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Editor: J. Murray Allison

Illustrator: Louis Raemaekers

RAEMAEKERS' CARTOON HISTORY OF THE WAR

RAEMAEKERS' CARTOON HISTORY OF THE WAR

VOLUME ONE THE FIRST TWELVE MONTHS OF WAR

NEW YORK THE CENTURY CO. 1918

FOREWORD

In all the welter of the tragic upheaval which is shattering institutions once thought immutable, condemning millions to physical death and awakening other millions to spiritual life, making staggering discoveries of unexpected human strength or weakness, thrusting men into fame one day or to oblivion the next, there has been nothing more dramatic than the sudden manifestation of the genius of the Dutchman, Louis Raemaekers, who, as Europe recoiled from the first shock of German barbarity, threw down his brush for his pencil and by the intensity of his spirit aroused the compassion and fired the anger of the world with his cartoons of the Belgian violation.

He, more than any other individual, has made intensely clear to the people the single issue upon which the war is joined. More than cartoonist, he is teacher and preacher, with the vision, faith, and intensity of a St. Francis, a Luther, or a Joan of Arc.

On August 1, 1914, we find him a quiet, gentle man, the son of a country editor, happy in his family, devout, contemplative, loving beauty and peace, contentedly painting the good and lovely things he saw among the tulip-fields and waterways, the cattle and the wind-mills of his own native Holland before the gray-clad millions of the Kaiser burst into the low countries with fire and sword.

Then comes the miracle of his transformation; the idyllic is thrust aside by the hideous reality; beauty is drowned in a bestial orgy of force; and in place of the passive painter arises the fiery preacher; the brush is discarded for the pencil, and the pencil in his hands becomes an avenging sword, because by it millions of people have been aroused to a clear-cut realization of the fact that the issue of this war is no less than Slavery and Autocracy versus Freedom and Democracy.

The very first of his war cartoons indicated the prophetic vision of the man, and gave the first evidence of his inspiration and genius. It is called "Christendom after Twenty Centuries" and shows a bowed and weeping figure crouching under the sword and lash. It was drawn on that fateful day August 1st, 1914. The intensity of emotion shown in this drawing revealed his power for the first time. To Raemaekers himself it came as a vision and a summons. The landscape painter disappeared, and in his place arose a champion of civilization, throbbing with sublime rage and pity, clothed with authority, and invested with a weapon more powerful than the ruthlessness it indicts.

When the stories of the Belgian horror began to circulate in Holland, Raemaekers, like the rest of the humane world, refused to credit them. His own mother was German; he had spent many happy years in Germany; he knew the German peasant as a kindly and happy, if rather stupid fellow; it was incredible that such men could have done the awful things alleged. But the tales persisted, and although the evidence of the wracked and broken refugees who poured into his country by tens of thousands seemed irrefutable, he could not believe it, and readily seized upon the common supposition that the terrible stories were the product of the imagination of an overwrought and panic-stricken people. At length he could remain in doubt no longer, and quietly slipped over the frontier to verify for himself the truth or falsehood of the accusations that had already made Germany guilty of the foulest crimes ever perpetrated in the name of war since the dawn of civilization.

What he actually saw with his own eyes he does not tell. But a hundred of his early cartoons bear witness to the burning impression made upon his soul. Raemaekers, like others who have seen them, cannot speak of these unnamable horrors, but can only express his consuming pity or his white-hot rage in the medium that lies nearest his hand. On one occasion only has he publicly referred to his experiences in Belgium. It was at a dinner given him by the artists and literary men of London at the Savage Club, where, pointing to the portraits and trophies of Peary, Scott, Nansen, Shackleton, and other explorers which hang on the walls, he said: "I, too, have been an explorer, Gentlemen. I have explored a hell, and it was terror unspeakable."

As late as November, 1916, an exhibition of his cartoons in Madrid was forbidden by the Spanish Government upon the insistence of the German embassy in that capital.

It is significant to note that these attempted persecutions had an effect directly opposite to that intended. They not only failed to stop the publication of his cartoons but were largely instrumental in drawing the attention of the Allies and neutrals to the great champion that had arisen.

American and British war-correspondents returning to London from Amsterdam talked enthusiastically of the "Great Raemaekers" and a few stray cartoons appeared in the press of London and Paris. But he was practically unknown outside of Holland until Christmas week in December, 1915, a year and a half after his first war-cartoon had appeared.

A two-line advertisement announced his arrival in the British metropolis. "Exhibition of war-cartoons by Raemaekers, Fine Arts Galleries, Bond Street, admission one shilling," was all it said. While Londoners are generally interested in new artists, Raemaekers appeared at an inopportune time. For one thing, the public had been rather surfeited with war-literature and war-pictures and the work of an unknown foreign artist was scarcely likely to attract them, and for another, it was within a few days of Christmas, everybody was leaving London, and those who remained in town were bent on giving the troops and the war-sufferers as merry a time as possible.

