Life, 1914-02-19 · page 38 of 40
Life — February 19, 1914 — page 38: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is primarily a **tire advertisement**, not satire or political commentary. The "Safety First" campaign reflects early 20th-century automotive safety concerns—a genuine social movement emphasizing vehicle reliability. The illustration depicts a woman driving a car with passengers (described as "her and the kiddies"), appealing to buyers' anxieties about family safety. The advertisement's pitch: quality tires provide braking effectiveness and skid-resistance without requiring drivers to make expensive choices. The phrase "Safety First" references the broader Progressive Era workplace safety movement, repurposed here for consumer marketing. The pricing table and factory information ground this as genuine commercial messaging rather than satire. **Context for modern readers**: This assumes cars were still novel enough that tire quality significantly affected safety—and that marketing to women drivers (increasingly common in the 1910s-20s) required emphasizing protection of children.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
tread that makes the brake effective you had to you'd be mighty extravagant in order to secure ‘‘Safety First’’ for them. But: you don’t Aave to be. Goodrich takes care of that for you. Goodrich puts the safety in the construction of the tire itself—puts strength and resilience and service in it. And with all that you have anti-skid, anti-slide, anti-slip sureness in Goodrich #23 Tires Best in the Long Run Besides all that, you gotlower-cost mileage, The exten thickness of the price per tire is less to you than any other of like value, | Insure tough Goodrich rubber in the treads at point of contact means longer “Safety First’? for her and the children by using Goodrich Tires wear, longer service, longer satisfaction—meney-saving, of course, and with the tread that makes the brake effective. Don't pay more than the prices named here for the accepted standard non-skid and smooth tread tires: | Size Smoath Tread | Safety Tread Grey Laper Tube Size | Smogth Tread | Safety Tread |Grey laner Tube 30x3 $11.70 $12.65 $2.80 | 34x 4% $33.00 $35.00 $6.15 30 x 3) 15.75 17.00 3.50 35x 4 34.00 36.05 6.30 32x3 16.75 18.10 3.70 36x4 35.00 37.10 6.45 33 x4 23.55 25.25 4.75 37x5 41.95 44.45 7.70 | 34x4 24.35 26.05 4.90 38x 5% 54.00 57.30 8.35 | Dealers almost everywhere have Goodrich Tires or can get them for you from one of our branches or depots Gi Factories: The B. F. Goodrich Co. _ sranches in an a Akron, Ohio There is nothing in Goodrich Advertising that isn't in Goodrich Goode Principal Cities ANAT comicbooks.com