Life, 1923-08-23 · page 8 of 36
Life — August 23, 1923 — page 8: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
The top cartoon satirizes Herbert Hoover's approach to Depression-era child nutrition. A mother and child sit at a sparse table while the child refuses to eat, saying "I don't want to" and "I'm not hungry." The mother counters with Hoover's rhetoric about eating more to "grow up big." The satire targets Hoover's policy suggestions that Americans simply consume more as an economic stimulus—a tone-deaf response to Depression hardship. The cartoon mocks this disconnect: telling a malnourished child to eat more when food is scarce reveals the fundamental inadequacy of Hoover's approach to mass poverty. The lower illustration, "Dear, Dear—It's Occupied!" appears unrelated editorial content about leisure/beach access.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Mother said for you Le EAT those carrots In thohanda of oun ae ‘you don? ext 0Se Carrcte, we'/) Pa the mater The Next Feeding Problem for Mr. Hoover By Don Herold RS. HEROLD and IJ are frankly at our rope’s end. We should like to get ideas from other parents or from Mr. Herbert Hoover on methods of tricking or torturing a four-year- old girl into eating her meals. In ex- change, we will gladly tell everything we know on the subject of diet for wire-haired terrier puppies. Any suggestion submitted by Mr. Hoover or others will have to be mighty sophisticated, to have any ef- fect on our little Pansy. There was a when she re- sponded to reason. “Don’t you want to grow up and be a tall girl like Annie Stokes and smoke cigarettes and everything? Well, you will have time to eat your food if you want to grow up big.” We have induced her to eat many a meal so she could grow up and go to Sunday School, Vassar, Mont- martre, the Rendezvous, and other in- teresting places. But lately she has acquired the idea she will grow up without food, and reason fails. Once we could get her to eat her cereal by asking her to take a bite for each of the dogs in the neighborhood. “Take a bite for Muggins, now one for Mikey Power, now one for Lad- die, now one for Roger, now one for Canute Waddleton,” etc. And lists of inanimate objects used to get by. “Take a bite for the coffee-pot, now one for the toaster, “DEAR, DEAR—IT'S OCCUPIED!” now one for the flower pot, now one for Daddy, now one for the water pitcher,” etc. No good, any more And relatives, and flowers, and dolls and toys. The list system won't work, (Has to be a mighty funny list. Don’t send in any common ideas.) Counting was good, long ago. “Just twenty-seven bites more. awun-awun-un-un—un. Two-oo- 000-0000000—00000,” etc., dragging out each number as long as possible until the reluctant bite was fooled across the threshold. All in vain, now. If anybody knows the address of a good academy or eatinggarten, where they will guarantee a certain number of calories per meal, please rush it to us. Or any other suggestions for skinning our little girl into eating her food will be joyously reccived, whether they come from Mr. Hoover or from lesser lights in the feeding industry. Cereal suggestions espe- cially welcome. We will go so far as to take up some new religion, if other parents have found it efficacious. One-awun- The Lucy-Stone-Junior League ALLER: And what's your new baby sister’s name? Kitty: We haven't decided on the first name, but I think .the last name will be the same as mine. comicbooks.com