Life, 1918-12-19 · page 17 of 34
Life — December 19, 1918 — page 17: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This 1920 *Life* cartoon satirizes Mayor John Hylan's appointment of William Randolph Hearst to chair a committee welcoming returning WWI soldiers. The drawing shows an elephant labeled "GOP" (Republican Party) carrying two figures as cargo—a visual metaphor for the absurdity of this pairing. The text explains the joke: Hearst was notoriously **pro-German during the war**, secretly aiding German interests through his publications and influence. Appointing him to greet soldiers who fought *against* Germany is insulting—like "putting his thumb to his nose and wagging his fingers" at them. The caption "Two Souls with But a Single Thought" sarcastically suggests Hylan and Hearst are ideological partners. The article also criticizes Samuel Untermyer, a lawyer who supported Hylan despite Untermyer's own German sympathies being documented by enemy agents. The satire: rewarding a wartime enemy sympathizer with a patriotic honor mocks both Hylan's judgment and the supposed values of the returning soldiers.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
at the war would ) over into next Tt looks as though he was now arranging for himself a new dis- ppointment Trp, cn >, a year: R. HYLAN was lawiully elected Mayor of New York, and we have set to bear with all his lawiul actions as long as he lasts as Mayor. But we need not be enthusiastic over all of them. There is no enthusiasm at William committee to I over his appointment of Hearst as chairman of receive eturning soldiers. It is very much as though the Mayor welcomed the re: turning soldier by putting his thumb to his nose and wagging his fingers Hearst was anti-British and a con- “TWO SOULS WITH RUT A SINGLE THE GRAND OLD PACHYDERM for the as the law icuous and diligent worker German cause just allowed. Openly and secretly, by speech nd by wile, by the page and the ine and the picture, he did his level best to help German civilization ated and crush His efforts were fully appree acknowledzed by German agents and When we got the German government nto the war he and Bris beaten and had to swing their ins und and point them the other way. Everybody knows all that. The © not printed to be have been published Hearst papers The and the people who have read them The Mayor hing soldiers y read the concealed know what was in them riust’ know The must know, for some of th Hearst papers two years ago. To send Hearst to meet them would seem to by to invite disturbance, indignation, and remonstrance from all hands. It is re- ThovenT” 933 Mayor markable that Hy should do it even The listing of that seething patriot Mr. Samuel Untermyer, by Germa agents as a friend of Germany was a very cruel thi And all, or chief hecause, apy he was willis 1yi0 to be helpiul to persons a in the German interest, who wished fe control of the New York Sit while the war lasted Mr. Untermyer is a careful man. and it is almost firont to his inte! ligence to suggest that he was associ- ated in an intimate way with persons aout to be licked as completely a the Germans have been. It was Mr Untermyer, it will be recalled, who was so conspicuous dnd so. successful in his efforts to confer upon this city Mayor Hylan, the faithful friend of Hearst. He seems to be a man who can pick winners, And yet it is imag- inable tit he sometimes hedges. 1920 comicbooks.com