Life, 1924-02-28 · page 22 of 36
Life — February 28, 1924 — page 22: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This satirical piece mocks **Edward Bok**, a prominent editor and peace advocate, by attributing his elaborate "peace plan" to his compulsive over-planning nature. The article's author, Don Herold, suggests that Bok's tendency to plan everything obsessively since childhood—from the *Ladies' Home Journal*'s circulation targets to minor household tasks—makes his peace initiatives counterproductive. The satire's central joke: **planning for peace is self-defeating**. Herold argues that excessive planning for something as naturally occurring as peace makes it seem unnecessarily complicated, deterring ordinary people from supporting it. He sardonically proposes "LIFE's War Plan"—the inverse strategy of planning war so thoroughly and making it seem so complex that people will reject it as impossible. The bottom cartoon shows comedic figures fighting over a peanut, illustrating the article's underlying theme: human conflict is petty and inevitable, regardless of elaborate schemes. The satire reflects early 20th-century American skepticism about intellectualized solutions to fundamental human problems.
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Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Mr. Bok’s Peace Plan and LIFE’S War Plan By Don Herold plan” man I did not plan contest because I enter his peace am rule, bitterly opposed to plans of a sort Mr Bok has made plans all his life he planned, planned. ing hitty He ht on some to do this or that royed thot ject or other by getting twenty-five the most prominent these or those into a symposium to tell what they thought about it His life itself When he decided he would be up and that it would have a circulation ut two years old he was editor of the ournal when he grew of one million on a certain date as soon as he was bi a towel he helped his mother wipe the dinner and he polished dishes so carefully that in. time editor of the Ladies’ Home Journal and it did have a million ciren lation, just as he planned Perhaps plans are n dishes. become always as bad Certainly Mr. Bok been successful in a way as I imagine. has and the sum total of his existence may be of benefit to humanity, though there is still time for his planning to do a great deal of harm, Personally I peace am frightened that his 1 will set the cause of peace back a century or planning for peace two. So much look makes peace like a fearfully and it may be that we s| the heart to pi dif and complex complex proposition all never have through anything as (as Mr Bok has unconsciously pictured peace) peace Isn't it true that in our own personal al affairs the ¢ less we accomplish bad There is nothing that a bad habit enjoys more plans we make The « ly way » quit any The Comedian: Keer GETTIN’ THE YA PAWS OFF THAT PEANUT! more than to have lot of time making elaborate plans for quitting it somebody spend a paradoxically, I it Lire’s Contest rt Wars ach mild, How 1 you might say un . puny little wars? That last d with Germany, if you re at World War which was men highly papers at the re drop in the bucket to war we h call it. t tone in the time, wa what wars Let us make aght to be our next war a whopper In fact, let us plan it deeply and end lessly. Let us make i as Mr pear k as complex Bok has helped make peace ap: Let us make it seem so difficult majority of folks will get to Every, ast be set to having ideas about the next war and pretty s¢ it is quite impossible the mat Then may even arise skeptics who will say ter will seem intricate there ‘Oh, we can never hope to have a war rthy of us. Peace is just naturally a part of human nature expect. the We can never lazy human race to get to gether and summon itself to anything so involved and so m as a really fine universal / ripping. rem LAUGHS HERE comicbooks.com