Life, 1914-02-05 · page 21 of 44
Life — February 5, 1914 — page 21: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
The main cartoon depicts two men sitting on a seesaw balanced on a globe wrapped in chains, labeled "Condemned for Life." This illustrates the page's central topic: Colonel George Goethals, famous engineer of the Panama Canal, being considered for New York Police Commissioner. The text praises Goethals' potential appointment, arguing he's a man of "eminence" and "distinction of character" who would bring needed reform—particularly fixing laws that allow discharged corrupt police to be reinstated by courts. The satirical angle: despite his accomplishments and the city's entreaties, Goethals may decline because he's committed to finishing the Panama Canal first and awaiting legal amendments enabling real police discipline. The piece credits Mayor Mitchel for recognizing what leadership should look like, even if he doesn't secure Goethals. The "condemned for life" metaphor suggests both the burdensome responsibility of reform work and perhaps the trapped state of a city needing such reform.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
and limit everybody to three drinks a week, and keep the men moral, and all the girls decorous, and get everybody what should be coming to them on Saturday night (or noon it is now), and make the fatherless enviable, and the husbandless contented, and all the greedy people just and fair—isn’t there just a little delusion in that idea? Are those old reliables, Destiny and Divinity and Humanity and Fate, to be put quite out of business? Probably there will still be over-reachers after the New Freedom has passed all its bills, and we shall see them over-reach and have to find our comfort where Job found his: “Though he heap up silver as the dust and prepare raiment as the clay, he may prepare but the just shall put it on, and the innocent shall divide the silver.” cr is a compliment to New York that Colonel Goethals should consider CONDEMNED FOR LIFE being Police Commissioner here, a compliment which has surprised most of his admirers, and with good rea- son. He is nowadays a man of emi- nent distinction, especially distinction of character. If he should leave the army, the most remuncrative and at- tractive employments would invite him, especially matters in the line of his profession as engineer. If he does not know his value it is not for lack of being told, and that he should consider the command of the police force of New York as a place worthy of his repu- tation and talent is matter for remark. It is a hard and hazardous place, and the pay is small, but Colonel Goethals is not daunted by that, and seems to think that the work to be done is im- portant enough to follow in his sched- ule the completion of the Panama Canal. Certainly we are entitled to give our- selves airs, that the affairs of our town should seem to this dispassionate observer so considerable, and its dis- orders so attractive. The secret of it probably is that the Colonel was born in Brooklyn and got part of his education in the College of the City of New York, so that in com- ing here he would be coming home. It is natural for a man to wish to come home when his work is done, and it is natural for Colonel Goethals, after his long term of service in Pan- ama, to see attractions in New York. It seems a toss-up whether we get him. He will not come until his pres- ent work is finished, and the President has consented to his retirement, and the laws have been amended so as to enable the head of the New York Po- lice Department to discharge a bad policeman and have him stay fired. At present most discharged policemen are reinstated by the courts. The laws that affect the police have been drawn, or at least operate, for the protection of the cops, and against the protection of the city. It is time they were re- vised, and we owe thanks to Colonel Goethals for the effective fashion in which he has made the suggestion. Mr. Mitchel may not get his man, but at least he has shown the sort of man he wants for police commissioner, and we all like his taste, comicbooks.com