Life, 1915-02-11 · page 17 of 44
Life — February 11, 1915 — page 17: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This satirical piece critiques American society's neglect of modern industrial casualties. The text proposes establishing a national cemetery—not for soldiers, but for victims of industrial accidents, railroad disasters, steamship explosions, sweatshop deaths, and medical malpractice. The satire is sharp: it mockingly suggests the cemetery be organized by accident type ("Plain Accidents, Complicated Accidents, Explosions") as if cataloging modern science's failures. The reference to John D. Rockefeller contributing land for a Colorado miners' section is particularly biting—Rockefeller's oil empire was notorious for worker exploitation and deaths, including the Ludlow Massacre. The piece sardonically suggests this would be an appropriate "monument to modern science." The top cartoon shows a billiards scene (likely illustrating how to "get him into good humor"), while the bottom illustration titled "The Maiden's Prayer" appears unrelated to the main text.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
BEFORE ASKING HER FATHER'S CONSENT GET HIM INTO A GOOD HUMOR We Ought to Have It HOULD it not be a matter for general concern that a country which, in so many ways, is popu- larly supposed to be so far ahead of all other countries is in some respects not alive to its own duty? Consider that we have a national cemetery for the use of soldiers only, who have died a genera- tion or more ago, and likewise consider that there is no national cemetery for those who are dying for their country all the time. What is the matter with our altruists or philan- thropists? Certainly we ought to have a national ceme- tery, where all those people who have been run over by railroad trains and automobiles, scalded and burned to death on steamers, pre- maturely killed in sweatshops, operated on by surgeons, and worried to death by reading the comic supplements can be collected together as a collective monument to modern science. The cemetery could be divided into various depart- ments, labeled, for example, Plain Accidents, Com- plicated Accidents, Explosions, etc. Child Labor Victims could have a special section of their own, and no doubt Mr. John D. Rockefeller would be glad to contribute the land for a section devoted to Colorado miners—men, women and children. THE MAIDEN’S PRAYER comichooks eli)