Life, 1920-05-20 · page 23 of 48
Life — May 20, 1920 — page 23: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**The Cartoon:** A thin, elongated figure in a cap rides a child's scooter while balancing precariously, one leg extended. A group of ordinary citizens watches from the right. **The Satire:** This appears to be commentary on unstable or reckless leadership—likely referring to post-WWI political movements. The scooter (an undignified, toy-like vehicle) represents an unserious or unsustainable approach to governance. The precarious, exaggerated balance suggests danger and lack of control. **Context:** The surrounding text discusses Russia under Lenin, Mexico's political turmoil, and labor strikes. The cartoon likely satirizes radical or revolutionary leaders whose methods seem dangerously improvised rather than grounded in practical governance. **For Modern Readers:** This is early 20th-century visual mockery of revolutionary politics—suggesting that revolutionary leaders are reckless showmen riding unstable contraptions while ordinary people observe nervously, anticipating disaster.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
tutes for it have become more tangible. That is natural enough. The road from the old order to the new is full of bumps and obstacles, and it is slow going on it. England reaches out all over the world after oil wells, and scems to be getting them. That stroke of enterprise smacks the old order, but all the mischief of that will come out in the general wash, for no nation is going to monopolize the world’s coal oil so long as it continues to be one of the prime necessaries of civili- zation. In most matters England seems to be making faster progress towards the new order than we are, though her old habits of mind—what the psychologists call “ complexes "—hold her back still in some matters, as in the case of Ireland. But Ireland seems to be making progress all the time, and the prospect that she will presently become a satisfactory and pros- pering political museum grows better every day. And probably Russia is getting along, and will arrive somewhere presently, though her political museum still seems oversupplied with freaks. It is getting to be, however, that people may say that Lenine has a remarkable mind and is a remarkable man, without much danger of being exported. To all present appear- ance the salvation of Russia is to be The Scooter worked out in Russia without much out- side assistance, and there are those who think the coming idea in government will eventually come from there. And Mexico also may win through by her own efforts. A more promising po- litical disturbance than usual seems at this writing to be proceeding there, and com- plicates the difficulty of writing the Mexi- can plank in the Republican platform. EREABOUTS the evidence seems to be gradually accumulating that strikes that affect the necessaries of life or the great public utilities are of the nature of war, and must go. They had one in Kansas last winter that held up coal, and the Kansas legislature got to work and abolished such strikes and made other provision for settling labor troubles, And the provision made (for settlement by ar- bitration) is said to be working to the general advantage. Here in New York a fresh project of truckmen and fishhandlers to hold up the city is meeting (May oth) with so cold a reception and such preparations for non- union trucking as may have quite inter- esting results—as interesting, possibly, as those of the coal strike in Kansas, though the Kansas legislature is probably smarter than ours and not so busy disciplining Socialists. The pay more tk n we should for most things that we buy, and that too many people are making much too much money. It is a good idea for the platform-builders to idea is getting around that we introduce at the conventions, but the man who really has it sized up, and best un- derstands the merits and the complica- tions of it, and is best fitted to deal with it, is Hoover. Hoover as a candidate is very specu- lative. We may not be able to tell whether he will run for President until both con- ventions But Hoover idea—as a platform and a definition of are over. as an purposes—is strong and sound and con- crete. He stands for what the forward-look- ing people want. He differs from Mr. Wilson about the reservations to the Treaty, but still he and Mr. Wilson seem to be looking in the same general direc- tion, the difference being that what Hoover wants looks more obtainable than what Mr. Wilson’s mind is fixed on. comicbooks.com