The Wasp — October 25, 1879 — page 3: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Analysis of The Wasp, October 25, 1879 This page is primarily an **editorial article** by Managing Editor Salmi Morse, not a political cartoon. The masthead illustration shows the Wasp logo/mascot. The piece debates whether boys and girls should be educated in traditional academics or practical trades. Morse argues for **automatic labor and machinery** to replace manual work, questioning why children should learn obsolete skills. He critiques the emerging tension between manual labor and emerging industrial automation—suggesting that as machines replace workers, education focused on traditional trades becomes pointless. The underlying social concern is the **industrial revolution's displacement of workers**, particularly young people entering a labor market rapidly transformed by mechanization. Morse advocates reorienting education toward the new technological reality rather than clinging to craft traditions.