Recent Articles – Page 38 – Old Magazine Articles

The Black Dress Arrives
(The New Republic, 1921)

The attached article is by an unidentified, pointy-headed male, and regardless of the fact that it was written over 100 years ago, many of his reflections regarding fashion and those who are enslaved by it are still relevant in our own time. It all started for this fellow when he felt the urge to understand why such a broad variety of New York women should take to wearing black for each and every occasion and so he polished-up the ol’ cranium, rolled up his sleeves and began to think hard about the nature of fashion. He concluded that the lot of the female fashion victim

is not the ordinary story of women’s victimization, her subjection in a man-made world. She, after all, accepts of herself this silent decree of fashion and rushes to it. It is woman-made, this particular enslavement

TRENCH RAID!
(The American Legion Weekly, 1922)

This is an eyewitness account of the very first trench raid to have been suffered by the U.S. Army in France; like most first time engagements in American military history, it didn’t go well and resulted in three dead, five wounded, and eleven Americans taken as prisoner. Historians have recorded this event to have taken place on the morning of November 3, 1917, but this participant stated that it all began at

3:00 a.m. on November 2, after a forty-five minute artillery barrage was followed by the hasty arrival of 240 German soldiers, two wearing American uniforms, jumped into their trench and began making quick work out of the Americans within.

The U.S. Army would not launch their own trench raid for another four months.

Threat of Nationalizing
(Liberty Magazine, 1938)

In the winter of 1938, when one of FDR’s anointed Brain Trusters made an off-the-cuff remark that the Federal Government would take over industry if the economy did not turn around, it must have alarmed many of the industry captains and sent the stock market through the floor. It also moved the eccentric Bernarr MacFadden (1868 – 1955) to put a fresh ribbon in his typewriter and have at it:

The present administration has made a ghastly failure of the business management of this government. It has increased the national indebtedness at the rate of five to ten million dollars every day. It has added more than twenty thousand million dollars to our national debt, and it probably has twenty million or more of our citizens on the dole, or in charity jobs, which is the dole in another form.

Stalin Invades
(Newsweek Magazine, 1939)

In this article, retired U.S. Major General Stephen O. Fuqua (1874 – 1943) examined the Soviet invasion of Finland during its opening week.

Georgia Invaded
(Literary Digest, 1921)

Nine months after the Soviet Union signed a good-will agreement respecting the autonomy and independence of its Black Sea neighbor, Vladimir Lenin’s Red Army quickly overran the borders of the Democratic Republic of Georgia on February 16, 1921; seizing the Georgian capital nine days later, Russian General Anatoli Ilyich Gekker declared the establishment of the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic.

Additional magazine and newspaper articles about the Cold War may be read on this page.

Why Is God So Silent?
(Jesus People, 1973)

Frederic W. Farrar (1831 – 1903), Dean of Canterbury Cathedral during the last eight years of the Victorian era saw fit to examine God’s silence and seeming indifference while humanity struggles:

God makes no ado. He does not defend Himself. He suffers men to blaspheme. His enemies make a murmuring but he refrains. And much of what is said is awfully true – for those who utter it. To men, to nations, God is silent; there is no God. Their ears are closed so that they cannot hear. They who love the darkness have it. To those who will not listen, God does not speak.

FDR’s Alphabet Agencies
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1934)

Listed herein are the sixty-two alphabet agencies as they existed in 1934. More were on their way and, as this article makes quite clear, a good number of them were created by the Hoover administration. If you’re looking for an article indicating that Hoover and Roosevelt had similar approaches to governance, this might be a good place to start.

‘When Women Rule”(Vanity Fair, 1918)

Some well-chosen words by L.L. Jones, one of the many forgotten Suffragettes of yore, who looked longingly to new day:

So far as political equality is concerned I believe I could adjust myself quite readily to a society governed by United States presidentesses, State governesses, and city mayorines, alderwomen, chairwomen, directrices, senatresses, and congresswomen, and I believe I should be just as happy if clergywomen preached to me, doctrices prescribed for me, and policewomen helped me across the street, and chuffeuresses ran the taxis which on rare occasions I can afford to take.

Read a 1918 article about the women’s city.

Kaiser Wilhelm’s Thoughts On Hitler
(Ken Magazine, 1938)

For the sixth time in his life, Ken Magazine‘s far-flung correspondent, W. Burkhardt, found himself cast in the roll as guest of the deposed king of Germany, Kaiser Wilhelm II (1859 – 1941). After exchanging pleasantries, their conversation turned to weightier topics, such as contemporary German politics and it was at that time that Ken‘s man in Doorn recognized his moment:

Suddenly, sensing a chance I may never have again, I pose the question:

And yourself, Sire, what do you think of him?

