Life, 1915-07-01 · page 31 of 44
Life — July 1, 1915 — page 31: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page presents **two satirical cartoons** addressing early 20th-century American social anxieties. **Top cartoon ("A Safe and Sane Fourth"):** Shows well-dressed figures with military/patriotic imagery near a cow, satirizing July 4th celebrations. The caption suggests preparation for "passive protests against preparation"—likely mocking both pacifist movements and militarism during a period of international tension (likely pre-WWI). **Main article ("The Job Supply")** by Ellis O. Jones argues that unemployment exists despite widespread available work. Jones questions whether jobs have become a scarce "trust" (monopoly) deliberately withheld from the market—a reference to the **trust-busting era** when Americans feared wealthy industrialists were artificially controlling commodities and labor. **"Stars and Stripes" cartoon** (bottom right): Depicts military or political figures, though specifics are unclear from the image alone. The page reflects **Progressive Era concerns**: unemployment, monopolistic control of resources, labor availability, and peace versus militarism.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
The Job Supply’ T what point in the transition between barbarism civil ion did a job become a valuable possession? In olden times, before many town lots had been laid out, what few men there were on top of earth must have lwwked at this great undeveloped ball, or as much of its they could see, and been so appalled at the amount of work to be done that they hardly knew what to tackle rst. One could start at random in any direction and wl a great variety of profitable things to do without asking anybody's by or leave whatsoever. Their statisti- cians must have reckoned that the job supply was prac- cally inexhaustible. But here we are, only at the twentieth century, and already, for a long time, we have been getting reports of oluntary unemployment, Not enough jobs to go round, work to do in the presence of thousands of able-bodied citizens who are anxious to do it. Is it possible that our cloved planet is gradually becoming worked out and that the more self-supporting we become the more difficult it + to support ourselves? Or is it something else? Is there, perchance, a Job Trust which, in the great array of other trusts, has been overlooked. cured more or less of a corner on jobs, is holding them out of the market ? Ellis O, Jones. SANE FOURTH I< time of peace prepare for passivr preparation AND STRIPES te protests against comicbooks.com