Life — April 19, 1917 — page 18: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

678 A TRPB ° “ Congressman” Rankin S everybody knows, we now have in Washington a legislator of the female sex. Her name is Miss Jean- nette Rankin, but what shall we call her? Some of the newspapers have referred to her in all seriousness as Con- gressman Rankin, but that hardly does full justice to the situation. On the other hand, it wouldn't strike us as cuphonious to refer to her as Congresswoman Rankin or Congresslady Rankin. If there are going to be more women representatives as time goes on, we may have to adopt a title for both men and women which will have a neutral sex significance. Some day, for instance, we may be speaking of Congressperson Blather or Congressofficial Slushly, or something of that sort. Now is the time for that well-known inventive ingenuity, of which we Amer- icans proudly boast, to come to the relief of an awkward predicament. Echo Answers “Why ?” DMIRAL DEWEY once reported to the Navy Depart- ment that the Filipinos are more capable of self- government than the Cubans, yet we still hang to the Philippines, although it has been years and years since we relinquished Cuba. Why so partial? Surely it isn’t because the Philippines cost us more to administer and are harder to protect in case of war. Maybe it’s just because the Philippines are farther away, and consequently more difficult for our statesmen to visualize in a comprehensive manner. Of course this excuse is not particularly complimentary to our statesmen, but it is perhaps better than no excuse at all. A Gold Mine ED: I don't take any stock in Billy Sunday. Nev: Neither do I, but I wish I owned a little block of stock in the corporation that’s backing him. + GOOD SPORTS “Tt hurts me more than it does you, my boy” See New York Last HILE under the general advice to tourists of “See America First,” different parts of our beloved country are emphasizing the importance of seeing their particular offerings still more first, we venture to suggest that visitors put off their visits to New York until we can gep into a little better shape. ” Some day New York will be a beautiful place to see, but just now it is merely a “sight.”. We are working hard and faithfully on the matter. That is obvious to the most casual observer. To have every street in the city torn up and every sidewalk blocked at frequent intervals with building material means that we have tremendous projects under way which ultimately will bring our fair (it is now only fair) city to a point where it will be worth looking out, but in the meantime there must be hundreds of places more attractive. “See New York last, offer at this juncture. is, therefore, the best we can I* the event of an invasion some of our statesmen could build us a fine system of blockhouses if they would only put their heads together. comichooks.com