Life — August 23, 1923 — page 8: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# "The Next Feeding Problem for Mr. Hoover" 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.