Judge, 1922-06-17 · page 20 of 36
Judge — June 17, 1922 — page 20: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This editorial cartoon and accompanying text satirize early 20th-century anxieties about progressive reform and educated women. **The Cartoon:** Shows a woodman (labeled "Pinchot") about to fell a dead tree full of vultures (labeled "political state machine"). The title "Woodman, spare that tree!" is ironic—the editorial argues the tree *should* be cut down. G. Pinchot was Theodore Roosevelt's Chief Forester, famous for conservation reform. **"The Doughty Forester":** Celebrates Pinchot's willingness to clean up corrupt Pennsylvania politics centered in Harrisburg (the "Buzzards' Roost"). **"Wellesley Girls Before Judge":** Satirizes society's horror at educated women discussing modern science—eugenics, psychology (Freud), heredity, sexuality—rather than remaining decorously ignorant. The author mocks authorities for treating scientific curiosity as dangerous sedition, while defending these women's right to intellectual inquiry as necessary for social progress. The piece exemplifies early-20th-century Progressive Era debates about reform, expertise, and women's education.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“Woodman, spare that tree!” EDITORIAL By WiLuiaM ALLEN WHITE THE DOUGHTY FORESTER ND now along comes the doughty Forester, G. Pinchot, A and then and there he observes that the Buzzards’ Roost at Harrisburg is full of bugs and beetles and noxious beasts, so he decides to scrap the same. A fine bunch of buzzards are roosting over what was once the proud domain of Boise Penrose. And Forester Pinchot is the lad to cut out the dead timber. As nearly as we can figure out, the weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth from the men who used to rule the Buzzards’ Roost will not stay the hand of the executioner. WELLESLEY GIRLS BEFORE JUDGE ELL, girls, so you're all up before the Judge this W week. Let's see, what charge have they entered against you? Ah, here it is. You seem to have been violating the stupidities and are charged with sane and becoming conduct in a mad and unseemly world. The evidence is rather strongly arrayed against you. It looks dark. Men have been hanged and women ostra- cized, which is worse, for doing less than you have done. You have acquired somewhere the terrific menace of an inquiring mind. Nitroglycerin is less dangerous to the existing order. The complaining officer declares that you have been discussing eugenics and social diseases and suppressed impulses, and that in the raid they found a lot of complexes on the place that were operating con- trary to the statutes made and provided for the conduct of Really Nice Young Ladies. Would to heavens it were merely a still that they dis- closed! But these complexes—a certain superiority complex, and a diabolic duty illusion—are the very in- gredients of social evolution which, when incontinently checked, leads to revolt. “WE HAVE THE GOODS” HE jig is up, and you might as well confess and throw T yourselves upon the mercy of the court. The Judge, in passing sentence, at least will consider this handi- cap of your Respected Parentage, and the disadvantages of a higher education under which you have labored. But he cannot forget that you were caught red-handed dis- secting love without administering proper anesthetics, and that you have somewhere hidden about your premises full and incriminating knowledges of the blood count, the respiratory reactions, and the metabolic changes resultant from exposure to the love bug. And, worse than that, you clearly have been harboring guilty knowledge of heredity; indicating beyond doubt that you are coming to a scientific belief that heredity is a more potent factor in social progress than environment—a terrible doctrine! It flaunts the political theories of the sociologist. It plays the very old Ned with all the good work done in American progress for fifty years. Girls, girls, you Wellesley girls, not ever. the handicap of Highly Re- spectable Parents and the mitigating circumstances of your exalted social status will soften the enormity of this crime! Now, then, girls, the Judge realizes that you are not confirmed crooks. But you have been indulging in sedi- tious opinions. All this consorting with low characters like La Marck, Weismann and Freud must be punished. 1s ten any ally