America In The War
Louis Raemaekers
98 chapters
2 hour read
Selected Chapters
98 chapters
AMERICA IN THE WAR
AMERICA IN THE WAR
AMERICA IN THE WAR BY LOUIS RAEMAEKERS EACH CARTOON FACED WITH A PAGE OF COMMENT BY A DISTINGUISHED AMERICAN, THE TEXT FORMING AN ANTHOLOGY OF PATRIOTIC OPINION NEW YORK THE CENTURY CO. 1918 Copyright, 1918, by The Century Co. Published, October, 1918...
18 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
The Stars and Stripes in the Service of Humanity
The Stars and Stripes in the Service of Humanity
“WE have no selfish ends to serve. We desire no conquest, no dominion. We seek no indemnities for ourselves, no material compensation for the sacrifices we shall freely make. We are but one of the champions of the rights of mankind. We shall be satisfied when those rights have been as secure as the faith and the freedom of the nation can make them.” From President Wilson’s Message to Congress, April 2, 1917....
29 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
“When I was a Child, It was You who Saved Me”
“When I was a Child, It was You who Saved Me”
WHETHER it is that an invigorating climate has given our Anglo-Saxon blood a piquant Gallic flavor or because Europe sent us for ancestors only those light-hearted and adventurous souls with a spirit akin to that we admire in the French people, true it is that Americans have always had an especial liking for France and the French. They were our first allies as they are the latest. From Lafayette and Rochambeau to Joffre and Viviani, a host of Frenchmen have won the affectionate regard of America
2 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
The Hun: “Keep Neutral”
The Hun: “Keep Neutral”
EVERY great event is an occasion for the moral education of the world. Froude, in his essay “On the Science of History,” says that the value of history is that it sounds across the centuries the eternal note of right and wrong. Along with the unbelievable calamities that have come in the train of the war that in August, 1914, was shamelessly, dishonorably and with malice aforethought precipitated by the Kaiser and his fellow highwaymen, there stands out one colossal good: it has made the world i
1 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
Peace Plots Revealed in America and France
Peace Plots Revealed in America and France
MR. RATHOM, Editor of the “Providence Journal,” whose exposure of von Bernstorff’s plots seemed to show a gift of necromancy, states that his information came to him through men and women (often Bohemians and Slavs) “who not only took grave risks in the work—for they were braving German vengeance—but gave up their time and in many cases their own funds, without a dollar of compensation from the ‘Journal’ or anyone else, in order to give us the facts which would prove to the American people the m
50 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
Belgium, 1918
Belgium, 1918
YOU, who on the tree of shame show forth again the Sacrifice of Calvary: you for whom scourge and thongs and the mockery of dull beasts are the circumstance of martyrdom: you who freely offered yourself that man might be saved, “yet so as by fire”:—Belgium! in the depth of your agony and the long torment of a red martyrdom, remember that the Cross of your own Passion endures only until the Resurrection that comes after the third day. God, in mercy Incarnate, as Man suffered the shameful death of
1 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
“We will not Wear Convicts’ Stripes, Wear Them Yourselves”
“We will not Wear Convicts’ Stripes, Wear Them Yourselves”
[Mr. Raemaekers refers in this cartoon to the insulting proposal of the German Government, just before the entrance of the United States into the war, that American ships at the rate of one a week would be permitted to pass the submarine “blockade” if they were painted in stripes in a specified manner.] WHEN Attila laid Rheims in ashes, cut the throats of his hostages, tortured his prisoners, and thus earned fame as the Scourge of God, he found priests and professors to justify his acts and to p
59 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
The Final Argument
The Final Argument
IN the now happily distant days of August, 1914, the people of the United States found themselves facing an opaque wall of neutrality. But we are an emotional people; and the rape of Belgium had hit us emotionally. Though we were asked not to applaud the pictures of Allied soldiers that flashed across the screen in every motion-picture theatre of the country, we did clap our hands; and, what is more, we valiantly hissed the Kaiser when he strutted before our view. Let the American people ever re
2 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
The End of the Hindenburg Line
The End of the Hindenburg Line
THE Hindenburg line is a menace to every courthouse in America. In my recent journeys through the West I have never seen a courthouse tower printed against the sky without relating it to the great world conflict. We are fighting for all that is embodied and expressed and safeguarded in these citadels of democracy. A little while ago I looked with reverence at a log hut preserved at Decatur, Illinois, the first courthouse of the county. In that little room Abraham Lincoln appeared as attorney for
1 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
“Something’s Wrong. She Doesn’t Seem to Inspire Confidence”
“Something’s Wrong. She Doesn’t Seem to Inspire Confidence”
IT is Germany’s “Kultur,” her spiritual code, that is responsible for America’s entrance into the war; her gruesome sacrifice to Moloch of all which distinguishes humanity from the brute and the savage. It is her philosophy which has made us her horrified but resolute foe. The fruits of her spirit stand forth alike in her speech and acts. “Kultur is a spiritual organization of the world, which does not exclude bloody savagery. It raises the daemoniac to sublimity. It is above morality, reason, s
1 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
Angels of the War Zone
Angels of the War Zone
I  HAVE sometimes wondered if it is really possible to hate a country for which one has such unbounded contempt and disgust as one has for Germany. It is quite possible to fear without hate; one would not hate a rattlesnake or a shark, even at close quarters. On the other hand it is conceivable that you might hate a fearsome but still noble beast like the lion, if you were camping on the desert and he sat persistently in front of your tent, alternately licking his chops and shaking your soul wit
2 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
As Thou Sowest, so Shalt Thou Reap
As Thou Sowest, so Shalt Thou Reap
CREEPING behind a mask—stooping, cringing and cowardly—the planter of sedition sows his seed in the dark. The masks behind which he hides are numerous and of great variety. No sooner is his identity disclosed than he assumes another disguise. Behind “Freedom of Speech,” “Liberty of the Press,” “Conscientious Objector,” and “Pacifism” he hides. He makes his masks similitudes of virtue. Whispered rumors, distortion of truth, appeals to fear, and appeals to prejudice are mixed with even the grosser
40 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
“Don’t Stop, Old Chap, Keep It Up!”
