Life, 1926-01-21 · page 6 of 36
Life — January 21, 1926 — page 6: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**Top Cartoon:** "The Swell in the Auto" depicts two boys with a toy automobile. One asks to ride in the other's vehicle, using the slang phrase "won'tcha?" The humor targets wealthy children mimicking adult "swell" (upper-class) culture and their possessive attitudes toward automobiles—then still relatively novel luxury items. The satire mocks how quickly the wealthy adopt and display status symbols. **Main Story:** "A Note on the Creation of the World" is a humorous allegory where God hires an "Efficiency Expert" to improve creation. The satire critiques the early-20th-century obsession with industrial efficiency and optimization applied to everything, even divine work. The expert removes "waste" (nature, beauty) for practicality—a commentary on how modernization threatened traditional values.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
The Swell in the Auto: Gee! BILLY, LET ME RIDE IN YOURS, WON'TCHA? A Note on the Creation of the World OD was industriously fashioning the Earth, when an Efficiency Ex- pert came by. The Efficiency Expert watched God a few minutes with puck- ered brows. Then he spoke: “Do you mind if I make a couple of suggestions?” ‘Not at all,” said God. The Efficiency Expert smiled happily “Well,” said he, “in the first place I'd take out all that water you've been scattering about, except in a few places where it can be used for power, Other- wise water is a nuisance, you know— slows up travel frightfully, keeps per- fectly good land useless, and so 41 “I see,” said God, and he took away all the oceans and seas, the rivers and lakes, the brooks and little pools, ex- cept in a few places where there were falls and good factory sites. “Next,” said the ciency Expert, warming to his task, “I'd take away all those mountains, The leveler you make the world the easier it will be to get around.” So God reached down His hand and swept away the mountains, “Ah, that looks better,” said the Effi expert. “Now if you'll just re- ¢ trees and the flowers—things just as pretty and far more practical can be easily manufactured —" Out went the trees and flowers, from the mammoth redwood to the tiniest anemone, and the Efficiency Expert rubbed his hands. The seasons went next, being replaced by a permanent temperature of sixty cight—"the most efficient”—and after the seasons went the rain, the snow, sunrises and sunsets; for the rain and the snow brought about a waste of time, energy and materials, and the un- | S@SSGLSGIESD This Is National Laugh Month “The popular approval of this pol- icy of government [Prohibition] has been increased by the improved health the drop in drunken: alcoholic ‘insanity Gs\e SOS hae fer ecile certain illuminations of the sun under a system of risings and settings meant the squandering of vast amounts of fuel for artificial light. It was late in the day when the Effi- ciency Expert made the last of his sug- gestions, for he gave each one serious thought and figured it out on paper be- fore he allowed God to accept it. So he excused himself, pleading dinner, and left God to finish the job Jemo- lition and improvement. When he came back, he found God resting. “Have you finished our world?” he asked. “How did it turn ou “Wonderfully,” said God. “It solved a problem that had been troubling me a long time.” The Efficiency Expert smiled mod- estly. “You've got to be practical in these things,” he s Then he looked about. “Where is it?” he asked. God pointed downward. “I turned it over to Satan,” He murmured. “He's just the man to run it as it should be run, I'm afraid I'm too inefficient.” Bertram Bloch. ADA: The Browns have a new baby. Harriett: Sheik or vamp? comicbooks.com