Life, 1915-08-12 · page 31 of 40
Life — August 12, 1915 — page 31: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This 1915 *Life* magazine page satirizes wealthy donors' control over universities. The article criticizes J. Levering Jones, a University of Pennsylvania trustee, who dismissed public concerns about professor Scott Nearing's firing, claiming private donors needn't answer to the public. The top cartoon (by Walter de Maris) shows a woman at her mirror telling her friend her husband is emotionally cold, while the friend says she "hasn't found him so"—implying infidelity. This is visual satire: just as the husband appears different in private versus public, Jones claims universities can operate privately while accepting public trust. The bottom cartoon depicts hunters pursuing a fox that has escaped—a visual metaphor suggesting those seeking accountability (the hunters/public) are chasing something that has fled their reach, paralleling how private wealth allows institutional power to evade public oversight. The satire argues: wealthy donors shouldn't be able to hide behind "private affairs" when they control public institutions.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“MY HUSBAND, HORTENSE, IS UTTERLY DEVOID OF AFFECTION ” “PARDON, MADAMZ, I HAVE NOT FOUND HEEM zo” Public and Private MB J. LEVERING JONES is one of the trustees of the University of Pennsylvania and is also said to he a corporation attorney. When asked by the Philadelphia North American for an explanation of the dismissal of Professor Scott Nearing, he said: “We don't feel we owe the public any explanation ; what has the public got to do with it? Private men gave cightcen million dollars to the university before the State gave a dollar.” What could be fairer than that? When men can give so much money to a university they are undoubtedly rich enough to sever all relations with the public and they are entitled to have anything they wish taught in their uni- versity, no matter whether it is true or not How can the public be so rude and so inconsiderate as to obtrude itself upon private affairs of this kind? “THE FOX AIN'T THERE, MISTER! HE WENT OVER E. 0. J. THE HILL!” i Wh FY en, weroa. comicbooks.com