Life, 1914-12-31 · page 11 of 41
Life — December 31, 1914 — page 11: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes labor disputes and cost-of-living concerns, likely from the early 20th century. The top cartoon shows four figures representing different economic "solutions" to poverty: 1. A businessman claims he'll reduce wages 2. Someone will give up buttermilk (a cheap staple food) 3. Another will pay smaller bribes 4. A destitute woman with children has "got without food" The satire's point: the wealthy propose minor sacrifices while the poor starve. The accompanying text discusses labor movements demanding shorter workdays and expresses fear that work abolition might spread from "lower classes" to women, disrupting society. The bottom illustration shows workers in a mine or industrial setting with the caption "Hold tight, Bill, we're going to hit another one!"—suggesting dangerous working conditions.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
HIM GOING NTO GIVE UP BurreRMitk Ht SPony ECONOMIES 'HE movement to abolish work is all right, so long as it can be confined to the so-called lower classes, or “masses”, The United Brother- hood of Carpenters has, along these laudable lines, recently demanded a six-hour day. Anyone who has scen a carpenter work—and particularly upon the house which you are paying for by the day— and has duly appreciated the idyllic picture of still life which it suggests, will naturally think of the Brother- hood’s description of an eight-hour day as being exaggerated. But that is only because we don’t understand, What we fear is that the gradual abolition of work may spread to the upper classes. If women, for example, who now work fifteen hours a day wearing clothes, talking scandal and playing bridge—and what harder work is there?—begin to cut down on their hours, what will happen to us as a “HOLD TIGHT, BILL, WE'RE GOING TO HIT ANOTHER ONE!” nation? comicbooks.com