Life, 1913-04-24 · page 12 of 48
Life — April 24, 1913 — page 12: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes intellectual and artistic trends of the early 20th century. The top poem "Futurism" mocks the Futurist art movement and modernist philosophy, suggesting contemporary thinkers merely recycle old ideas from figures like Kant and Descartes. References to Cubism, Shaw, and Voltaire indicate critique of avant-garde movements claimed as revolutionary but derivative. The main article features "J. Bounder Ballingford," a fictional correspondent discussing potential U.S.-Mexico conflict with President Woodrow Wilson. Ballingford advocates war propaganda to boost newspaper circulation, while Wilson resists, calling yellow journalists "mongrels" lacking honor. The satire targets both jingoistic press and diplomatic tensions of the era (likely pre-WWI).
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
824 -LIFE-: Futurism HEY told me, Heraclitus, they told me you were dead; They said your thoughts were no more thought, your books were no more read; But now that I know Bergson I find it is not true. For he has just the theory that once was held by you. I said, Where are the thinkers now like Kant, Descartes and Schlegel, Spinoza, Berke rich Hegel? But have we not in Eucken the substitute we want, A pastorized Pythagoras, if not Kant, at least Cant? Schopenhauer, Georg Wilhelm Fried- I gaze upon the Cubists’ work, and wonder more and more; Surely, I think, such art as this was never seen before. But no! The Ten Commandments anticipated these “Thou shalt not make the like of aught in earth or sky or seas.” I read with admiration the witty works of Shaw, Assailing all society and Church and State and law. But when I look more closely I seem to sce Voltaire. With “new” thoughts from Diogenes indisputably there. The slipshod puns of Chesterton, the gently stunning shocks. That prove it is the newest thing to be old, orthodox— How often in Erasmus I’ve read the like of these, And—only far more modern—in Aristophanes. So, as each new sensation turns out a platitude, The same old thoughts and language, the same old tense and mood, When now the latest shocker shocks, I simply clench my fists And ask (an antiquated jest), “ Who were the Futurists?” Preserved Smith TYPOGRAPHICALLY SPEAKING A LIGHT BODY OR A WOOD CUT “T hadn't thought of that,” replied the President Ballingford in Washington Shall We Bring on a War With Mexico ?—Possibilities of the New Administration ASHINGTON, April 22—(By J. Bounder Balling- ford, Special Correspondent to Lire.)—I have been closeted with Woodrow all the morning. There was to have been a Cabinet meeting to-day, but we had to put it off. There was too much to be done. Running the govern- ment of the United States is not what it used to be. It takes all my time. For the past few months I have had to leave Europe to her own devi As for England, George writes me he is in desperate need of my presence. But I know my duty, and 1 shall stick on here. Shall I bring on a war with Mexico? That is the question, Something has got to be done to boom our circulation If the paper declines and we lose our readers, who else is to educate them up to a proper sense of their duties as citizens? These are some of the things I must consider “It means at least a million a day in expenses,” said Woodrow, looking at me fairly and squarely, “to nothing of a race of mongrels permanently on our hands. This nearly made me laugh “Mongrels!" I exclaimed. “Why, they are just ‘the kind to make the best yellow journalists—they are treach- erous, untidy and have no sense of honor—and God knows, my dear sir, that we need more yellow journalists in this country.” “I hadn't thought of that,” replied the President. I tell you confidentially it’s a great thing to convince a man Like that that you're right. Then we talked over a series of attacks on public men comicbooks.com