Life, 1916-08-10 · page 13 of 38
Life — August 10, 1916 — page 13: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**Top Cartoon:** An insurance salesman explains accident insurance to a householder, implying that dangerous occupations (like the one depicted) require such coverage. The scene appears to show workers in a hazardous situation, making the pitch timely and darkly humorous. **Bottom Cartoon & Article ("Working Up a Scare"):** This section critiques how newspapers and press manufactured public health panics. The article describes how a few children developing infantile paralysis (polio) became sensationalized through press advertising into widespread fear affecting the entire female population—creating what the author calls "adult paralysis in the minds of the many." The cartoon satirizes this media-driven hysteria over disease scares.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
BY THE WAY, HAS IT EVER OCCURRED TO YOU THAT IN A DANGEROUS CALLING E YOURS YOU OUGHT TO CARRY ACCIDENT INSURANCE? LET M WRITING, ~ “A DECENT RESPECT TO THE OPINIONS OF MANKIND” XPLAIN THE POLICY WE ARE Working Up a Scare HE machinery for working up a medical scare seems now to be fairly complete. In the old days peo- ple had to get their fear about epi- demics by messengers. Now the press does the work. And how effectively! A few children in a population of over five million develop a disease which nobody knows anything about and which the doctors call infantile paralysis. In a few days the news- papers, by advertising, succeed in scaring into semi-hysterics all the female portion of the community, Thus we have two diseases: infantile paralysis among the children, and adult paralysis in the minds of the many.