Judge — August 1, 1914 — page 4: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# "The White Hope" Editorial Cartoon Analysis This cartoon illustrates an editorial about a Chicago couple's project to adopt orphaned children of various ethnicities—"a negro, an Indian, an Irish, a Chinese, a Japanese, a Malay, a German, an Arab, a Scandinavian and an American infant." The cartoon depicts a woman at a doorway with multiple children and luggage, titled "The White Hope"—an ironic reference to the couple's presumably white, middle-class American family serving as a model for raising diverse children together. The satire targets both Progressive-era social experiments in assimilation and the paternalistic notion that American family life could "civilize" children from different backgrounds. The crowded scene and heavy luggage suggest the ambitious—and somewhat comedic—scope of their undertaking.