Life, 1914-05-07 · page 15 of 52
Life — May 7, 1914 — page 15: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains three separate satirical pieces: **"Mean to Club Members"**: Discusses the Army and Navy Club of New York expelling *Harper's Weekly* for publishing exposés (muckraking) critical of the military. The satire suggests the club's censorship backfires—by banning the paper, they actually increase its sales as members buy it out of curiosity. **"Blood and Water and Goldwater"**: A cartoon titled "American Wife: I Want That" accompanies text satirizing anti-vaccination sentiment. Commissioner Goldwater of New York deplores growing vaccine opposition, particularly among elite physicians who delay vaccinating their own children while publicly endorsing vaccination for the masses. The satire mocks this hypocrisy—suggesting "blood is thicker than water," meaning wealthy doctors prioritize family safety over public health principles they publicly advocate. The cartoon depicts figures in space, likely illustrating the absurdity of such selective logic. Both pieces exemplify *Life*'s trademark Progressive-era criticism of institutional hypocrisy and self-serving elites.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
The Boston Plan seems a large con- tract, but it has attractions. Certainly in every city the present vast number of competing organizations, for charity and reform, whose “appeals” crowd the mails, need affiliating the worst way. The present system is in danger of becoming insupportable. E, S. Martin. Mean to Club Members r seems that the Army and Navy Club of New York has expelled Mr. Hapgood’s Harper's Weekly be- cause of some muck-rake army pieces in it, but the papers quote Brother Hapgood as declaring that the club doesn’t amount to a hill of beans in itself, and all that troubles him about that is that army officers should not realize that he is punching up the army for its good. No club amounts to much as a censor of papers or periodicals. The pro- pensity of clubs is to stop papers at the precise time they are most inter- esting to members and make them maddest, with the result that sales of the paper increase a little because mem- bers have to buy it. That is mean to the members, but the paper usually survives, American Wife: Blood and Water and Gold- water 'HE opposition to vaccination is growing, deplores Commissioner Goldwater, of New York, in a recent article. Chief among the opponents are those who, while believing some- what in the efficacy of vaccination, be- lieve also that it has dangers, and that the dangers of vaccination are more to be feared than the dangers of small- pox. Says he: “This attitude is not confined to laymen, but is taken by those leading men in the medical profession who postpone vaccination of their own I WANT THAT kith and kin until the last moment. The world-renowned men have con- fessed to us that they have had their children vaccinated only in obedience to public opinion in and out of the profession.” Which goes to prove that blood is thicker than water even in the medical profession. Of course, these world- renowned physicians couldn't be ex- pected to advise delay as to other peo- ple’s children. But let us not judge them too harshly. Perhaps wisdom, like charity, begins at home and tends always to greater comprehensiveness, B.0. J. comichooks.