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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 7: “We will not Wear Convicts’ Stripes, Wear Them Yourselves”
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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.

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 predict the speedy Hunnification of the world. Attila is to-day popular in Prussia—mothers have their babes called Etzel and when William II sends forth his armies he bids them be worthy of their illustrious namesake.

Attila was the first of the great Junkers. His army was largely German and he held court in the centre of Thuringia. He is the hero of Germanic song and legend; and his spirit animates the Hymn of Hate, the murder of Edith Cavell, the sinking of the Lusitania and above all the hired criminals who have been operating in America in the disguise of patriotic citizens.

POULTNEY BIGELOW.

Malden-on-Hudson.
Washington’s Birthday,
1918.