Life — July 12, 1928 — page 6: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

‘“THE GREAT AMERICAN CIRCUS "’ As seen by Low, in the London Evening Standard Our Candidate Is Going Big in England Of Course That Hurts His Chances in Chicago We know that the most effective way to condemn a presidential candidate in the eyes of the professional patriots is to inti- mate that he is popular and respected in the heathen countries outside the United States, but just the same, we can’t with- hold the above cartoon from the London Evening Standard nor the following edi- torial from the London Daily Express: “PRESIDENT WILL ROGERS “Our much admired contemporary, Lire, insists upon running Will Rogers, the cowboy phil- osopher-comedian, for the Presidency of the United States. Before dismissing the idea as a mere jest, we wonder if Lire is not making a suggestion worth some serious consideration. Mr. Rogers has met so many presidents and princes that high office would not make him giddy. He would reach the presidential chair un- hampered by too many ‘loyalties’ to political colleagues of the past. As a citizen of the world he would avoid that unreality of utterance which is so often characteristic of Washington when dealing with international affairs, What is more, Mr. Rogers is a supremely successful business man, having capitalized himself for more than a considerable fortune. Therefore he would face the oil magnates and the Wall Street barons with an understanding eye. Mr. Rogers is a joker. So was Abraham Lincoln. But there is a differ- ence between a joker and a joke. We would much prefer seeing a humorist turn into a conscious politician than continue to witness so many politicians becoming unconscious humor- ists."" Just to prove that Our Candidate is also appreciated in his own country, we re- print a pertinent comment from the San Angelo (Texas) Times: “Believe it or not, Will Rogers, the comedian, is a deeper student and knows more about mat- ters of state and world problems from a com- mon old hoss-sense point of view, as a typical “West Texan’ would say, than the present in- cumbent or some twenty-seven out of twenty: nine others. Let's have a REAL comedian in the White House."* In other words, as we have alread pointed out, Our Candidate, if elected, will be the first President in sixty-three years who is funny intentionally. Tuere’s one politician among those who spoke at the Conventions that we'd like to have on our side. If the Democrats ever decide to ask waivers on Franklin D. Roosevelt, we'll claim him at once. In his speech in this issue, Our Can- didate tells of Tex Rickard’s attempt to land the Bunkless Party's Convention for Madison Square Garden, saying that the great arena will be available for our use when the last of the Marathon Dancers has died of inertia. This is just another example of the rot ten commercialism that is bound to creep into the most altruistic enterprises. We haven't had a convention—and we don’t intend to have one. Our Candi- date was nominated by a small group of influential citizens, gathered together in a hotel room. The room rent was paid by Mr. Rogers himself, because he hap pened to be living there at the time. No drinks were served, and not one cigar was smoked. The guests furnished their own Camels. We haven't yet had a chance to count the votes that have already come in to the Bunkless Party offices, but it appears to be certain that we have already passed our first month’s quota (whatever it is). If ge want to join this great movement to at Bunk, write to Rogers Campaign ri ati 598 Madison Avenue, New York. comicbooks.com > iW Ni Bi