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America in the War / Each cartoon faced with a page of comment by a distinguished American, the text forming an anthology of patriotic opinion cover

America in the War / Each cartoon faced with a page of comment by a distinguished American, the text forming an anthology of patriotic opinion

Chapter 58: “This One for the Babies”
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About This Book

A curated series of wartime political cartoons by the illustrator is presented alongside short essays, speeches, and comments from prominent American public figures, combining visual satire with patriotic commentary. The paired items argue against militarism and autocracy, depict enemy actions as moral threats, and urge national mobilization, justice, and international accountability. Organization alternates bold, satirical plates with reflective or polemical pages, offering a mosaic of themes—sacrifice, democracy, reparation, and the moral stakes of conflict—intended to sway public opinion and explain the case for engagement.

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 known in the history of the civilized world. “Thou shalt not steal.” She robbed her neighbor’s hills of their coal and iron, her neighbor’s fields of their standing crops, her neighbor’s banks of their money, her neighbor’s houses of their pictures, statuary and books, and what she could not carry away she has in mere wantonness destroyed. “Thou shalt not kill.” She has murdered thousands of defenceless men, women, children, and little babes, and has done this not in a sudden and feverish rage, but as part of a deliberately conceived and carefully executed policy. One must multiply Raemaekers’ picture by the thousand in order to get its full significance.

LYMAN ABBOTT.