Life, 1920-05-06 · page 23 of 56
Life — May 6, 1920 — page 23: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
The top cartoon satirizes newspaper editors' complicity in political spin. A well-dressed "Prominent Citizen" arrives at a newspaper office with his own pre-written obituary, wanting it "set up right away"—implying he's dying or his reputation is. The editor agrees without question, telling the foreman to print it immediately. The joke: newspapers uncritically publish whatever powerful figures submit, treating their self-serving narratives as fact. The accompanying article attacks government rhetoric about controlling living costs. It mocks Attorney-General Palmer's claim of a "marked tendency" toward lower prices—invisible to actual consumers—and Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler's observation that reducing government costs exists only in political rhetoric, not reality. The satire targets politicians who use eloquent language about fiscal responsibility during election cycles while delivering nothing concrete. The piece suggests citizens are duped by repetitive campaign promises every four years.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
TRUITT a MUM Manoa Prominent Citizen: 1'M NOT PEELING VERY WELL, SO I'VE BROUGHT IN MY OBITUARY. | WANTED IT RIGHT Editor: YOU CERTAINLY DON'T LOOK VERY WELL, (To foreman) were, JIMMY! BETTER HAVE THIS SET UP RIGHT AWAY, The High Cost of Government E have Attorney-General Palmer’s word for it (and he should know whereof he speaks) that the campaign against the high cost of living has not been unsuc- “While no general lower level of prices to the consumer has been cessful. reached, there has been in many lines a marked tendency toward such a level.” It sounds a little like James Payn’s sideboard which wasn't a Chippendale, but had a Chippendale feeling about t. We are all the more grateful for Mr. Palmer's reassur- nees because there is nothing else to reassure us. The marked tendency” being as invisible as the equator, we need to be told that it’s there. Not all our prophets are so silver-tongued. Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler, who thinks of changing his presidency, says with discouraging candor: “We cannot do much to reduce the high cost of living until we reduce the high cost of government.” This is a hard saying. A reduc- tion in the high cost of government is something which exists only in the mind—and in the rhetoric—of a can- didate, There is, in fact, a language which belongs to candidacy, which blossoms into eloquence every four years, and is listened to with good temper because it suits the season, like eggs at Easter or firecrackers on the Fourth of July. Sometimes it clings to generalities too safe to even glitter, ” Sometimes it deals like “Hoover believes in America.” with mathematics, and promises in Governor Lowden’s name to teach subtraction to our legislators who, so far, have known only how to add and divide. Always it has a reminiscential ring, a drowsy echo of the oratory we Mean- 1¢ high cost listened to four, eight, twelve, sixteen years ago. while two things are clear to the electorate of living means that we pay a big price for what we must have. The high cost of government means that we pay a big price for many things it would be a luxury to miss. Agnes Repplier. LIFE Lines T isn’t so much finding a place to move to as having a place to move from, It formerly was said, “It takes nine tailors to make one man.” Nowadays one tailor can easily break nine men. From now on, every day will be sundae. Nowadays when riches come in at the window, love flies around and bars all the exits, comicbooks.com