Life, 1920-06-03 · page 15 of 52
Life — June 3, 1920 — page 15: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page from *Life* magazine contains three separate pieces of satirical content: **"The Business-Man President Writes His Message"** satirizes a president who bureaucratizes communication excessively. He dictates a memo about reducing paper costs by surveying "the state of the nation," requesting Congress consider expenditures, revenues, and taxation—turning what should be direct leadership into red-tape bureaucracy. The joke mocks overly formal, procedure-laden governance. **"Mother"** tells a sentimental story about a factory boss who calls a newspaper vendor "mother" because she always smiled at him. Now elderly and powerful, he buys papers from her daily—a touching tale of humble origins shaping character. **The bottom cartoon** depicts a father unable to explain Einstein's relativity theory to his son—contemporary satire on the bewildering new physics of the era that even educated adults struggled to comprehend.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
7 a Ras - We “YOU DON'T HAVE To BE NERVOUS, DADDY you The Business-Man President Writes His Message "GE ' JOD morning, Miss Jones,” said the President as his “We'll get this mes- sage to Congress out of the way first as I have some important matters to take up later in the morning. All ready? Take care f the greeting for me; you will find it in the records of the stenographer answered the buzzer. idministration that used written messages.” President lighted a cigar and leaned back comfortably began to dictate: cause of the cost of paper, the demands upon my time and pressure in the printing office, I shall omit the survey of the state of the nation, customary in presidential messages. Congress is assembled this year almost solely to consider expend- itures, revenues and taxation. It would please me, and the pec whom T represent, to have you act on these subjects ina reasonable time, say six weeks. I am attaching a memorandum of our finances, which will tell you how much we shall need, and indicating how T think it should be raised. “ Respectfully yours— “Just make two or three copies of that, Miss Jones, and get it over to the printer as soon as possible. Send Miss Smith in to take a letter while you are copying that message.’ Next Week—Title Contest Winners, ee ee MUTHEK AND E HAVE TOLD EVERYBODY HOW KUTTENLY PLAY “Mother” HEN he was an office boy he bought papers for the boss at her stall on the sidewalk. He called her “mother” be- cause she always smiled at him. Now he is the boss, and a hard man to get around. But he buys his daily paper of a lady now grown aged, who sits mumbling on a stool, wrapped in a heavy shawl. And she smiles when he s, “Good morning, mother.” She is proud of him “TL SAY, OLD MAN, DO YOU UNDERSTAND THIS EINSTEIN THEORY OF TIME AND SPACE?” Father Time: yes, BUT 1 CAN'T STOP TO EXPLAIN IT, comicbooks.com