Life, 1914-02-26 · page 12 of 40
Life — February 26, 1914 — page 12: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
The left cartoon depicts a worried bird looking at a eugenics warning sign, satirizing Charles Sumner Bird's address to the Massachusetts Federation of Progressive Women. Bird apparently argued that women engaged in public affairs represented moral and social decline—an extreme position the cartoonist mocks by showing the bird's anxiety about "eugenics" (selective breeding to "improve" populations). The accompanying text quotes Bird extensively, then rebuts his historical claims about women's influence. The right cartoon shows a stork dropping a baby down a chimney, captioned about "Heavens!"—a crude visual pun on reproduction and Bird's eugenic concerns. The "Details of the Golden Shower" section satirizes Ford Motor Company's labor policies and wage discrimination, mocking corporate hypocrisy about American values while exploiting workers.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“1 SHOULD worry” Mr. Bird of Boston Chirrups to Progressive Women E learn from a report in the Evening Post (New York) that ex-Candidate Charles Sumner Bird ad- dressed the Massachusetts Federation of Progressive Women on January 22d, and said to them, among other things: I believe it is true that wherever and whenever women have engaged in public affairs, a high degree of morality _ and decency has prevailed. Shade of Mme, de Maintenon and the Edict of Nantes! Shades of Du Barry and Pompadour! The ex-candidate must have been out to delude the Progressive Women, If he will read, not all history, but merely the Memoirs of the later French Kings, say, from Francis First to the Revo- lution, he will find a lot of women very much and influ- entially engaged in public affairs, and high degrees of morality and decency very, very much to seek. He will find out so much that he may conclude that if the Kings of France had been able to detach the government from the ladies, there might still have been Kings in France to this day. “We need more intelligence in public affairs," Mr. Bird told the Progressive Women, “and this association, if properly directed, can do much to foster it.” Yes, much; and if a modest hint of direction would be acceptable, we suggest that the Progressive Women take turns in reading aloud to the Candidate out of the Memoirs of the French Kings, and various other history books, a list of which will be furnished on application. When men shirk, or are unfit for their jobs, women get them. Then, after a while, there has to be a new deal. That is one of the lessons of history. “HEAVENS! I'VE DROPPED A JEW BABY DOWN THE SMITH’S CHIMNEY!” Details of the Golden Shower THE Ford employees begin to taste the drawbacks of large means. Alimony, for one. Judge Lacy, of Detroit, has announced that “any man now working for Henry Ford can afford to pay his wife twelve dollars a week alimony”. The wives and children of Mr. Ford's employees will be liberally dealt with, he says, by his court. Another drawback. The papers say that Ford officials ask employees what they do with their money, and are displeased with those who say, “I send it back to the old country”. A Sun dispatch quotes the Ford secretary as saying’: “We will not discriminate between the foreigner and the American, but we will discriminate between the foreigner who keeps his moncy in this country and the one who does not.” Then you are an Indian giver, Mr. Secretary. Your gift has a string tied to it. Your proposed discrimination looks narrow. The effect of it will be merely to promote deceit. High wages ‘that restrict reasonable liberty of action are too dearly bought. comicbooks.com