Life — November 11, 1920 — page 11: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Explanation of Life Magazine Page 859 The top cartoon depicts a farmer and city man discussing a cow. The farmer boasts about the cow's productivity ("she's a gran' li'l cow"), while the city man asks "with cream?"—a joke about urban consumers' disconnection from agricultural reality and their assumptions about dairy products. Below, "Why Waste Money on Battleships?" presents a satirical argument that the cost of one battleship (reclaimed from million acres) could fund numerous public goods: poets, roll-top desks, private carriages for Brooklyn residents, golf balls, and "spotters" for Broadway bars. The satire mocks military spending priorities by listing absurdly specific civilian alternatives, critiquing defense budgets during what appears to be an early 20th-century period of naval expansion debates.