Articles from Collier’s Magazine
Here is the first half of the thrilling account of the Battle of Leyte Gulf (October 23 – 26, 1944) as it appeared in two installments in Collier’s Magazine in January, 1945.
The attached editorial goes into some detail cataloging numerous U.S. presidents and their assorted excuses for the economic depressions that kicked-in during their respective administrations. Hoover is included.
“[If not for the Allied air forces] Rommel might have reached his objectives – Alexandria, Cairo and Suez – had he not been able to plow through to the Nile Delta where he could resume his favorite kind of military football. He might have reached the flat, broad, green cool plains of the Delta had he been able to bring up water, food, fuel and reinforcements in men and weapons. It was precisely that which air power prevented…”
In 1939, “Canada wisely decided that she could become an ideal training center for pilots and airmen generally. Canada could produce munitions in her factories. Conditions were ideal for both pursuits.”
W.W. II: Where were the war poets?
Here is a Collier’s profile of U.S. Admiral Raymond Spruance (1886 – 1969):
“Outside Navy circles, very few know much about the man who bosses our task forces in the Pacific and has never lost an engagement. But Admiral Nagano knows of Spruance; so does Tojo – because, if it weren’t for Spruance at Midway, Japanese carriers might now be based at Pearl Harbor.”
Inasmuch as the Roosevelt administration believed that the integration the armed forces was far too risky a proposition during wartime, it did take steps to insure that fair hiring practices were observed by all industries that held defense contracts with the Federal government; during the summer of 1941 a law was passed making such discrimination a crime.
The attached editorial from Collier’s Magazine applauded the President for doing the right thing.
An article from 1947 concerning the ugly war fought by the visionaries who brought Israel back to life.
Click here to read a 1917 article that predicted America’s unique bond with Israel.
As America was gearing up to fight another world war, the brass caps were reminded how incapable they were at identifying and isolating the mental incompetents during the last war, and they swore this war would be different. Numerous military and civilian psychiatrists were convened, and it was concluded that of the millions of men called, at least 15 percent would likely be off-their-rockers.
Here is an in-depth examination as to whether or not government-sponsored healthcare was suitable for post-war America. Written by a journalist who was decidedly for the proposal, you will not be surprised to read the same exact arguments were presented on both sides as they were during the Obama years.
“The bill’s friends argue that tax-supported medicine is no more un-American than tax-supported education.”
“The new Japan is fermenting a mash of new ideas and old customs. It is mixing political democracy with feudal loyalties, free enterprise with giant monopolies, and several shades of Marxism with a hankering for the good old days. The nation that once meekly did what a handful of leaders told it to do is now outspokenly divided on every major issue… For seven Occupation years the Japanese had no choice of sides. We ran the country and fed them slabs of democracy sandwiched between $2,500,000,000 worth of relief and rehabilitation. Japan enjoyed our help and even digested a good deal of the democracy. But when the Occupation lid came off in 1952 it revealed a country weary of being told what to do, curious to taste the forbidden fruit behind the bamboo curtain and relishing its authority over the foreigners who had been giving it orders for so long.”
This article served to introduce the boy who is now Charles III (b.1948) to American magazine readers and answer all their questions as to how impossibly glamorous his life was when he was only six years-old:
“Despite his scant years, Charles is already launched in his training for chairman of the board. In that training, the ancient and splendid trappings of British royal tradition still play a part, but in the main Charles is unmistakably a child of the mid-Twentieth Century.”
“The Brain Trust’s very lack of practical experience was its chief asset. Unhampered by tradition and fairly drunk with the opportunity of translating college dreams into realities, they leapt to the battle, careless of obstacles and without fear of frustration.”
This article explains those heady days spanning the years 1900 through 1910 when the apostles of the automobile were given the task of telling anyone who would listen that the days of the horse were over:
“In the old days the salesmen had his problems. It took more than reason to get a sensible man in one of those contraptions with the motor under the seat and a water tank hanging from the rear. The salesman had to be a promoter, a mechanic, a ballyhoo artist, a stunt performer and a magician.”
America’s foremost authority on lighter-than-air craft, Rear Admiral Charles Rosendahl (1892 – 1977), tells you why this country should build and operated dirigibles if we are to maintain our rightful place in the field of post-war air transportation (they decided to build jets instead).
Here is an account of life during the Blitz, as written by sculptor Clare Sheridan (née Frewen; 1885 – 1970):
“I have from the very beginning put [poison] gas out of my thoughts and refused to carry a gas mask. But in a mad world growing madder daily who knows what the madmen may not resort to!… According to the gas booklet, the stuff will come through the window clacks, under the door and down the chimney.”