“Don’t Stop, Old Chap, Keep It Up!”
“CHEER up, Willie, the worst is yet to come. Don’t view me with alarm and suspicion. Don’t avert your eyes from my smile. It may be sardonic, but I cannot control my facial expression. I must look as I think. I am not like you, Wilhelm, looking God and thinking devil. Oh, but you are a cute one, friend of mine! I love you for a thousand things you have done, but don’t fool yourself, friend of my heart,—I beg pardon, I forgot, I have no heart. In that and some other aspects, Willie, we are as ali
2 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
“So We Are Only a Dollar-making People, are We?”
“So We Are Only a Dollar-making People, are We?”
IT has for many years been a favorite gibe of thousands of foreigners, living for the most part upon inherited wealth, and taking the customary snobbish attitude of the consumer toward the producer, that Americans are “only a dollar-making people,” as Mr. Raemaekers has it in his forceful cartoon. Barring the word “only” perhaps the indictment is true—I hope it is. One of the fondest of my many fond wishes for my fellow-Americans is that they may all become successful dollar-makers, since he who
2 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
“No, Thanks, I Know These Princes of Yours Too Well.”
“No, Thanks, I Know These Princes of Yours Too Well.”
ON November 5, 1916, Poland was “restored” by Germany and Austria-Hungary to her old place as an independent member of the family of nations. High hopes were aroused in the hearts of the Poles. They had suffered for over a hundred years, and in this war of liberation, which was to form the Society of Nations, the Austro-German proclamation was the first recognition of their aspirations. The Entente Powers had committed the serious blunder of refusing to encourage the Poles for fear of offending
2 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
Speeding Up
Speeding Up
Uncle Sam: “I think I had better speed up and build a ship or two!” The building of the “Tuckahoe,” April-May, 1918, at Camden....
10 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
Toward the Valley of Decision
Toward the Valley of Decision
THEY shall go down to the Valley of Decision, multitudes of young Americans from East and West, from North and South, some slow to have gone into the war but none ever to go out until a Decision shall have been reached. Into the Valley of Decision,—for a Decision final and irrepealable we are battling. Not a Decision as to the victor in the war, but a Decision that shall give us victory over war, its defenders and glorifiers! For the German Empire which wars made this war shall unmake. We go dow
1 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
Wake Up, America!
Wake Up, America!
This was done to Canadians by the Huns MARY E. WILKINS FREEMAN....
50 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
There are Plenty of Lamp-posts!
There are Plenty of Lamp-posts!
THERE are creatures that to be hated need but to be seen. The sight of the serpent awakens all the dead, old body-memories of ancient ages, when that reptile was man’s ever-present, mortal enemy. The domestic horse, made unafraid by a thousand generations, when he smells his ancient enemy, the bear, will rear and plunge to break and run for his life. The face features a man’s character, his eyes window his soul. There are faces that instantly beckon all our better nature and bind us in loving th
1 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
“We Don’t Seem to Inspire Enough Confidence”
“We Don’t Seem to Inspire Enough Confidence”
THE one memorable contribution to art produced by the great war is to be found in the cartoons of Louis Raemaekers. It is not necessary here to analyze the qualities of his fine and powerful drawings as art. They must be apparent to everyone who looks at them with considerate eyes. But Raemaekers’ cartoons also have a high literary and historic quality. I do not mean by this that they tell or suggest stories, which are used generally as an attraction for very commonplace pictures, but that they
2 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
German Submarines Fire on Open Boats
German Submarines Fire on Open Boats
ALICE BROWN Hill, N. H. July 18, 1918....
1 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
Not This Time!
Not This Time!
Raemaekers the Prophet “FOR twenty years I have clearly foreseen Germany’s present attack on the world. For twenty years I have been drawing and publishing the same type of cartoons which have attracted so much notice since the war. Seven years before the war I was already being called ‘ ein feind Deutschland ’ by the German press. I cannot possibly express to you the unhappiness which I felt at being absolutely certain of the impending doom, and at the same time being incapable of making people
1 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
The President to the Workers:
The President to the Workers:
“ If you are with me, I am with you. ” “IF we are true friends of freedom—our own or anybody else’s—we will see that the power of this country, the productivity of this country, is raised to its absolute maximum and that absolutely nobody is allowed to stand in the way of it. When I say that nobody is allowed to stand in the way, I don’t mean that they shall be prevented by the power of the Government, but by the power of the American spirit. If we are to do this great thing and show America to
44 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
“Well Done, Fellows! Keep the Home Fires Burning!”
