Life, 1915-07-15 · page 18 of 48
Life — July 15, 1915 — page 18: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**"Letter of Thanks to Germany"** is a bitter satirical open letter from fictional munitions manufacturers thanking the Kaiser for starting World War I. The satire exposes how arms dealers profited from the war: before 1914, peace made it "impossible" to sell weapons, but the Kaiser's aggression created demand, allowing manufacturers to sell poor-quality materiel at inflated prices to terrified nations. This mocks both German militarism and American war profiteers. **"Consistency (?)"** contrasts American immigration attitudes between 1900 and 1915. In 1900, Americans opposed foreign immigration as job-stealing. By 1915, those same foreigners were being recalled home by their nations for WWI service—and Americans now complained about labor shortages. The satire ridicules American hypocrisy and short-sighted self-interest. **"Smith's Good Luck"** is a brief joke: dancing exhausted Smith's wife so severely she required sanitarium care—suggesting either extreme fragility or that dancing itself was dangerously strenuous.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“i EE Letter of Thanks To Germany D®® KAISER: We, the undersigned, duly authorized representatives of the International Protective Association of Manufac- turers of War Munitions and Murder Machines, do hereby offer and present to you our most grateful acknowledg- ment of the great world service you have performed by destroying the peace of nations Under the abnormal peace conditions which had come to prevail and which seemed in danger of becoming worse— leading possibly to a chronic condition of peace and good fellowship throughout the earth—it was growing very diffi- cult for us to sell our products in satisfactory quantities. Both statesmen and laymen were acquiring the unpleasant habit of turning up their noses when we came around to exhibit our wares, no matter how murderously efficient those wares might happen to be. As for getting up a good, healthy war scare, the thing was growing absolutely impossible. But now, dear Kaiser, everything is different. You have made it so that we can sell anything, no matter how poor the material or how high the price. You have filled the heads of nations everywhere with mortal terror not only of possible but of impossible calamities, and thus you have caused them to loosen their purse-strings to such an extent that where they formerly balked at millions, they are now ready and anxious to throw billions into our capacious coffers, We trust you will continue the good work. With renewed thanks and continued good wishes, we are, Most cordially yours, O. Howe Lovinc, C. M. Wrytue, Special Committee. Both: 1 BELIEVE SOME ONE IS FOLLOWING Consistency (?) In 1900. AMERICAN: Our government ought to wake up at once. he idea of allowing this flood of riffraff foreigners to immigrate here! It ought to be stopped! There ought to he some way whereby every one of these fellows could be sent hack, They are driving native-born Americans out of jobs everywhere, etc., etc. In 1015. Americax: So these foreign nations are calling on their subjects over here to go back home. The idea! It’s an outrage! It means a shortage of labor that will cripple everything here. That's what we get for welcom- ing them with open arms all these years, etc., etc. Smith's Good Luck Dancing is fine for people, don’t you think? Yes; it exhausted Smith's wife so that she's “Geel AIN'T HE THE SISSY, PLAYIN’ WITH CATS gone into a sanitarium for a year. ale, comicbooks.com