Pathfinder Magazine

Articles from Pathfinder Magazine

False Hope for 1937 (Pathfinder Magazine, 1937)

Perhaps it was the practice of magazine editors during the Great Depression to instruct their reporters to find hope where none existed; that must have been the case for this article. The unnamed journalist who wrote this slender column reported on a few rare cases involving real jobs with real salaries being offered to recent graduates; the reporter wished to believe that this was a sign that the end was nigh – but these few jobs were flukes. The author saw economic growth where there really wasn’t any at all, however he certainly made the case for its existence. The title link posted above leads to a passage from FDR’s Folly: How Roosevelt and His New Deal Prolonged the Great Depressionstyle=border:none by Jim Powell that explains the true situation that existed in 1937, when unemployment stood at 20 percent by Summer.

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Spotlight on U.S. Schools in the Late Forties (Pathfinder Magazine, 1947)

One can’t but help but cry a little when reading that the Americans of 1947 actually believed that their public school system was substandard; they had no idea the depths this same system would be thrust just thirty years hence. The Forties was a time when most school teachers believed that the school’s biggest problem was talking in the classroom or lingering in the halls. However, this article lists the ten firsts that both state and Federal governments had initiated in order to make a fine education system better.

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Maestro Toscanini on the Home Front (Pathfinder and Coronet, 1943)

Unlike most other musicians in Italy, Arturo Toscanini (1867 – 1957) refused to scramble onto the Fascist bandwagon. He refused to preface his concerts with the Fascist anthem and eventually was made a virtual prisoner at his home. When he was permitted to leave his country, he vowed never to revisit it so long as Fascism held it in bondage.

Nowhere has the magic baton of Toscanini been more acclaimed than in the United States. Under its spell, the Metropolitan Opera made its highest artistic mark, and the New York Philharmonic became the world’s greatest symphonic ensemble.

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The Reformed South Korean Military (Pathfinder Magazine, 1952)

By the close of 1952 it became evident to anyone who followed the events in Asia that the army of the Republic of Korea (ROK) had evolved into a competent and reliable fighting force; highly disciplined and well-lead, it was finally able to both take and hold ground while simultaneously inflicting heavy casualties on their the enemies. Gone from the mind was that South Korean army of 1950: that retreating mob that quickly surrendered their nation’s capital to the on-rushing Communists just three days into the war, leaving in their wake a trail of badly needed equipment.


After a year and a half of the most vicious combat, the ROK Army put in place the badly needed reforms that were demanded if the war was to be won. Relying on their own combat veterans as well as their United Nation’s allies, recruits were clearly schooled in what was required to survive in battle. As relieved as the many Western commanders were to see how effectively the South Koreans were able to create such a force, the liabilities of this army were still genuine and they are listed in this article as well.

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Motor City Takes It On The Chin (Pathfinder Magazine, 1932)

By August of 1932, the Great Depression had finally caught up with the American automobile industry:

For the first time in history auto production has fallen off. Last year’s output was 700,000 cars [fewer than the number produced just two years earlier.]


The research has shown that between the Fall of 1929 and 1932 American automobile manufacturing had decreased by 70%.

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The Most Powerful American Men During the Depression (Pathfinder Magazine, 1930)

In 1930 a seasoned diplomat and respected attorney by the name of James Watson Gerard (1867 – 1951) created quite a dust-up in Depression-era Washington when he took it upon himself to release his list of those Americans who he believed to have the most power on Capitol Hill. The reason his compilation turned as many heads as it did was because there wasn’t the name of a single elected official to be found on the list – not even President Hoover was mentioned (although his treasury secretary was, the millionaire industrialist Andrew Mellon).


Click here if you wish to read more on this subject and see Gerard’s list of the most powerful men in Cold War Washington.

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