Life, 1913-04-17 · page 22 of 52
Life — April 17, 1913 — page 22: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains three separate editorial pieces satirizing early 20th-century American society. **"Brains"** critiques writer Gertrude Atherton's claim that educated elites naturally rule. The accompanying cartoon (by R. Cesare) shows a well-dressed man and fashionable woman, likely representing the upper class making such arguments. The editorial sardonically counters that manual laborers possess adequate intelligence and capacity to overthrow rulers when needed—that wealth and power don't necessarily indicate superior intellect, but may instead reflect greed or inherited advantage. It argues against judging intelligence by who currently holds power. **"No Sky-Scrapers on Fifth Avenue"** advocates limiting building heights on Fifth Avenue (Manhattan's prestigious thoroughfare) to preserve the street's architectural character and prevent it becoming a "gully between sky-scrapers." **"His Running Mate"** (bottom right cartoon) shows two baseball players mid-action, captioned as a sports joke unrelated to the political content above.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Brains H the brains of the world are by thousands and manual labor- ion,” says Mrs. Gertrude Atherton, “the brains rule, as they always have done and always will do.” Just a word of caution, Mrs. Atherton. You are hovering on the brink of a pit which is filled with the bones of many logicians and publicists, The subject of brains is not nearly so easy as all that. The manual laborers, who number them- selves by the million, are not willing to admit that they haven't exactly half as many brains as they have hands, nor that they are not perfectly capable of overthrowing rulers when the need arises. Many of them have a high qual- ity of brains, enough to make them use- ful from day to day and satisfied to live in modest comfort without trying to rule anybody. Vast possessions may indicate brains and then, on the other hand, they may indicate greed, miserliness or a lucky birth. The ability to rule may indicate brains and then, on the other hand, it may indicate the qualities of a bully and a selfish desire to do nothing at the public expense. It is our experience that when we want to secure brains we should avoid rulers—we especially avoid hereditary rulers where the accident of birth is the deciding factor—and seck enthusiastic, healthy young men who are willing to work and who have the brains to make their work effective. We favor a more careful use of the word “ brains.” Just how to define them, except physiologically, we do not know, but we are exceedingly loath to decide it by the statistics of those who are doing the ruling. It looks to us lixe a non sequitur. We should feel safer work- ing on the opposite hypothesis. B. 0. J. WIP ZY Author (proudly) : MRS. RAMDALL WAS AWFULLY ANXIOUS TO LEARN MY nom de plume. “ YES, SHE TOLD ME SHE DIDN'T WANT TO READ ANYTHING OF YOURS BY MISTAK No Sky-Scrapers on Fifth Avenue c is proposed to limit the height of buildings on Fifth Avenue, between Twenty-sixth and Fifty-ninth streets. Yes, do! There are only four or five very tall buldings on that part of Fifth Avenue at present. The new construction has been, on the whole, very fine indeed. It ought to go on with a sky line no loftier than the rest of the new build- ings now reach. The city cannot afford to have Fifth Avenue become a gully between sky-scrapers. mma su Keep the new buildings down to some reasonably liberal height! HIS RUNNING MATE comicbooks.com