Life, 1913-11-13 · page 26 of 40
Life — November 13, 1913 — page 26: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page features reader letters debating two heated early-1910s issues: **medical autonomy vs. public safety**, and **women's suffrage**. The main letters dispute mandatory meningitis inoculations in the U.S. Navy. Diana Belais accuses Surgeon-General Stokes of evasion, claiming the serum causes deaths and that forced injection into marines constitutes "criminal tyranny." This reflects contemporary **anti-vivisection and anti-vaccination activism**—fears that medical experiments on animals and mandatory treatments violated bodily autonomy. A second letter from Matthew Andrews sarcastically describes Life's recent suffrage issue as "unutterably stupid," yet admits the opposing arguments also sway him—likely satirizing how both sides of the suffrage debate seemed equally unconvincing to skeptics. The cartoon (bottom) shows a mother objecting as a young man swings his dancing partner aggressively, captioned that he "invented that new dance"—gentle social satire about modern youth culture and generational conflict. The page captures **Progressive Era anxieties**: medical ethics, women's rights, and cultural change.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Who Knows? Lure, Gentlemen: : Heartiest congratulations on your stand for woman suffrage. May we not hope that s00n you will issue a Pro-Doctor Number? Very sincerely yours, Freperic H. Roptnson, Medical Review of Reviews New York, October 22, 1913. From “The Open Door” To tne Evitor or Lire: ‘The letter published in Lire of Sep- tember 25th, from Dr. C. F. Stokes, Sur- geon-General of the United States Navy, is a peculiar example of the disingenu- ousness and mental perversity of reput- able physicians when it comes to a question of vivisection and serum- therapy. Dr. Stokes says that The Open Door was at “absolute variance with the truth” when it stated that inocula- tions of the deadly meningitis serum were made compulsory in the United States Navy. The Associated Press sent out a despatch from San Diego, Cal., on April 12th, stating that there were fifteen cases of meningitis on board the flagship California, and that two had resulted fatally. It was added that the destroyer Paul Jones was immediately despatched to the warship with a supply of the anti- meningitis serum. The quarrel of Dr. Stokes should not be with The Open Door, but with Rear- Admiral Cowles, commander of the Cali- fornia, and the thousands of newspapers throughout the country that published the despatch. Ile reasons that vaccine in- oculation for cerebro-spinal meningitis is not practiced in the United States Navy, adding in the same breath that in cases of cerebro-spinal fever the nostrum is employed by the naval surgeons. We would like to know the difference “twixt tweedledum and tweedledee. If fourteen out of fifteen patients died in the Cincinnati City Hospital, as charged by Dr. S. F. Kramer, of that institution, in official statements in medical journals, after administrations of the deadly poisonous anti-meningitis scrum of Dr. Flexner, would not deaths be caused in cerebro-spinal fever after inoculations as well as in cerebro-spinal meningitis? Why such a silly evasion, when the facts stand out with deadly emphasis? Dr, Stokes well knows that the principle of compulsory inoculations of the serum a OT Ue) cael What Do You Think? We are Constantly in Receipt of Important Letters Which are Too Long for Our Limited Space. Brevity is Desirable nostrum is under discussion; that this animal poison contains substances which frequently cause immediate death of pa- tients, and that, in consequence of this latter fact, the compulsory injection into marines is nothing short of criminal tyranny. Diana Betats, Editor of “The Open Door.” New York, October 21, 1913 A Bouquet Epitor or Lire, Dear Sir: I have looked over your recent Suf- frage Number and have found ‘+ unutter- ably stupid. If your much-advertised “ Humorous Number " closely follows this one, then your problem of the “ Near- Humorous Number ” is solved at the same time. I am neither in favor of nor op- posed to woman suffrage, but when J look ever the extravagant cartoons and claims of the suffragettes, I am convinced that women should not have the ballot. On the other hand, when the anti-suffragists are talking, I begin to think that, after all, the suffragist may be right! Yours very truly, Mattuew Pace ANprgsws Bautimore, Mp., October 22, 101% Mother (at table): From a Friend of Mr. Punch To tHe Evrtor or Lire, Dear Sir: Having read the letter signed “ Philip A. Means”, of London, England, may I, as a fellow-citizen of Mr. Means, write to express a very different opinion to his, in respect of the attitude of Lirg There are people in England who are most grateful to Lire for this determined stand against a great social evil. Mr. Means seems to think that Lire’s motives are mercenary. I cannot answer for this country, but in England I fear that it would not pay any periodical to carry on such a propaganda, for anti-vivi- sectionists have not as yet made their cause a popular one to the ranks and we know well that the triumph of anti-vivi- section principles is simply a question of time. During my trip in America I have found Lire most amusing and the draw- ings delightful, and I think it only second to our beloved Mr. Punch. In spite of Mr, Means’s remark that “ your influence has vanished", I am struck with the great number of persons whom I see reading Lirg on every railroad journey I take in this country, and’ unlike Mr. Means, I connect circulation with influ- ence. I only hope he may be right and that it is anti-vivisection that attracts so many readers! Yours truly, Marcaret I, Brapis. Wasutncrton, D. C., September 21, 1913 PEOPLE OUGHT NOT TO APPLAUD THAT YOUNG MAN FOR SWINGING THAT GIRL AROUND SO BRUTALLY. Daughter: wut. MOTHER, HE HAS TUST INVENTED THAT NEW DANCE. comicbooks.com