the news item. The text satirizes this by listing famous muckraking journalists—Russell, Steffens, and Tarbell—being sent on absurd, deliberately obstructive assignments to remote locations (Kamchatka, Terra del Fuego, Solomon Islands), removing them from investigative reporting. The joke deepens with proposed magazine departments: J. Pierpont Morgan writing "Finance Chat," and wealthy tycoons (Morgan, Rockefeller, Vanderbilt) authoring series on "Great American Fortunes" and democracy's failures—having the robber barons literally explain their own wealth and power. The satire attacks the era's moneyed interests silencing critical journalism by controlling editorial content and reassigning reformist writers, replacing accountability with propaganda disguised as legitimate journalism.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“Hey THERE! you Mus “COULDN'T 1 DIVIDE JUST 0D The New Régime “THE Interests are buying up the magazines.”—News Item. From the Editor's Foreword for the present year in Somebody's Magazine: “We likewise take pleasure in announcing that we have contracted for the entire literary outputs of the tributors : Mr. Charles Edward Russell, who will shortly leave for an indefinite sojourn to Kamchatka, where he will study and depict for Somebody’s Magazine the splendors of the Siberian wastes as seen by the light of the aurora borealis. Mr. Lincoln Steffens has been sent by’ this magazine to Cape Horn to make an exhaustive study of the Char- acteristic Rock Formations in Terra del Fuego. He will be ably assisted by Mr. Alfred Henry Lewis, who will devote himself to the fauna and flora of the region. Miss Ida M. Tarbell will employ her well-known powers of analysis in studying the development of the domestic arts among the natives of the Solomon Islands. Prior to the appearance of the above features, the dates of whose appearance we cannot with certainty predict, we have secured for immediate publication the following interesting series on “ Muckraking the Muckrakers”: following well-known magazine con- "T FEED THEM ELEPHANTS.” PEANUT AMONGST THEM?” “Charles Edward Russell: Pierpont Morgan. “Lincoln Steffens: “Ida M. Tarbell feller, Sr. The age is famous for the vast donations to charity given anonymously. Who are these modest lovers of humanity who donate such stupendous sums and are too high-souled to reveal their identities? Somebody's Mag- azine will answer these questions and give full details of the magnificent gifts in a series on “Our Anonymous Philanthropists.” The articles of this series already com- pleted are those on J. Pierpont Morgan, John D. Rocke- feller and Andrew Carnegie. We announce without comment our new department, “Finance Chat,” by Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan, who is well acquainted with all that goes on in Wall Street. Nor is it necessary to comment on our forthcoming series on “ The History of Great American Fortunes,” by such eminent authorities as Mr. John Pierpont Morgan, John D. Rocke- feller, Cornelius Vanderbilt, August Belmont and George J. Gould. We let the names speak for themselves. Other series will appear at an early date on “ What Capital Has Done for America,” “Is the House of Representatives Really Necessary?” “The Failure of Democracy in America,” and “What an Aristocracy Would Do for the Betterment of America.” A_ Reminiscence.” By J. By Nelson M. Aldrich. By John D. Rocke- comicbooks.com