Life, 1929-07-05 · page 22 of 41
Life — July 5, 1929 — page 22: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes President Hoover's political maneuvering regarding farm relief legislation. The text describes how Senate opponents (led by California Senator Hiram Johnson, who famously opposed Wilson) expected to defeat Hoover by pushing a "debenture farm-relief system" he opposed. However, Hoover outmaneuvered them: the Senate's aggressive push collided with the House instead, and the Farm Bill passed in the form Hoover wanted—without requiring his veto. The separate cartoon at bottom shows a taxi meter dispute, captioned "No—I won't pay you a cent—there's something phoney about your meter!" This likely satirizes Prohibition-era corruption or government dishonesty more broadly. The page also contains a title-suggestion contest for an aerial photograph (showing an airplane and landscape). The political commentary concludes by addressing Anglo-American naval cooperation and Prohibition enforcement—contemporary issues under Hoover's administration.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Life in Washington T BEGINS to look as if Hoover were one of the neatest political tacticians we have ever had in the White House. The Senate, as you know, had insisted on the debenture farm-relief system after the President had condemned it. Here, they thought, was a chance to fracture that Hoover halo. Senator Johnson said he'd rather be a dog and bay the moon than follow Hoover's lead. The Sen- ator from California got his wish when the Senate rode full tilt at the President, shut its eyes and waited for the crash. When the dust cleared they found that they had only collided with the House of Representatives, and that the Farm Bill, as the President wished it, was passed without any threat of a veto or challenge to the legislature. This snappy bit of political mancuver- ing has raised the prestige of the Presi- dency to a height it has not known since Wilson was smashed by the famous “little group of wilful men.” So now there are good prospects of a sane solution of the tariff tangle. Now that Ramsay MacDonald and Charles G. Dawes have talked navy and the British Premier plans to visit Life for this Picture? 1st Prize $500 2nd Prize $250 3rd Prize $100 4th to 9th Prizes $25 Each Biorto: No—I won't pay you a cent—there’s something phoney about your meter! Can you think of a Title Washington, the biggest barrier to Anglo-Saxon cooperation appears to be melting. The British system of ercat- ing buffer and duffer states—we being in the latter category—has failed in our case; London has apparently surren- dered its dream that America can be persuaded to subscribe to some “moral” arrangement which will be manifestly to our disadvantage. The tardy con- cession of diplomatic “parity” is the most important development in the naval-reduction programme. Wetness is becoming more and more politically — possible. The President from the first has been willing to be shown about Prohibition and the pro- hibition agents have certainly been showing him. A few more shootings like that of Virkula, and the noble experiment will begin to look too like national vivisection to be really pop- ular, —]. F. comicbooks.com > | ung pop of-t D ics, Anc you oth and