Life, 1918-04-04 · page 19 of 40
Life — April 4, 1918 — page 19: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page from *Life* magazine addresses World War I, likely from 1916-1917. The cartoon depicts **Uncle Sam** (representing the United States) sternly warning a small figure—likely representing either a German saboteur or an American pacifist/draft resister—about blowing up munition plants and bombing ships, threatening only a dollar fine as mock punishment. The accompanying editorial argues that the war dominates all civilian life and moral consideration. It warns of German supremacy's brutal consequences and appeals to American readers' duty to support the war effort, even those not directly fighting ("they also serve who only stand and wait"). The satire's point: American neutrality is morally untenable given the stakes; all citizens must contribute to defeating Germany and preventing European/global domination. The "dollar fine" joke underscores how inadequate pacifism or sabotage seems against the war's magnitude.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
to. ot on. am: NAUGHTY! NA Unele : GMTY ! Metin = = IS Ik 1 CATCH YOU AGAIN BLOWING UP MUNITION PLANTS AND PUTTING BOMBS ON SHIPS I SHALL FINE YOU A DOLLAR miles, to our distress as we look on and to the consternation of the timor- ous, but it cannot overwhelm it. For every mile of gain the attacking armies will pay the price. What they win in territory they will lose in man-power that they cannot spare and cannot re- place. Mere gains of acreage will not help them. They have all Russia al- ready. Distrust all fearsome headlines that make the heart sink. Wait till the end, and have courage to believe that it will be an end worth the greatest fight for defense of Christendom for eleven hundred years. & thecurly wilf! red = V2? < oul 7's & HILE this great battle is going on there is no other topic. One would owe an apology to mankind for thinking of anything else. The or- dinary occupations of life have to be 555 gone through with, One must wash and dress and eat and sleep and go through some process of making a liv- ing, and such things require attention of a sort, and furnish their little offer- ing of distraction. But when the mind reaches out beyond the duties of the hour, up it comes against the war. No man-of business can make a business plan that goes beyond immediate rou- tine without relating it to the war. As the war goes, goes business. No writer dips his pen in ink or oils his type- writer, no minister sclects his text, no doctor starts on his morning rounds, without looking first to see how the war goes. Black Care, who these many centuries has sat behind the horseman, has a “permission” at last, and there, in the place of her, sits The War! No one can prepare for future experience in this world without computing what like of world it is going to he, and that ‘0 one can pre- depends on the war. } pare for heaven without considering how he has discharged his duties on earth, and the first question he must ask himself is, what he has done to win the war. Slackers on the war may get to heaven eventually, for we must not dare to clamp our poor re- strictions on the Divine Mercy, but they won't make fast time about it, will they? If it is true that th only stand and wait, then we are all serving, and it is a trying serv It behooves us to get out of it all that there is in it for us. Here we are hav- ing brought home to us the possibility of German supremacy in Europe, with all its brutal consequences, its crucl- ties, its enslavements, its lootings, its heries, its trampling upon ey also serve who spies, its trea the weak and appropriation of the un- protected. And supremacy in Europe once attained, the next step would be a world supremacy against which we would be the chief contestant. It is inst that, too, that the foemen of Britain and France are contending in blood and anguish in the shambles of western France. To us who ch and wait, every headline cries: This battle is for you; for us and next for you. These wounds, if you yourselves escape them, it is at least for you to bind up. Remember !—say the headlines—Re- member! Remember! comicbooks.com