There are many who believe that the peace woman, who will be more and more evident as the war drags along, is no imagined menace. It is well therefore that this cartoon should have been drawn and published and that its message, “to save the peace women despite themselves,” should be driven home.
The spirit of St. George of England and of the saints of God, who fought tyrants and died in past ages that the fragrant and essential truths should live, is not dead, and while this can be said there is hope for the world, for surely God Who had these in His keeping is yet in His heaven.
This ranks as one of Raemaekers’ happiest cartoons. That wolf’s mask is a clever travesty of the “All-Highest’s” best studio face. Better still is the quip, “’Tis time all this bloodshed should cease,” as a summary of all the peace suggestions which with discreet persistence have been floated out from Berlin since the great game, as envisaged by the challengers, was seen to be up.
It would not readily occur to the German mind that the time when the shepherds were just coming over the hill with axe, bill, and bludgeon was the most appropriate time for the wolf to suggest that nothing should be said of the unfortunate mistakes of the past.
“See!” quoth the wolf, “there are already three corpses. Is that not enough to satisfy the most bloodthirsty? Why drag in a fourth? Surely even you who have not our advantages can see so plain an argument?” The answer is in the negative. But let no one ever again accuse the Teuton of not being a humorist.
It is worth noting that it is a bonneted Highlander that here wields the British club. Compensation at last to the sensitive Scot who so desperately hates being lumped in with the English!
The historian of the future will attempt, probably, to deal adequately with the complex questions which inform every line of this cartoon. It is, indeed, a passionate note of interrogation. In a stupendous fight upon the clearly defined issues of Right and Might, how comes it to pass that any self-respecting nation remains neutral? Why, for example, did not Uncle Sam sever diplomatic relations with the Huns the very moment that Belgium was invaded and outraged?
Americans, true citizens of the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave, have raised this question already and some have answered it. Other Americans have answered them cleverly and speciously. Time alone will decide upon the merits and demerits of all and sundry. We owe much to the States euphemistically styled “United.” They have supplied us in our hour of sorest need with a never-ceasing stream of munitions percolating everywhere; they have sent us money, sympathy, and advice. But the fact remains--_Uncle Sam was too proud to fight!_ And yet, each day it is becoming more and more certain that every stout blow struck by the Allies, every gallant life that is sacrificed, is a contribution to the cause of Civilization and Christianity. We are fighting desperately for our own salvation, and that salvation includes the salvation of Holland, Denmark, Switzerland, and the United States. At the beginning of the war the Neutral Countries missed a tremendous opportunity. Together, acting under the ægis of Uncle Sam, with his hundred million children, they could have protested in no uncertain terms against Prussianism and the violation of every principle dear to and honored by them. Prompt action, upon the heels of such a protest, would have ended the war in three weeks. Germany, swollen with insolence and beer, has perpetrated blunders in strategy and policy of which she now is reaping the fruits, but with all her crass, pig-headed, brutal assurance she would not have fought a whole world in arms against her.