Life — January 15, 1920 — page 10: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Explanation for Modern Readers This page critiques post-WWI American forgetfulness about the war's costs. The main illustration shows a woman encountering someone she once knew, unable to recall his name—a pointed reference to amnesia about wartime sacrifice. The article "Lest We Remember" argues that while Americans pursue leisure (travel, luxury goods, automobiles), they're ignoring the war's human toll: disabled veterans and grieving families throughout the country. The bottom cartoon shows an automobile salesman dismissing a potential customer—suggesting even commerce trivializes war suffering. The page references Victor Berger, a congressman convicted of "treasonable conduct during the war," implying the public has moved on from accountability. The satire warns that prosperity and distraction enable collective forgetting of sacrifice.