Life, 1915-02-25 · page 17 of 44
Life — February 25, 1915 — page 17: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page critiques neutral powers' failure to enforce the Hague agreement after Germany invaded Belgium in WWI. The illustration shows a motorcycle careening dangerously off a cliff while a passenger cries "We are all afire!"—the "aeronaut" taking a shortcut to escape. This metaphor represents neutral nations (Italy, Rumania, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, the U.S.) who signed the Hague treaty promising to jointly protect neutral territory, yet did nothing when Germany violated Belgian neutrality. The text, attributed to Nobel Peace Prize winner Louis Renault, compares the situation to boys making a pact against bullying, then passively watching one boy throttle another. The satire's point: an unenforced agreement is meaningless, and neutral bystanders bear guilt for their inaction. The cartoon mocks their cowardly "shortcut"—avoiding intervention—as reckless and ultimately self-destructive.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
321 Who Is Guilty > OUIS RENAULT, winner of the 1907 Nobel Peace Prize, recently expressed his surprise that none of the neu- tral Powers who had signed The Hague agreement which declared that the territory of a neutral Power should not he violated has apparently been willing to back up this agreement. It is virtually the same thing as if a group of boys got together and made an agreement that none of them should be allowed to maltreat or rob any peaceful boy among them without the consent of all; that, if such a thing did happen, the of- fender should he punished. Then when the thing actually happened, the boys simply shrugged their shoulders and were silent. Rumania, Norway, Denmark and the United States had, at the first news that Germany had in- vaded Belgium, served notice upon Germany that — they would all join France land and Russia to keep her out of Belgium, until they had an opportunity to sit on the merits of the case, what would have happened? Would Germany have been awed into negotiations? That, as an immediate consequence, may he doubted. But in the face of the armed intervention of all the other Powers, it is prac- tically certain that Germany's course in Belgium would have heen checked very soon. It is obvious that a Hague agreement which is not car- ried out is no agreement at all. There must, however, always he a feeling of obligation and guilt on the part of bystand- ers when they calmly watch a fight in which the Big Boy is throttling the Little Boy, and, “on, NED! WE ARE ALL AFIRE!” folding their arms, declare Ned the Acronaut: tuAt's wity 1 AM that they guess. they'll keep TAKING A SHORT CUT TO THE RIVER, out of it. comicbooks.com