Life, 1915-10-21 · page 20 of 52
Life — October 21, 1915 — page 20: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains two separate satirical pieces from Life magazine during World War I era. **"More Examinations Required"** argues that professionals—particularly doctors, lawyers, and ministers—should face periodic re-examination throughout their careers to ensure they've kept current with advancing knowledge. The satire criticizes how educated professionals coast on outdated college training and resist learning new information. **The small cartoon** (Mercury and Janus/Argus) is a classical mythology joke: Mercury reports hearing someone was killed crossing Fifth Avenue mid-block, and Janus suggests he'd try it anyway—but Mercury clarifies the victim was Argus (the hundred-eyed giant), implying even someone with exceptional vision couldn't safely navigate NYC traffic. **"The Easiest Way"** mocks American diplomatic complications during WWI. It sarcastically references Dr. Dumba (Austria-Hungary's ambassador, who was actually recalled in 1915) and suggests the "solution" to all wartime foreign-relations problems—submarine attacks, trade disputes, neutrality issues—is simply for America to join the Allies. The satire criticizes muddled diplomatic thinking.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
748 More Examinations Required T is not enough that a young man be carefully examined at the college- graduate age of twenty-two and sent forth in the world to be known for- evermore as educated. We may all agree that a college education is the best thing that can happen to a man at the beginning of his maturity, but, after all, the only thing a college diploma can certify to is that a certain young man knew about what he ought to know at that time. But a man of thirty should know a great deal more than a man of twenty- two. Therefore a man who was well educated at twenty-two may by neg- lecting his opportunities be relatively ignorant at thirty, still more ignorant at thirty-five, and so on. Ought there not, therefore, be some method of examination, every five years, held either by the university or by the civil authorities, for the purpose of deter- mining whether our education at the different age periods is of the proper standard of excellence? This seems particularly desirable in the learned professions, Lawyers, doctors, minis- ters and professors show a woeful tendency to go throughout their lives on the superstitions they acquired in their college days ‘and never to think’ it worth while to learn anything new. What a great boon to the human race it would be if our doctors could be Mercury: 1 WEARD YOU WERE KILLED TRYING TO CROSS FIFTH AVENUE IN THE MIDDLE OF A BLOCK. Janus: ou, N THINK I'p TRY 17? THAT WAS ARGUS. = VETERANS examined periodically and their cer- tificates withdrawn if they have not kept step with the advance in knowl- edge of human ills!) Ellis O. Jones. The Easiest Way 'HE etiquette of foreign relations in these war times is getting too complicated. Dr. Dumba felt, and seems to have said frankly, that if he was not to be allowed to govern the Hungarians in this country he might as well go home. Sure! And about submarines: If one of them gets frightened and sinks a liner it is holding up, what's to do? And about trade: Can one believe that the English are holding up our trade with neutrals and doing a rush- ing business with them themselves? But all these difficult situations could be straightened out by getting us in with the Allies. comicbooks.com