Life, 1920-11-25 · page 2 of 45
Life — November 25, 1920 — page 2: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page is primarily a **U.S. Rubber Company advertisement**, not political satire. The illustration shows two enormous pneumatic truck tires flanking an industrial cityscape. The ad addresses a practical business question: whether pneumatic (air-filled) truck tires are economical. The company argues they developed these tires specifically for trucking demands—not simply enlarged passenger-car tires. The text emphasizes U.S. Rubber's philosophy of building better products before seeking market expansion. The visual metaphor is straightforward: the massive tires dwarf the city, emphasizing their superior scale and engineering. This is commercial persuasion rather than satire—appealing to trucking companies' concerns about tire durability and cost-effectiveness during an era when motor freight was becoming increasingly important to American commerce.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Entered as Second Class Marter Ju 1082, at the Post Office at New York, ARE PNEUMATIC : E often boast of our railway, tele- phone and telegraph systems as making the complexities of mod- ern life possible. But with the amazing spread of transpour- tation, it becomes necessary to add the motor truck. * . What kind of transportation the country gets in the next few years will depend in a large measure on how economically and effi- ctently its trucks are operated. Here is a problem that has been engaging the attention of the United States Rubber Company since motor trucks were first intro- duced into this country. It has never been the policy of this com- pany to wait until a thing was well estab- lished and then go after a market that is already there. Long before there was any market for TRUCK TIRES ECONOMICA( Pneumatic Truck Tires—long before the need for them was realized by truck own- ers generally—this company started work on the idea of putting a heavy truck on air. * * * The Pneumatic Truck Tire which it finally developed was developed to meet trucking conditions — not market conditions. It is a Pneumatic Truck Tire—not simply a passenger-car tire made larger. The energies of the United States Rubber Company have always been directed pri- marily into building better tires and only se ondarily into building bigger sales. s * * In buying pneumatic Truck Tires, be sure that they are built to meet trucking conditions. Otherwise you will find them needlessly wasteful and extravagant. U.S. Pneumatic Truck Ti United States @ Rubber Compan Fifty-three Factories Pe aly heme he and and largest the World Ris comicbooks.comm