Life, 1912-12-05 · page 73 of 116
Life — December 5, 1912 — page 73: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This 1912 *Life* magazine article satirizes progressive reform movements by imagining Arctic explorers Frederick Cook and Peary as presidential candidates who abolish the Constitution, Congress, and Senate to implement radical efficiency reforms. The satire mocks progressive intellectuals' faith that rational management could solve social problems. Cook and Peary—real explorers famous for competing over North Pole discovery—represent technocratic elites convinced the old Constitution is "useless" and that proper "filing systems" and standardized metrics ("a dollar is a dollar") will cure inequality and unemployment. The cartoon's "rogues' gallery" and "twins" captions suggest these reformers are criminals or fools. The text ridicules their solution to joblessness: simply stop immigration rather than address systemic issues. The joke: well-intentioned reformers proposing authoritarian solutions while claiming progress—replacing democratic institutions with bureaucratic rule by a small elite, imagining this represents "truly progressive" government.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
— “THE FIRST ROGUE'S: “THE FIRST GAL -LIFE- 2385 Cook and Peary Now Running Government Putting Things on a Truly Progressive Basis— Have Patience, Everybody—Your Time is Coming HE old order passed away. The landslide for Sook and Peary, Lire’s candidates for President and Vice-President, showed that the American people were back of us in our efforts to produce a truly repre- sentative government. “Tt will naturally take some little time,” said Presi- dent Cook yesterday, “to get things straightened out. One of the most difficult matters is to get people to re- adjust their minds to the new conditions. Well, Peary and I are going to prove to everybody that the old Constitution you have all thought so much of is not only useless, but a positive menace to society. The proof? Hasn't it lain in the fact And what are the facts? A select body of millionaires controlling the sacred processes of government, and at least three mil- lions of people practically starving in a land of plenty. This only briefly indicates the condition. Why all of this unrest—this frightful crudeness in our methods of livii People have gone around swearing by the Constitution, instead of at it, and have declared that it was the finest instrument in the world. Give us a little time and we will show everybody how to live. The first act of the new President, after abolishing the Constitution, the Senate, Congress, and the Judic- iary, was to secure a small bookkeeping department. A model filing system was introduced, and the whole busi- ness of the United States is run by half a dozen people under the direction of President Cook, who declares that he has time on his hands. “A dollar is a dollar,” said Vice-President Pe “no matter where it is in the country. And hereafter a foot of land is to be a foot of land, no matter where it is; and it is worth exactly the same, no matter where it is—whether it is on Broadway or on top of the Rocky Mountains.” This adjustment was sweeping in its nature, and was the source of great embarrassment to a great many people for some time. A great number who owned | plots of land throughout the country found them- selves much more affluent than they had previously been under the old régime. Now what has become of all those thus thrown out of employment—the editors, congressmen, senators, and wealthy classes who have achieved their fortunes, not by any original inventiveness upon their part, but by sharp manipulations? “This problem,” said President Co: required our prolonged attention. We succeeded, however. in solving it very easily. All we did was to stop immigra- tion—refuse to let any outsiders come here and settle, and ry. “was one which comicbooks.com