Life, 1914-10-22 · page 8 of 44
Life — October 22, 1914 — page 8: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes various professional groups through illustrated caricatures. The left column defines targets: **Delegates** (misrepresenters who walk and ride in automobiles), **Authors** (whose works are dying out), **Publishers** (who conceal actual book sales), **Politicians** (failed at everything else), and **Real-estate Agents** (who overcharge renters). The cartoon panels on the right ("The Lives They Lead") humorously depict these figures literally being dragged, pulled, or struggling—visualizing the satirical point that these professions exploit or manipulate others. Below, "The Easiest Way" discusses railroad presidents' need for emergency war tax increases, arguing they should simply request approval rather than make vague public appeals. The satire targets institutional dishonesty and professional malfeasance common to early 20th-century America.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
704 The Worst People (With Apologies to E. S. M.) GAT, A delegate is a man who misrepresents some- thing. There are two kinds of dele- gates, walking delegates and automobile delegates. All delegates walk when they begin and ride in autos after- wards. Their number is steadily in- creasing. Also their cost and upkeep. They are not only known by the com- pany they keep, but by the company that keeps them. Authors: The number of our native- born authors is growing so rapidly that the prospect of having a national litera- ture seems more remote than ever. All the good authors are dead. The others spend their time trying to keep people from reading the dead ones. In this they are assisted by the public. The equipment of an author consists in having enough knowledge of ma- chinery to keep a typewriter in con- dition. Publishers: Every publisher, in the cpinion of all authors, is without honor save in some place where he has never been heard of. Publishers are popularly supposed to pass their time trying to conceal from authors the number of books they have sold. Also in using up good paper pulp and valuable ink, which might, if used in other ways, serve a useful purpose. Politicians: These gentlemen are made out of those who have failed at everything else, and from reformers. They are an unnecessary evil, or might be if this were not a land of liberty. Politicians, like moles and burglars, usually work in the dark. Some poli- ticians are said to be good ones. All that this means is that they are good— as politicians. Real-estate Agents: A man who provides you with all the discomforts of home, at a maximum price; who, if you rent, arranges matters with your landlord so that you have to pay for all the repairs; if you buy, ar- ranges matters so that the depreciation in your property almost equals the amount of money you have to put into it to keep it so you can live in it. Some people are born liars, some have the art of lying thrust upon them, and others are real-estate agents. THE LIVES THEY LEAD The Easiest Way “NYJHAT do the railroads need?” asks the New York World after studying the statement of the railroad presidents upon the occasion of their recent visit to President Wil- son. “Why do not the railroads take the country frankly into their confi- dence?” Further: If necessary, the Interstate Com- merce Commission can authorize an emergency increase in rates, pre- cisely as the government is preparing to levy an emergency war tax to meet the deficit in its own revenues. Tf that is what the railroads want, they should say so, and produce the evidence to prove the urgent need of such a step. But that would be such a nuisance. It is so much casier to be vague and circumlocutory and to deal in glitter- ing generalities and to whine and whimper and give to the newspapers long interviews that are more confus- ing than convincing. y EB. 0. J.