Life, 1915-07-29 · page 16 of 40
Life — July 29, 1915 — page 16: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page critiques **neutrality during World War I**, likely from 1914-1917. The poem "When" by J.K.B. sarcastically lists atrocities—murder, drowning children, killing mothers—arguing that only when such horrors become virtuous would neutrality be acceptable. The point: neutrality in the face of evil is morally bankrupt. The cartoon "In a Neutral Country" depicts a church scene where a child asks if it's "God's house," with the caption "What is he doing out of Germany?"—suggesting God has abandoned Germany due to its wartime brutality, or that German atrocities are so severe that even divine presence cannot remain. "The Black Hand" (lower left) likely references the Serbian nationalist group implicated in Archduke Franz Ferdinand's assassination, which sparked WWI. Together, these works pressure American readers to abandon neutrality and condemn German aggression, presenting neutrality as complicit with evil.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
When WHEN murder, arson and rapine Are worthy of the laurel green— Then I'll be Neutral. When drowning children in the sea Is charter to nobility— Then I'll be Neutral. When killing mothers with their young Becomes a deed by poets sung— Then I'll be Neutral, When shattering of plighted word Is theme by which the heart is stirred— Then I'll be Nevtral. When cowardice and dastard crime Are reckoned 'mongst the things sub- lime— Then I'll be Neutral, When bloody hearth and hell-scarred field A golden harvesting shall yield— Then I'll be Neutral. When arrogance and lust and shame Win honor and a noble fame— Then I'll be Neutral. When my own sense of wrong and right Have faded into hopeless night— Then I'll be Neutral. Or, blank of mind, I do not know ‘The good and true from sin and woe— Then I'll be Neutral. J. K. B. THE BLACK HAND IN A NEUTRAL COUNTRY “ MOTHER, 1S THIS GoD's HOUSE?” “WHAT IS HE DOING OUT OF GERMANY?” comicbooks.com