“Well Done, Fellows! Keep the Home Fires Burning!”
THIS cartoon brings home to us the imperative necessity of putting our own house in order and keeping it in order. If the world is to be made safe for democracy, our own conspicuous example of democracy must be made safe for those who dwell under its protection. If we cannot conquer and control the enemy within our gates, we will be but impotent instruments of conquest over him abroad. Both at home and abroad we must rid ourselves of all hampering and distracting illusions and stare the facts in
1 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
A Bit of the Hindenburg Line
A Bit of the Hindenburg Line
THESE fellows are hot on the trail. Let us follow suit. Wherever you find a Hun you find an enemy. Get him! DAVID BISPHAM....
11 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
The Rats in Our Home Trenches
The Rats in Our Home Trenches
REALLY, the great question of the war is: What kind of people are the Germans? Can they be reformed, or are they incurable? All Germans are not alike. There are those who distinguish between North and South Germans, and tell us that the Saxons, in particular, have in them the making of excellent people. Doubtless all Prussians are not alike; doubtless all Bavarians are not of the type of the “Black Bavarians” whose exploits in the war have had unfavorable mention. But what has come to be the ima
2 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
Seeing Stars
Seeing Stars
Canadian: “And you’ll soon see the Stars and Stripes.” German: “Saw some already, sir.” THIS is the voice that he hears from Germany: “We Germans are God’s chosen people, His special favorites, and God is German Himself. God rules over us in the person of our Kaiser, whom He has appointed for that purpose. We are better than all other peoples of the earth; we are wiser and purer and nobler and more industrious and more learned and stronger and cleverer and kinder and braver and more spiritual an
1 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
The Two Giants
The Two Giants
Germany: “I destroy!” America: “I create!” UNCLE SAM has given the Germans three surprises. It was believed in Germany:— 1st—That America would not break diplomatic relations; 2nd—That America would never fight; 3rd—That America could not fight. Forced to it, in self-defense, we are now giving all our energies to war, led by a President, whose vision meets the extent of the calamity brought on the world by the selfish ambitions of material Germany. American built ships will end the menace of the
36 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
“Will They Last, Father?”
“Will They Last, Father?”
THE four greatest events in history; the advent of Christ, the discovery of America, the Reformation, and the French Revolution, are all we can compare with the days in which we are living—and dying. In a cyclone of desolations surpassing the terrors of the insane, the world, so far from recoiling, rolls forward into vast and irrevocable changes that seemed but yesterday the remotest goals of laborious evolution; rolling up the precipitous steep of custom in all the fury with which we should loo
1 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
“The Ugly Talons of the Sinister Power”
“The Ugly Talons of the Sinister Power”
THE attitude of scorn, of contempt and of defiance with which Raemaekers in his cartoon, “America’s Choice,” represents Uncle Sam as he confronts the treacherous Kaiser, bearing the olive branch in his talons, well expresses the attitude of the United States towards Germany at the time we entered the war, and this attitude will probably continue for a generation or two after the war ends. “The Intolerable Thing,” which President Wilson so aptly named the irresponsible German Government, can neve
2 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
Restitution and Reparation
Restitution and Reparation
IT is with good reason the Prussian covers the thick bone of his head with a helmet, for into it ideas of right and justice can only be battered with a club. The tough, club-resisting helmet is the arch-symbol of Prussianism. From its earliest days Prussia has taught its neighbors the Prussian theory of right and justice by means of a club. When the Prussian wishes to educate his neighbors to an appreciation of Prussian ethics he puts on his helmet, picks up a club and slugs the neighbor on the
1 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
The Only Possible Position for Traitors
The Only Possible Position for Traitors
WHILE the submarine controversy was at its height, a Hun high in authority in his nefarious land said that it was impossible for the United States to enter the war, because there were a half million German reservists in our country. “That is true,” replied the American to whom this contemptuous remark was addressed; “but there are also a half million lamp-posts.” Since the German reservists have failed to fulfil the expectations of the Fatherland, the lamp-posts of the United States are as yet u
1 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
“Do You Mean to Make a Real War?”
“Do You Mean to Make a Real War?”
“GERMANY has once more said that force, and force alone, shall decide whether justice and peace shall reign in the affairs of men, whether right as America conceives it or dominion as she conceives it shall determine the destinies of mankind. There is, therefore, but one response possible for us: Force, force to the utmost, force without stint or limit, the righteous and triumphant force which shall make right the law of the world and cast every selfish dominion down in the dust.” — From Preside
30 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
Justice!
Justice!
