Judge, 1938-04 · page 4 of 52
Judge — April 1938 — page 4: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Analysis This appears to be a World War I-era satirical article from *Judge* magazine criticizing the enormous financial cost of warfare. The image shows railroad tracks leading toward a wooden structure (possibly representing military infrastructure or a gallows), symbolizing the path to destruction. The text argues that while people enjoy entertainment, war's expense is prohibitive. It cites specific figures: $25,000 to kill one soldier, and a total war cost exceeding $337 billion. The author contrasts this with the economic devastation war causes—lost production, interrupted trade, and general societal breakdown. The satire's point: nations call themselves "civilized" while engaging in an obscenely expensive, destructive practice that bankrupts entire economies. The piece advocates for peace through "World Pathways," a peace organization listed at the bottom.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
"Exceptionally good fun"—but it’s SO expensive A CHARMING BOOK, by the son of a great Leader, has recently been pub- lished. It deals with the “beauties” of the war through which Papa benevolently brought civilization to a benighted peo- ple, a people so backward they knew practically nothing of machine guns, mustard gas, and bombing planes. While flying his plane in this cru- sade for civilization, Papa’s little sol- dier indulged in what he boyishly re- ferred to as the “magnificent sport” of dropping bombs on the natives. Of one such incident he wrote: “One group of horsemen gave me the impression of a budding rose un- folding as the bombs fell in their midst and blew them up. If was exceptionally good fun.” No one likes to see young people en- joy themselves more than we do. But the sport of killing defenseless people is getting to be prohibitive in cost. In the World War, it cost $25,000 to kill each soldier. The war cost this country some $66,000,000,000 in cold cash, and we aren’t through paying for it yet. All the nations at war spent, in actual outlay, $189,000,000,000. And that doesn’t count destruction of prop- erty, loss of production, interruption of trade and other expenses you can lay smack on war’s doorstep. Econo- mists estimate the total cost to be more than $337,000,000,000! Is it any wonder that the economic structure of the entire world has been haywire ever since? Is it any wonder (This space donated by THE JuDGE) that most of the nations of the world seethe with unrest, stagger under ter- rific tax burdens, appear willing to take the most desperate steps to win mar- kets and trade to pay their bills? We think a world that likes to call itself civilized could find a “magnifi- cent sport” less expensive than killing people. We believe in “exceptionally good fun” that doesn’t bear such a crushing price tag. And we'd like to hear from people who feel, as we feel, that something can be done to elimi- nate this obscene, bankrupting, degrad- ing business called Mar! Write to World Peaceways (03 Park Avenue, New York City comicbooks.com