Life, 1921-06-09 · page 17 of 38
Life — June 9, 1921 — page 17: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This cartoon satirizes Colonel George Harvey's advocacy for British-American solidarity. The image shows two large figures—apparently representing Britain and America—jointly holding up a globe labeled "THE EARTH," while two smaller figures below (likely representing ordinary citizens or diplomats) look on in wonder. The accompanying text criticizes Harvey's idea as insufficient. The author argues that while British-American alliance has merit through shared language and political tradition, it cannot stand alone; it must be part of a larger global community ("a whole on which the sun never sets"). The satire suggests Harvey's vision is too narrow and potentially dangerous if pursued as exclusive Anglo-American dominance rather than genuine international cooperation. The "graduation present" title likely implies this is a naive, idealistic gift to a newly independent perspective.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Harvey speaks of the British Empire as though it were all one thought. He speaks of the United States as though it were all one thought and as though he were speak- ing it. But that is not the way of things. England is a wrestling match, rocking back and forth, a match between capital and labor, a match between the old order and the new. The chiefs of the govern- ment to which our Ambassador is accredited may change any time, and gentlemen pro- fessing quite a different line of sentiment may come into power. We are not a wrestling match in this country—not yet, but we are not by any means of one mind, and we rock back and forth a good deal, and the railroads are quite anxious to know how they are going to support life, GRADUATION PRESENT. and though, as Colonel Harvey says, the last election went seven millions Republi- can, the end of time is not yet. All one can be sure of about a majority of seven millions is that it is top-heavy and will fall on someone presently like a brick house. The English-speaking countries have a great tie that in the end always tell, and there are a good many of them will and they contain very able people, but in standing together they must not stand apart from the rest of the world or too exclusively for themselves. George Har- vey’s idea of British-American solidarity is good as far as it goes, and it goes far and has community of language, of litera- ture and of political tradition back of it. But by itself it seems not big enough. It a tows 135 must be a part of a great whole; a whole on which the sun never sets. QQOGLGILD OR V. BLASCO IBANEZ, the Spanish novelist, n and declares (in the Times Book ) that ever, the novel is the most important and characteristic modern lift But no, Sefior, The most important liter- believes in his pro- “without any doubt what- literary manifestation of ary manifestation of modern life is the The’ world could get along without novels better than you may think, but without newspapers grass would grow in the streets and skin raiment would come back into fashion. E, S. Martin, newspaper comicbooks.com