Life, 1918-05-09 · page 29 of 40
Life — May 9, 1918 — page 29: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is primarily **advertising copy**, not satire or political commentary. The Timken-Detroit Axle Company uses the page to argue for manufacturing integrity during an era of cost-cutting competition. **The argument:** While car manufacturers compete on price, comfort, and features, they should never compromise on safety—specifically axles, steering, frame, and springs. The ad emphasizes that quality axles cannot be "scaled down to a price" but must be built with proper margins of safety, even if material costs fluctuate. **Historical context:** This appears to target 1920s automobile buyers concerned about reliability and safety as cars became mass-produced. The ad positions Timken-Detroit as the trustworthy choice through decades of proven performance across multiple manufacturers. **The implicit criticism:** Unethical competitors were apparently cutting corners on critical components to reduce costs—a practice the ad warns against. The message: don't let price shopping endanger your family. The illustration shows a simple open-touring car of the era, reinforcing that this applies to all vehicle types.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Where Human Safety in Cutting Costs Regardless of the price, type or size of the car, there is one place where every car builder should draw the line in cutting costs, and that is where human safety is involved. Roughly speaking, he has these things to consider: safety, durability, upkeep, power, speed, comfort, convenience, beauty. Buyers differ in their individual ideas of the importance of every one of these points— except safety. In that one respect they are a unit. Safety must not be sacrificed, no matter what it costs the manufacturer in labor or material. Therefore, the line is fixed above those vital parts on which your safety and that of your family depends—axles, steering gear, frame, springs and wheels. No Parts are More Important to Your Safety than the Axles In purchasing a car, should you not first of all make sure that the builder of it has put axle safety above any considerations of cost? Should you not make sure that your axles are built by men who have years of axle study and axle experience back of them? By an organization whose product has passed the test of successful performance in all types of motor cars and trucks and has endured to the very end of the car’s life—not in a few cases but in hundreds of thousands. Axles that have been used so long and by so many car builders that there is abso- lutely no question as to their established reliability. To meet these requirements axles can not be scaled down toa price. They must be built to do the job, with a big margin of safety, and the selling price based on what it costs to build that kind of axle, regardless of variation in the price of steel or any other material at any particular time. For further light on the subject of axle importance write for booklet E-3, on “The Anatomy of Automobile Axles.’ Sent free, post-paid on request to THE TIMKEN-DETROIT AXLE COMPANY Detroit, Michigan Oldest and largest builders of front and rear axles for both motor cars and trucks TIMKEN: DETROIT AXLES Fixes the Line comicbooks.com