Life, 1920-08-12 · page 9 of 44
Life — August 12, 1920 — page 9: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This satirical cartoon mocks a politician's campaign speech through nine sequential panels showing increasingly exaggerated gestures and contortions. The speaker makes contradictory claims—boasting about the party's accomplishments (potato crops, jail populations, rainfall figures) while simultaneously blaming them for failures (disease deaths, agricultural losses, blizzards). The satire targets political hypocrisy: the speaker attempts to credit his party with every positive statistic while deflecting blame for negative outcomes. The exaggerated physical comedy emphasizes the absurdity of such contradictory rhetoric. The cartoonist (signed "Cesare Wilkinson") critiques how politicians twist facts and use theatrical performance to obscure accountability, a timeless political theme.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“LIFE: Campaign Oratory Senator Sounder Stumps for His Party “As the most convincing way of pointing * During its first year there occurred one “Has it. protected American citizens out the pitiful shortcomings of the opposing of the worst failures of the sugar crop in abroad? We have statistics to show that party, I shall briefly review the most glaring Abyssinia, which cost the American house- fourteen of our compatriots have died of failures of its lamentable sojourn in power. keeper thousands of dollars! dread disease in northern Bessarabia! “What has it done for the farmer? The “Oh, what a mockery has been the con- In no latest figures show that there are now 631,294 duct of its foreign relations! Witness the year has it come up to the standard main more potato bugs in this country than there internecine warfare that has been raging in tained by any previous party. were four years ago. the foothills of Zambesia between the kurds and the wheys! ‘Turn to the figures on rainfall “Has it made this country a safe place to“ But of all inglorious deeds, I ask you to live in? The jails are emptier, and there recall the blizzard of last winter, which have been fewer arrests than at any time in brought sorrow and sufferings into the ten years. homes of thousands of innocent taxpayers! “To prevent a recurrence of such acts as these, you have, I assure, only to give your trust’ and your vote to my. illustrious party!” comicbooks.com