Articles from 1935
A short article from 1935 reporting on the near-death experience of a British gardener named John Puckering who insisted that when his heart ceased beating for four and a half minutes during the course of a complicated surgery his soul slipped away, and joined a heavenly company…
A second article dealing with the same subject can be read here.
A Near-Death Experience from the Thirties (Literary Digest, 1935) Read More »
When Harold Ickes (1874 – 1952) assumed his post as FDR’s Secretary of the Department of the Interior he found himself in charge of three distinct governmental concerns. The first of these elements to be lorded over was the public lands (mines, forests and Indian reservations). His second responsibility was involved with the drilling of oil. The third and most observed cell in his official asylum was that of Administrator of Public Works Three Billion Dollar Fund. He was under instruction to spend this as rapidly as possible…It would give work to the workless, get money into circulation and encourage business.
Click here to read about President Harry Truman…
Harold Ickes Wrote the Relief Checks (New Outlook, 1935) Read More »
Four paragraphs tallying up the number of lynchings that took place throughout the course of 1934. The study was compiled by the Department of Records and Research of the Tuskegee Institute, which also compared the amount to the number of lynchings that took place during the previous four years.
Fifteen people, all Negroes, were lynched during 1934…Mississippi led in the number of lynchings, six; Florida and Louisiana came next with two each; and one each was recorded for Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Texas.
The Lynchings of 1934 (Literary Digest, 1935) Read More »
Just before dark, the $2,450,000 Macon had lurched crazily and inexplicably skyward, then had settled stern first into the sea. All but the chief radio operator and a Filipino mess-boy among the eighty-three officers and men aboard had taken to rubber life boats and had been picked up by war ships on Maneuvers.
All Congress needs to do is announce its refusal to condemn more American seamen to death; to declare that no more funds of American taxpayers will be squandered on these useless gas-bags.
Click here to read about a much admired American aviator who was attracted to the fascist way of thinking…
The Loss of the Macon and It’s Aftermath (Literary Digest, 1935) Read More »
This magazine article from 1935 documented the Federal aid that was made available for America’s poorest children. The malnutrition visited upon the boys of America’s indigent would render some of them unfit for military service in World War II.
With nearly one-sixth of the nation’s child population in families dependent upon emergency relief, welfare agencies call for a solution of their grave problem.
The problem was laid before the recent National Conference on the 1935 Needs of Children held under the auspices of The Parent’s Magazine in New York City. Before them Katherine F. Lenroot, Chief of the United States Children’s Bureau, made one of her first public appearances since taking office:
…These children have a right to expect that Federal, State, and community relief policies of 1935 will provide more adequately for essential items in the family budget.
Another article about children of the Great Depression can be read here…
The Forgotten Child (Literary Digest, 1935) Read More »
This is an interesting article that assesses the financial abilities of each of the 48 states in 1935 in an effort to illustrate that the ten richest states, as a result of their minority status on Capitol Hill, were in no position to cry out about majority tyranny when the insolvent 38 states rigged a deliberately unfair tax code that would see to it that they alone would pay the nation’s bills.
The ‘rich’ people may howl and growl and moan at having to foot the bills for everything, but there’s no remedy for it… The reason is this: our parade of poor states totals 38, while the rich states number only ten. The figures show that these rich states, which have only one-third the population, have to pay two-thirds of the taxes. The 10 richest states have only 20 Senators in the Senate, while the 38 poor states have 76. The rich are decidedly in the minority and there is no way for them to change the set-up.
Soak the Rich States, Too (Pathfinder Magazine, 1935) Read More »
This article was written by an anonymous soul who wanted the Script readers to understand that the life of an American Communist during the Great Depression was not a good one. Their lives often involved constant police surveillance and harassment to say nothing of blacklisting.
What boon can membership in the Communist Party confer upon them in exchange for the martyrdom they almost inevitably suffer? But is any membership card ever printed worth having one’s skull fractured for?
More about American Communists during the Great depression can be read here
The Degraded Lives of American Reds (Script Magazine, 1935) Read More »
Stage editor Hiram Motherwell (1888 – 1945) examined the meteoric rise of playwright Eugene O’Neill (1888 – 1953) and asked, What can he do next?
Eugene O’Neill is now forty-seven. His plays have just been enshrined in the definitive edition, handsome, ingratiating, expensive. They are probably more widely discussed than those of any other living playwright. They have been produced in almost every city from Moscow west to Tokyo. They have been translated into more languages. And yet it is evident that O’Neil, standing on the crest of this superb eminence, has completed a cycle; come to a momentous turning in the path his creative genius has followed. Where will the path lead?
What’s Next for Eugene O’Neill? (Stage Magazine, 1935) Read More »
In October, 1933, Baron Konstantin von Neurath (1873 – 1956), Germany’s Foreign Minister, sent a telegram to the Geneva Disarmament Conference announcing Germany’s resignation from the Conference and the League of Nations. The resignation will become effective Sunday, October 20, two years after notice of retirement was given… In March, 1935, Chancellor Hitler announced universal military conscription for Germany, thereby making the Treaty of Versailles a ‘scrap of paper’.
Italy left the League of Nations in 1937 – click here to read about it.
When Germany Quit the League of Nations (Literary Digest, 1935) Read More »
Having suffered from a Jewish-lead boycott of German goods that had been in place for two years, the businessmen of Nazi Germany dispatched Dr. Julius Lippert (1895 – 1956) off to Washington in order soothe hurt feelings and bring an end to it all. Seeing that Lippert was a devoted anti-Semite and the whole dust-up commenced because of the widespread anti-Semitic sensations that made up the very core of Hitler’s Germany were still in place and not likely to subside any time soon, Washington functionaries probably yawned and informed him that there was nothing that could be done on the Federal level.
Jewish Americans Boycotted German Products (Literary Digest, 1935) Read More »
