1920

Articles from 1920

In Search of the W.W. I Draft Dodgers (American Legion Weekly, 1920)

This is a fiery editorial from a U.S. veteran’s magazine covering American law enforcement’s search for the 487,003 young men who resisted the draft of 1917-1918.

The War Department will take care of the actual deserters, the men who went into camp and then deserted. Such men are liable to prosecution at any time in their lives. The Department of Justice will get after the draft dodgers, who never answered the summons…

In Search of the W.W. I Draft Dodgers (American Legion Weekly, 1920) Read More »

In Defense of Literary Rebels (Vanity Fair, 1920)

Literary critic Edmund Wilson (1895 – 1972) was a big part of the intellectual world that existed in New York throughout much of the Twenties through the Fifties. His reviews could be found in a number of magazines such as VANITY FAIR, THE DIAL and THE NEW REPUBLIC. Wilson is remembered for championing many of the younger poets that we still read to this day and in this review, Bunny Wilson celebrated the new poetic form that the modern era had created: free verse. Good words can be read on behalf of the poetry of Carl Sandburg and Amy Lowell.

In Defense of Literary Rebels (Vanity Fair, 1920) Read More »

E.E. Cummings on T.S. Eliot (The Dial Magazine, 1920)

A review of T.S. Eliot‘s (1888 – 1965) second collection, Poemsstyle=border:none (1919), as reviewed by E.E. Cummings (1894 – 1962) in the well respected magazine of the arts, THE DIAL. It was in this volume that Eliot’s well remembered series of quatrains first appeared: Sweeney Among the Nightingales, Sweeney Erect The Hippopotamus and Mr. Eliot’s Sunday Morning Service.

Cummings at that time was living in Paris and writing his first book, The Enormous Roomstyle=border:none, which would be published in 1922. The review of that work can be read here.

E.E. Cummings on T.S. Eliot (The Dial Magazine, 1920) Read More »

H.L. Mencken: Not Impressed with Lincoln (The Smart Set, 1920)

As far as culture critic and all-around nay-sayer H.L. Mencken was concerned, Abraham Lincoln was simply another opportunist who fed at the federal trough and he found himself at a loss when it came to understanding the American deification of the man. It seemed that even Jefferson Davis might have had an easier time uttering a few sweet words to describe Lincoln then did the Bard of Baltimore. Yet, there was one contribution Lincoln made that Mencken applauded, the Gettysburg Address:

It is eloquence brought to a pellucid and almost gem-like perfection –the highest emotion reduced to a few poetical phrases. Nothing else precisely like it is to be found in the whole range of oratory. Lincoln himself never even remotely approached it [in other speeches]. It is genuinely stupendous.

(Although, like any unreconstructed Confederates, he thought the argument was all a bunch of rot.)

H.L. Mencken: Not Impressed with Lincoln (The Smart Set, 1920) Read More »

American English and American Identity (American Legion Weekly, 1920)

When it came to the issue of assimilating immigrants on American shores and deporting Alien Slackers, few groups yelled louder than the editors at The American Legion Weekly. In this anonymous editorial the author gently advocates for the recognition of American English in all schools with heavy immigrant numbers.

Why not inform these aliens they are about to be taught the American language… [and] announce to the world that there is a new language? Why, even in Mexico they do not stand for calling their language the Spanish language. They insist it is the Mexican language… why not quit press-agenting John Bull and have our own language – the American language.


– from Amazon: A Decade-by-Decade Guide to the Vanishing Vocabulary of the Twentieth Centurystyle=border:none

American English and American Identity (American Legion Weekly, 1920) Read More »

Illiterate Immigrant Soldiers (Current Opinion, 1920)

So deep were the ranks of khaki-clad immigrants who filled the U.S. military’s regiments and divisions throughout the course the First World War that our British allies would often refer to the U.S. Army as the American Foreign Legion; yet as grateful as the services were to have so many additional strong arms to deploy during a time of national emergency, it was not without a cost.

This article is all about how the army addressed the issue regarding the high number of illiterate immigrants who broadened their phalanx spanning the years 1917 through 1920.

Illiterate Immigrant Soldiers (Current Opinion, 1920) Read More »

Timeless Advice Regarding Skin Care (McCall’s Magazine, 1920)

Some tend to think that 1920s concepts concerning skin care are very different from our own – and in many cases they would be absolutely right; that is why we were so charmed to stumble upon this 1920 article written by the Broadway actress Suzanne Sheldon. The actress emphasizes 6 to 8 glasses of water each day, a sensible exercise regimen and washing the face each evening.

Timeless Advice Regarding Skin Care (McCall’s Magazine, 1920) Read More »