Life, 1915-07-15 · page 38 of 48
Life — July 15, 1915 — page 38: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**Main Article ("The Price of Progress"):** This is corporate advocacy for AT&T. It uses the Panama Canal as an analogy: just as that engineering marvel required massive investment, AT&T claims it has spent more than the Canal's cost rebuilding its telephone infrastructure to meet growing demand. The argument: constant modernization of switchboards, cables, and equipment—though expensive—ultimately benefits the public through expanded service and lower rates. This is essentially a defense of AT&T's business practices and infrastructure spending. **"Rhymed Reviews":** A book review of Samuel Merwin's *The Honey Bee*. The review summarizes the plot: when working bees have leisure, they abandon socialistic behavior to indulge hedonistically (robbing hives). Similarly, a wealthy New York fashion buyer abandons her professional duties for vacation, where suppressed maternal and romantic desires surface—she wants another woman's child and another woman's man. **Advertisements:** Include Kapo Neversink Swim-Wings (water safety device) and sleep products. The page is primarily editorial and advertising rather than political satire.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
The Price of Progress HE Panama Canal stands as one of the most marvelous achieve- ments of the age. Into its construc- tion went not only the highest engi- neering skill, but the best business brains of the nation, backed by hundreds of millions of dollars. Suppose conditions not to be fore- seen made it necessary to replace the present canal with a new and larger waterway of the sea-level type, to be built in the next ten years. Also suppose that this new canal would be the means of a great saving in time and money to the canal-using public, because of the rapid progress in canal engineering. This sounds improbable; yet it illustrates exactly what has happened in the development of the telephone, and what certainly will happen again. Increasing demands upon the AMERICAN TELEPHONE AND TELEGRAPH COMPANY || telephone system, calling for more extended and better service, forced removal of every part of the plant not equal to these demands. Switch- boards, cables, wires and the telephone instrument itself were changed time and again, as fast as the advancing art of the telephone could improve them. It was practical todoall this because it greatly increased the capacity of the plant, reduced service rates and added subscribers by the hundred thousand. In ten years, the telephone plant of the Bell System has been rebuilt and renewed, piece by piece, at an expense exceeding the cost of the Canal. Thus the Bell System is kept at the highest point of efficiency, always apace with the telephone requirements of the public. And the usefulness of the telephone has been extended to all the people. AND ASSOCIATED COMPANIES One Policy One System Universal Service International Questions ZRNATIONAL questions constitute one of the greatest known boons of the human race. close reasoning in order to express opinions about them. One can strike in almost anywhere without any great danger of hitting bottom, beauty. International questions are so broad that they do not require any That is their great and one can say almost anything about an international question without being called to account ¢) different in that respect. One must be surer of his data and more consistent in his conclusion. local questions there is always danger that the man you are e9 If you must make ignorant statements, do it in the way that best conceals your ignorance. ahout the matter than you do yourself. ept by some one who is equally unreliable. Local questions are much more prosaic and less romantic. Local questions are quite In explaining ing to knows more Rhymed Reviews The Honey Bee (By Samuel Merwin. Bobbs-Merrill Co.) HEN flowers fail, the bees, Demoralized by sudden leisure, Will sometimes go on honey sprees In mad pursuit of dulcet pleasure. working They take to robbing other hives And hoards, no longer socialistic, But once, in all their sober lives, Ecstatically hedonistic. When Hilda Wilson, buyer for A Gotham house of reputation, Found choosing Paris frocks a bore, She planned a well-deserved vaca- tion. Embarked on recreation’s quest, This loveliest of foreign buyers Became the prey of long-suppressed Emotions, yearnings, fond desires By stilled maternal hopes beguiled, By stifled instincts urged and haunted, She wished to own another's child, To take the man another wanted. “NEVERSINK” ‘swim -WINGS will hold up your weight in water for any length of time. . ‘With SWIM-WINGS asmall child or an adult is absolutely sale in the water—no worry! Will last for years, Grimson of navy bl += dults sod children, Get SWI WINGS from your dealer,orsendus$2.00. Send for catalog these and other gu giving dealer's YOU CAN SLEEP after sunrise, on your sleeping porch, or campist. if you wear a BB. K.B. It 6ts comfortably over the eyes, will not fall off, and induces as well a8 pre longs sleep. Sent postpaid for 25 cents. $ for $1.0 NIGHT MFG.°CO., 6 Harvard Square, Cambridre, Mom. comicbooks.com