Life, 1925-11-12 · page 14 of 41
Life — November 12, 1925 — page 14: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page from *Life* magazine presents a satirical song by Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby mocking congressional ambition. **The Cartoon:** A uniformed conductor or porter figure juggles two caricatured heads—one appears to be a politician or laborer, the other labeled with a dollar sign. The conductor tosses money and ambition between them. **The Satire:** The song's title and lyrical content (visible in the sheet music) suggests that working-class men aspire to become congressmen to escape their struggles, but the cartoon implies this is folly. The conductor figure appears to be managing or manipulating these aspirations for profit. **The Point:** The satire critiques both working-class social climbing and the political system's false promises of opportunity—suggesting Congress is unattainable for ordinary laborers and that their ambitions are being exploited or mocked.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
WE CAN'T ALL BE CONGRESSMEN by Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby fail-ure I'm a - fraid” His con smiles at all the trol ley cars as | they go dy his street He is shook his head and said, “I ama duc-tor ov -er heard him and hur-ried to his side act-ing ver-y ul = tra just like all those swell birds = = At Last! A Song to Take the Place of threw his arms a - round bim and con -| sol-ing - ly he cried. , ag -loe bis’ a. mase-ment when ‘be’ |locks beck ‘Just Break the at these words. — News to Mother” —# Printed to tbeUS A. comicbooks.com