Life, 1928-10-05 · page 29 of 48
Life — October 5, 1928 — page 29: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This 1928 *Life* magazine page satirizes Will Rogers' presidential campaign through Agnes Smith's fictional pitch to be his "Mabel Walker Willebrandt"—a real government official famous for aggressive Prohibition enforcement. **The Satire**: Smith humorously claims she'll do Rogers' "dirty work" in politics, offering to attack rival parties, lock speakeasies nationwide, manipulate religious groups, and smear Rogers' opponents. She demands a Cabinet position (comparing it to Harry Daugherty's, from the scandal-plagued Harding administration) in exchange. **The Point**: The piece mocks Rogers' actual campaign as "spineless" and gentlemanly, suggesting he needs ruthless operatives willing to play dirty politics—the opposite of his public image as a folksy, likable humorist. The absurd threats (locking herself in speakeasies, antagonizing Quakers and Catholics) exaggerate what aggressive campaigning looked like in the Prohibition era. **Context**: Rogers was a real public figure; this reflects 1920s political cynicism about backroom dealings and religious manipulation in campaigns.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
27 quien! Rilo ANNouNcER: Gosh—it’s lonely up here! If I only had a couple of million people to talk to. THE RADIO | The Mabel Walker Willebrandt of the Rogers Administration by Lire’s radio campaign for Will Agnes — Rogers for President has started, Smith but you needn't think I am go- ing to make any cracks about it. I know what magazine I'm working for and, furthermore, I am nobody's fool. I have plans of my own and I am not going to ruin my political future by speaking out of turn. If Mr. Rogers is elected, I want to be his Mabel Walker Willebrandt. I would rather be Mabel than Catherine of Russia, Elizabeth of England, or Aimée of Los Angeles. In fact, I would rather be Mabel than Mr. Rogers himself. Mr. popes has no idea of the help I could be to him. Just give me a couple of hundred thousand dollars to buy padlocks and a nice big expense account for my assist- ants, and I'll put Mr. Rogers’ name on the lips of everyone in the country. Yes, and a lot of other words, too. Mr. Rogers will be surprised at what a helpful little one can do for him. Up to now his campaign has been spineless. It has been shiftless. Mr. Rogers has been content with the fact that people like him. That first love-feast on the radio, for in- stance. It won't catch any votes. Except for Leon Errol it was too gentlemanly. And Mr. Errol made the mistake of slandering his own candidate instead of mopping up on the rival parties. As Mr. Rogers’ little Mabel, I will supply the insults and Will himself will have nothing much to do but ride in ob- servation cars and shake hands with people off the backs of trains. I will pad- lock every speakeasy and night club, not only in New York, but in Palo Alto and Westbranch, Iowa. I will go farther than that; I will lock myself up in the speak- casies. I also promise to enlist the aid of the Mormon Church and urge its members to write each other chain letters. I will make nasty cracks about the thee’s and thou’s of the Quakers and I will supply maps, free, showing the proposed journey of the Pope from the Vatican to the White House. In fact, I will say everything that Mr. Rogers would be ashamed to say. If Mr. Rogers gets mad at anyone and doesn’t want an open fight, I'll promise to do the dirty work. And I'll work so hard to reserve the Eighteenth Amendment that will endanger the permanency of the Nineteenth. Naturally, I am not doing all this just for love of Mr. Rogers. If Will is elected, he'll have to give me Harry Daugherty’s old job in the Cabinet. If he doesn’t come across, I'll circulate the following stories about him: 1. That at the age of twenty, Mr. Rogers got drunk and fell off his horse at a rodeo. 2. That his grandfather chewed to- bacco. 3. That he chews gum and this will set a bad example to our children. 4. That he once bet on a horse-race. 5. That he was received by the Prince of Wales and therefore all his sympathies “There's Dusty hitch-hikin’ again—the big softie!” comicbooks.com