Pathfinder Magazine

Articles from Pathfinder Magazine

Soviet Slave Labor Camps (Pathfinder & America Magazines, 1947)

Although the true horrors of Stalin’s Russia would not be known until his death in 1953 (and then again with the opening of the Soviet Archives in 1990), bits and pieces were coming to the light as thousands of refugees and defectors swarmed the government offices of the Western Powers in search of asylum following the end of the Second World War. These small report from 1949 and 1947 let it be known how long the Soviet labor camps (Gulags) had been operational (since 1918), who was in them, how many different types of camps existed (there were three different varieties). As to the question concerning how many inmates were interred, there was no decisive count, somewhere between 14,000,000 to 20,000,000.

Since they came into being, the Soviet [forced labor] camps have swallowed more people, have exacted more victims, than all other camps – Hitler’s and others- together, and this lethal engine continues to operate full-blast…

Soviet Slave Labor Camps (Pathfinder & America Magazines, 1947) Read More »

Stepping-Up The Training (Pathfinder Magazine, 1950)

By the autumn of 1950 it became clear to the old hands at the Pentagon that the police action on the Korean peninsula was beginning to resemble a real war. With that in mind, thirteen military training camps that had been been barren for the past five years, were dusted off in order that they might once more begin training Americans for war. Two weeks later China threw her hat in the ring.


During this same period, the U.S. Navy took 62 ships that had been mothballed in order to launch the Inchon Landings…

Stepping-Up The Training (Pathfinder Magazine, 1950) Read More »

Television: God’s Gift To Politicians (Pathfinder Magazine, 1951)

Placing a teleprompter or cue cards below a camera lens seems like old-hat to us – but our grandparents thought that it rendered an amazing affect for televised addresses:

The new technique for speeches on TV – reading from larlge cards with lettering two inches high placed just under the camera lens – makes it possible for the speaker to look directly into the camera lens, giving the appearance of talking directly to the viewer.

Television: God’s Gift To Politicians (Pathfinder Magazine, 1951) Read More »

The State of Radio In 1937 America (Pathfinder Magazine, 1937)

Girding the United States today are two major national radio chains and one smaller chain. They are the National Broadcasting Company, the Columbia Broadcasting Company and the Mutual Broadcasting System, NBC, with its combined Red and Blue networks, has about 110 stations. CBS on a single network has 101. Mutual has 45 and will add a new section of 10 more next month.

The State of Radio In 1937 America (Pathfinder Magazine, 1937) Read More »

The State of Radio In 1937 America (Pathfinder Magazine, 1937)

Girding the United States today are two major national radio chains and one smaller chain. They are the National Broadcasting Company, the Columbia Broadcasting Company and the Mutual Broadcasting System, NBC, with its combined Red and Blue networks, has about 110 stations. CBS on a single network has 101. Mutual has 45 and will add a new section of 10 more next month.

The State of Radio In 1937 America (Pathfinder Magazine, 1937) Read More »

Dormant Capital (Pathfinder Magazine, 1934)

This article reported on a phenomenon that is common in our own day as well as the era of the Great Depression. It exists in any locale that fosters a lousy environment for business – for when the entrepreneurial classes loose their daring for investing in commercial ventures and when bankers refuse to loan money for fear that they will never be paid back, it leads to the creation of what is called dormant capital – money that should be working, but isn’t.

There is now piled up in banks some $46,000,000,000. As opposed to $39,000,000,000 at the low point of 1933, and the idle capital is on the increase. World trade has virtually broken down.


As one editorial makes clear, FDR had a tough time freeing up private capital for investments, click here to read it.

Dormant Capital (Pathfinder Magazine, 1934) Read More »

Understanding Unemployment (Pathfinder Magazine, 1937)

In order for FDR’s Federal Government to layout their planned economy they had to be able to forecast the future trends in unemployment, and with that in mind it was deemed suitable that a committee be convened to study the matter. The board of brainiacs called themselves the National Resources Committee and their study was boundless and all encompassing. This article summarizes the findings of one of the organization subcommittees; their 450,000-word report was titled Technological Trends and National Policy, Including the Social Implications of of New Inventions. The head of this subcommittee was the famed sociology professor William F. Ogburn, and as the title implied, the report studied the blessing and the curse that is the nature of technological innovation.

Understanding Unemployment (Pathfinder Magazine, 1937) Read More »