Life, 1914-10-29 · page 8 of 44
Life — October 29, 1914 — page 8: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains a satirical article on "Rules for Judging Public Men," discussing fairness in evaluating public figures. The text references specific newspapers—the *New York Sun* and *Times*—as examples of outlets with editorial biases for or against particular individuals, specifically someone named McAdoo (likely William Gibbs McAdoo, Treasury Secretary). The cartoons illustrate the theme: "The First Humanette" shows a primitive figure, while "An Old Story" depicts a cave scene with a caption about a wildcat. The bottom section shifts to "Some German Geography Now, Please!"—likely a WWI-era piece suggesting Americans should learn German geography given the war's relevance. The page reflects early 20th-century American journalism criticism and wartime public discourse.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
‘LDPE Rules for Judging Public Men OST of us wish to be fair in our judgments of public men. We try to get our information about them at first hand. If we are obliged to get it at second hand, we take it in cach instance with a grain of salt and check it off with our own experience in order to picce out our estimate correctly. When, for example, the New York St is against him, that immediately disposes us in Not, however, that we should permit this pre- too far. Even the Suu might make a his favor, sumption tog mistake and print something against a man which upon due investigation would be found not so favorable toward lim as at first would scem probable. When, in addition, however, the Times is also against him, it would then scem as if practically everything was in his favor, as if there were no more to be said. Most un- prejudiced people would, in. such circumstances, regard the case as closed, Still, we must be cautions, Sober second thought should Our responsibility is great. We ought We ought to be sure that the he our watchword. hot to go oft half-cocked, man is all right. Suppose this man is a public man, interested, let us in our financial system: aturally we turn immediately to the bankers to get th y . We would not for a moment be thought as implying anything against bankers in general, On the contrary, we have every reason to believe that many of them are intelligent. And we regard, therefore, their verdict tpon any public man, who has, let us say, the power to make them publish their proceedings, but also. to prevent them possibly from charging more than in an absent-minded moment they might possibly charge, as being conclusi That is why we feel so favorably disposed toward Mr McAdoo, the Sceretary of the Treasury, He may be, of AN OLD STORY Dweller: DON'T FORCET TO THE Wie CAT OUT BFFORE YOU GO TO MED, JOUN THE FIRST MUSRANDETTE ahad man, With the Sun ill-disposed toward him, we should, however, doubt it, Added the Times, we begin to feel that McAdoo is all right. But when the Sun, the Times and some of our leading bankers are all against him, we feel sure he must be all right. Some German Geography Now, Please! E have had lessons enough in the geography of Belgium and Northern France. A little German ccography would he welcome now, For example: Where is Essen? Perltaps the kind Allies will presently locate that place, so that it will be as clear in the minds of the American geography as Louvain, Rheims and Termonde. THE KOOM IN WHICH HE WAS comicbooks.com