The exhibition was crowded daily for twenty weeks. From nine in the morning till six at night the galleries were packed with people of every grade of society. It is not too much to say that no oration, no literature, no art had brought the real meaning of the war home so convincingly to Londoners as these cartoons. Parents who had already given their sons, wives who had given husbands, were strengthened in their resignation and comforted in their sorrow; those who yet had the sacrifice to make were fortified in their resolve. As I have said, the cumulative effect of these hundred and fifty cartoons on the emotions of a people just awakening to and suffering from the desperate realities of the war was almost overwhelming, and many a man and woman quivered and cried under this pitiless revelation of the stupendous suffering that had been and was yet to be.

The exhibition was carried from London to the principal English and Scottish cities, and thence to Paris. Everywhere the story was the same. Crowds flocked to see and heed the artist's fiery records; statesmen, soldiers, artists did him honor. In London he was received by the Prime Minister and the artistic and learned societies; in Paris he was made a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor and given a reception at the Sorbonne--the highest purely intellectual honor that can be bestowed upon any man. France, equally with England, acclaimed him as the new champion of humanity. In the provincial cities of England, as in London, crowds thronged the galleries daily for weeks at a time. In Liverpool alone five thousand persons visited the exhibition in one afternoon; Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Glasgow, Edinburgh told the same story of the people being aroused and inspirited as though a new evangel had come to tell them that their cause was sacred and their sacrifice not vain.

In a few months his genius was universally recognized and his position as the supreme cartoonist of the war firmly established. And now that he had the appreciation and the scope that were his due, he threw himself into his work with even greater ardor. He made recruiting posters for the army and navy; he depicted the shortage of shells and called on men and women to man the munition factories; he contributed posters to stimulate thrift and industry and contributions to the Government funds; he worked for both the British and the French Red Cross, and for private and public charities innumerable; his pen never flagged. While the wrongs of Belgium had been the first incentive to his genius, he now dealt with the war in all its later phases, and found subjects wherever the blight of Kaiserism traveled--in France, Russia, Serbia, Rumania, Italy, and the Far East; and in the Zeppelin raids, the Armenian massacres, the Belgian and French deportations, the Red Cross outrages, and the submarine infamies.

As a mere material record of industry, Raemaekers' is probably unique in the world's history. Since the beginning of the war he has drawn nearly 1000 cartoons. There is not a single phase of the war,--military, naval, or political,--that has not formed a basis for his artistic comment. Some three hundred of the cartoons have been reproduced in facsimile form, and in that state have been exhibited in hundreds of cities throughout the world.

In book form his work exists already in a dozen editions, from the sumptuous edition-de-luxe at one hundred dollars to the popular edition at four cents.

Post-card editions of the cartoons run into many millions; his cartoons have been filmed, exist as lantern-slides, and leading actors and actresses have reproduced them in the form of tableaux. But it is in the world's press that the greatest distribution has taken place. He is cartoonist to half a hundred newspapers, and literally thousands of different publications have reproduced his pictures at one time or another. He has been translated into a score of languages, the writer having seen one edition in Basque and another in Arabic. In the United States alone his cartoons in one year have reached a newspaper circulation of over 300,000,000, and exhibitions have been held in over one hundred of the leading cities.

This world-wide recognition is conclusive testimony to the universality of his genius. Raemaekers appeals to all mankind. The value of his contribution to the cause of civilization in this war lies in the fact that he has seen and depicted with the directness and clarity of genius the truth that the issue is joined between the forces of evil and good. For him there are no other considerations, no qualifications, no compromises. He has but one enemy, and that is the destroyer of peace and civilization; he has but one hero, and that is the defender of them. He sees in war itself no pomp and glitter, but only the burning village, the devastated home, the agonized women and children, and the brave and faithful dead. He depicts militarism as hideous, brutal, coarse, and cunning. His one thought seems to be that those things which all kindly and gentle men and women hold dear and sacred are being trampled upon and threatened by a monstrous wrong; and that the ideals of justice, order, and human liberty which have been established in the conscience of humanity after centuries of painful struggle are in danger of annihilation. In thus narrowing the issue, in thus resolving all doubt, he has, in the words of Theodore Roosevelt, "rendered the most powerful of the honorable contributions by neutrals to the cause of civilization." Raemaekers' name and work will live long after many of the men and their achievements in this war have faded from the general mind. Future generations will look at his cartoons and will find in them at once the cause and the justification of the rising of the world's free peoples to give their lives for freedom and the safety of democracy.

The historical value of the cartoons have frequently been insisted upon by critics and reviewers and I have been urged to publish them in the form of a cartoon History of the War. The present attempt is the outcome of these suggestions.

J. MURRAY ALLISON.

NEW YORK, Christmas Day, 1917.

NOTE ON THE BELGIAN CARTOONS

The cartoons which appear on the following pages up to and including page 86 call for special reference.

After the retreat of the Germans from Paris the German General Staff appear to have altered its cold-blooded policy in Belgium and France. From that moment, when the carefully prepared blow at the heart of France had failed and when the possibility of defeat began to dawn upon the Potsdam mind, organised robbery, murder, arson and rape were discontinued or at least toned down as a feature of German warfare. Whilst that method--the Official Reports of the Allied Governments' Commissions of Enquiry prove conclusively it was a method--continued, Raemaekers concentrated his pencil upon it and neglected the strictly military and political happenings. That is why I have grouped the Belgian cartoons at the beginning of this volume. They do really represent the first phase of the war. With regard to the extracts that I have selected to face the Belgian cartoons I would ask the reader to remember that they have been taken largely from Official Reports issued after the drawings were published. Raemaekers' pictorial indictment came first. He was justified later by the sworn evidence of eye-witnesses.

