Life, 1918-10-03 · page 23 of 34
Life — October 3, 1918 — page 23: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains two satirical pieces from Life magazine during World War I. **"Who Said Money?"** mocks Senator John W. Weeks of Massachusetts for timidly expressing concern about wartime spending. The satire suggests his worry about "billions of dollars" is laughably naive—the implicit point being that massive wartime expenditure is inevitable and unavoidable. The phrase "What are a few billion dollars among friends!" drips with sarcasm at the scale of government spending. **The Orders by "Director General"** humorously parody bureaucratic meeting culture by proposing absurdly harsh penalties (imprisonment, execution) for long-winded speeches and welcome addresses. It satirizes the endless ceremonial speeches plaguing organizational meetings, suggesting such verbosity deserves severe punishment. **The lower cartoon** shows a German immigrant parent proudly envisioning their son's military future ("What a fine soldier for the Fatherland that boy is going to be!"), likely satirizing German-American loyalty concerns during WWI and the tension between immigrant heritage and American citizenship.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
‘Ld FB? 491 AND HE NEVER CAME BACK Who Said “ Money >” Senators, we have got to stop and think pretty soon what we are going to do with the money of the people this country. We have got enormous bills to pay cannot in a haphazard, ogical, unthinking way go ahead and provide for the is over. W when the w expenditure of billions of dollars without bringing rselves condemnation, and just condemna- our constituents. Senator John W, Weeks from Massachusetts. answer to this might be, if the war continues much longer, that there “ain't going to be no money.” But i: is painful to hear a United States Senator, and especially senator from Massachusetts, talk in this timid manner. Vhat are a few billion dollars among friends! ORIOUS FOURTH fourth Liberty Loan, The Fourth of July and the Order of Director General of All Meetings of All Conferences, Conventions, Asso- ciations and Societies Order No.1 'O meeting shall be more than four times as long as the real business requires. Order No. 2 No organization shall have sections or sub-divisions in number more than twice the number of the entire member- ship. ? Order No. 3 Relative to addresses of welcome: (a) No address of welcome shall be longer than the fol- lowing; to wit: “ Members of (here insert the name of the organization), it would be absurd to welcome you to any place in a free country where you are willing to pay your bills. If you have any business to perform, I admonish you ‘to go to it!” (b) Persons delivering second addresses of welcome will be imprisoned for not less than ten years. (c) Anyone convicted of delivering the third address of welcome will be shot according to United States army regulations, Order No. 4 Relative to responses to addresses of welcome (a) The following shall be the form required: “ Apolo- gizing to all present for the time wasted in this intro- ductory nonsense, I move we proceed to business, if we have any to perform.” (b) Penalties listed under Order No. 3 (b) and (c) shall apply, respectively, to the second and third responders to addresses of welcome. Order No. 5 Relative to farewell addresses, summaries and closing remarks. Persons sentenced to such labor shall speak as follows: “Begging your pardon for wasting this much time, I suggest that we go home.” (Signed) Justus Av. C. Sexse, Director General. * “ACH, ELSA! VOT A FI FOR DER FADERLAND DOT BOY IS GOING To BE!” comicbooks.com