Life, 1916-11-09 · page 9 of 40
Life — November 9, 1916 — page 9: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**Main Image**: "Nightmare of a Pacifist" shows a figure in bed experiencing a nightmare, likely depicting anxieties about pacifism during wartime. **Text Content**: The article discusses Woodrow Wilson's political reputation following his presidential campaign. It mentions that Wilson has been portrayed negatively by Republican opponents as an undesirable figure, with comparisons to Theodore Roosevelt. The piece notes Wilson was seen as "slack and timid" and lacking leadership qualities by critics. **The Cartoon Below**: Shows a lawyer proposing to a woman, with the caption "Answer Yes or No"—a simple visual joke about the difficulty of getting a direct answer, possibly satirizing Wilson's own tendency toward ambiguity on political issues. **Context**: This appears from the 1912 campaign period when Wilson faced criticism for his positions on preparedness and foreign policy before America's WWI involvement.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
———ESsas_ nn NIGHTMARE OF A PACIFIST men; that whereas as Governor he had been accessible and companionable, as President he became almost a recluse, seeing few people and not much of them. It is a fact that beyond prece- dent he succeeded in fencing off the most public of public offices with privacy, and that personally he is little better known than he was when elected. He has made a good many speeches, and played golf in open fields, but few people have got at him, and his char- acter and qualities are estimated by public acts, the merits of most of which are bitterly disputed. When his private life was slandered, as hap- pened at one time, it was harder to disperse absurd calumnies because so few known people were near enough to him to be accepted as authori qualified to do it. Much more, therefore, than is usual in Presidents who have served a term, Mr. Wilson, the man, is still largely a 801 creature of the imagination, about whom men have such ideas as happen to have lodged in their heads, and are subject to change as their moods vary or a new information, or mis- information, is furnished them. So it has happened that the main effort of the Republican opposition in the campaign has been to represent him as all that is politically undesirable. Nobody has bothered to vilify Mr. Hughes, who has merely been punched up because of his unfortunate associa tions and his avoidance of opinions on ticklish subjects, but a fearful and wonderful Wilson figure has been of- fered to contemplation as the Demo- cratic candidate. And it has been quite honestly of- fered, The image of Wilson that Mr. Roosevelt has in the back of his head isn’t fit to be President. But no doubt the Colonel believes it is the real Wil- son. And so do tens of thousands of other voters, The discrepancy of esti- mate about this man among honorable and well-informed people has been amazing. Professor Mather of Prince- ton finds him slack and timid, a talker, not a doer; Dr. Taussig of Harvard sees in him “a commanding political leader.” It is over. Let us be glad of that However it has gone, it leaves Mr Wilson with a greater variety of repu- tations on his hands than any Presi- dent has had since Andrew Jackson But it has settled nothing about him but the nature of his employment for the next four years ELS. M. Lawyer (proposing ANSWER YES OR NO cComicbooks.com —