Life, 1916-09-21 · page 30 of 44
Life — September 21, 1916 — page 30: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This 1920s-era Life magazine piece satirizes anti-vaccination rhetoric through a dialogue between a "Truth Seeker" and a self-proclaimed "Sage." The joke exposes the logical fallacy of anti-vaccine arguments: the Sage elaborately lists supposed dangers of vaccination (poison in blood, infections, paralysis, meningitis, etc.)—dismissing each as irrelevant to his actual objection. His real reason? Vaccination "does not prevent smallpox"—the one claim that would actually matter medically. The satire mocks how anti-vaccine advocates pad their arguments with lengthy pseudo-scientific complaints to sound impressive, when their fundamental objection lacks merit. The accompanying cartoon "The Week in Society" and Senator Squareit quip are separate items. The Sage character represents the contradictory reasoning Life's editors saw in contemporary vaccination skeptics.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
His Reason “"TELL me, O Sage, in as few words as possible, why it is you oppose vaccination,” pleaded the Truth Seeker. “T will do so,” replied the Sage. “But first of all I want you to know that I am a reasonable man, and not one of those petty individuals who make up their minds on insufficient evidence. There are four or five hun- dred objections to vaccination which have no weight with me whatsoever. 1 do not object because vaccination di- rectly introduces poison into the blood, nor because it makes a slow-healing wound through which other poisons may easily get into the blood, nor be- cause it arouses to action malignant germs which otherwise would have re- mained quiescent. I do not at all ob- ject to vaccination because it leads to tetanus and septicemia and anemia and infantile paralysis and typhoid meningitis and peritonitis and endo- carditis and a host of other diseases. In short, I do not object to vaccina- tion because it fills patients with dis- ease and weakens their constitutions and kills them. Those things do not affect me at all. Not one bit.” “Yes, yes, O Sage. You have told me at much length why you like vac- cination. Won't you please tell me why you oppose it?” “TI oppose it, O Truth Secker, be- cause it docs not do what is claimed “THE WEEK IN society WAITING FOR CREATION for it. It does not prevent smallpox.” “So that’s it? Well, why didn’t you say so in the first place?” “Because, O Truth Seeker, when you say important things in the first place, without leading up to them properly, they are not impressive.” Ellis O. Jones. Personal NATOR SQUAREIT says he stands for the greatest good to the greatest number.” “Well, he does. number is Only he thinks the greatest always number one.” comicbooks.com