Life — October 24, 1918 — page 6: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Analysis This page critiques **Claude Kitchin**, Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee during WWI. The article attacks his fitness for the position, calling him "small-minded" and "active-minded" despite his sixteen years in Congress. The main photograph shows children and a dog, captioned "Tell him me and rags send our love, mother"—suggesting soldiers' families suffer while Kitchin manages war finances poorly. The cartoon below (labeled "Poultry Note: Why Hens Stop Laying") uses a hen as metaphor: just as hens stop producing under stress, the nation's economy suffers under Kitchin's tax policies. The Sun and Tribune newspapers apparently supported removing him, fearing his taxation schemes would damage industrial growth needed for the war effort. This is partisan Democratic criticism of a Democratic congressman's wartime financial stewardship.