THE woman figure called Justice in Raemaekers’ cartoon has a Greek name. She is Themis, consort of Zeus, Themis, who sits by his side on the judgment seat. The scales are the scales of Ægina, in her day a great money centre, whose talent was the standard of value then, as the American dollar is to-day. Ægina was the mother of Æacus, one of the three great judges of the lower world, and be it remembered, it was Æacus that administered justice. Ægina is called by one of the greatest Greek poets th
53 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
Another Peace Proposal
Another Peace Proposal
THE artist has depicted a spectacled Old Gentleman wearing a triple crown and a pontifical mantle, who is offering a proposal of peace to a heroic young woman, torn, bleeding, thorn-crowned, but dauntless, who spurns it with scorn. The spectacled Old Gentleman is the Pope; the heroic young woman is, I take it, outraged Justice. Since Justice is our cause, we must try to be just. The Pope is not lying on a bed of roses. He is in a position of the utmost difficulty. He has faithful adherents on bo
1 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
Poisoning the Well of Public Opinion
Poisoning the Well of Public Opinion
ALIENS in this country must assist in maintaining the liberty they enjoy, or we shall know the reason why. “Ninety-five per cent. of the people of the United States would die as willingly for their beliefs as the men of 1776. It is for the other 5 per cent. to show not the slightest manifestation of disloyalty. “Our message to them will be delivered through the criminal courts all over the land. And may God have mercy on them, for they need expect none from an outraged people and an avenging gov
31 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
The Enemy Within
The Enemy Within
NOT even the prodigious Cruelty of the Germans in this Atrocious War has shocked the moral sense of mankind as much as has their Deceit. We are horror-stricken by the reports of their premeditated cruelties which link the Germans with the beasts—the wolf, and tiger, and boa constrictor, and vulture. The beast does these things because he has never risen to a higher plane than that of the beast. But Deceit is the attribute of Man; of one who dwells above the standards of the brute creation, who h
1 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
Count von Bernstorff: “Noblesse Oblige”
Count von Bernstorff: “Noblesse Oblige”
BEHOLD this group of sinister and menacing forms surrounding the nation as typified in the person of its President. For four years past they have been coming, one by one, out of the darkness. We can now only too well recognize them and the dangers with which they threaten us. In front, there is arrogant, boastful, jealous and unscrupulous Hate, with its policy of “might before right,” and its doctrine of “frightfulness,” conscienceless and cruel, in its murder of the innocent, its arson, its rob
1 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
Peter the Hermit
Peter the Hermit
“ Dieu le Veult! ” THE Prussian outdoes the world in his single-minded devotion to physical things. He believes and frankly declares that mercy and honor weaken human power, that if you consider them you must eventually fall before the strong who disregard them. Germany’s attempt to prove the soundness of the Prussian thesis has gradually loosened the moral consciousness of the world. It has gathered to defend the things of the spirit in what is as truly a crusade as that which Peter the Hermit
44 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
The Germ-Man
The Germ-Man
THE stout gentleman on the opposite page wears a pleased look, as if he were enjoying his occupation. That is natural, for he is a scientist engaged in a very pretty process—the propagation of lockjaw, typhus and other malignant germ cultures with which he expects to speed up the annihilation of his enemies. How does he propose to accomplish this? I will tell you: he is going to introduce those young and vigorous colonies of germs into those little packages marked with a cross which you see lyin
2 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
“A Tid-Bit for ‘The Sick Man’”
“A Tid-Bit for ‘The Sick Man’”
THE nearness to America of the European theatre of war so greatly fills our minds with the contest there raging that we give but little thought to the progress of events in the far countries tributary to the Tigris River. For a time, the heroic resistance of General Townsend to the Turkish forces which surrounded him aided by the natural obstacles of river and climate, claimed a share of our interest, and later, the splendid and successful work achieved by the new British army under General Maud
2 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
Plain Language from Truthful James
Plain Language from Truthful James
The Mexican-Japanese Plot...
8 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
Helping Hindenburg Home
Helping Hindenburg Home
“WE regret being unable on this occasion to follow the counsels of our masters, the French, but the American flag has been forced to retire. This is unendurable, and none of our soldiers would understand their not being asked to do whatever is necessary to reëstablish a situation which is humiliating to us and unacceptable to our country’s honor. We are going to counter-attack.” This was a message sent by an American general in command of American forces south of the Marne on Monday afternoon af
1 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
A Bad Prophet
A Bad Prophet
The All-Highest: “Only a sham war with Uncle Sam? Oh, Hollweg, you are a bad prophet!” ONE of the delusions the German Government and its General Staff have been laboring under for many years is that the United States could not create an army that was worth consideration as a foe. That Government and its General Staff are tasting the quality of our troops in the field, and the flavor is bitter on their tongues. One hundred and twenty-six years ago there was fought a battle in France (at Valmy, w
57 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
At the Holland Frontier
At the Holland Frontier
WHETHER the war be long or short, the quickest road to peace is the road straight ahead of us, with no division among the American people. WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN....
11 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
A Rehearsal
A Rehearsal
“ When I say, Down with Wilson! you all cheer! ”...
6 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
To the Victor!
To the Victor!
France crowns with laurel the dead American aviator. THO’ the American mother mourns across the seas for her hero son, who has touched the skies in France, the foster mother lays her laurel of glory on the bier of Youth, whose brave spirit in passing welds an eternal bond of sympathy and union to the end. GERALDINE FARRAR. June 23, 1918....
20 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
The Eyes of the Army
The Eyes of the Army
THE great poet of Victoria’s reign, in his wondrous vision of the future, Dealing not with the shadowy future but with the actual present the great Artist of the Great War sees aerial navigation, not in terms of commerce nor of battle engines, but as the “Eyes of the Army”; the sense without which the terrestrial movements of war, both by land and sea, tend to become mere blind and purposeless blundering. With one graceful figure in a finely balanced design the artist tells the story. Future gen
2 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
“Is It Nothing to You, All Ye Who Pass By?”
