Life, 1926-07-01 · page 24 of 40
Life — July 1, 1926 — page 24: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes Prohibition-era America (likely 1920s). The top cartoon mocks Prohibition enforcement agents interrogating citizens about their "occupation and residence"—suggesting invasive government overreach into private life. "The Declaration of (Don't Laugh) Independence" parodies the founding document, inverting its principles. Instead of protecting liberty, it portrays government as tyrannical, regulating eating, drinking, and "unseemly merriment." The satire explicitly compares government overreach to Bolshevism, equating regulation with communism—a common conservative critique of the era. The declaration humorously promises freedom from the "Anti-Saloon League, Women's Christian Temperance Union...and Bootleggers' Brotherhood," mocking the competing forces controlling American morality. The final joke—"what a fat chance!"—dismisses any actual freedom under such conditions. The comic strip below is unrelated slice-of-life humor.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
ENFORCEMENT Agent ? — OCCUPATION AND RESIDENCE ZZ) Your MAME, WHERE BORN, - THE 100°, AMERICAN The Declaration of (Don’t Laugh) Independence HEN, in the Course of human events, it necessary for all pcople to regulate the private affairs of all other people, a decent respect for our own opinion, al- though nobody else's, requires us to tell the world what it’s all about. We hold these truths to be sclf- evident, that inasmuch as all men are created equal it is the privilege and province of cach to tell the next where to get off at in such matters as cating, drinking and unseemly becomes THE COMIC STRIP HISTORY (In Modern Clothes) merriment; that Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happines der no ci , less legalized by the proper author- ities without the consent of the gov- erned; that whenever any form of government gets into harness it. is the duty of said government to hang hold as long as possible, regardless of the fact that the people disap- prove of it, since any catering to the will of the majority would be prac- tically the same as Bolshevism. SKIPPY WASHINGTON AND THE CHERRY TR We, therefore, the representatives of the people of the United States of At in General Congress, and there will be a little less gig- gling in the back of the room or else somebody is going out on his ear, do solemr ish and declare, that these U States of right ought to be free and independent. st and that they should he absolved from all allegiance to the Anti- Saloon League, the Women’s Chris- tian Temperance Union, the Method- ist Board of Temperance, Prohibi- tion and What-Have-You, and the Better and Bigger Bootleggers’ Brotherhood. But, as the guy said, what a fat chance! Given under our hand, seal and padlock. Tip Bliss. The Remarkable Part ILLIS: Smith is the most re- markable man I know. Gituis: How so? Wituis: He can play the saxo- phone— Giiuis: Huh! Wiuts: And doesn’t! comicbooks.com