The Literary Digest – Page 10 – Old Magazine Articles

A Child’s Interview With Dickens
(The Literary Digest, 1912)

Kate Douglas Wiggin recalled her childhood train ride in the 1840’s in which she was able to have a chat with one of her favorite authors, Charles Dickens (1812 – 1870), as he traveled the United States on a reading tour.

‘Of course, I do skip some of the very dull parts once and a while; not the short dull parts but the long ones.’ He laughed heartily. ‘Now that is something that I hear very little about’ he said.

‘Fascism in America”
(Literary Digest, 1937)

With the opening of Camp Nordland (Dorkland?) in Andover, New Jersey, the two streams of American fascism saw fit to convene there and join hands. The Italian side was lead by the American Duce Salvatore Caridi and Yankee Fuhrer Fritz Kuhn stood at the head of the American Bundists.

Amidst much heiling, drinking of imported beer and assorted flag-waving, was celebrated the cementing of the twenty-first link in a chain of camps which has been gradually growing. By car they came and by train, until the countryside was increased by ten thousand inhabitants.

The Loud Noises of N.Y.
(Literary Digest, 1929)

The unsettling noises of New York City are as well-known to the New Yorkers of today as they were to the New Yorkers of yore:

Soldiers get war shell-shock; New Yorkers get peace shell-shock, a condition of nerves less obvious, but more insidious. It makes the New Yorker smoke more cigarettes than any one else in the world…it keeps the speakeasies open, it builds skyscrapers and eggs him on to splendid achievement, or shatters his morale…

The 1920s Craze for Flagpole Sitting
(Literary Digest, 1929)

Here is a 1929 magazine article that makes clear for us in the digital age just how appealing the fad of flag pole sitting was to the YouTube-starved teenagers of the Twenties. This article tells the tale of Avon Azie Foreman and Jimmy Jones, two courageous flag pole sitting sons of Baltimore who inspired their feminine Maryland counterparts, Ruth McCruden and Dorthy Staylor, to ascend to perch. This journalist was probably not alone in believing that anyone who was capable of placing their keister where the flag should be was a rare and distinct breed of individual – possessing a faultless character and was destined for great things in the future.

Good; they will need such sturdy souls in two months – when the bottom falls out of the N.Y. Stock Exchange and the Great Depression begins – you can read about that here…

The Blessings of Poison Gas
(Literary Digest, 1927)

Having examined the collected data from the First World War, scientists and soldiers alike were drawing surprising conclusions as to the inefficiency of chemical agents in warfare. No doubt, it was articles such as this that lead to the decision not to use gas in the Second World War:

Poisonous gas as used in warfare is ‘a blessing, not a curse,’ and makes for the future security and peace of the world’, declares J.E. Mills, of the U.S. Chemical Warfare Service

…Theoretically one ton of mustard gas could kill 45,000,000 men. Actually one ton of mustard gas as used at the front caused about twenty-nine casualties, of which one died.

The Mind of Susan B. Anthony
(Literary Digest, 1894)

For those Victorian phrenologists who made it their life’s work to map out the brains of American Suffragettes, Susan B. Anthony proved to have been the least complicated:

This is a brain in which there was no waste – no superfluous expenditure. This is a woman with a purpose from which she never swerves.

Click here to read about that moment in 1920 when American Women attained the vote.

Dr. Anna Howard Shaw
(Literary Digest, 1913)

A 1913 profile of Dr. Anna Howard Shaw (1847 – 1919), president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association and leader in their struggle to secure American women their right to vote. This article primarily deals with her meeting with President Woodrow Wilson and his inability to commit to the question of women’s suffrage.

Having helped to fight the good fight, Dr. Shaw died in 1919, weeks after the U.S. Congress voted to ratify the 19th Amendment.

Preparing for the Next War
(Literary Digest, 1919)

We find ourselves preparing for the next war when the ink is hardly dry on the still unratified Treaty of Peace.

These were the thoughts of the Japanese rulers who were terribly surprised to find that they had quickly become the subject of much attention by their former allies, the Americans and the Commonwealth powers following the close of the First World War.

