Life, 1920-08-26 · page 23 of 36
Life — August 26, 1920 — page 23: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**Main Article - "Civis Americanus Sum":** This satirizes an indecisive 1920 voter choosing between presidential candidates Cox and Harding. The narrator claims to want the "right man" but admits knowing almost nothing about politics. He notes both candidates are Ohio newspaper editors with similar positions, and confuses policy details (mentioning Eugene Debs, the Socialist candidate, as an "anarchist"). The satire targets voter apathy and superficial decision-making based on appearance ("honest face") and personal details (Harding's "front porch") rather than actual platform differences. **Secondary Sketches:** Two brief humorous cartoons: one about sunburned beachgoers, another depicting anthropomorphized Hat, Coat, and Pipe objects returning "home" to England but feeling like foreigners—likely commenting on post-WWI disorientation or nostalgia. The page exemplifies Life's satirical approach to contemporary politics and social behavior.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“LIFE. Civis Americanus Sum CAN'T quite decide who ought to get my vote. This man Cox seems pretty bright, but you've got to admit that Hard- ing certainly has an honest face. I wish I'd had a chance to hear them both speak. Then I could have made up my mind right away. Sometimes I wish there was a little wider choice. Maybe some of these other parties have some pretty good can- didates too. I haven't had much time to study them, though, and I forget their names. All except Debs. Did you see those movies, showing him being given the nomination in jail? He's an anarchist or somethi isn’t he? No, it’s got to be either Cox or Harding. It’s quite a task to decide, if you're really sincere about wanting the right man to be elected. And I am sincere. The office of Chief Magistrate is too important to give a man without having considered him pretty thoroughly first. I don’t believe in snap judgment, and that’s why I'd like to get it over with, I may not know any- thing about politics, but 1 know when I'm persuaded. Neither of them has convinced me yet. They both have so many characteristics in common. Both live in Ohio and edit newspapers. That doesn’t please me any too much, because I'd been kind of hoping they’d pick a business man for President, so we could have a business administration. Harding's a sena- tor and Cox is a governor. Harding’s front porch is a pretty nice old-fashioned affair, judging by the pictures I've studied Cox lives in a kind of high-school building or something. May- be that’s the state executive mansion, though. That would balance that. Both seem about equally outspoken, too, though I can’t recall anything radically different in what they have said, except that one of them wants the League. Of course past performances ought to count a lot. I'll admit Cox settled that coal strike out in Kansas in pretty short order; but, then, what was the matter with the way Harding busted up that police strike in Boston? I haven't heard anything about what either of them did when Prohibition came along. They don’t seem to be saying a lot about it now, either. I rather like Harding’s father; but, on the other hand, Cox has Teddy Roosevelt's cousin for a running mate, and that's a point to remember. Still, I can't quite make up my mind. Sometimes I don’t think we voters are getting enough information, Mare Connelly. Made in England HE Hat, the Coat and the Pipe, after many weary, seasick days, came up on deck. In the near distance land was ible. “I wonder where we are,” said the Hat. “I wonder what country that can be up ahead. “It’s England,” said the Coat. “England?” repeated the Hat. “Why, the name has a familiar sound.” “To be sure it has,” said the Pipe. “Don’t you know we were supposed to have been made there?” “So we were,” mused the Hat. “ England. “And it’s eighteen hundred miles from America,” said the Coat. A wave of nostalgia swept the three, leaving them saddened and disheartened. They were strangers in a strange land. are between two extremes to-day—the peak of high prices and the bottom of the stock market. YES, SOME PEOPLE GET TERRIBLY TANNED THE VERY FIRST DAY Mrs. M.: AT THE BEACH FOR GOODNESS SAKE! WHAT'S THAT AWFUL NOISE? “DON'T BE ALARMED, DEAR, IT’S ONLY MR, HIPPOPOTAMUS NEXT DOOR GARGLING HIS THROAT.” comicbooks.com