“Is It Nothing to You, All Ye Who Pass By?”
ALL we need to remember hour by hour is that we are living through the greatest crisis in the history of the world; that the greatest number of people are concerned in it ever concerned in one thing before; and that the most important epoch concerning humanity since the birth of Christ is now at hand; that humanity is about to fall to a lower plane of living or rise to a higher one than it has ever reached; that we can only do our little share toward that rising by stiffening ourselves to a long
49 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
The Rainbow Division Leaves for France
The Rainbow Division Leaves for France
AS the rainbow is heaven’s token of faith, so have we faith in these modern knights journeying to beloved France to give battle to invading barbarians. Ponder a moment over these men of the Rainbow Division, lads with minds clean as their hearts are true, and compare them with the blood-craving hordes reared in a school having no other aim than to kill their fellow beings. One is Man in the superlative, and for the other there is no name sufficiently abhorrent. When an American soldier enters Hu
1 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
Russia Reborn
Russia Reborn
IN a hundred years no people has been so tortured and abused by rulers of its own blood and faith as the Russians. The free peoples have nothing in their experience by which they can imagine the greed and cruelty of which the subjects of the Romanoffs have been the victims. No adequate picture of the diabolical old régime can be painted till scholars have had time to explore its archives and expose the dark forces that operated it. Let no one look for Freed Russia to be shining and beautiful. Fr
1 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
Higher Than a Sour Apple Tree
Higher Than a Sour Apple Tree
OTHER wars end with those who made them. It is the will of the German Emperor that his war should pass on like a blight from generation to generation upon those whose fathers dared to stand against the ravager. To this end he has not only slaughtered and enslaved the defenders; he has sought to destroy the very fruitfulness of the land whereby their descendants must live. To me the deliberate, coldly reckoned murder of the invaded countries’ trees and vines so that the children of the slain and
50 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
“What a Mean Trick to Turn on That Strong Light!”
“What a Mean Trick to Turn on That Strong Light!”
“PEACE must be framed on so equitable a basis that the nations would not wish to disturb it. It must be guaranteed by destruction of Prussian military power, so that the confidence of the German people shall be put in the equity of their cause and not in the might of their armies.... Europe is again drenched with the blood of its bravest and its best, but do not forget the great succession of hallowed causes. They are the stations of the cross on the road to the emancipation of mankind. I again
45 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
Christmas, 1917
Christmas, 1917
ON the day of the Nativity, the Infant Brother of Humanity was born and was laid in a manger, there being no room for his human mother at the inn. But wherever he lay—there, through the mystery of his kinship, was the shining Gateway of Heaven. That translucent Light, from the moment of its appearance, intensified, as by opposite polarity, the baleful lights from all unholy fires in human breasts. Herod was first aroused to the Slaughter of the Innocents, and he has had his successors in every a
1 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
Helping Uncle Sam to Get Up Speed
Helping Uncle Sam to Get Up Speed
“THE military masters of Germany denied us the right to be neutral. They filled our unsuspecting communities with vicious spies and conspirators and sought to corrupt the opinion of our people in their own behalf. When they found that they could not do that, then agents diligently spread sedition among us and sought to draw our own citizens from their allegiance.... “They have learned discretion. They keep within the law. It is opinion they utter now, not sedition. They proclaim the liberal purp
1 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
The Wind of Democracy
The Wind of Democracy
“WITHOUT doubt, the majority of the German nation is still monarchist. The different peoples of Germany still hold to their princes, more or less, according to the individual character of the sovereigns. But that confidence in the supreme chief of the Empire is still entirely intact is an affirmation which, after three years of war, cannot be maintained.... Confidence in the direction of the Empire has begun to disappear among the German people.... They begin to ask themselves how it happens tha
34 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
“This One for the Babies”
“This One for the Babies”
GERMANY, in her war against Civilization, has disregarded not only International Law and the ordinary laws of humanity, but has ruthlessly set aside the four great laws of the social order which all civilized nations recognize as having a divine sanction. “Thou shalt not bear false witness.” She has broken her treaties and lied openly, frequently, brazenly. “Thou shalt not commit adultery.” She has permitted, if she has not given official sanction to rape committed upon a scale never before know
55 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
A Scene on the Somme
A Scene on the Somme
“INFINITELY interesting is our contact with the American troops. They have occupied the sector immediately beside ours. We have seen them at work, and could form an idea, and it should be told and retold that they are marvelous. The Americans are soldiers by nature, and their officers have the desire to learn with an enthusiasm and an idealistic ardor very remarkable. There is the same spirit among the privates. They ask questions with a touching good-will, setting aside all conceit or prejudice
1 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
Hollweg as Robespierre
Hollweg as Robespierre
The Kaiser: “He has managed to fool the German Socialists. Why should he not fool the Russian Socialists?” FEW things have been more disheartening in the course of the War than the way in which the Teutonic foes of liberty have used so many friends of liberty in Russia as unwitting instruments to undermine and destroy the resistance of the Russian people to the German armies. Vast territories, amounting to nearly half a million square miles in area, have thus been abandoned to German domination,
42 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
President Wilson’s Declaration
President Wilson’s Declaration
RAEMAEKERS is, here, having the President say: “When Germany is defeated, and peace can be discussed, we shall pay the full price of peace,—namely, justice for all the nations.” We know what justice will be for the nations spoiled. But what will be justice for the spoiler? We know what this latter would be to an individual; and a nation is only a greater individual, capable of greater mischief, subject to greater punishment. An individual, who, with progressive malice, had broken all the laws of
2 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
“Don’t Stand in Our Way to Victory”
“Don’t Stand in Our Way to Victory”
ALL wars bring their full measure of miseries and misfortunes, and this world war, initiated by Germany for the purpose of imposing a military domination upon Europe and America, and conducted with methods which combine the barbaric standards of the Huns and Mongols with the skilled mechanism of the twentieth century, has brought upon the world miseries that can hardly be estimated or described. There are some offsets, however, even in a contest like the present, which is a fight for the preserv
2 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
“German Soldiers Cut the Throat of an American Sentry”
“German Soldiers Cut the Throat of an American Sentry”
A LAYMAN’S PRAYER FOR AMERICAN SOLDIERS OUR Father which art in Heaven, bless and inspire our armies in the field, our ships upon the sea. Watch over the sons of America fighting for Liberty. Strengthen and hearten them in the hour of pain and peril. Grant them victory, we beseech Thee, and lead them safely home. Make us who love them do our part loyally. Keep us united in our will to bring upon earth a reign of right and freedom. Amen. CLEVELAND MOFFETT....
