Sick of War

2018 is turning out to be a bad year for influenza, but it's still not as bad as 1918 was. Chalk that up to so many people failing to get their flu shots in those days. At any rate, editorial cartoonist John "Ding" Darling took advantage of the situation to make a comment about foreign affairs.

"Might Be the Neighbors' Children Have Been Having It" by Jay N. "Ding" Darling, January, 1918

American and Allied media excitedly reported that Austria was having a rough time of it in January, 1918. Emperor Karl's cabinet resigned, foodstuffs were in short supply, and laborers were going on strike.

"Doing His Bit!" by Sidney Joseph Greene in New York Evening Telegram, January, 1918

Even though Austria-Hungary's had been the nation to trigger World War I with its declaration of war against Serbia, Germany was the more dominant of the Central Powers from the earliest weeks of the conflict. As food shortages took hold in the industrialized Austria, leftist labor leaders teamed up with pacifists in protest against their Teutonic overlords to the North.

"Getting Tired of the Mess" by Harry Keys in Columbus Citizen, January, 1918

Yet there were notes of caution. The Pittsburgh Sun ventured that "Reports of labor uprising in the dual monarchy are to be taken with the same quantity of salt that are to go with similar reports of internal disorders in Germany. ... This latest tale of unrest bears the earmarks of truth. Taken in connection with the rigid sealing of the border, which was presumed to have been to clothe in secrecy the movement of the troops, there is a strong presumption that in Vienna and even in Budapest there have been riots and that at this time thousands of workmen are on strike in the capital and in the industrial cities of the south."

"The Weakest Link" by Harry Murphy in Chicago Examiner, January 31, 1918

From Berlin, statements of a left-of-center political leader gained wide circulation in England and America. "Suppose the army conquered France and England; would that mean peace?" thundered Philip Scheidemann, leader of the Social Democrats in Berliner Vorwaerts after Field Marshall Paul Von Hindenburg predicted the German army would be in Paris by April 1. "I say no, for we would still have to conquer America."

"Sleepless Nights!" by John Cassel in New York Evening World, January 25, 1918

German officials and media hastened to reassure the public that Entente depictions of dissent and disarray in the German government were greatly exaggerated.

"Durch die Reuterbrille" by Karl Arnold in Simplicissimus, Munich, November 27, 1917

However, one does begin to see cartoons laying the blame for Germany's and Austria's ills on the selfishness and greed of the moneyed class, portraying them as the ones making a fortune off of the conflict. This Swiss cartoon promises that the war, and those capitalists' gravy train, were soon to come to a stop.

"A Cause for Alarm" by "F.B." in Nebelspalter, Zurich, January, 1918

Yes, some mainstream American cartoonists (not only the socialists) also occasionally leveled criticism at the nation's rich for not sacrificing as much as others in the war effort, but in these Germanic cartoons lies the seeds of resentment against bankers that would grow into Kristallnacht and the Holocaust.

"Die Neue Polonaise" by Thomas Theodor Heine in Simplicissimus, Munich, January 22, 1918

Meanwhile, negotiations between the Central Powers and Russia toward the Brest-Litovsk treaty continued, despite Entente entreaties to Russia to resist. Here Olaf Gulbransson depicts a Russian negotiator (Nikolai Bukharin, perhaps?) as a Russian hound passively listening to Western talk of humanity, protection of the little people, correctness, and democracy.

"Die Stimme Seines Herrn" by Olaf Gulbransson in Simplicissimus, Munich,. January 22, 1918

And as regarded its western adversaries, Germany responded to President Wilson's Fourteen Point peace proposal with interest and a counter-proposal of its own. A Kingdom of Poland, with borders well east of where they are today, would be joined in a personal union with Austria-Hungary. A Duchy of Courland (western Latvia) and a Principality of Lithuania would be established as vassal states of the Prussian monarchy. Germany would agree to withdraw from Belgium, but the industrial region of Alsace-Lorraine would remain part of Germany.

"You May Have Belgium!" by John H. Cassel in New York Evening World, January, 1918

On this, Kaiser Wilhelm had the support of Social Democrat Scheidemann, continuing in the Berliner Vorwaerts that "Alsace is Germany's and will remain so. If one clear word is spoken regarding Belgium, England's war-mongering will end. An honorable, complete reinstatement of Belgium is our duty."