Life, 1894-07-12 · page 8 of 20
Life — July 12, 1894 — page 8: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Analysis of Life Magazine Page 24 This page critiques labor union activism through satirical dialogue. A person identifies themselves as an American Railway Union member. Life's editors respond that while they admire labor organizing, unions cross an ethical line when members strike indiscriminately, destroy property, or endanger lives—placing strikers in the same category as anarchists like Santo (likely referencing contemporary anarchist violence). The debate centers on whether unions serve workers' interests or become tyrannical organizations forcing compliance regardless of strike justification. Life argues unions have become "blind, asinine devotion" rather than defenders of workers' rights. The accompanying illustrations—"A Helping Hand" and "A Trained Nurse"—use visual metaphor to mock union leadership and activism, though their specific meaning requires additional context.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
A HELPING HAND. “ Miss SMITH, [ DASSENT LOOK AT YER, BUT I'VE GOT SUTHIN' TO SAY TO YER!" “Waar ts 17, MISTER Brows?” “Ip T SQUEEZE YER HAND WUNST IT MEANS I LUV VER, IF I SQUEFZE IT TWICET, IT MEANS DOES YER LUV ME, AN’ IF T IT T'REE TIMES IT MEANS—(PAUSE) WILL YER MARRY NOT GOOD. ‘OUR little queens to me were dealt, With which the game to win, And just imagine how I felt When every one stayed in. “Four little queens. Oh, Mistress Fate, How longed I to rebuke her, For sadly here, I wish to state, That we were playing euchre. Tom Masson. A GOOD REASON WHY. OULD-BE-CONTRIBUTOR (at edétor's desk): Here's a joke, Mr. Editor, that I'll guarantee was never in print before. EDITOR (after reading it): the least, sir. Don't doubt your word in « would we be to-day if it had not been for the labor unions ‘© A ND so you are a member of the American Railway Union?” “Yes.” “ Permit LiFe to congratulate you. We have almost as much admiration for you as for assassin Santo and his anarchistic associates.” “ But I don’t deserve to be classed with such people. I earn my living by labor.” “LiFe thinks you do deserve to be so classed. So long as you labor and obey the law, or if you strike and still obey the law, you have the same respect that LIFE gives to every good citizen, But when you overstep this limit, when you interfere with any other workingman who is willing to take the work and pay that you reject, when you destroy property, when you endanger or sacrifice human lives, you place your- self at once in the same category with the anarchists.” “ But we were ordered out by the labor union. Where of the past?" “ Probably the victims of greed and avarice, as workingmen were in former times. LIFE gives full credit to the unions for what they have done for the cause of labor, when work- ingmen ran the unions, But to-day, the organization that was your best friend has become your worst enemy, and not only your enemy but the enemy of law and order and of the the whole social fabric.” “ How do you make that out ?” “Simply through your blind, asinine devotion to unions which are run by professional agitators. Simply because if you are ordered to strike, you strike, regardless of whether your striking is just or unjust, wise or foolish, and especially regardless of the disorder and lawlessness which are nowa- days invariably the result of strikes.” “ But it rests with us to say whether we shall strike or not.” “LIFE begs your pardon, Theoretically it may rest on A TRAINED NURSE. comicbooks.com