America in the War: Each cartoon faced with a page of comment by a distinguished American, the text forming an anthology of patriotic opinion — John Shaqi
America in the War: Each cartoon faced with a page of comment by a distinguished American, the text forming an anthology of patriotic opinionRaemaekers, Louis
History
America in the War: Each cartoon faced with a page of comment by a distinguished American, the text forming an anthology of patriotic opinion
Raemaekers, Louis
World War, 1914-1918 -- Humor, caricatures, etc.
Let us not imagine that there are two Germanys. Before the war the
Social Democrat was the official hater of the despotism of the
Hohenzollerns. The war came, he ceased to be a Social Democrat when
he became a Prussian. Before the war, the Centrum defended the rights
of conscience against the Hegelian dogma of the absolute supremacy of
the State. The Kaiser rushed from Norway, war was declared, and the
recalcitrant Centrum,--the creature of the indomitable Windhorst, whom
even Bismarck could not terrify,--becomes subservient! The Emperor does
not say, “The State is I.” He says,--“Germany over all, and the German
God must rule.”
Germany has chained herself. For more than ten years, I have lived
geographically in Germany,--for Denmark, though one of the freest
nations of the world, is a few miles from Berlin,--and I have seen the
Old Germany growing into the New, materialized Germany. Bismarck helped
this process with blood and iron. The New Germany has a soul, but she
has chained it to avarice and pride and power.
MAURICE FRANCIS EGAN,
_American Minister to Denmark_.
_May 28, 1918._
[Illustration]
“_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 of any other person, to delineate the righteousness of
the Allied cause.
His portraiture is a protest, an indictment, and an inspiration. He
destroys the foe’s misrepresentation and exposes his mendacity while
constructively informing the mind and awakening the imagination. He
enables us to grasp all the details of sorrow, of devotion, together
with all the splendor of modern battle behind his story. He horrifies
us with the brutality of uncivilized warfare, and at the same time
arouses within us the determination to right the wrongs of an outraged
world. His very shock is a stimulus, for in telling us of the horror
of war, Raemaekers makes us understand that to stop it forever by
victory is the only thing worthy of thinking and feeling human beings.
By speaking the universal language which art alone possesses, he has
made the war clear to those who cannot read. Because of this genius
for arousing our emotions, he is the premier recruiting agent of the
armies of civilization for and behind the battle-line. He is truly a
mainspring of our armed forces.
S. STANWOOD MENKEN,
_President of the National Security League_.
_January, 1918._
[Illustration]
_Ecce Homo!_
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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