Life, 1919-07-17 · page 19 of 40
Life — July 17, 1919 — page 19: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
The main cartoon depicts a figure labeled "Peace" being held like a baby by a woman in bed, with a "League of Nations" emblem visible on a dresser. The caption reads: "Gosh! And I thought I was going to have such a nice long rest!" **The Satire:** This mocks President Woodrow Wilson's post-WWI efforts. The "Peace" looks exhausted rather than restful—suggesting that achieving peace through the League of Nations negotiations proved far more difficult and demanding than anticipated. The woman represents Europe, who expected a peaceful respite after the war but instead found herself caring for an exhausting infant (the fragile peace). **Context:** The accompanying text discusses Wilson's disappointing experience in Europe—he received an enthusiastic welcome but discovered European powers had no intention of following his vision. The cartoon satirizes how the promised "peace" required constant, exhausting maintenance rather than offering the promised rest. The League itself is portrayed as underdeveloped ("only a form") and requiring nurturing to survive.
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Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
advanced shape than the balance, nor was the attention of the con ference diverted from ac making by this detail. ual peace This is good testimony, for Mr. Simonds has never lost his heart to Mr. Wilson, and is not prevented by considerations either of politics or per- sonal fealty from telling the truth about him as he sces it. He was pretty vigorously anti-Wilson and anti- League -of - Nations when he went abroad the last time, but, like Mr. Wickersham and many other Repub- licans, he was converted by the sight of Europe's necessities to support of the League and toleration of Mr. Wil- son. Mr. Simonds says, in effect, that our President discovered when he got “cosH! AND | THOUGHT I WAS GOING. TO HAVE SUCH A NICE LONG REST to Europe and had received “the most astonishing welcome ever given to any man in history” that Europe had no idea of doing what he wanted her to do and that he could not make her do it. Mr. Simonds thinks he should have known that beforehand, but he is gen- crous in commending his action when he did find it out. He might have be- come the Bolshevist leader of Europe That, Mr. Simonds thinks, was always But he wouldn't. He might nd left Europe to But he would not possible. come home shift for herself do that. He stayed on with constantly declining influence, and made the best fight he could for his program. For that Mr. Simonds praises him: says he made a first-class fight ; quotes Clemen- WS ceau to that effeet; quotes “ Frenchmen of real weight” as saying that. in the ad that Mr Wilson came, because he had been a end, France would be usefully moderating influence. 'O be sure, this estimate by Mr. Simonds of Mr. Wilson's labors is rate in commenda very moc too moderate, probably, But as a mini- mum of what can be said for him by Ni who is trying to tell the truth, it is in- an affiliat an observer with Rey teresting. General Smuts, who had so much fault to f 1 with the Treaty, praised it for two things of immense destruct Prus- importance—the on of sian militarism and the institution of the League of Nations. “I am con- fident, id, “the League of Na- tions will yet prove the path of escape for Europe out of the ruin brought by this war.” But he added that the League, and must he quickened by “a new he as yet, was only a for which is once more creative spirit moving among the peoples in their anguish, If the League is any good (and we are quite of General Smuts’ persuasion that it is), all the people in it to have Mr. Wilson as paid the world and stay on in France, for if we can be lieve the Senatorial Fathers who are fighting him, there would not have been any League unless he had insisted on staying on the nest in Paris and hatching one out 1 Wilson refused to be the Bolshevist leader of Europe that the Vew Kepublic has lost nd Mr. Villard’s Nation clamors for his finish Pr Perhaps it is because Mr faith in him don't like him worry for fear he will get more credit and lulk more as a think right. But st he it eat man than the if that happens, they mi Great renown depends upon circum When am and gives it leadership, he cannot well fits a at crisis stances miss being rated a great man. His defects will not prevent that. A man not ignorant of some things, or in- sensitive to them, can hardly he con- centrated enough on the vital things to be the great man of a great crisis. comicbooks.com