Life, 1915-06-03 · page 14 of 52
Life — June 3, 1915 — page 14: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
The main cartoon "His Own Ground" satirizes President Wilson's efforts to regulate special business interests. A small figure labeled "Private Keep Out" stands on ground marked by a fence, while larger figures representing business interests ("Matrimony") loom behind it—suggesting that despite Wilson's regulatory attempts, powerful corporations maintain control. The accompanying article "Credit Where Credit Is Due" argues Wilson's regulation efforts were insufficient. It suggests railroads and other special interests escaped meaningful oversight through political maneuvering and bribery, while Wilson received undeserved credit for weak reforms. The two smaller illustrations below depict matrimonial/social scenarios, accompanying the "Money Talks" dialogue section about corruption and reform. Overall, the page criticizes Wilson's anti-monopoly campaign as largely ineffective theater.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
R. 1 P. HOMAS R, LOUNSBURY, lately professor emeritus of English at , was fond of the English lan- guage, but willing to Iet anyone use it who could And he was not too exacting about how it should be used. He had possessed himself of an im- posing store of philological erudition, but employed it, not as an entrench- ment from which to assail intruders upon the proprieties of grammar, but largely as ammunition to keep gram marians from harrying deserving writ- ers If a man had a fairly good con- trol of the sounds which we call the parts of speech, and facility in ar- ranging them so that they conveyed thoughts acceptably, Lounsbury was his friend; and if he was right, could always tell him why when some pre- cisian assailed him, He was a kind, cheery, beneficent old man who objected to canned speech, and practiced to preserve for generations present and to come all the liberties of language that belonged to Shakespeare. Has the Dog a Soul? NU AGT TNiahr isl i il A Hy Hy i) i nHIY ill || HV titan NAAN jh Credit Where Credit Is Due President Wilson's efforts to undo work done for twenty-five or thirty years in behalf of special business interests naturally has resulted in “bad times ".—Senator La Follette. Bu when you come right down to it, have President Wilson's efforts in this direction been half so effective as the noble work done by the special interests themselves? Have they not looted railroads in plain view of the people, maintained conspicuous lobbies in Washington, Iiribed for political bosses so that the clink of the gold dollars could be heard even above the roar of legisla- tures, invaded the judiciary and laughed to scorn the crowd of muck- rakers that they themselves raised up? President Wilson would have had a sorry time trying to regulate special business interests if they had not been so good as to show how much they needed regulating. SHE, ACCORDING TO THE MATRIMONIAL AGENCIES, AND THE REALITY Money Talks RAWFORD: Do you think the reformers will ever devise a scheme to keep our public officials from selling us out to the capitalists? CransHaw: They might try offer- ing the officials bigger bribes to do right than the corporations will give them to do wrong. Musical Note OKUS: Old Gotrox is devoted to music. There is a clause in his will leaving twenty-five thousand dol- lars to establish a home for poor How inadequate. Twenty- five millions wouldn't begin to house all the poor singers, comicbooks.com