Life, 1912-02-15 · page 24 of 44
Life — February 15, 1912 — page 24: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**Main Editorial:** This piece satirizes Senator O'Gorman's argument that opposition to Jews stems from religious prejudice. The author contends that anti-Jewish sentiment is actually racial/ethnic discrimination, not religious objection—comparing it to prejudice against Chinese people. The satire mocks the Senator for mischaracterizing the problem, suggesting that even converts to Christianity still face Russian discrimination, proving religion isn't the actual issue. **"Our Diana" Cartoon:** References Kipling's line about female aggression. The sketch shows a woman in a shooting/hunting pose, likely satirizing female militancy or the suffrage movement's assertiveness. **"Tragedy at Coon Hollow":** A classroom scene where children gather while a teacher addresses theft. The title and setting ("Coon Hollow") employ period racial stereotyping in dialect humor—common in early 20th-century American magazines but now recognized as offensive caricature.
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Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
The Jews and Their Religion ive to any foreign power the right ainst our citizens because of the or O'Gorman in the de- We cannot profess. —Se bate on the Russian treaty. B! you, Senator, what got it into your head that the objection to Jews is an objection to the Jewish religion? You dinged away at that idea as though: it really had some sense in it. Our notion is that it has just so nd no more as that we object to the Chinese because some of them are professors of Confucianism. Confucius got up an admirable religion of immense value to the Chinese; Moses expounded by much the most effec- tive religion of his day, which has doubtless been im- mensely useful to the Jews; but the objection to the Chi- nese is not that they are disciples of Confucius, but that they are Chinese, and the objection to Jews, where it exists, is not that they get their religious ideas from Moses, but that they are Jews. Race is stamped on Jews almost as indelibly as on the Chinese, and yet, Senator, you stand up in the Senate and expend language and time in expounding that “we cannot let any foreign country discriminate against our citizens on account of religion.” Do Christian, or Agnostic, Jews get back into Russia any easier than Mosaic ones? Is any American Jew ques tioned on the Russian frontier about his religion? If so, your protests about religion have some basis, but if not, what basis have they? Is it that you think it more polite or politic to assume that the anti-Jewish prejudice is a mere phase of religious illiberality? And does Colonel Roose- velt think the same when he alludes to Russian discrim- much sense a OUR DIANA “POR THE FEMALE OF THE SPECIES 1S MORE DEADLY THAN THE MALE” ination “against American citizens of the Jewish faith?” We have wondered this long time why Jews were so Jewish, and in what degree their idiosyncrasies of manner, method, aspiration and character were the fruit of the Jew- ish religion. No doubt their religion has kept them sepa- rate and preserved their racial individuality, but has it also furnished them with their equipment of characteris- tics, and will the characteristics gradually disappear if the religion does? That is an interesting subject of consideration, because TRAGEDY AT COON HOLLOW DISTRICT SCHOOL Teacher SAVE TIME AND TROUBLE BY COMIN FORWARD, SOMEONE IN THIS KOOM HAS STOLEN SADIE MAY'S LUNCH. “ PLEASE, TEACHER, WILLIE POSSUM 18 DEAD” THE CULPRIT 18 KNOWN AND WILL.