Life, 1916-05-11 · page 21 of 48
Life — May 11, 1916 — page 21: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
## The Lusitania Cartoon The top image references the 1915 sinking of the RMS Lusitania by German U-boat, which killed nearly 1,200 people including Americans. The cartoon shows a German officer toasting ("Prosit!") with an American, satirizing American ambivalence toward entering World War I despite this attack. ## "Are We Ready?" Editorial This piece criticizes President Wilson for asking Americans "are we ready?" to enter the war, when the public has been eager to intervene while Wilson hesitated. The author sarcastically recalls Wilson's 1914 non-intervention stance on Mexico and his repeated diplomatic notes to Germany ("one more note to the Kaiser") rather than military action. The critique suggests Wilson is an ineffectual leader who has held back the nation's willingness to fight. ## "An Old Trait" & "Things That Never Were" These brief humor pieces use family anecdotes—one about a soldier charging blindly into German defenses, another about a lonely suitor—to make light of wartime confusion and domestic life during the conflict. The page overall urges decisive American military intervention in WWI.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
= : “Lawyers and Lawyers” 1915 MAY 7 /39/6 ISLED, perhaps, by the Brandeis inquiry into the sup- “LUSITANIA’ position that it was the open season for Boston law- yers, Lire printed in its issue of April 6th some remarks on Mr. Sherman L. Whipple which require further atten- tion. In the Warren case, so much discussed, we are informed that the report of the proceedings shows that on several different occasions in the course of the trial Mr. Whipple made the suggestion that if on account of business engage- ments, or for any other reason, Mr. Warren desired to have the cross-examination interrupted, he would be glad to assent to its being done, but that this suggestion was more than once refused by Mr. Warren and his counsel. Tt cannot be held then to he Mr. Whipple's fault that, as said in Lire, the examination proceeded y after day” until Mr. Warren died. An Old Trait U NC EBEN: I just had a letter from my English cousin. He was in the trenches. He says one day his company was ordered to charge, and the first thing he knew he ran into a lot of barbed wire, several mines and a hun- “ prosit!" dred German batteries, Aunt Nancy: Just like George—never looks where he’s Are We Ready? Are you ready to go in where the interests of America coincide with those of humanity? —President Wilson's Jefferson Day Address, Lacie RE we ready, Mr. President? Isn't that presuming pretty far? We have tried to pry you loose and crowd you forward for at least a month of Sundays, and now that you feel the push you ask us if we are ready, PATE ry Who was it dug himself in at Indianapolis, a year or more ago, and declared that no one should interfere in Mexico while he was President? Who is it that has all along insisted on writing one more note to the Kaiser hefore doing the obvious? Not the plain people of these United States, Mr. Presi- dent. They have always been ready to go in if they could find a leader, Unfortunately, it seemed as if they had picked a wheel-horse for a leader, and he had bucked and wouldn't lead. Yes, the people are ready to go in; but as for coming out again, why so anxious about coming out before going in? Leave that to Providence. But when you do go in, Mr. President, go clear in and make a clean job of it. No more Vera-Cruzing or Villa- chasing with a string to it for the plain people. They are THINGS THAT NEVER WERE ready, but how about the leader? Suitor: on, ES, AREN'T WE LONESOME, LET'S SEND OUT W.W.H, FOR YOUR FATHER comicbooks.com