Nichts!

Click here to read about the fall of Paris…

‘Soak the Rich”
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1935)

‘SOAK THE RICH!’ has been a popular slogan for generations. President Roosevelt knows the people and he knows that this cry is even more popular now than it ever was before. Taxes which increase the cost of living and hang so heavily on the poor cannot be popular… But pick some taxes that bear down on the rich and – and then you have something which everyone will hurrah for. The number of rich are comparatively few, and hence their votes and influence can be disregarded entirely.

President Roosevelt’s plan was to tax this minority for 75 percent of their income.

To read about the dwindling good fortune of the rich, click here…

The Lincoln Assassination Conspiracy
(The Southern Rebellion, 1867)

These words concerning the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln were penned a couple of years after the event took place, for an 1867 history on the American Civil War. The author referred to a popular allegation that was a common among Northerners at the time:

It was alleged, and with some reason, that the plot was known to, and approved by, the Rebel government in Richmond, and that [Jefferson] Davis and some of his cabinet, and their agents in Canada, were accomplices in the crime. Whether this be so or not, certain it is that propositions to assassinate President Lincoln and other prominent members of the government were received and entertained by Davis and his associates, and were not rejected at once, and with the scorn which became civilized and Christian men.

– from Amazon: Day of the Assassins: A History of Political Murder

More on the assassination can be read here…

The Spirit of Flappers
(NY Times, 1922)

Speaking about why she loved the Twenties, Diana Vreeland (1903 – 1989) – observant fashion editor and unique fashion phenomenon, once remarked on a chat show that there’s never been a woman with her clothes chopped off at the knee in history. Indeed – Vreeland would find the attached article about flappers to be spot-on.

‘It was a Nice Depression”
(Scribner’s Magazine, 1937)

I always knew that I would one day find a reminiscence of the Great Depression – what I didn’t expect is finding it in a magazine from 1937. As mentioned in another part of this site, 1937 saw some measure of economic recovery (until it didn’t) and this reminiscence was penned by a fellow who wanted so badly to believe that the whole thing was finally over. He wished so earnestly that the Depression had ended that he listed just what he was missing about it already. Little did he know he had three more years to go.

Carl Jung on Hitler
(Omnibook Magazine, 1942)

H.R. Knickerbocker (1898 – 1949), foreign correspondent for the Hearst papers, recalled a 1938 conversation he had with the noted Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung concerning Adolf Hitler and his broad appeal among the German people:

He is like a man who listens intently to a stream of suggestions in a whispered voice from a mysterious source, and then acts upon them… In our case, even if occasionally our unconscious does reach us in dreams, we have too much rationality to obey it – but Hitler listens and obeys.

Click here to read about the origins of Fascist thought…

Asking Important Questions
(The Pittsburgh Courier, 1942)

Should I sacrifice my life to live half American?’ Will things be better for the next generation [of colored Americans] in the peace to follow? ‘Would it be demanding too much to demand full citizenship rights in ex- change for the sacrificing of my life?

Dorie Miller at Pearl Harbor
(Bluebook Magazine, 1962)

Mess Attendant 2nd Class Dorie Miller had never handled a machine gun, yet he shot down four Japanese planes in twenty minutes, rescued the captain of the USS West Virginia and saved a dozen men from drowning.

Read about an African-American from the First World War…

The First Fifty-Years Behind the Wheel
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1952)

There is no organization that has compiled more facts about cars and their impact on society, than The American Automobile Association – AAA for short. And why shouldn’t they? the AAA predates turn signals, starter buttons and stop lights. They were around before seat belts, parking lights and jay-walkers. They even predate car doors and windshields – to say nothing of their wipers. As you should all know by now, the AAA was not established as a car trivia repository but a coterie of motorists who banded together to aid other motorists.

Written in 1952, this article serves to mark the 50th anniversary of the AAA; these columns are positively packed with assorted automobile trivia which, when pieced together, spells out the first fifty years of the car in America.

Read about the Great Depression and the U.S. auto industry…

Women Can Do The Heavy War Work
(Scribner’s Magazine, 1919)

The essential facts are that women can do men’s heavy work with substantially equal output, without any disturbance of the particular industry, and, when guided by proper conditions, without detriment to their health. How far and how long they ought to do it in the emergency arising from the war is to be decided upon different grounds.

Click here to read about the women war workers of the Second World War.