When his cartoons began to reach America toward the end of 1916 this country was neutral. It is with peculiar satisfaction, therefore, that I base this brief foreword upon press extracts published prior to America's participation in the war. If it were possible to discover today an individual who was entirely ignorant as to the causes and conduct of the war, he would, after an inspection of a hundred or more of these cartoons, probably utter his conviction somewhat as follows:
"I do not believe that these drawings have the slightest relation to the truth; I do not believe that it is possible for such things to happen in the twenti-eth century."
He would be quite justified, in his ignorance of what has happened in Europe, in expressing such an opinion, just as any of us, with the possible exception of the disciples of Bernhardi himself, would have been justified in expressing a similar view in July, 1914.
What is the view of all informed people today? "To Raemaekers the war is not a topic, or a subject for charity. It is a vivid heartrending reality," says the New York "Evening Post," "and you come away from the rooms where his cartoons now hang so aware"
