Life, 1918-05-16 · page 38 of 40
Life — May 16, 1918 — page 38: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a **wartime fundraising advertisement** for the American Red Cross during World War I (indicated by references to "Boche steel," trench warfare, and "No Man's land"). The "Greatest Mother" is an allegorical figure—not a specific person—representing the Red Cross itself as a nurturing, impartial force. The image shows a robed, veiled woman cradling supplies and comfort items, symbolizing maternal care extended universally ("to Jew or Gentile, black or white"). The text emphasizes the Red Cross's humanitarian mission: providing relief to soldiers in trenches, comforting the home front, feeding the hungry, and healing the wounded. The phrase "Every Dollar of a Red Cross War Fund goes to War Relief" serves as the fundraising pitch. This appears in *Life* magazine as a **patriotic advertisement** contributed by the Robbins & Myers Company and the U.S. government's Committee on Public Information—typical of American WWI-era propaganda blending commerce with civic duty.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
The GREATEST MOTHER in the WORLD Stretching forth her hands to all in need; to Jew or Gentile, black or white; knowing no favorite, yet favoring all. Ready and eager to comfort at a time when comfort is most needed. Helping the little home that's crushed beneath an tron hand by showing mercy in a healthy, human way; rebuilding it, in fact, with stone on stone; replenishing empty bins and empty cupboards; bringing warmth to hearts and hearths too long neglected Seeing all things with a mother’s sixth sense that's blind to jealousy and meanness; seeing men in their true light, as naughty children — snatching, biting, bitter—but with a hidden side that’s quickest touched by mercy i Reaching out her hands across the sea to No Man's land: to cheer with warmer comforts thousands who must stand and wait in stenched and crawling holes and water-soaked entrenchments where cold and wet bite deeper. so they write, than Boche steel or lead. She's warming thousands, feeding thou- sands, healing thousands from her store; the Greatest Mother in the World—the RED CROSS. Every Dollar of a Red Cross War Fund goes to War Relief Contributed through Division of Advertising Yi United States Gev't. Comm. on Public Infermation This space contributed for the Winning of the War by THE ROBBINS & MYF CO., Sprincrie.y, O10 SOME BOOK a 7)