Life — December 10, 1914 — page 18: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

DECEMBER 10, 1914 “While there is Life there's Hope" Nias 79 Published by LIFE PUBLISHING COMPANY 17 West Thirty-first Street, New York English Offices, Rolls House, Breams Bldgs., London, E. C. J. A. Mitcnete, Pres’t, * NDOUBT- EDLY this is the most stupid, senseless and un- necessary war of modern times.” So the Crown Prince of Germany at the headquarters of his army in France, as reported by Karl von Wiegand, correspondent of the United Press. These are admirable words, which pierce the haze of war as a sun ray cuts through fog. No matter that the young Highness goes on to say the war was forced on Germany, He could not well say less. But in calling it stupid, senseless and unnecessary he blurted out the truth. A good young man, if only for that feat. All his talk was pretty good. Of course he talked for his own side, and (probably) for American con- sumption, but it was manly and of a sound spirit, and made one feel that if there could have been more such open talk by principals from all head- quarters before the first of August, there wouldn't have been any war. It was closet talk and lecture-room talk and secret diplomatic correspond- ence and backstairs gossip that helped on “the most stupid, senseless and unnecessary war of modern times”. Whoever picked the Crown Prince to curse out the war for the Germans, picked well. But this welcome exploit is the only considerable German success that, at this writing, looms up. Our news may not all be true or up to the date, but taking it day in and day out, and comparing one source with another, we have confidence in it. We think we know where the bat- A. Mutter, Sec’y and Treas. tle line runs in the north of France, and about where it runs on the Rus- sian side of Germany. On the west we are told the Allies are rather more than holding their own, and on the east, though advices conflict, the Russians seem to have, lately, very much the best of the fighting, so that we put our ears to the ground and listen to hear the German back door rattle. What With mines and submarines and mysterious ailments a British war- ship has come to be no place for per- sons of a nervous temperament. But for that matter we hear of very few places in this war where persons of nervous temperaments could be happy. Even the trenches ashore, where most of the fighting is done now, are noth- ing to brag of as tranquil homes. OBODY is beaten yet, except, pos- sibly, Austria, and Austria is so imperfectly articulated and is aggre- gated out of so many components that probably it is hard for her to tell at any given time what has happened to her. Besides that, her situation is complicated by her being mixed up with Germany. She may die in peace, but the Germans won't let her die in war until they get ready. They are not ready yet by a great deal. They have not yet, at this writing, got down the coast to Calais, but they are in- stalled in Belgium with an elaborate- ness that implies a disposition to make themselves a home there. Against that disposition the sentiment of almost all the rest of the world, and especially of the French, the English and the Belgians, is very decided, and to that sentiment—unless we are very much misled about what's going on—they presently will have to yield. What with the urgency of the Western Allies and the clamors of the delegation from the Czar, some forecasters think the Germans will all be home in Father- land for Christmas, but that seems al- most too abrupt a leave-taking for a people so attentive to formal manners. Forecasting the end of the war is getting to be a favorite form of relax- ation. Some of the banker gentlemen, as Mr. Schiff, are in favor of closing it with the least possible delay, fearing, possibly, that if it goes on much longer there won't be anything left even for Israel. But the Germans still seem strong for going on, at least until they have destroyed the English, and the English are for going on until the Germans lose all their appetite for loot and the sun, and withdraw their claim that they are the destined reno- vators of the universe. A Br army officer says in the papers that the war will be over in six months; an American army officer, well quali- fied to guess, says three months; an American naval officer says January will see the end of it, and that it will settle nothing. But nobody knows, and the opinion of a seventh son looks just as good as that of a military expert. S° it does about Mexico. That afflicted country is in the race with Europe for peace and seems likely to lose. But it cannot afford to lose by very much, since if Europe sets a fashion of pacification it will be very much to Mexico’s interest to fall in with it promptly. At present all the Mexican leaders seem to have fallen out afresh. We get the impression that the main trouble is with Carranza, that he might have had peace if he had wanted it, and that no settlement will suit him which is not enforced by the use of weapons. Whether if he should be cleaned up the case of the country would be improved is some- comicbooks.com