25 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
Bang!
Bang!
“ Dog-gone it, Hindenburg, don’t make your strategic moves when I am standing directly behind you! ” ON one occasion, when Hindenburg reported having “carried out his retreat according to plan,” the Kaiser, encamped at the rear, received a very discomfiting bump. Evidently, the “plan” was no less an inspiration of the moment than many others the Germans have announced, in order to put a good face upon their reverses....
24 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
“I Must Break in Here Before That Comes Down”
“I Must Break in Here Before That Comes Down”
THE small speck that at first seemed a dull mist hanging over the Western Hemisphere caused little else than sarcastic flings at our own Republic, and had it been possible to awaken pity in the breast of the Arch Demon, striving to spread his wings over the whole world, some sympathy might have fallen to us, for the weak mind we showed in presuming we could do anything to check the Imperial army in its brutal course. But happily great oaks from little acorns grow, from stationary mists dark clou
1 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
Germany’s “Peace” with Russia
Germany’s “Peace” with Russia
COUNT HERTLING asks resentfully: “Who dares to suggest that I am not on the side of justice?” Count Hertling is undoubtedly sincere. Until this war began the world had almost forgotten the record for duplicity and inhumanity of the military tyrants of Prussia,—the treachery and barbarity of the race of which he and they are the offspring. They are running true to type, but for the time we had forgotten what the type was; yet it was known well enough to Julius Cæsar and to the others who ruled th
1 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
The Better Fighter
The Better Fighter
CANADA’S PART IN THE WAR “BOUND by no constitution, bound by no law, equity or obligation, Canada has decided as a nation to make war. We have levied an army; we have sent the greatest army to England that has ever crossed the Atlantic, to take part in the battles of England. We have placed ourselves in opposition to great world powers. We are now training and equipping an army greater than the combined forces of Wellington and Napoleon at the battle of Waterloo.” Speech of Sir Clifford Sifton a
28 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
The Dungeon of Autocracy
The Dungeon of Autocracy
THERE is a part of Germany that longs for freedom; but that is not the Prussian part. The soul of Germany is not entirely killed by her mortal sins of money and land-lust; and Raemaekers here paints the remorseful soul, crowned with the blurred cross. Germany turns her back to the sky; she prefers to look at the dark ground of her dungeon rather than to face that light. She is chained by her own will, and yet her inmost soul revolts. Let us not imagine that there are two Germanys. Before the war
1 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
“Hurrah for Peace, Lads!”
“Hurrah for Peace, Lads!”
EARLY in the war the great writers and poets of the Allied nations joined in combating, with all the inspiration of the cause of liberty, the campaigns launched in varied guise by seditionists here and abroad. In this effort literature has made a worthy contribution to the battle for civilization. It remained, however, for the art and genius of Raemaekers to rout the propagandists of the enemy by delineating the great basic truths of war as waged by the Huns. It has been his work, more than that
1 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
Ecce Homo!
Ecce Homo!
ROBERT W. CHAMBERS. New York, April 30, 1918....
1 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
“We Must so Destroy France That She can Never Again Resist Us”
“We Must so Destroy France That She can Never Again Resist Us”
HEINE, when he warned the world that the real God of Germany was Thor and that when the Christian veneer wore off the old pagan god would with his hammer break in pieces the Gothic Cathedrals, especially warned France, whom above all the Beast hated. The warning has been justified by history. Before the war I have heard Germans speak gloatingly of what they did to France in 1870, and of what they meant to do next time. The phrase “bleed France white” had become a commonplace of German speech. Th
1 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
The Japanese Mouse
The Japanese Mouse
“ Can the Japanese mouse free the Russian bear from the German netting? ” “JAPAN must act on the broad principle that she is the guardian of peace in the Far East, and I am sure that to fulfil her duty she will utilize every resource at her disposal. Her part, instead of attempting the impossible, will be to stand on safe and reasonable ground. Through her control of the Southern Manchuria Railroad she is in a position to cut off communication between Harbin and Vladivostok now afforded by the t
48 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
Expostulation and Reply
Expostulation and Reply
“WE cannot take the word of the present rulers of Germany as a guarantee of anything that is to endure, unless explicitly supported by such conclusive evidence of the will and purpose of the German people themselves as the other peoples of the world would be justified in accepting.” — From President Wilson’s Reply to the Pope, August 27, 1917....
