Life, 1914-02-19 · page 19 of 40
Life — February 19, 1914 — page 19: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains two distinct satirical pieces: **"Employer of Child Labor: These Be My Jewels"** (left illustration and accompanying text): The cartoon depicts an older man with children, sarcastically captioned "these be my jewels." The text criticizes the exploitation of young women in social service work. It argues that girls in their early twenties, though energetic and idealistic, lack judgment about their physical limits and need oversight from experienced older women to prevent burnout. The satire targets both the system that overworks young female social workers and society's lack of protective authority structures. **"Caroline" (right section):** This discusses a Brooklyn court case where a wife (Caroline) obtained a separation from her husband Charles for "cruel and inhuman treatment" that included his objecting to her keeping boarders. The appellate court reversed the decision, ruling the husband has authority to regulate the household. Life's editors sarcastically counter that if women deserve equal authority in their "kingdom" (the home), the law should sustain their right to object to boarders too. Both pieces critique gender inequality in early 20th-century law and social practice.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Employer of Child Labor: in the early twenties to spend her last ounce of strength in social service. Girls in the early twenties are not good judges of their own physical limi- tations. Social service is immensely engrossing to certain sympathetic tem- peraments, who will drive at it until they drop. They ought not to drop. There should be someone to check them. Authority is little in fashion ; obedience is out of date, especially among ardent young women, but there seems to be reed in the social service of such organization as shall put the young re- cruits under older and experienced women, who know when to say Stop! and have power to act. Even the social THESE BE MY JEWELS workers, when they are young, need mothering. Lofte < Ganon E got judgment of separa- Cc tion from Charles on the ground, the newspapers say, “of crucl and in- human treatment, consisting in part of smashing dishes and objecting to her keeping boarders”. The Appellate Court in Brooklyn has reversed the judgment, observing: Even if the home is jointly owned, the husband has the right to regulate 315 the household and it is his duty to do so and to say what persons are to share his home. So that is the law, unless a. still higher court reverses it! Well: A man has a right to object to boarders if he doesn’t want them, and he has a right “to regulate the household ". But so has the woman. It is her right, also, to regulate her household and say what persons are to share her home. It is her right, too, to object to boarders if she doesn't want them. The law should sustain her in it. We hope it does. If women are not to get the man’s kingdom away from him, their author- ity must be sustained in the kingdom which is theirs, TPBERE is a pretty general sentiment among persons who have read Mr. Hull’s income tax law that Congress might at small cost ease some of the hard places in life by employing some moderately expert writer to translate bills into comprehensible English be- fore they become laws. We believe the State of Wisconsin, which is an e¢ ample to all the states of what to do, and occasionally of what not to do, provides its legislation with practiced assistance of this sort. There are comparatively few com- plaints about paying the income tax, but there is an enormous wail over the ifficulty of learning what to pay and how to pay it. If President Wilson could have spent a morning privately with Mr, Hull's bill, for literary pur- roses only, immense affliction might have been spared our patient people. The President has troubles enough of his own, and ought not to cobble bills, of course; but someone should. The latest malignancy that the in- come tax has developed at this wri is its descent upon all the clubs, which must pay it, it seems, unless they can make a successful claim to be “ oper- ated exclusively for religious, charit- able, scientific or educational pur- poses", Awful!