Does not the cartoonist Raemaekers fail in this cartoon? The artist Raemaekers is inspired—here as always. But does the cartoonist succeed this time in burning the right idea, his idea, into the reader's brain?

Here is the real Kaiser and here are real German workingmen. It is they who are carrying the burden of Kaiserism. All this is convincing. But do not other workingmen in other countries carry burdens?

The failure is only at first glance. Raemaekers is not concerned to reproduce the conventional cartoon of workingmen carrying a burden of other classes on their shoulders. The point lies not in the burden, but in the nature of the burden, the contrast, so perfectly portrayed, between the character of the Kaiser and the characters of his proud and willing slaves. The Kaiser, crafty and contemptuous, but neither so ignorant nor so stupid as to be wholly unconscious of the foolish and contemptible position he occupies! The workingmen evidently once strong, intelligent and enthusiastic, though now blinded and crippled, are utterly unconscious of what they are doing. Carrying the heavy burden of Kaiserism seems no more to them than their day's work.

You see Raemaekers knows both Kaiser and workingmen, and so will have nothing to do with the conventional portraits of either. The Kaiser is neither a beast nor a fool—however foolish his position may be. The workingmen are neither labor heroes ready to revolt, nor conscious and beaten serfs.

William English Walling.