Life, 1919-07-31 · page 23 of 40
Life — July 31, 1919 — page 23: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**Main Article: "The Winning of the War"** This satirical piece critiques Field Marshal Haig's claim that Britain alone won WWI. The author uses elimination to argue no single nation won—not France, Russia, Italy, Belgium, Serbia, Portugal, Montenegro, or Japan. The article acknowledges President Wilson stated America's involvement was decisive, yet notes the English conveniently forget such contributions (comparing it to forgetting Wellington at Waterloo). The satire's point: post-war nationalism and selective memory were already emerging. Each Allied power wanted credit. The author argues the war required *all* nations' sacrifice and mutual ruin to necessitate cooperation for reconstruction. **Cartoon Caption:** The Chinwood cartoon shows a boy with puppies, saying he likes puppies but only has three and doesn't care for "aunts" (likely a pun—unclear referent). The joke's meaning is unclear without additional context. **Bottom "Puzzle":** References finding "the reverend gentleman who will soon receive a terrible shock"—likely a separate visual puzzle not fully explained on this page.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
The Winning of the War “TjON'T forget,” said Field Mar- shal Haig at Newcastle, “don't forget it was the British Empire that won this war.” And he went on, as reported by cable: We talk a great deal about our allies, It was necessary and right that we should do so to buck them up all we could while the fighting was going on, but you know our Russian friends let us down and the Italians didn't do a very great deal. Then our French friends made the best of it, but then they really had very hard job at the beginning the last two years England bore the brunt of the struggle Marshal Haig is a good general, respectable character who has retired from the whisky business, and a model of discretion compared with Marshal French whom he succeeded, but this question of who won the war is too large to be dismissed in a sentence. It may, perhaps, be discussed to ad- vantage by elimination. Belgium didn’t win the war. France didn’t win it, though she did most of the fighting. Russia didn’t win it, nor Italy, nor Serbia, nor Portugal, no} Montenegro, nor Japan. The gallant French were beaten, except for outside help. The British Empire was never licked. The British did so much and did it so long and hard that it is no wonder Haig thinks they won the war. = ee But they didn’t. President Wilson told the sailors on the Fourth of July: “If it had not been for America the “AT'S DARN FUNNY. TE LIKE PUPPIES, AN I'VE GOT ONLY THREE, 1 DON'T CARE FOR AUNTS, AN’ I'VE GOT SEVEN” war would not have been won.” Eight months ago that was almost a universal opinion. Everybody said so. The English—some of them—will forget soon, and many have forgotten already, that any Yankees got to Europe, just as they promptly forgot that there was anybody but Welling- ton at Waterlc The English are a great people—on the whole the great- est breed on carth, and greater in nothing than in their ity to forget. But they did not win the war. It seemed to be contrived that the war should not be won until every nation necessary to the reconstruction of the world had been deeply implicated in it, and until most of them were so nearly ruined that they must all work to- gether to avoid a common destruction. The United States saved the day, but it didn't win the war. Belgium, France, Russia, Britain, Italy and finally the United States saved the day in turn. Between them all the war lasted till the Allies won it. E..S. M. PUZZLE — FIND THE REVEREND GENTLEMAN WHO WILL SOON RECEIVE only half the reform movements ever accomplished A TERRIBLE SHOCK ng, Hades would be a lonesome place. comicbooks.com