Life, 1914-12-10 · page 25 of 40
Life — December 10, 1914 — page 25: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page combines a visual puzzle with political commentary from the Wilson era (likely 1910s). **The cartoon** shows five well-dressed people in a theater box, captioned as a "problem play" where readers must identify which man recently became engaged to the leading lady—a parlor game format popular in period magazines. **The text below contains two satirical pieces:** 1. **"Greatest Since Washington"** mocks Secretary of the Interior Franklin K. Houston for calling President Wilson the greatest president since Washington. The author argues this is premature—you can't judge a president's legacy until his record is complete and history has perspective. It's a veiled criticism of Wilson's administration. 2. **"The Ultimate Goal"** sarcastically critiques American trade policy obsession with "favorable balance of trade" (exporting more than importing). The satire suggests this logic taken to its extreme would mean exporting *everything* and importing *nothing*—an impossibility that exposes the absurdity of the economic goal. Both pieces use humor to challenge contemporary political and economic assumptions.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
THE PROBLEM PLAY FIND THE MAN WHO HAS BUT RECENTLY BECOME ENGAGED TO THE LEADING LADY Greatest Since Washington Secretary Houston says that President Wilson is the greatest. President since Washington. Why drag in George ?—Louisville Courier-Journal. ST for necessary purposes of comparison. But Wash- ington has the advantage of Wilson in having com- pleted his record. So has Lincoln, Call no man happy until he is dead. Call no President greater than all other Presidents but one until his record is complete and man- kind has had time to think it over. But probably Secretary Houston did not say that Wilson is the greatest President since Washington. THe only friends we can trust are the ones who never ask us to trust them, The Ultimate Goal W* are told that the United States is to be congratu- lated upon the fact that we export each year from six to seven hundred million dollars’ worth more of goods than we import. This is called a “favorable balance of trade”. If it is favorable, why don’t we go to work to make it more favorable? Let's keep on trying to send things out of the country and, at the same time, trying to keep things from entering, because every achievement along those lines would make the balance of trade more favorable. The perfect acme of favorability would come when we had succeeded in exporting everything and im- porting nothing. Is it possible for us ever to reach that Ulessed state when it is all going out and nothing coming in? comicbooks.com