Life, 1918-05-23 · page 9 of 40
Life — May 23, 1918 — page 9: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**The Cartoon:** The illustration titled "If Only We Had Kultur in America" depicts three figures carrying luggage, appearing to represent European immigrants or travelers. The visual satire mocks American cultural pretensions by contrasting "Kultur" (a German-influenced concept of high culture) with American attitudes. **The Text:** The article "Nature and U.S." criticizes Americans for losing sympathy with nature due to urban overcrowding and waste. It suggests democratic governments imitate nature's indifference to disorder. The dialogue "O.K." jokes that a young government official retains his position despite incompetence because his father is "a South Carolina Democrat"—satirizing political nepotism and patronage in early 20th-century American politics. **Overall Point:** The page critiques American materialism, poor environmental stewardship, and corruption through patronage.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
IF ONLY WE HAD KULTUR IN AMERICA Nature and U. S. HAT a certain moderate disorder is good for the mind seems proved by experience. Orderly persons, unless they are subjected to children or other centripetal influences, are likely to become incurable. They grow into hopeless cranks. They lose their sympathy with Nature, for Nature herself is the very monarch of disorder. The way she scatters dead trees and leaves about a forest, never stopping to pick up anything and put it in its place, would be enough to condemn her in the eyes of any reasonably discriminative housekeeper. As for waste, Nature simply doesn't care, No arguments about thrift fool her, because she knows that if a thing in one form is thrown away, it will always reappear in another form. Dead leaves make coal in the course of ages, and what is time to Nature? Perhaps that is the real reason why a government— especially a democratic government—is so much above the heads of the common people and likes to imitate Nature. “ There’s all the time in the world,” says the government, “and as for materials, throw ’em away when there's too much of them, and when there's not enough, get ‘em half done or have ‘em adulterated.” O. K. “FROM what you tell me, the young man at the head of this department is thoroughly incompetent; yet there must be something in his favor, otherwise he would not be retained.” “Well, there is.” “What is it?” “He is the son of a South Carolina Democrat.” comicbooks.com