Peter, being the precise and exacting person that you are, you didn't answer my question. Perchance it was because you have never soaked a Cracker Jack, you have no experience in soaking any card, and you deem soaking a card in only water to be altering a card and deceitful.
The collector who started this thread, Jeff G, was talking about water only versus dirt on a Cracker Jack card, a card that easily soaks. You're just again taking exception to something I've posted, ignoring the fact that you have no experience in the matter and your response conveys your bias instead of what you know. Jeff, you should be good to soak that card in water. Keep in mind that soaking isn't scrubbing.
Ink on a Cracker Jack, which wasn't on the card that CJ posted, AJ, is a totally different matter. Most ink in use around the WW I era were fountain, and they'd be using a permanent ink that won't soak, or a water-soluble ink that would bleed all over the card during a soak. Ball point pens usually have ink that is oily, you'd need a nonpolar solvent to tackle that, and you'd be likely to make a mess of the card. I don't think ball point pens would have been used very often for card signing in 1914/15. Ball point pens became readily available just after WW II. AJ, that looks like someone soaked the card in water then rubbed on the ink, creating a smudge. Nonpolar solvents, Bestine (rubber cement solvent), heptane, hexane, isopropyl or ethyl alcohol that is 90% or more the alcohol... they would work. But that looks like it was signed in the 50s or 60s, with a ballpoint pen, so that oily ink smudge was a likely outcome. I think I would have left that alone, but anyone could say that after seeing the results. NB, using that list of chemical warfare weapons a few sentences back, those bad boys will diminish the bright red fronts, the ink of the letters, and the image. Even if you slowly and carefully dabbed your solvent of choice with a Q-Tip, it would instantly permeate the paper and affect whatever is on the other side. I think it's a horizontal pose, so you could tell that there is a faded line from the top of his head down to his bellybutton. But again... the original poster was talking about using water only.
Jeff G, I've soaked about 30 Cracker Jacks. Zero problems doing that. It's worth mentioning for whoever reads this tomorrow or years from now, be careful with the 1915 cards, and VERY careful with the 1914 Cracker Jacks. The 1915 cards are fragile, and the 1914s are thinner, more like paper instead of cardboard. Be gentle with those.
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