Life, 1923-06-21 · page 15 of 36
Life — June 21, 1923 — page 15: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes the proliferation of reform "leagues" in early 20th-century America. The text mocks a Pacifist who starts multiple organizations—each with an earnest but redundant mission (League for Peace, League to Keep the Peace, League to Enforce Peace, etc.)—illustrating how well-intentioned reformers create overlapping bureaucracies rather than actual change. The cartoon below shows a husband who's played only nine golf holes, telling his wife they won't last him through the evening—a domestic joke about his addiction to the sport. The cartoon's irony connects to the essay's theme: just as the husband foolishly underestimates his leisure time, reformers naively multiply organizations expecting better results from more leagues.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
LIFE Leagues T seems impossible for an American to cherish any conviction, however harmless, without at once starting a League, or a Society, or an As- sociation, to represent that conviction, and to persuade other Americans to embrace it at a cost of $10 a year. Suppose he is a Pacifist. Nobody knows what the word now implies, but it is popu- lar still. Is he content to be a Pacifist in silence? Not if he knows it! He starts a “League for Peace.” The next-door Pacifist, considering the title insufficiently explicit, starts a “League to Keep the Peace.” The next-door-but-one Pacifist, who has a taste for authority, starts a “League to Enforce Peace.” The next-door-but-two Pacifist caps them all with a “League to Abolish War.” A gentle- hearted citizen who is assailed by all four Leagues forgets his gentleness and wants to fight. He will not even have anything to do with a “League of the Rights of Men,” or a “League for the Conservation of Human Life.” He has lost his taste for humanity, Sir James Barrie has joined hands across the sea with proposals for a “League of Youth,” being evidently under the impression that young people are in danger of being extinguished. There is a “League for the Preservation of American Independence,” about which we are getting ner- Husband: ONLY PLAYED NINE HOLI vous, a “League of the Upright” (German, as its name implies), and a “League of Walkers,” organized by active gentlemen who are not minded, like Kipling’s cele- brated cat, to walk alone. The great principle of modern life is to do nothing alone. A “Guild of Free Lance Ar- tists” sounds like a contradiction in terms, The thing which makes a Free Lance free is breaking away from guilds. Leagues to control votes are in a class apart. They are said to be a great help to the citizen or citizeness who has a vote, and doesn’t know what to do with it. Pa- triotic Societies celebrate anniversaries; an amusement which once had charm, but is now a trifle dry. A “Society of Justice,” which had the agitating Dr. Percy S. Grant for a president, must have survived some tumultuous meetings. As Dr. Holmes once pointed out, there is plenty of non-alcoholic intoxication to be found in the world, All these Leagues, Societies, Associations and Guilds relieve man from the burden of individualism, Therefore does he pay their dues. Agnes Repphter. Rub-a-Dubs “TLL rub it in,” says the pessimist, “Tl rub it out,” says the optimist. “Aye, there’s the rub,” says the cynic. TO-DAY. Wife: WILL THEY LAST YOU THROUGH THE EVENING? comicbooks.com