Life, 1917-07-26 · page 19 of 40
Life — July 26, 1917 — page 19: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This Life magazine cartoon satirizes German-American relations during World War I. The image depicts the German Kaiser watching a man holding a "Democracy" box being threatened by a bear labeled "Russia." The Kaiser's caption—"Ach! and I thought the bear was going to eat him up!"—expresses the Kaiser's disappointment that democracy (represented by the box-holder) survives despite Russian aggression. The cartoon reflects anxieties about Russia's internal instability during WWI and suggests the Kaiser hoped Russian military pressure would destroy American democratic institutions. The accompanying article criticizes Mr. Denman, head of the U.S. Shipping Board, questioning his competence and his alleged pro-German sympathies (notably his family's commercial ties to Germany). The piece suggests Denman is undermining America's war effort and lacks the confidence inspiring leadership of figures like General Goethals.
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Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
are nes m- the wn er. ict Nes en ral ly tis al he XUM Kaiser: acti! AND 1 THOUGHT THE BEAR WAS GOING TO EAT HIM UP! They will find them filled with young men who have quit the employments. they were practicing or being trained for to do a duty to the country by learning soldicring. Some of them like soldiering, some don't. A good many are awfully bored with it, but that seems to make little difference. They drive ahead with it as something necessary to do; do thcir best at it, do it cheerfully it pretty bad food, but keep well; rest when they get a chance, have what fun is possible, and discuss freely whether what is done is done as it should be, and how, in their opinion, it might be done better. These camps are improvistd schools. They are short of teachers, books, apparatus and system, and long of pupils. Of course they are not all they should be. Of course the instruction is imperfect. Nevertheless, the candidate officers scem to be getting a great deal. They have all been dragged out of the ruts in which they were travelling, detached from all their habits of life and thought, herded in with new compan- ions, and obliged to put aside all their prejudices and preferences and live and work physically and mentally un- der orders for sixteen hours a day. That sort of a regimen may be very useful to a young man who has grown up with the habit of consulting his own 139 inclination about most things, and avoiding employments that he did not like. The elective system has largely governed our American life, with duc development of the disposition to take soft courses. The training camps are a tonic change from that, and though the courses they offer are not an ex- cessive tax on fairly well trained minds, they are not soft courses. NFORMATION would be welcomed as to the value of Mr. Denman to the shipping situation. He comes from California, is understood to have recommended for appointment by Sec- retary Lane, and was thrust into the chairmanship of the Shipping Board by order of Secretary McAdoo, at cost of the retirement from that board of Mr. Bernhard Baker. One hears of Mr. Denman as the son-in-law of a n Francisco mer- chant who sold supplies to the German squadron that sunk a British squadron off Chile. One hears of him an English-hater and a champion brow- Violent language Ity. It is related been heater and scold. seems to be his spe that he even tried it on Mr. Balfour, and that he habitually used the meth- he has been ods of a bully. Certainly in a constant scrimma Goethals since they have been on the shipping job. Is the man any good? Is he fighting anyone who ought to be fought, or merely holding up work? rman? with General Is Mr. McAdoo pleased with him? Is there any good reason why he should not be fired? There is a great mystery about Mr. Denman. One would like to know why so good a man as Mr. Lane thought well of him; why Mr. McAdoo forced him into the chairmanship of the Ship- ping Board, and what the man i anyhow. General Goethals has the con- fidence of the country. Whose con- fidence is it that is backing Mr. Den- man? comicbooks.com