I think perhaps that it is necessary to make these observations in case the letterpress facing the Belgian cartoons should not in many cases be considered quite apt.

J. M. A.

Raemaekers' first war cartoon, originally published on the first of August, 1914.

On the evening of August 3 the German troops cross the frontier. The storm burst so suddenly that neither party had time to adjust its mind to the situation. The Germans seem to have expected an easy passage. The Belgian population, never dreaming of an attack, were startled and stupefied.

From the very beginning of the operations the civilian population of the villages lying upon the line of the German advance were made to experience the extreme horrors of war. "On the 4th of August," says one witness, "at Herve I saw at about 2 o'clock in the afternoon, near the station, five Uhlans; these were the first German troops I had seen. They were followed by a German officer and some soldiers in a motor car. The men in the car called out to a couple of young fellows who were standing about thirty yards away. The young men, being afraid, ran off and then the Germans fired and killed one of them named D." The murder of this innocent fugitive civilian was a prelude to the burning and pillage of Herve and of other villages in the neighborhood, to the indiscriminate shooting of civilians of both sexes, and to the organized military execution of batches of selected males.

The wrong--I speak openly--that we are committing we will endeavor to make good as soon as our military goal has been reached. Anybody who is threatened as we are threatened, and is fighting for his highest possessions, can have only one thought--how is he to hack his way through.

With a clear conscience Germany goes to the battlefield.

Remember that the German people are the chosen of God. On me, the German Emperor, the spirit of God has descended. I am His sword, His weapon and His vicegerent. Woe to the disobedient and death to cowards and unbelievers.

The inevitableness, the idealism, the blessing of war as an indispensable and stimulating law of development must be repeatedly emphasized.

... War is the greatest factor in the furtherance of culture and power. Efforts to secure peace are extraordinarily detrimental as soon as they influence politics.

... Efforts directed toward the abolition of war are not only foolish, but absolutely immoral, and must be stigmatized as unworthy of the human race.

... In fact, the State is a law unto itself. Weak nations have not the same right to live as powerful and vigorous nations.

When the German cavalry occupied the village of Linsmeau not a man of the civilian population took part in the fighting. Nevertheless the village was invaded at dusk on August 10 and all the male inhabitants were compelled to come forward and hand over whatever arms they possessed. No recently discharged firearms were found. The invaders divided these peasants in three groups, those in one were bound, and 11 of them placed in a ditch, where they were afterwards found dead.

In a caf?, lower down, near the canal, I saw a number of German soldiers, and was successful in having a chat with the inn-keeper, at the farthest corner of the bar. I asked, of course, what they meant by burning the village, and he told me that the Germans had made a number of successful attacks on Fort Pontisse, until at last they had reduced it to silence. They were now so near that they could open the final assault. They were afraid, however, of some ambush, or underground mine, and the Friday before they had collected the population, whom they forced to march in front of them. When they had got quite near they dared not enter it yet, and drove the priest and twelve of the principal villagers before them.

We ourselves regret deeply that during these fights the town of Loewen has been destroyed to a great extent. Needless to say that these consequences are not intentional on our part, but cannot be avoided in this infamous franc-tireur war being led against us.

Whoever knows the good-natured character of our troops cannot seriously pretend that they are inclined to needless or frivolous destruction.

The German troops penetrated into Aerschot, a town of 8,000 inhabitants, on Wednesday, Aug. 19, in the morning. No Belgian forces remained behind. No sooner did the Germans enter the town than they shot five or six inhabitants whom they caused to leave their houses. In the evening, pretending that a superior German officer had been killed on the Grand Place by the son of the Burgomaster, or, according to another version of the story, that a conspiracy had been hatched against the superior commandant by the Burgomaster and his family, the Germans took every man who was inside of Aerschot; they led them, fifty at a time, some distance from the town, grouped them in lines of four men, and, making them run ahead of them, shot them and killed them afterward with their bayonets. More than forty men were found thus massacred.

I have had the reports of local commissions of police placed before me, and they show that in smaller villages like those of Caestre and Merris, with a population of about 1,500 souls or less, pillaging to the extent of ?4,000 and ?6,000 was committed by the German troops.

They sang, shouted and waved their arms. Most of them carried bottles full of liquor, which they put into their mouths frequently, smashed them on the ground, or handed them to their comrades, when unable to drink any more themselves. Each of a troop of cavalry had a bottle of pickles, and enjoyed them immensely.

Other soldiers kept on running into the burning houses, carrying out vases, pictures, plate, or small pieces of furniture. They smashed everything on the cobbles and then returned to wreck more things that would have been destroyed by the fire all the same. It was a revelry of drunken vandalism. They seemed mad, and even risking being burned alive at this work of destruction. Most of the officers were also tipsy; not one of them was saluted by the soldiers.

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