Life, 1916-07-27 · page 32 of 32
Life — July 27, 1916 — page 32: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains two distinct elements: **editorial commentary and advertisements**. **"The Law and the Profits"** is satirical commentary on regulatory capture. The argument: businesses operating in easily-understood industries (telephone, gas) face public scrutiny and profit limits, while industries with deliberately obscure mechanics (tariff schedules, subway deals, armor manufacture) escape regulation because the average person cannot grasp how they actually function. The implicit critique is that complexity becomes a tool for profiteering at public expense. **The cartoons and ads** are commercial rather than satirical. "Friction Harnessed for the Motorist" promotes Hartford Shock Absorbers, using pseudo-scientific explanation of friction's utility. The Rameses cigarette advertisement employs pretentious appeals to "culture" and "refined pleasure," marketing cigarettes as a status symbol for discriminating gentlemen—typical early 20th-century tobacco advertising that equated smoking with sophistication and social standing.
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Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
The Law and the Profits F a business is uninteresting to the majority of people, then the possibility of making it profitable is very great. If, in addition to being uninteresting, its details are hard for the average mind to grasp, then there is no limit to the possibility of profit. The telephone and the gas business are both fairly uninteresting, but the way they work is plain enough. The result is that the public can grasp easily the principles upon which they make their profits. This makes it possible to safeguard the public interest by hedging them about with such restrictions as to keep them from making an undue profit. When it comes, however, to the intricacies of tariff schedules, to subway or surface car “deals,” to armor plate manufacture, nobody knows just what is happening. Therefore there is no end to the profits. 7 ae | a the M otorist’ | “Without friction, man and animals could not walk nor wheels of ve- hicles turn,” says an eminent authority. Friction is a natural force utilized in many ways. For instance: waters of Niagara coming into fric- al contact with Breat turbine wheels rote a tremendous electri i ‘ RICTION also plays an important role in the absorption of road shocks, for more than 375,000 automobiles are now equipped with the Ffarttord SHOCK ABSORBER Makes Every Road a Boulevard the only patent-protected device that frictionally controls the movements of an auto- mobile spring. The action of a spring varies with road conditions, ranging from a gentle oscillation, incident to the car's travel over smooth boulevara, to violent contraction and recoil, inci- dent to its travel over bumpy, rutty roadwa Through a scries of self-lubricating friction discs, the Hartford Shock Absorber exer- cs a beneficial control over an automobile spr s. Here friction is made to serve the motorist sc well that wherever he may choose he can travel in comparative comfort. There is just one patent-protected, frictionally-operating shock absorber—the Hartford. Mention year and model of car and we will send you our bea 5 which tells how to make your car doubly comfortable. EDWARD V. HARTFORD, Inc. Heretofore known as Hartford Suspension Co, 192 Morgan Street, Jersey City, N. J. Makers of the Hartford Shock Absorber, Hartford Cushion Spring E. V. Hartford Electric Brake, Hartford Auto Jack, Hartford Bump Absorber, Red Rack Jack. Branches: New York Boston Chicago Distribators in principal cities. Dealers Everywhere. ‘Formerly Truffaelt-Hartford. PETER J. CAREY, PRINTER What less can we ask than that you smoke one Rameses? Other men of cul- ture have put the stamp of their ap- proval on the lux- urious fragrance of the “Aristocrat of Cigarettes.” They have rebelled at the weak neutrality of other brands, and decided for the ciga- rette which can never be smoked without conscious and well de- fined pleasure. Such a verdict stands on the evidence of years and the knowledge of good things based on wide experience. It is a deliberate and favor- able personal judgment of Rameses—of its unmistak- able character and its vital distinction of flavor. Judging by such facts we think it will appeal to you. And nobody ever changes from Rameses. Though we sever, my fond heart Till we meet shall pant for you, —Robert Dodsley.