Life, 1915-05-20 · page 9 of 44
Life — May 20, 1915 — page 9: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page features a whimsical illustration of young animals (puppies, kittens, and other creatures) playing freely beneath a large tree. The accompanying text by E.S. Marin discusses American social attitudes, particularly comparing Italian immigrant women favorably to native-born American women regarding family size and childbearing. The article argues that education discourages American women from having children, while religion and lower social expectations enable Italian immigrant women to maintain larger families. The cartoon illustrates carefree youth, contrasting with the text's broader commentary on birth rates, immigration, and the perceived decline of "older American stock" due to education and social climbing aspirations among native-born Americans.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
893 all but universal struggle of American parents is to qualify their children for easier and more lucrative occupations than their own. As fast as new- comers become Americanized they take part in this struggle to rise in life. Very soon their families begin to dwindle and they show in other ways the physical results of an intense com- petition. The Italian woman whose baby can suck an ear of green corn is nearer to nature than the American woman, Her standard is lower, she knows less, thinks less, is more like a cow. Cows are not lonely in the country; American women mostly are, So many of them confide to Dr. Houston. Possibly, too, the Italian woman is helped more by her religion than the American woman, but the state and office of religion in the United States, and especially in rural life, is a large subject. Religion brings imagination into life, and that helps very much, especially in the country. All people, but country dwelling people especially, must live a good deal in the imagina- tion if their life is to be wholesome. Then, too, any kind of a good Church is a social center and brings people together, and that helps rural life. Civilization rests very much on re- ligion. Most of the civilizations now under observation are resting very uneasily on the religious systems that they have, all of which may be on the eve of readjustment at the repair shop. E, S. Martin, “WHEN LIFE 1S YOUNG, ALL THE WORLD SEEMS GAY” life. The older American stock in this country is an aristocracy, and, like all aristocracies, it is dwindling. The great enemy of the birth rate is education, and espe- cially the higher education, Farm-born children, like all the others, have to go to school, no matter what. School- ing is good for them, but the more of it they are compelled to take, the more they become a luxury instead of a help to parents and the smaller families grow. The old Amer- ican stock is strong on education and weak in its birth- rate. In this land there is no stability of condition or occupation. We are all climbers, and in all the occupations that involve manual labor we of the North and West have been climbing for the last three generations in competition with a huge immigration from Europe. That has put : " Fs great strain on American parents of the older stocks. The LITERARY EXPRESSIONS comicbooks.com