Life, 1915-06-10 · page 32 of 48
Life — June 10, 1915 — page 32: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**"His First Affair"** is a political cartoon critiquing German military doctrine during World War I. The illustration shows children playing, while the accompanying text uses an extended metaphor: a man justifies committing atrocities against his neighbor William Smith as "military necessity" to solve his own problems—shooting him, drowning his baby, burning his buildings. The satire equates Germany's invasion of neutral Belgium and other aggressive actions to a criminal's self-serving rationalization. The text concludes that such logic is indefensible; any civilized society would respond by hanging this "Friedrich" (clearly representing Germany/Kaiser Friedrich Wilhelm). The second article, **"Population a By-Product,"** addresses evangelist Billy Sunday's criticism of women avoiding childbearing. Life's counter-argument: population growth naturally follows when society becomes morally upright and habitable—it's not women's duty to reproduce in an unattractive world. The piece advocates social improvement over moral blame. Both pieces reflect Progressive-era American magazine satire using sharp wit to critique militarism and religious moralizing.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
HIS FIRST AFFAIR German Military Necessity HE German doctrine of military necessity is as though a man should say: “Here I am in a bad hole, To get me out it is necessary for me to shoot my neighbor, William Smith, brain his wife, throw his baby down the well, kidnap his daughters, carry off his household effects and burn his buildings. It is not that Wil- liam is my enemy or has done me any harm, but I have got to make myself respected in the community, so that my necessary plans can go through. William lives next to the bank. If he would let me through his property so I could get into the bank's basement and supply my needs, it would be all right. But he won't. I know he won't. He is a pig-headed devil and must take the consequences of his infernal obstinacy. Francis, the bank watchman, will make a lot of trouble for me if I don't get the start of him, Also, John will butt in and want to do me an injury, and Sam, across the lake, will be sailing over to find out what's what. I must fix it to kill Francis, and stand off John and sink his sailboat, and Sam's, too, somehow. And no doubt all the neigh- bors will raise a howl, but what is a man to do when he is in a hole? He must just take the necessary measures to get out and trust in a God who will recognize his needs and endorse his expedients.” That is a comprehensible doctrine, but sure to be troublesome. Nobody will accept it except Friedrich, whose own it is. To every one else it will seem that Friedrich is taking unwar- rantable pains to save himself from embarrassment, and that by far the simpler way to relieve the situation is to get together a vigilance committee and provide a rope and catch Fried- rich and hang him to the nearest tree, Population a By-Product ILLY SUNDAY is among those who charge women with unwill- ingness to have children. As to that, Brother, don’t worry. It is not your lookout to keep the world populated. Your office is to try to make it habitable. If you can induce right minds and right deport- ment in enough people it will be habitable. There is nothing the matter with the world except the misbehavior of folks. In so far as you can cure that you make life attractive, and if life is at- tractive the problem of population will take care of itself. Population that survives infancy is a by-product of righteousness. comicbooks.com