Life, 1917-07-26 · page 29 of 40
Life — July 26, 1917 — page 29: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**Top Cartoon**: "Hermann Sauerkraut Proves His Americanism" depicts a German-American figure holding an American flag. The name "Sauerkraut" is a ethnic slur; this likely satirizes German-Americans during WWI, when suspicion of their loyalty was widespread. The figure's exaggerated patriotic display suggests ironic commentary on how such groups had to perform excessive Americanism to counter wartime prejudice. **"That Tax on Billboards"** argues for taxing billboard and landscape advertising, calling billboard ads acceptable but landscape advertising "almost all defilement of nature"—an early environmental/aesthetic concern. **"Not Part, But the Whole"** critiques the wartime phrase "doing your bit," arguing people should commit fully ("all") rather than minimally. The dialogue joke mocks an Irish immigrant's insurance policy choices, using dialect humor typical of the era. **"Traffic Cops"** cartoon (bottom right) is unclear without fuller context.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
‘LIFE: 9 By ; oy That Tax on Billboards Wraset We have not yet got what is coming to us, and we are not impatient to know the details of our doom: But there are points of information that would be interest- ing if we had them, and were sure they were true. For example, does anyone know whether the call for a < on billboards and landscape advertising had any result? ‘or war purposes, and equally for peace purposes, such a do not know yet hy actual experience what is to be ta tax would be highly beneficial on aesthetic grounds, and popular with a considerable and deserving fraction of the community. Billboard advertising has uses that should be respected, provided it is done with a decent minimum of offense. But it needs far more restraint than it gets at present. Landscape advertising is almost all defilement of nature. M can't be whipped into believing they are wrong, but they can be whipped into believing it won't pay them to p up the controvers: troversy drop, they soon discover that it doesn’t greatly matter way. Such is the logic of war and the kind of victory which peace cannot duplicate. and having let the con- HERMANN SAUERKRAUT PROVES HIS AMERICANISM Not Part, But the Whole O*X* of the most misleading and unsatisfactory phrases the war has incubated is “doing your bit.” It has a subtle suggestion about it that you should do something, but that something need be as little as possible. This phrase has the extraordinary advantage of sound, and is there- fore effective as a nice piece of advertising. “ Doing your all” is much more useful, or would be more useful if it had the power of mental attraction. Indeed, no satisfac- tory phrase has yet developed which has the right mixture of appeal, command and accu The fact is that it is not so much the particular thing which one does which counts, so much as it is one’s total personal attitude. It is the force of one's thought, steadily exerted, that will pro- duce the best results. “CI want to tek out a pawlicy.” . “Life, fire or marine?” drawled the dapper clerk with sarcasm. “All three; Oi'm goin’ fer a stoker in the navy.” TRAFFIC COPS comicbooks.com