19 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
The Second Election
The Second Election
Bernstorff: “We have defeated Wilson!” Wilson: “Wait a moment!”...
5 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
The Mad Shepherd
The Mad Shepherd
THE GERMAN SUBSTITUTE FOR THE TWENTY-THIRD PSALM THE Kaiser’s our shepherd, we shall not rest. He maketh us to desecrate green pastures; he forceth us to kill in still waters. He claimeth our soul, he leadeth us in the paths of frightfulness for his name’s sake. Yea, though he plunge us into the valley of death, we must call him not evil, for he is our master, his rod and his staff they drive us. Surely horror and evil shall follow us all the days of our life till we flee from his rule forever.
32 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
Changing the Guard
Changing the Guard
WITH the entrance of the United States into the Great War, we Americans laid aside forever our spiritual isolation. We accepted our share of responsibility for the assaulted civilization of the world, and our share of danger at the hands of its great assailant. A free people, we willingly chose the path of uttermost pain, and we chose it for the sake of our nation’s honor, our nation’s ultimate safety, and the salvation of our nation’s soul. When Germany denied us the waterways of the world, she
2 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
The Penitent Artist
The Penitent Artist
“ I will never make drawings against the Yellow Peril again! ” THE Kaiser has a good many things in his past to live down, but he certainly never foresaw that some day his inept activities as an artist would stand across his path. Raemaekers, who was not likely to forget anything that Wilhelm had done in this particular line, shows him on his knees to Japan (and incidentally to Mexico), as the infamous Zimmermann note to the German minister at Mexico City revealed him, full of remorse for those
54 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
Peace Angels of Doubtful Purity
Peace Angels of Doubtful Purity
William: “Go, my doves; your charms may prove more fatal than my armies.”...
6 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
The Black Flag
The Black Flag
Germany Sinks British Hospital Ships THE British Admiralty issued a statement on April 23 [1917], announcing the sinking of the two hospital steamships Donegal and Lanfranc without warning by submarines; nineteen British and fifteen wounded German officers were drowned. In their statement the British authorities denied the German charge that hospital ships were employed to transport troops and military supplies.... Germany was notified that, if her course was persisted in, reprisals would follow
48 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
The Annexation of America
The Annexation of America
“ I think, All Highest, we had better not insist upon the annexation of America. ” IN the inscription “Ten Million Men Between 21 and 30” on the Statue of Liberty, Raemaekers has as usual gone to the heart of things. Ten million trained citizen soldiers!!! What an insurance of peace and security against attack or insult. Universal Citizen Military Education and Training. From the beginning the first article in our International Creed has been the Monroe Doctrine—America for Americans. If the res
1 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
“Welcome, Mate; You’re Just in Time!”
“Welcome, Mate; You’re Just in Time!”
“I AM in the happy position of being, I think, the first British Minister of the Crown who, speaking on behalf of the people of this country, can salute the American Nation as comrades in arms. I am glad; I am proud. I am glad not merely because of the stupendous resources which this great nation will bring to the succor of the alliance, but I rejoice as a democrat that the advent of the United States into this war gives the final stamp and seal to the character of the conflict as a struggle aga
36 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
The Editor:
The Editor:
“ Use always the American flag and commit as much high treason as you like. ” “WOE to the German-American, so-called, who, in this sacred war for a cause as high as any for which ever people took up arms, does not feel a solemn urge, does not show an eager determination to be in the very fore-front of the struggle; does not prove a patriotic jealousy, in thought, in action and in speech to rival and to outdo his native-born fellow citizen in devotion and in willing sacrifice for the country of h
57 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
German Intrigues in Mexico
German Intrigues in Mexico
MANY things in the present war have aroused and enraged the people of the United States against Germany. The defilement of Belgium, the ravage of Serbia, the assassination of Armenia, all crimes against human nature in which we Americans share. Besides that, some revelations apply especially to us,—grievances, injuries and outrages, things that seem so far removed from the secret thoughts of decent and self-respecting nations that we hesitated to believe them. We must believe them now for we kno
1 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
German “Militarist” Socialism
German “Militarist” Socialism
DOES not the cartoonist Raemaekers fail in this cartoon? The artist Raemaekers is inspired—here as always. But does the cartoonist succeed this time in burning the right idea, his idea, into the reader’s brain? Here is the real Kaiser and here are real German workingmen. It is they who are carrying the burden of Kaiserism. All this is convincing. But do not other workingmen in other countries carry burdens? The failure is only at first glance. Raemaekers is not concerned to reproduce the convent
2 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
The Old Hammer and the New
The Old Hammer and the New
President Wilson elected for a second term....
