Life, 1913-04-24 · page 21 of 48
Life — April 24, 1913 — page 21: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes Alabama's exploitation of child labor in factories. The poem mocks Alabama's self-congratulatory "boast" about progress while children work night shifts before dawn in mills and factories, grinding away in "the grimy profit groove" to produce capital and reduce debt. The accompanying photograph (caption unclear but showing industrial workers) illustrates this grim reality. The satire's point: while Alabama celebrates itself, it sacrifices its children's welfare to industrial profit. Below, a separate item mocks "Dr. Friedmann's serum"—likely a fraudulent tuberculosis cure being marketed to desperate poor people. The satire exposes how "progress" often means exploiting the vulnerable through false medical claims, treating their suffering as incidental to commercial gain. Both pieces critique how industrial society and medical charlatanism harm the powerless while society celebrates "advancement."
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
833 “The Child That Toileth” ALASAMA’S BOAST. EAR us while we proudly boast ; Sign the legend to our crest; Flaunt it loud from coast to coast; Listen Sisters, “ Here we rest.” Not the Children! if you please, They have dividends to win; Capital may take its ease ; Children have to toil and spin. Whistles blowing in the night, Long before dawn turns to day. Children! Long before it's light, You must be upon your way. Profits have to be produced, In the factory's din and roar Something earned and debts reduced ; Life sustained, and little more. stead of being dissatisfied, you should be pleased. You don’t seem to realize that you have interested the American people at least three weeks longer than any fad they have had for four years.” T. L. M. Mediocre | “LJOW do you like our new clei * man’s delivery?” “It doesn’t compare with what the pitcher of our baseball team can do.” gy- ¥ THE ANSWER TO THIS REBUS WILL BE PUBLISHED IN NEXT WEEK'S LIFE EW YORK—THE WHOLE THING FOR FIFTY CENTS!” RE WRONG ON THE PRICE HERE THREE YEARS, AND IT's COST Me FIFTY THOUSAN' YOUNG FELLOW. (This is the answer to last week's rebu; Still we boast and still we rest; Well content to make no move; I'VE ONLY LIVED Grind our youngest and our best, In the grimy profit groove Will Herford Progress Ss! KING of Dr. Friedmann’s serum, the London Lancet says “It must be remembered that we do not know exactly what it is he has discovered.” Quite right. Dr. Friedmann, in reality, has not discovered anything new. No one would claim, for example, that his method of fooling the American public was anything new. The thing has been done so often before, however, that it has the merit of a certain dignity only conferred by time and numerous previous examples. The fact that many poor people with consumption are made the vic- tims, and are deluded into the belief that they can be cured, is, of course, purely incidental to our “ progress.” “Faint heart never won fair lady.”) comicbooks.com