Life, 1918-06-06 · page 15 of 40
Life — June 6, 1918 — page 15: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
The cartoon depicts a woman leaning out of an automobile, pointing at a trash barrel filled with discarded items. The caption reads: "IT SCRATCHES EASIER UP HERE, JIMMIE!" This satirizes wartime waste and salvage efforts. During WWI, Americans were urged to conserve materials for military use. The joke suggests a woman is directing someone to scratch initials or marks into a trash barrel rather than a car—implying citizens were prioritizing personal convenience over patriotic conservation during wartime. The accompanying article "Questions That Ought to Be Answered" addresses serious WWI concerns: slow insurance settlements for soldiers' deaths, defective flying machines causing pilot casualties, and deteriorating morale from delayed mail delivery to troops. The contrast between the humorous cartoon and grave questions reflects Life's approach to blending satire with substantive wartime criticism.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“IT SCRATCHES EASIER UP HERE, JIMeME!” Questions That Ought to Be Answered HY is it that the government takes so long to settle the claims for insurance of those killed in the service, and does not even acknowledge letters sent to the War Risk Bureau? In France, since the beginning of the war, an accident to a flying machine due to some defect is unknown. In this country, since April, 1917, scores of our best young men have been killed as the direct result of defective flying machines, and the number is constantly increasing. Is this due to the leniency with which we treat pro-Germans? One of the most important weapons of any army is its morale. One of the most important and well established methods of keeping up the morale of an army is to see that the soldiers get frequent messages from home. Can this be the reason why our Post-Office Department is so far behindhand that weeks, and even months, elapse before our men at the front have received their mail? LUBDUB: It's a good plan to make your money grow. Harvurre: Huh! Did you ever notice how small a dollar is when you borrow it and how big it seems when you have to pay it back? comicbooks.com