4 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
The Spirit of Washington
The Spirit of Washington
President Wilson’s answer to Hertling. “WOODROW WILSON is in no sense a herald. The revolution of betrayed idealism has been in progress for more than a century, and in the last decade particularly there has been steady assault upon evil and outworn institutions. These passionate gropings of the spirit in the direction of ideals professed and not practised have merely lacked great leadership and authoritative expression. This is what Woodrow Wilson gives. He comes as a leader, as a nucleating fo
46 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
The Massacre of the Innocents
The Massacre of the Innocents
[The following lines are dated July, 1916. “As it stands,” writes Mr. Howells, “the poem ignores the glorious retrieval of our former sufferance. It might better now be called A Shame Lived Down.”— Ed. ] The American People The Captain of the Submersible The American People The Ghosts of the Lusitania Women and Children WILLIAM DEAN HOWELLS. July , 1916....
2 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
In the Ring to Stay
In the Ring to Stay
IT is Ambassador Gerard’s opinion that when the German government issued its final insult to the United States, all the Kaiser’s advisers were convinced that no provocation would make the American people fight. President Wilson, they argued, had just been re-elected on a peace platform. They counted, it was evident, upon the influence of the millions of German-Americans to frustrate hostilities, and Herr Zimmermann of the Foreign Office openly threatened the revolt of 500,000 German reservists i
2 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
Not a Bad Start!
Not a Bad Start!
CAN a Republic fight a successful war? Can a people with a century and a quarter of free thought, free speech and free press change suddenly from words to deeds? Can custom and tradition yield gracefully to necessity? Is the heart and brain of the Republic so impressed with the magnitude and importance of this war as to induce it to forget the things which are past and to press forward to the things which are needful? The Imperial German Staff thought not. It imagined that a people, whose daily
2 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
An Echo of the Luxberg Case
An Echo of the Luxberg Case
The Junkers: “These Lansing disclosures are bad. We don’t know how to counteract them because we don’t know how much more evidence he has got.”...
9 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
German Chivalry to Wounded Officers
German Chivalry to Wounded Officers
THEY do these things differently in France. While in France in May and June, I saw many squads of German prisoners working at the railroad stations, on the roads and in the factories. Of the several thousands I saw, not one looked underfed, ill clothed or abused. While their barracks did not have steam heat, electricity and all the comforts of home, the board and lodging they received compared favorably with that of the average French soldiers, and the franc a day thrown in as wages could all go
1 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
Socialism in Germany
Socialism in Germany
IT is one of the tragedies of history that the great Social Democracy of Germany, in which liberal thinkers of all lands reposed so much faith, proved, when the testing time came, to be utterly devoid of intellectual and moral integrity, a base betrayer of international Socialist ideals and a subservient tool of Prussian autocracy. The great majority of the German Socialists, led by such men as Scheidemann, Sudekum, David and Legien, upheld the Imperial German Government and thus became the acco
1 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
The Spirit of German Science
The Spirit of German Science
THE moral revulsion of the world against the Germans is justified by their use of science. It is not a question of the excellence, amount, or character of science—all subjects of legitimate debate—but of the use the Germans make of science. While science has been used in war at all times and has been a formidable arm in the hands of those who have known how to use it, still the limits of its use have been fixed with more or less rigor. Even before the conventions of The Hague were formulated, th
2 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
Humanity and Her German Lovers
Humanity and Her German Lovers
IT is not possible to judge Louis Raemaekers as an artist. He is a voice, a sword, a flame. His cartoons are the tears of women, the battle-shout of indomitable defenders, the indignation of humanity, the sob of civilization. They will go down into history. They are history. To take them, to turn page after page, is to know the European War, to see it face to face, as a child sees, and not through a glass darkly. It is one of the great works of the world which he has done. Perhaps genius was onl
52 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
The Strikers
The Strikers
Striker to Agitator: “You speak very well, but when I see these fellows I’m ashamed I ever listened to you.” RAEMAEKERS’ cartoons will prove an immortal comment on the great world war. He makes the world see that war does not create atrocities but that war itself is the supremest of all atrocities. When the names of battles have been forgotten the name of Raemaekers will be spoken with gratitude and reverence by coming generations. CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT....
23 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
1776-1917
1776-1917
MEN, nations, and movements are symbolized by their moments of crisis. The long, tedious, humdrum years of life never get into picture, never fire human imagination; even though those years are the necessary foundations upon which great events rise. So America for nearly a century and a half has been symbolized—at least in European eyes—by that great moment when she rose in the world and asserted her independent status “among the nations of the earth.” The men of ’76 have stood for American valo
1 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
“Now, Hindenburg, Bring on the Rest of My People”
“Now, Hindenburg, Bring on the Rest of My People”
ALL of us who love the Old Germany we knew, who have dear friends there, and who have rejoiced in the happiness honest industrialism and widespread commerce were bringing to a great people before this terrible slaughter began feel a deep pang of sorrow as we look upon Raemaekers’ terrible picture of what the war has brought to Germania. The dreadful pity of it is that Germania should have brought this upon herself by appealing to the Sword when the Temple of Peace stood open and all her present
31 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
The Master of the Hounds
The Master of the Hounds
“ Remember, Michaelis, every dog has his day! ”...
4 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
Processional
Processional
CALE YOUNG RICE. Transcriber’s Notes: Variations in spelling and hyphenation are retained. An exception is ‘Raemaekers’ for ‘Raemakers’ on page 174. Punctuation has been retained as published....
1 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter