Life — February 22, 1917 — page 20: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

“Whale there is Py LIFE PUBL! FEBRUARY 22, 1917. J. A. Mircurnt, Pres't. 6 791 VOL., No. 1 Life there's Hope" hed by HING COMPANY A. Miter, Sec’y and Treas. 17 West Thirty-first Street, New York English Offices, Rolls House, A D China, too, says she'll send the Kaiser’s ambas- sador home if the ruthless U- boat plan goes HA through! SO The fine old Tee girl! Her heart is in the right place. Our Uncle Sam will rejoice in her determination, for truly, it is comforting to us in all these troubles to have the company of an- other comprehensive republic in a soft- shell state like ours. Two large fea- ther-beds like China and us might smother Prussia. But Venust. Carranza of Mexico has been sending out a circular urging the neutrals to knuckle down to Kaiser Bill, and take his sass, and stop ship- ping munitions, It makes one doubt if Venust. is rcally one of the great civilized powers, but allowances must be made for him because of the very inadequate. sys- tem of instruction that he has been under these last four years. He will hardly learn much in the school he has been going to. He needs to feel in the slack of his trousers a firm hand with lifting power. As for other neutrals, those in Eu- rope have to take thought for their ge- ographical situations, and for those liable to be overrun by Germans the wise course is to temporize. For us these are funny times, in which one looks at the paper every morning to see if we are at war and turns away disappointed because we Breams Bidgs., London, E. C. are not. The impulse is strong to scold the President for too great delibera- tion, but that is being done so amply that it seems superfluous to contribute to it. Everybody who feels uneasy these very uneasy days looks to the President and wonders how to induce him to get a move on. Many offer him advice, but the most papular atti- tude towards him is that of patience, much tried and tending towards exas- peration, but still sustainable a day or two longer. But if the deeps are dumb there is a great murmuring of the shal- They talk, they hold mectings, they write letters to the papers, they advertise. Those who: want to get into the war without another minute's de- lay, compete for newspaper and plat- form space with those who insist on keeping out of the war at any price. Hon. Bill Bryan is coaching vocifer- ously from the side-lines in violation of rules. Will the umpire kindly bestow what attention is necessary upon him! Crystal and Max Eastman, Mrs. Henry Villard and son Oswald, Miss Jane Addams, Miss Wald, Sophronis- ba P. Breckenridge, Amos Pinchot, Haynes Holmes, Lovejoy Elliott, Da- vid Starr Jordan, Stephen Wise and other illustrious expounders are rous- ing the country against militarism, shouting for a referendum on the war, protesting against the disposition of a faction of the Woman Suffrage Party to support the government, or planninz demonstrations of the Emergency Peace Federation. Henry Ford, though loyal, war or peace, is anxious that no manufacturer of war goods shall make money out of lows. war. Henry made nearly all his money out of peace. On the other hand Admiral Fiske is telling us that Uncle Sam has come to be too lady-like, General Wood is warning us not to brag that we can thrash anybody, Major George Put- nam is urgent not to keep the war waiting in the cold another minute, Mr. Sidney Brooks puts us right with all the candor of a native, the Security League or the Navy League lays a cir? cular every morning on our breakfast table, and the Senate has actually passed a bill to initiate universal mili- tary service. 'HESE are all grand ebullitions. We are not torpid any more. Kai- ser Bill's government has got us started, and it looks as though we should keep going until we got somewhere. Of the warmth of sentiment hereabouts there is no doubt. What one reads in the pa- pers is backed by the flags that fly, up and down the avenues as far as, one can see, and on the side streets in like profusion. The talk is all right; the disputes are all lawful, but beyond that one might like to bid the President “beware of the leaven of the pacifists,” there is not much to say to him. People with no confidence in him are afraid he will back down. But how can he? His whole nature may rebel against war, as Mr. Lawrence in the Evening Post says it does, but if war knocks at our door he won't crawl under the bed. When he sent home the German ambassador, he showed full intention to meet the demands of a sit- uation, and in spite of all the pacifist cries and Mr. Bryan's questionable ac- tivities, and everything one reads or hears, that is no valid sign of abate- ment of his purpose. Mr. Lansing made a public speech on February 1oth and there was no sign of backdown in that. No, the sit- uation is trying, but it seems safe. It is democracy that is on trial, and the comicbooks.com