The opening title card of this short drama informs us that it was "founded upon an actual occurrence in New York City," and this information has the same impact it has today when a movie or TV show announces up top that it's based on a true story: everything that follows is granted additional weight by our knowledge that what we're seeing, or something close to it, really happened. In the case of this film we feel as if we're watching a police report come to life, one that relates the sort of pathetic, wretched tale one hears about in the news or from friends, a miserable story of inhumane behavior with tragic results and no happy ending. Where film-making is concerned, director D. W. Griffith does the material and the viewer a service by telling the story as plainly and simply as possible. Even if the intertitles were to be removed the plot could be easily followed, but as it stands the text underscores the injustice of the situation with eloquent, understated fury.<br /><br />Elderly character actor W. Chrystie Miller (a man born in 1843!) is the central character, a carpenter who is the only provider for his ailing wife. A doctor informs the couple that country life and fresh air is the only cure for her, but they are obviously poor and unable to pick up stakes and travel. It's chilling to read the next title, "At the Shop the New Foreman Weeds Out the Old Hands," and then to watch while a cold-hearted gent with a bushy black mustache does precisely that: he struts about the carpentry shop, singles out each elderly employee, fires him, and puts a younger man in his place. Our protagonist is among those singled out, of course, and he finds that pleading for his job is useless. Later, on the brink of starvation he turns to theft to feed his desperately ill wife, but like Victor Hugo's Jean Valjean he is caught and the authorities are unsympathetic to his plight. In this case, however, a sympathetic judge investigates, determines that the old man is telling the truth and attempts to help him-- too late, as it happens, leaving the old man alone, grieving and bitterly angry.<br /><br />Many of Griffith's early works at Biograph champion the cause of the working poor, but seldom with the white-hot indignation he and his crew display here. The fact that WHAT SHALL WE DO WITH OUR OLD? was based on a true story undoubtedly boosted everyone's efforts, and it's all the more impressive that the approach is so restrained, given the period. Miller is first-rate in the lead role, and most of the other performances are low-key and contained. As for the writing, Miller's moving performance in the final scene is complemented by the memorable wording of the final title card: "Nothing for the Useful Citizen Wounded in the Battle of Life."