Life, 1919-09-18 · page 19 of 48
Life — September 18, 1919 — page 19: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes the wave of strikes affecting American society. The top cartoon mocks a Chamber of Commerce speech about "capital and labor" cooperation by contrasting it with the reality of widespread labor unrest. The middle section ("Why Bother About Food?") criticizes idealists who advocate for workers' rights while ignoring actual hunger—six million children lack sufficient food despite food abundance. The main feature, "Willie's Vacation," is a child's composition listing every service disrupted by strikes: milk delivery, lifeguards, caddies, movie operators, trolleymen, household staff. The joke's bitter punchline: Willie wishes teachers would strike too, so he wouldn't have to return to school. The bottom cartoon shows Uncle Sam offering Johnny a choice between two strike situations—implying no good options exist. Collectively, the page suggests strikes have become so pervasive they've paralyzed normal life, while those advocating worker causes seem disconnected from practical consequences.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“FROM NOW ON CAPITAL AND LABOR WILL GO HAND IN HAND” (From a Speech at United States Chamber of Commerce Dinner) Why Bother About Food? yAt there are six million children (according to recent estimates) who, if not actually starving, have insufficient food, and that there is eighteen per cent. more DANG IT! 1 DON’T BELIEVE I'LL Swit (ANYTHIN’ FROM DIS HOUSE, AFTER ALL” food in this country than there was one year ago, is a form of idealism highly interesting nourishment is not for him. Almost any right-minded! But is it not, after all, consistent? Your true idealist. Democracy only wants the world made safe for it, even if js not supposed to care whether he eats or not. Vulgar meanwhile it has to starve. Willie's Vacation PON his return to. school, Willie was told to write a composition on “ How I Spent My Vacation.” This. is what he wrote ber Pare, f= . “We reached Oceanville, by gi ly ~ = GOR If Sol tuck, three days before the strike be BM : = y y the B. H. & R. The strike cut off our a / OM Se) supply of Grade ‘A’ certified milk 3 from the city, so that we had to get along on milk from the cow. I went in swimming every day, until the life- guards struck and the beach was close So I got a job as a caddie, which lasted until’the caddies went on strike. After that T spent the day the movies, until the movie operators went on strike. So then we came home, and found the cook on. strike, the trolley men on strike and the cat gone. If they only would have a Unele Sam: YM AFRAID IT'LL MAKE YE KIND 0° SICK, JOHNNY, BUT WHICH teachers’ strike I would be happy ONE DO YE WANT TO RIDE ON? ag comicbooks.com