Life, 1913-11-20 · page 11 of 44
Life — November 20, 1913 — page 11: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**Top Cartoon: "That Thin Disguise"** This political cartoon depicts a tall, skeletal figure labeled "Patriotism" holding a large dollar sign wheel and an American flag. The figure stands before massive crowds on both sides, suggesting how patriotic rhetoric is used to mobilize public support. The satire critiques how financial interests ("From Factory to Battlefield") disguise themselves as patriotism to encourage military participation and industrial production—likely referencing WWI-era concerns about profiteering from war. **Article: "The Wages of Teachers"** The text argues teachers are underpaid relative to other professionals (doctors, lawyers), and that insufficient wages create cranky, cross-grained teachers who negatively influence children. The accompanying cartoon shows a teacher addressing students, illustrating the everyday impact of this issue. Both pieces critique institutional failures and hidden economic motivations beneath public virtue.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
THAT THIN DISGUISE FROM FACTORY TO BATTLEFIELD The Wages of Teachers AX interesting experiment for some municipality to make some time when it is hard up to know what to do next would be that of paying its school teachers too much. Strange to say, we have never heard of this being done. We have known of cases where too much was paid to doctors, lawyers, magnates, brokers, pro- moters and others, but never to teachers. In fact, although we have kept in fairly close touch with all manner of reforms, both here and abroad, we have never even heard of a city that paid its school teachers enough. It is easy to see how school teachers who are not paid enough can acquire dispositions which may be described as cranky, cross-grained and crabbed; and, as children learn as much by imitation as by inculcation, it is quite possible that we are thus unwittingly supporting a vast manufactory for the production of cranky, cross-grained and crabbed dispositions. Paying teachers too much, on the other hand, might tend to make them, and consequently the children, too happy and too full of the exuberance of existence. This, of course, would “* undesirable, but we could easily stand it as an experin:.~.." phenomenon. Any city or village which decides to immolate itself upon the altar of this suggestion will please communicate with this office. E.0.J. A MAXIM SILENCER