Life, 1917-05-31 · page 34 of 38
Life — May 31, 1917 — page 34: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page is primarily **advertising** for the 1917 Automobile Blue Book, a road guide promising 400,000 miles of charted American motor routes. The ad emphasizes leisure travel and discovery via automobile—a relatively novel luxury at this time. The satirical content appears in the **"New Union Announced"** section, which mocks academic philosophy through mock-serious prose. It announces "Philosophers' Union No. 1," subjecting abstract thinkers to industrial-era labor reforms (eight-hour workdays, minimum wage). The satire targets academic pretension—philosophers supposedly "working too hard" inventing complex terminology while pretending to knowledge. References to specific philosophical schools (Pragmatists, Hegelians, Monists, Dualists) and figures like Josiah Royce add period-specific academic in-jokes. The accompanying **cartoon** depicts a domestic scene: a woman at a doorway rejects a suitor, insisting he give "eight of your lives to your country" rather than marry her—likely a WWI recruitment joke, given the 1917 date. Both pieces use humor to critique society: one mocks armchair intellectuals, the other patriotic duty amid courtship.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
962 ay Ll The New 1917 AUTOMOBILE BLUE BOOK Opens Up a New World Four hundred thousand miles of the best motor roads in the country have been charted and described for you ig detail in the New 1917 Automobile Blue Book, for sixteen years the standard road guide of America. The open country is calling. It’s good to be out-of-doors and in the car. The Automobile Blue Book wili take you to new places which the crowd has not yet discovered. It will unfold a new world to you, right near your home or anywhere in the United States. It will tell you of fine roads, beautiful spots, aiuaint places that you never knew existed. On every trip—whether it’s only an hour's run or one covering several months—it will guide you every mile of the way—in comfort and with confidence and safety. silt give you good service Roads ‘te,bert roots slinly matted. ering Hotels and ‘st rl sine you toed service thelr coastroction and character apd the ve with compte running de> Restaurants, esis atention to Mive Maps serce sie tax myer te aide poe Repair Shops / Boats and Ferries with tell xhetule of Mileages not only idances between main Sithage ond cetomet Miles ibe Ketween Creep tore abe eaten, epee umas Points of tindmarks, scenic of historic, all or every state, tact ated out ‘and exceed tn the Motor Laws (101 Si eiS'regtuat Interest Pinning ditectoas tor every toate, Free membership in the Blue Book Touring Club, with valuable privileges and free personal touring service, with every copy of the New 1917 Automobile Blue Book. Every volume averages 1000 pages, printed cleatly on 4 good quality of India paper, sith hundreds of maps and illustrations, bound in’ genuine Royal Blue limp leather, stamped in gold. Drive inscomfort on good roads and save money in gasoline, tires, wear and tear on your car. ‘The New 1917 Automobile Blac Book will make you independent of signs oF hassers by. - Last year’s edition was oversold by thowsands of volumes. Make'sure of yours by ordering today. Price $3.00 per volume. From anywhere to everywhere there is a Blue Book to guide your way—one for every section ww York State and adjacent Canada, Vi w Engliad and Maritiine Provinces. 1 Pa, Del, Md. D. C., and W. Va, 100 mile radice, Vol. C—Chicags Metropolitan 150 round trips within a 100 male radius, 1 i] Enclosed please find $ . for which send me Volume, Name_ Address. The Automobile Blue Book Publishing 243 West 39th St.,New York City New Union Announced Composed Exclusively of Philosophers. Justice Will Now Reign Supreme HILOSOPHERS’ UNION NO. 1 is hereby announced. All philosophers will now come under the eight-hour law. A minimum wage will be the next reform. Boston papers please copy. A meeting of Pragmatists was held yesterday to com- plete the final arrangements. The country is now reason- ably safe. It has been thought for some time that our philosopliers were working too hard. “ Keeping tabs on all the new words invented to explain new systems has made this great reform necessary,” said a prominent Hegelian yesterday. “We can’t keep up the appearance of knowing something without working harder all the time.” A Monist Chapter has just been announced in Brooklyn. The Dualists of New Jersey are also orgenizing. A movement is on foot to make Josiah Royce of Howard president of the new union. His attitude toward the categorical imperative, however, is not yet quite well defined. Professor George Buncumyanna Among other things he said: “ Anthology is now coming to her own. With an eight- hour guarantee and a minimum wage, we shall put tele- ology on the right basis, not to mention determinism, analytic dialectic, summum bonum hocus pocus, empirical epistemology, noumena, medulla oblongata and other eso- teric and contagious phenomena.” spoke yesterday. A Historical Inquiry VERYBODY who is either a professor of political economy or a financial writer or a faithful follower of either of these species of human animalculz, knows that it is better for a country that its exports exceed its imports. But can they tell us at what period in the glorious evolution of civilization, from simplicity to complexity, this all-important fact became true? When did we reach that pregnant moment of transition, when the only way to be happy and prosperous among ourselves was to send more valuable goods out of the country than we brought in? you for “NO, TOM, I SHALL NOT MARRY A SLACKER. YOU MUST GIVE AT LEAST EIGHT OF YOUR LIVES To YOUR COUNTRY.” knc comicbooks.com