Life, 1914-08-27 · page 38 of 44
Life — August 27, 1914 — page 38: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is primarily an **advertisement for Everybody's Magazine** (September issue), not a political cartoon. The page promotes three prominent contributors: - **Frederick Palmer**: War correspondent covering the European theater - **T.R. MacMechen**: Aviation expert discussing air strength of major powers - **Joseph Edgar Chamberlin**: Political analyst explaining how nations entered "the awful mess" (World War I) The accompanying article fragment ("How to Manage a Continent") argues that **European autocracies**—particularly Austria-Hungary, Germany, and Russia—caused the war through territorial aggression and militarism. It contrasts this with American democratic principles of diverse peoples coexisting peacefully within federal structures. The small cartoon at right shows a "dry battery" (electrical device)—likely a visual pun on energetic reporting or power, though its exact satirical meaning is unclear from this context alone. **Context**: This reflects 1914-1915 American perspective on WWI's origins, blaming hereditary monarchies rather than systemic imperial competition.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
FREDERICK PALMER THE ACKNOWLEDGED DEAN OF AMERICAN WAR CORRE- SPONDENTS WAS JUMPED FROM MEXICO TO EUROPE IN THE EXCLUSIVE SERVICE OF vérybodys agazine T. R. MacMECHEN (the greatest authority in America on air-craft) discusses in Everypopy's the relative air strength of England, France, Germany and Russia. JOSEPH EDGAR CHAMBERLIN (an authority on World politics) explains how each Power was drawn into the awful mess, what led up to it and what each stands to gain or lose. How to Manage a Continent (Continued from page 354.) wig-Holstein; Austria grabbed Bosnia and Herzegovina and abolished the Sanjak of Novibazar. Behold the fruits of those larcenies! Enter- prising European autocrats and their boards of managers must be broken of their propensity to change the map and insist on blue or green peoples living in yellow or red districts, The European mind must learn the lesson that the American mind is born to—the lesson of a continental family made up of diverse individuals, actively competitive, but submissive to such limitations of individual action as the integrity and prosperity of the family require. Autocracies, not peoples, have got Europe into its present fearful mess. Autocracies and their narrow selfish- ness and their frightful blunders have fastened militarism on her and brought her to the brink of hell. She will come back, but how can they come back? Surely they are all riding to a fall— Hapsburgs, Hohenzollerns and Roman- offs—for though Russia’s lot is cast in with the democratic governments and their success may seem to promise that her present government will stand, she cannot escape a salvation that has be- come epidemic in Europe. She will get her share. E, S. Martin. PALMER! MacMECHEN! CHAMBERLIN! The Biggest Three in America in their respective fields! . Exclusively in Everybody’s Magazine FOR SEPTEMBER