Life — July 25, 1918 — page 16: what you’re looking at

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

“While there is Publi JULY 25, 1918 German drive, and cheerful news itis. The drive seems bi serious, but what we hear of the deportment of the reception committee is very en- couraging. The committee this time ' scems to be French and American. The French, we read, were fully pre- pared, and upset the enemy and took many prisoners. Our gentlemen coun- i ter-attacked with success, and also took a handsome batch of prisoners. This is all very comfortable first-day news, and makes us thankful again that we have eleven hundred thousand men in France, The many recent suggestions from German sources about possible terms of peace have all been so hopeless that it has been even more plain than usual that the only road to peace lay through more hard fighting and abundance of it, so that this new outbreak is only a recurrence of the inevitable, and is to i le welcomed rather than deplored. If it has come our turn to read long death lists we must remember that we cannot have victory without paying its price, and victory we must have, what- ever the cost is. That Hindenburg is dead is alw: an interesting story, The recent n edition of it, embellished with the inc dent of a quarrel with the Kaiser and resulting stroke of apoplexy, is almost thrilling. And of course it may be true, But a Hindenburg more or less is not likely to make any vital dif- ference, so long as a living Ludendorft new we Life there's Hope” ished by | LIFE PUBLISHING COMPANY ' A. Miterr, y and Treas, { 17 West Thirty-first Street, New York i English Offices, Rolls House, Breams Bldgs., London, E. C. i aS | A Lire goes is available. The story is that the old j to press man and the Kaiser disagreed about there is news the effort on the French front. It does of one day’s not say what the Kaiser wanted or fighting in 2 whether he got it, But between drives all news is desultory and inexact. When this new drive began we had been fed for weeks on stories of Ger- man discomfort, advertisements of an impending debacle in Austria, Fourth of July announcements of American achievements in transportation of men and production of ships and war ma- terial, and discussion of means to help Russia. Now comes large-scale fight- ing again, and with it a possibility of results that will count for something. AYOR MITCHEL’S funeral ew York on July rith was an interesting commentary on political methods in these States. It was a funeral of the new type for airmen, with the airplane escort overhead, swimming in the blue like fishes in a pool, a lovely and uplifting sight. Very eminent men and representatives of others, led by Colonel Roosevelt and Mr. Cleveland Dodge, walked by the hier through crowded streets, preceded and followed by the long military es- cort. It was a very beautiful funeral, a tribute far out of ordinary to a man honored, beloved and respected, chiefly for his record as mayor of New York, but who, when he ran last fall for re- election, got less than one vote in four of those cast. in Merit of itself will not win re-elec- tion for a mayor in New York, or in most other cities. It will not go very far, by itself, to win re-election any- where to a sharply contested office. The idea of the voters as critical ob- servers of affairs, watching to see how their public servants serve them, and putting them out or keeping them in, according as they do well or ill, is very largely a fallacy, The Angel Gabriel, after a perfect administration, could not be re-elected mayor of New York unless the people who wanted him were stronger and made a better campaign than the people who wanted his job. Mayor Mitchel was a better official than he was politician, and his backers were more interested in good govern- ment than they were in political or- ganization, He made a lot of Roman Catholics mad because he would not shield institutions in charge of Catho- lics from inspection and compulsory improvement. He made Hearst mad, doubtless because, being a decent, up- right man, he was heartily opposed to Hearst and all his works and wishes, from his war attitude down. He did not get the socialist vote, partly be- cause it was against the war and the draft, partly because Socialists want, not good government, but government by Socialists. Under an immense bar- rage of lies—about Gary schools, bank- ers’ financiering, the garbage plant, the New York Central West Side tracks plan—the opposition infantry went for- ward and easily captured the polls. The trouble was there was no general- ship and little preparation on his side, and people who wanted bad govern- ment bagged the votes. And so, no doubt, they always will, a good deal of the time. Thackeray said: a ee It is as The strong may yield, the good may fall, The great man be a vulgar clown, The knave be lifted over all, The kind cast pitilessly down, No doubt it has to be that way, else the world wouldn't mov that’s the way it is. certainly exhibition of the New York j Evening Mail as a German-bought paper has been interesting, and has comicbooks.com