Life, 1919-02-27 · page 12 of 38
Life — February 27, 1919 — page 12: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is an editorial address to returning World War I soldiers. The decorative border features cherubs and patriotic imagery (shield, flag motifs). The text urges veterans to maintain the "heroism" and discipline that characterized their military service, now applying it to civilian life and employment. Key points: The author acknowledges that peace hasn't officially ended the war, and veterans face an "immense readjustment." Rather than complaining about unsuitable postwar jobs, veterans should approach civilian work with the same spirit of duty they showed in combat. The piece argues that their old prewar jobs won't fit anymore—veterans and the world have both changed—so they should embrace new opportunities and "stretch it to hero size." The message reflects post-WWI concerns about veteran reintegration and social stability.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
A Word to Heroes TILL be heroes when you come home. en in these States, fa from shell-holes and trenches, there are heroic times and more coming. We need persons who can sit tight; gentlemen not too much con- cerned about what is going to happen to them and the rest of the community, but duly concerned for their own conduct and the main- tenance of the spirit and the discipline that helped them to end the war. Observe, heroes, that this is your country. Do what you can to take care of your property. The.country owes you a great deal, and part of it it will doubtless attempt to pay, and it is important that it should, But it is much more important that you should pay what you still owe to the country. Think what she has done for you! Could you have been heroes unless she had got you into the war? Do you think you were born heroes? Not a bit of it. Heroism was handed out to you. You are heroes because you had to be. Nothing less than heroism could meet the situation you had to meet, and you reached for it and put it on like a garment. It is a good garment. Keep iton! It is becoming. You know the war is not yet over. Peace is not signed yet, but even when peace is signed the war will not be over. It will hardly be over in your lifetime. The war has shaken all the habits and all the old arrange- ments of this world. There is ahead an immense readjustment. All you heroes feel, one hears, that your old jobs are not good enough for you. Probably they are not. If you got out of the war what there was in it for you, you are much bigger men than when you went in, and would probably find your old jobs a tight fit. But when a man’s job becomes a tight fit it cracks down the back and he usually gets one that is more commodious. You are not the same as you were before the war, neither are jobs the same. They have changed as much as the heroes have changed who used to fill them, Finding a job that will fit will be to many heroes a good deal like going over the top, but the spirit that went over the top will find the job and stretch it to here size. comicbooks.com