Life, 1919-08-21 · page 35 of 40
Life — August 21, 1919 — page 35: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes **Colonel George Harvey**, a prominent Republican politician and publisher, for being ignorant of a major diplomatic agreement with France—despite it being printed in newspapers. The joke is that Harvey runs his own monthly *Review* and weekly publication yet is too busy (with golf and other pursuits) to actually read the news, leaving him embarrassed and misinformed. The broader satire targets the absurdity of a newspaper publisher being uninformed about current events. The text extends this mockery to politicians generally, noting that even the British statesman **Arthur Balfour** allegedly never reads newspapers, relying instead on information filtered through dispatch-boxes. The main advertisement is for **Waterman's Ideal Fountain Pen**, marketed as freeing people from desks to pursue outdoor activities—ironically positioned alongside an article about the necessity of staying informed through reading.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
LIONEL STRONGFORT leant Physical and Meaith Specialist 1051 Strongtort Institute, Newark, N. J. Tne Need to Read Newspapers HE laugh has been on Colonel George Harvey for not knowing that the text of the agreement with France had been printed in the news- papers, and for depositing the whole hrood of obstructive Republican sena- tors in a mare’s nest of misinforma- tion, But the Colonel runs a monthly Re- siew and a weekly organ of objurga- ton, With these, and golf, he is doubtless much too busy a man to read the papers, and much too crowded in his mind to remember what he does read. To know what has been in the papers isa whole job by itself. It is not worth doing, but cannot safely be neg- keted hy anyone addicted to the pub- Kation of periodicals, and especially riean Boy assigned William Heys aufavorte weir with their Mate is oy ind why he came to aie creat story starts in the Sep- Magee, Br IAN Beet Magasine Senin ‘the Werla” fr different school st uss, shuarbing story that your bo ry. i himself. “he never reads one, but gets all his unties you from a desk and inkeswent and puts handwriting on your list of out-door sports Three types—Regular, Safety and Self-Filling $2.50 and up at the Best Dealers L. E. Waterman Company 191 Broadway, New York BOSTON SAN FRANCISCO to literary composition in weeklies. One of the great drawbacks to writing weeklies is the need to read dailies. If one did not have to read newspapers but could devote oneself to pure po- litical speculation, the life of writers for weeklies would come much nearer to being a long, sweet dream than it is. But the only politician who seems to get along without newspapers is Mr. Balfour, of whom it is related that THIS MIGHT HELP LP THE SERVICE CAN'T news out of dispatch-boxes BE IatrKoveD comicbooks.com