Life, 1915-12-02 · page 27 of 100
Life — December 2, 1915 — page 27: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page presents a Christmas-themed editorial (not a cartoon) arguing that **property-obsession causes war**, while Christian righteousness promotes peace. The text criticizes **Germany** specifically—likely written during or shortly after WWI—for embodying the worst "property-first" mentality. The author claims Germans justified theft and violence as acceptable when serving German interests, treating robbery as legitimate nationalism. The satirical argument: Germany accumulated wealth and power ("every good dog in Europe...filling up with German fleas"), but their moral framework rationalized forceful expansion as morally equivalent to honest industry. This German attitude toward property and righteousness (putting property first, righteousness second) represents the root cause of perpetual warfare. The decorative border features medieval/religious imagery and wreaths, emphasizing the Christian moral framework being invoked. The byline reads "PAUL GOOLD" (artist's signature on the decorative frame). This is propaganda-adjacent editorial content, not satirical cartooning.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Christmas Life ing, and build up great edifices of possession on foundations that crumble under pressure. But the Christian way is the right one that makes for peace, and only as that way prevails in the world will there ever be peace. The fighting that perpetually breaks out is the result of following the other method—the method of first grabbing everything in reach with the hope of adding character and order and benevolence at leisure, That is what is at the bottom of all the kinds of war—the war of magnate with magnate, of corporation with government, of workman with employer, of nation with nation. The peace prospects of the world can be very simply stated. They depend upon the prevailing attitude of the human mind toward property and righteousness. Right- cousness first means good peace prospects; property first means lots more wars. If you think that out of its abundant experience mankind is getting to feel that, after all, property is only the tail of the dog, then you must be hopeful of world peace, but if you think that in spite of all that happens, and all the saints and all the gun factories and all the printer’s ink, mankind is still of the opinion that property is the dog and righteousness merely the tail, then, of course, your expectation of world peace must be faint. E =RYBODY is prone to overvalue property; people do it, nations do it; hardly any one is blameless except a few tramps and im- practical people. But some people and some nations are much worse about it than others. The great quarrel that the rest of Christendom has just now with the Germans is that beyond all other people (who are bad cnough) they have put property first and planned to have righteousness for the mere tail of their dog. Is it not enough to say that that was had in the Germans; it is important to notice how stupid it was. The Germans were fast getting possession of the earth. Every good dog in Europe, not to speak of America, was filling up with German fleas and they were all fattening. But deep in the German mind was the senti- ment that robbery is not robbery when Germans steal for Germany; deep in the German mind was the sentiment that to get by force is as good a way as any. So, having got by industry what was to be had, comicbooks.com.