Life, 1913-09-25 · page 9 of 43
Life — September 25, 1913 — page 9: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**The Cartoon:** Titled "Privates of Industry," this illustration depicts a group of industrial workers standing on a mound beneath an ominous cavern. The dark, threatening overhead structure suggests they labor in dangerous, oppressive conditions. A small figure (possibly a supervisor or industrialist) appears at the top. **The Satire:** The cartoon critiques exploitative labor practices in early 20th-century American industry. "Privates" puns on military rank, comparing factory workers to soldiers—suggesting they're expendable foot soldiers serving industrial powers. The cavernous, hellish setting emphasizes the grim, dehumanizing nature of industrial work. **The Articles:** The accompanying text discusses a medical technique for preserving organs post-mortem and addresses "charity" and sex education—diverse social commentary typical of Life's satirical approach to contemporary issues.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
PRIVATES OF INDUSTRY A Modern Wonder W* learn from the Times that Dr. Alexis Carrel has been improving his technique. “In one case all the vital organs of a cat were kept appar- ently normal, the heart beating, the stomach and intestines digesting food, and the liver secreting its juices for more than half a day after the death of the cat from which it was taken.” This is a great discovery, and will be hailed with delight by thousands of people all over the world. Think of the great benefit to science, not to mention the human race, to know that you can keep your internal organs going after you are dead! Charity CHARITY begins at home, and often ends there. It is usually divided into two kinds, namely, public and private. Public charity consists of a salaried office force and a subscription list. Private charity is what we give when we don't know what to do with the surplus. There is also a species of charity known as genuine. Inasmuch, however, as it is never advertised in the news- papers, scarcely anything is known about it. HE teaching of sex hygiene consists in telling a ten- year-old what it already knows. comicbooks.com