Life, 1917-10-04 · page 14 of 44
Life — October 4, 1917 — page 14: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
The page features political commentary on post-WWI governance. The text criticizes Russia and Germany's approaches to freedom and industrial management. A key passage argues that Russia made "freedom ridiculous" despite its revolutionary ideals, while Germany's submission to industrial direction created prosperity but also dangerous public compliance with government control. The two portrait sketches at bottom are labeled "A FAILURE" and "A SUCCESS," appearing to contrast political outcomes, though the specific individuals depicted are unclear from the image alone. The upper illustrations show figures in period dress with captions about appearing "bully" and "stuffed"—likely satirizing the physical appearance or pomposity of particular leaders, though identities cannot be definitively established from the visual alone.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
538 Menu for an Economical Dinner (cls household writers are doping it out) OUP: Cream of doormats a la broom-handle. Olive juice and wooden nutmegs Crayfish (stuffed with burdock). Turnip salad. awhorse steak and mush. Chips (hickory, not potato). Frozen cornstarch pudding with mucilage sauce Pignut-coffee (demi-tasse), Toothpicks (ad libitum). (A small amount of each of these will suffice for a family of sixteen per- sons.) Modern * AMMA, what does it mean when you're wined and dined?” “That's an obsolete term, Harold. Now you are only grapejuiced and“ wirat 4 soune neast! wourpy’r ie cornbreaded.” fair that they should have a turn of duty in the war office and that the war-office clerks should take a turn in the field. ed what they would do in the war office, they said, “ Sharpen pencils, loaf and smoke cigarettes, the me as those there now.” So the caretakers in the museums were for discharging the directors, saying, “We are the real directors of the museums. We take care of them.” Years ago somebody said that the United States had the most discontented workers in the world, but was not in danger from them, because they had education enough to know what was possible and what was not. That is precisely what the mass of the Russians do not know, and are learning, we hope, at so much expense. They see that they have inherited the earth, but have very little idea of the price of working it. In a modern industro- agricultural country management, of course, is indispensa- ble. The God which is Nature will make a sced sprout, and it may grow to be a cabbage or a tree, but Nature does not make a factory pay or a country prosper. The God for matters of that sort has to be a man, and his orders, when he gives them, must be carried out. Germany's submission to trained industrial direction was in great part good. It increased wealth so that there was an enormous distribution. When the war came everybody in Germany was getting more and more of the comforts and luxuries of life. The mass of the people were gulled by their government, Mr. Gerard says, but still they were get- ting so much out of German prosperity that they were will- ing to endure a meticulous supervision and support the gov- ernment that directed it. The trouble was that they opened LOOK BULLY, STUFFED! “vor os LY LOOK, BUT FEEL nULLY, THANK you!” their mouths so wide that they had to shut their eyes. They lost their political sense of right and wrong, gave over their minds to he stuffed like their bodies, gave up self- ment and let their management conduct them to perdition. Germany is an example not only of what to avoid, but of how to obtain. Russia, for the moment, is an example chiefly of how not to do it. Germany has made popular submission abhorrent in spite of its advantages. Russia has made freedom ridiculous in spite of its glories. But Russia is like an airplane starting with a green airman at its wheel. She will fly straighter presently, And perhaps in due time Germany will be able to combine her national gifts of obedience and submission with a new political conscience. overn= WHY IS IT? A FAILURE A SUCCESS comicbooksssamy