Germany’s Discomfort Over the War-Guilt Clause
(Literary Digest, 1929)

The Treaty of Versailles was signed ten years before the printing of the attached article, and within that time the German press had literally published hundreds of thousands of editorials objecting to the treaty’s clause that placed all blame entirely on Germany for the start of the war. In order to mark this anniversary, the editors of The Literary Digest decided to run this article that reported on how that country felt about the war-guilt lie.

The French Army Moves into the Ruhr Valley
(Literary Digest, 1923)

When Germany’s post-war government failed to remit a portion of the 33 billion dollars it owed under it’s obligations agreed to in the Versailles Treaty, France lost little time deploying her army into the coal rich regions of the Ruhr Valley. This article, illustrated with cartoons and maps, offers a collection of assorted observations and editorial opinions gathered from from across Europe concerning the event:

Premiere Poincare remarked, ‘the French troops will remain in the Ruhr as long as may be necessary to assure the payment of reparations, but not a single day longer.’

The Lynchings of 1934
(Literary Digest, 1935)

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 World Navies Expand
(The Literary Digest, 1937)

Here is a concise report illustrated by a chart that indicates the size and tonnage of the leading naval powers in 1937.

In 1922, when a halt was called on the vicious race for bigger and better battleships by conclusion of the Washington Naval Treaty, later supplemented by the London Pact of 1930, there were but five major sea powers: America, Britain, Japan, France and Italy. Today, the world picture has changed and two new faces are on the list, Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia.

All in all, as the treaties end, the United States Fleet stands on par, if not superior to, the armada of the British Empire…

Click here to read more about the expansion of the U.S. Navy.

Click here to read another article about the pre-WW II expansion of the world’s Naval powers.

Click here to read more about the demise of the Washington Naval Treaty.

John Philip Sousa: The March King
(The Literary Digest, 1897)

This 1897 profile of composer John Philip Sousa (1854 – 1932) was written shortly after his triumphal return from Queen Victoria’s Jubilee, where he was feted like a native son for all his glorious march compositions – particularly The Washington Post March, which was performed while her household infantry passed in review:

There is probably no composer in the world with a popularity equal to that of Mr. Sousa. Tho he sold his ‘Washington Post’ march outright for $35.00, his ‘Liberty Bell’ march is said to have brought him $35,000…At the age of twenty-six Mr. Sousa became the leader of the United States Marine Corps Band. In the twelve years of his leadership,he developed this unimportant organization into one of the best military bands in the world.

Enter Plastic
(Literary Digest, 1937)

This article is about the chemist Dr. Leo Hendrik Baekeland (1863 – 1944) – who left the world a far more plastic place than when he had found it.

The American Sailor Uniform: An Explanation
(The Literary Digest, 1917)

When watching the old newsreel footage from the two world wars you see a fair amount of American sailors going about their business. They wore a uniform that seemed to have its origins in the Nineteenth Century, with bell bottom trousers and an odd shirt called a jumper. The blue jumper of an American sailor is decorated with various white stripes, stars and topped off with a queer little black silk kerchief; this article seeks to explain what the origins behind them all were largely British.

Lenin, Rockefeller and Diego Rivera
(The Literay Digest, 1933)

When it was made known to Nelson Rockefeller that the muralist he retained to decorate the lobby of his New York Building (Rockefeller Plaza) had taken the liberty of painting the likeness of Lenin in the work, letters were exchanged between the two men. The attached column is an excerpt from a longer piece that pertains to the dust-up.

The Japanese Soldier In China
(Literary Digest, 1933)

An article that seems remarkable for lacking those politically correct qualities we’re all so used to reading in today’s magazine columns, this article presents a somewhat slanted, pro-Western vision of the Japanese Army, depicting it as an organized and highly disciplined peasant army:

Some of the finest raw material in the world makes up Japan’s infantry…The material is not so adaptable for horsed and mechanized units, as the Japanese possess little natural aptitude for dealing with animals or machines.

Some attention is paid to the strict diet of the Japanese soldier.

The Loss of the Macon and It’s Aftermath
(Literary Digest, 1935)

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…