Life, 1917-09-13 · page 9 of 44
Life — September 13, 1917 — page 9: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains a poem titled "Making the World Safe" by McLandburgh Wilson, satirizing WWI-era justifications for American intervention. The poem mocks the phrase "made safe for Democracy"—the official rationale for U.S. entry into World War I. Wilson's poem argues this is hollow propaganda: while politicians claim noble motives, the actual consequences are devastating: men conscripted, women impoverished, children orphaned, and the "bravest" killed. The accompanying illustration labeled "Stymied" shows a woman and man at a desk in apparent marital conflict, satirizing how war's economic hardship strains domestic life. The dialogue at bottom reinforces the theme: financial struggle makes supporting a family impossible, even in peacetime. The satire targets political rhetoric divorced from human reality—a common Life magazine critique of government wartime claims.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
XUM Making the World Safe ADE safe for Democracy” rings mighty fine, But high-sounding politics ain't in our line. "Tain't that makes us chuck up our jobs and enlist For giving the Kai: But this is the reason stowed under our lids: We're making it safe for the missus and kids, era taste of a fist. They've taken the men-folks and used m for slaves, They've driven the women to worse than their graves, aken the babies and cut off ir hands, And murdered the bravest and peace- fullest lands, And this is the notion tucked under our lids: It's somebody's missus and somebody's kids. We ain't any braver—it might have been us, And that’s why we're doing our bit in the fuss. We don’t know the rules of the high- sounding game, Perhaps in the end it all comes to the same. But this is the notion stowed under our lid it safe for the missus and kids. MeLandburgh Wilson, St 2: Don't you think you ought at Icast to make enough moncy to support me? He: It wouldn't make any differ- ence; even then I couldn't support you, STYMIED comicbooks.com