Life, 1914-10-29 · page 19 of 44
Life — October 29, 1914 — page 19: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This Life magazine page contains **satirical editorial commentary on World War I**, not a traditional cartoon joke. The illustration shows a woman standing atop a pedestal labeled "KULTUR," surrounded by cherubic figures, sheltered beneath massive dark wings—likely representing German militarism or imperial authority. The text attacks **German Kaiser Wilhelm II** and Prussian military leadership as intellectually mediocre yet dangerously concentrated in power. The author argues Germany's "great crime" is governmental stupidity, not external enemies' jealousy. He suggests that if Germany faced internal opposition rather than unified external enemies, South Germans would overthrow the "insufferable Prussian military caste." The piece advocates for American military preparedness while questioning whether excessive armament or pacifism offers better solutions. It sardonically compares modern warfare's technological destruction to animals' "natural" fighting, implying human civilization has made war absurdly wasteful. The title's irony likely references how war economy exploits workers and children.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
I al | i ss wl \ i IN HONOR OF EMPLOYERS OF CHILD LABOR for us, one application is: In time of war prepare for peace! O*E alternative to employing some more troops and providing for annual provision of a moderate reserve of trained soldiers, and building a supply of torpedoes, submarines and junk of that sort, and putting a rather larger share of the national mind and money into military and naval pro- vision, would be to come out for non- resistance, Bishop Greer has done that. To the average unregenerate mind it does not look like a good course. But it looks about as good and quite as hopeful as this other method that is now proceeding in Europe. To be between excessive armament and non-resistance is to be between the devil and the deep sea, and after all, drowning is a compara- tively easy death. What does anybody suppose Ger- many would do to the world if it sat down and let her have her way? The chances are that if all outside opposi- tion were removed from her, the South Germans would presently get to work to rid themselves of the insufferable Prussian military caste, including every 759 Hohenzollern who could be caught on his way to the tall timber. In the light of events in the last three months, the present united con- dition of Germany has come to look like a cruel union of the wolf and his prey. The great crime against Ger- many is not British jealousy, not French revenge, nor Russian malice. It is German governmental stupidity. Not since William II assisted Bis- marck down the German front steps with his boot, has Germany produced a man who had the necessary gumption to get anything from Europe, except with a bludgeon. The Kaiser is not so bad as a man, but he is of second or third-rate ability, and he has man- aged to concentrate in his sacred per- son virtually all authority over the destinies of the German people. Of course, at times, democracy is heart- rending, but it isn’t so bad as a heredi- tary Kaiserism. Stars above! This spectacle of a great people befuddled and mis- led in this century by one second- rate man, himself misled by a lot of bughouse militants whose trade is de- struction! It makes one want to go out and eat grass with the cows, like Nebuchadnezzar; to get in with the animals, of whom Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania for owning things, (especially colonies), and who, though at times they fight, fight merely with horns and teeth and claws, and not with the very latest thing in modern improved machinery. It all makes one half ashamed to buy a gun or order a torpedo, though in our case, when we have done all that anyone as yet will dare propose, we will have acquired no more than a fairly competent national police force. The world nowadays, under the great stimulation of German militarism, is like a city infested with gangs, where all the available money is spent in strengthening the gangs, and nothing for the police. Only in so far as our war-money is spent on some- thing that will keep order in the world, will there be satisfaction in spending it. And perhaps it will be so spent, for if the warring gangs fight one another to a standstill and call for the police, it is we most of all who should be ready to respond. comicbooks.com