Life — February 22, 1917 — page 21: what you’re looking at

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

THE PEACEMAKER Wilhelm: WHAT HAVE YOU GOT THERE? Hun General: ONLY SOME BELGIANS WHO REFUSED TO VOLUNTEER FOR OUR MUNITION WORKS. Presidént knows it. Democracy cannot welch. Mr. Wilson knows that. The Kai: government has put a penny in our slot, and democracy must de- liver the goods. nobody can put us in the war to advantage but our government. A It must say when; it must say how. Delay is trying, but there may be va- rious reasons for it: necessary prepa- rations to make, like nets across our harbor mouths ; choices of occasion and provocation. Another day, another week of preparation and avoidance may be important, but delay cannot last long nor war be averted except by act of Ger- many. Says the World: “The Ameri- can people might as well make up their minds that war with Germany is inevi- table,” and again: “ What we now call peace is not peace. It is merely non- resistance on our part. What Germany is doing (to us) is war.” That is it. That is true. What Ger- 309 many is doing to us is war, but our government, for reasons best known to itself, and which it may not be ex- pedient to divulge, is slow to admit it. Our commerce is held up except in cases of owners and masters bold enough to take all risks and defy de- struction. It was good to have the Rochester and the Orlean sail out of New York Harbor on February oth in the teeth of the German warning. Fifteen Americans in the ship’s company. of the Rochester rep- resented ten different states. Bold men are Captain Kokeritz and Cap- tain Tucker, but after all, they are doing no more than the British skip- pers have been doing right along. The difference is that the British govern- ment is doing what it can to protect its shipping, whereas our government, at this writing, is still lying low and, doubt- less with pain, sees the American Line steamers held up in New York “until the American Government takes meas- ures to protect American lives and property.” They will sail, the agent says, if they can get either guns or a convoy. As yet they can get neither, but such a situation cannot last long. It means just what the World says, that Germany is at war with us and we are non-resistant, The latest story, as Lire goes to press, is that Germany was aston- ished to have her ambassador re- turned, and had not counted on such action, but merely on more talk, to drag along until she tried out her new U-boats. If she has really been sur- prised it is delightful. But partial con- cessions cannot now win delay for her. She has tried through the Swiss min- ister to reopen parleys with Washing- ton, and the President has declined the invitation unless and until the recent U-boat notice is withdrawn. That is precisely the answer that will most cheer the country’s heart. When our President broke off diplo- matic intercourse it was action; real action, and it made a new situation that the country plainly wishes to back up. Democracy is on trial, democracy the cure-all now offered to all the world. It is high time that our de- partment of it should demonstrate ca- pacity to cure something. comicbooks.com