PHILADELPHIA AND LONDON
J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY
1918
COPYRIGHT, 1918, BY JOSEPH PENNELL
PUBLISHED JANUARY, 1918
PRINTED BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY
AT THE WASHINGTON SQUARE PRESS
PHILADELPHIA, U. S. A.
INTRODUCTION—MY LITHOGRAPHS OF WAR WORK
I HAVE come back from the Jaws of Death—back from the Mouth of Hell—to my own land, my own people. I have never passed such an exciting year in my life—and beside, I hope I have been able to accomplish something in my work which shall show one phase of the Wonder of the World’s Work of to-day. I was honoured a year ago by being permitted by the Rt. Hon. David Lloyd George, then Minister of Munitions in England, to make drawings in the various factories and works and shipyards which were engaged in war work in that country—and the records of what I saw were published as lithographs of War Work in England and in a previous volume in this series. Now, though I do not believe in war, I do not see why some pictorial record of what is being done to carry on the war should not be made—made from an artist’s standpoint—for we are in it—being in the world—but I am not of it.
When my work—or as much of it as I was allowed to do—was finished and exhibited and published—I was invited by the French Minister of Munitions, M. Albert Thomas, to visit the front and make studies of similar subjects in France, but—owing to a combination of unfortunate circumstances—though I went to France twice during the Summer of this year, I was unable to get anything of importance. This was my fault, or my misfortune—I failed—and the memory of my failure will haunt me, and be a cause of regret to me, all my life—unless I am able to wipe out my failure—in another visit to France. But though I failed to make any drawings—any records of the subjects I was so freely shown—I was shown on my two visits many subjects, which were supremely interesting, could I have but drawn them—had I been able to do so they would have been worth doing. Not only was I taken to the front, which was not the part I saw, picturesque, but I was also taken to see some of those parts of France which have been fought over, some of the towns which have been destroyed, some of the land which is desolate, and I have also seen some of the French munition factories. Then I came home, for I believe the place for an American at the present time is at home. And on my arrival I was authorized to make records by our Government similar to those I had made in England, and had failed to make in France—what I have done in the United States is shown in this book.
I have had more opportunities of seeing what is being done in war work in England, France and the United States than any one else—and in a fashion that no one else has been permitted to see. I have seen war in the making. Yet I did not do these drawings with any idea of helping to win the war, but because for years I have been at work—from my earliest drawings—trying to record The Wonder of Work, and work never was so wonderful as it is to-day. And never had any one such help—such aid, such encouragement given him to record its wonder—and by the Governments of the three great countries which are engaged in “this incredibly horrible, absolutely unnecessary war, easily avoided war,” to quote a British Statesman.
Not only have I seen the Wonder of Work in these three lands—but before the war I saw it in Belgium, Germany and Italy. I have drawn it everywhere, save in Luxembourg, and there, too, I have seen it—but made no drawings—for it was so easy to get to that land—and so that country was put off for a more convenient season—a season I fear which will never come again. I am not going to make comparisons—but I am going to say that the Wonder of Work is more wonderful in the United States than anywhere else in the world to-day. True, we are not working with that unbelievable energy which the French and English—yes, the English—have put at last into their work—but we do so much more—with so much less—appearance of work—we are working for the Allies—but they are not working for us. And we are doing for them what they cannot do for themselves. In Europe the war worker works all day and every day in the year. Here most of the great industrial works have only added war work to their peace work, in Europe scarce anything else but war work is being done.
And also in America the women have not to any extent gone into the factories, mills and shipyards of the country. And I hope they never will. I have never seen a woman shell maker here, yet I know of factories in France and England where there are scarce any work people, save women, one where there are ten thousand women. Here they are only making fuses and doing other light work, but I have not seen a woman at a lathe as I have seen them in France and England. I have never seen a woman ship builder here—yet I have seen women in shipyards abroad doing work that men would have grumbled at when put to it—because it was thought hard work—before the war.