BLOODBATH
(’47 Magazine, 1947)
Written some eighteen years after the event, here is a reminiscence of the worst day in Prohibition history: the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre.
The Mobsters
(New Outlook Magazine, 1933)
This is an informative read that was written during the closing months of the Noble Experiment by one of New York’s most admired crime reporters, Joseph Driscoll. The article is composed of numerous profiles of mob bosses both famous and forgotten from numerous cities throughout the nation.
[These] personality sketches constitute a roll-call, a memorial service for the men of direct action, the gentleman of the rackets, who prospered under prohibition and who (we hope) may not be with us much longer, certainly not in the same old style and the same old stand…
An Al Capone article can be read here…
The ”Popularity” of Prohibition
(Reader’s Digest, 1923)
It is said that the Eighteenth Amendment would never have come into being without the efforts of one Wayne Bidwel Wheeler (1869 – 1927), and who are we to doubt it. In this column, the father of Prohibition recalls the numerous times throughout American history in which those who held minority opinions bit the bullet and acquiesced to will of the majority – all but one faction, the liquor interests. Time and again, he points out, this was the one tribe that wouldn’t budge.
The Resistance
(Time Magazine, 1923)
The opposite number of the Anti-Saloon League (established 1893) was The Association Against the Prohibition Amendment (1918 – 1933). As the name implied, it was organized for the purpose of repealing Prohibition in the United States and sought to achieve this end by printing pamphlets and articles and engaging lecturers. This short notice announced that the Association was setting up the Face the Facts conference in the Nation’s Capital – to be convened immediately after the League had closed their own conference. Many elected officials would be in attendance.
– from Amazon:
The Anti-prohibition Manual: A Summary of Facts and Figures Dealing With Prohibition
The Anti-Saloon League Convenes
(Time Magazine, 1923)
During the summer of 1923, 40 state superintendents of the Anti-Saloon League convened in Westerville, Ohio in order that they might assess the changes wrought by Prohibition and draw-up plans for the coming year.
On comparing notes, they agreed that the Atlantic states are not more than 50% dry and the country as a whole not more than 70% dry…
Upper-Class Bootleggers Arrested
(Literary Digest, 1923)
When the four brothers La Montagne were arrested for violating the Volstead Act in 1922, the social butterflies of New York society were shocked; not simply because some of their own had been roughed-up by the police, but shocked because they had no idea as to where they were to acquire their illegal hooch in the future.
The plea for leniency made by several well-known lawyers, on the grounds of social prominence of the accused, was ‘pitiable and foolish’, in the opinion of the New York Globe.
In summing up his case…the United States District Attorney said:
‘To allow these defendants to escape with a fine, it seems to me, would…justify the belief that men of great wealth or influence or power are above the law.’
1913, FaithThe Religious Opinions of Thomas Jefferson
The Religious Opinions of Thomas Jefferson
(Sewanee Review, 1913)
The author argues that Thomas Jefferson (1743 – 1826) was neither an atheist or an Episcopalian or a Unitarian, as many have claimed. However, his fertile mind was not entirely devoid of any religious conviction but rather his views on theology were totally undigested and lacking in order and consistency. It is an interesting piece about one of America’s most fascinating Presidents concerning a topic that keeps coming up again and again.
Jefferson’s Bible is one of the ‘curiosities of literature’. This book, called by him, The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth was published by congress in 1904.
(The article can be printed: which is good because the pages are out of order; sorry for the inconvenience.)
The historian Henry Steele Commager ranked Thomas Jefferson at number 14 insofar as his impact on the American mind was concerned – click here to understand his reasoning…
‘Hello, Central, Give Me Heaven”
(The American Magazine, 1943)
Recognizing that simply because he had retired from the ministry, it did not mean that he had retired from spreading the Good News; Reverend J.J.D. Hall immediately began to deliver a sermon with each and every wrong number he received. That was in 1940 – three years later his telephone number was recognized as an institution and a reliable source for those thirsting for knowledge of The Almighty.
Anticipating Soviet Imperialism
(Quick Magazine, 1951)
A brief Quick Magazine report on the Christians who made their 1951 pilgrimage to Fatima, Portugal. In 1917, the year of the Russian Revolution, it said that the Virgin Mary appeared before three children and interacted with them. Among other remarks, the Virgin is said to have made this warning:
Russia will spread her errors throughout the world and many nations will be annihilated.
Going Where the People Go
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1937)
Fed-up with empty pews, a British pastor discovered that when he held services in a movie theater – where he discussed whatever Christian content was encapsulated within the story, he attracted a far larger crowd. The numbers were so impressive he continued this practice and even began producing Christian films in the subsequent decades.
FaithConverting Texas Protestants
Converting Texas Protestants
(The Literary Digest, 1913)
Texas is today an American state that is almost entirely Catholic, however this was not always the case, as this short article makes clear. During the young Twentieth Century the Catholic Arch Dioces saw fit to harness the wonders of the internal combustion engine and create a mobile chapel in order to help bring an end to the Protestant dominance of Texas. However, in the end it was not the Churchmobile per se that raised the number of Catholics in the region so much as the rising tide of uncontrolled immigration from the bordering nation of Mexico.
In it’s defense, however, it should be noted that the Churchmobile did get remarkable mileage.
Charles Darwin and 1920’s Society
(The Literary Digest, 1922)
An article which discusses the growing number of state legislatures given the task to vote up or down on the issue as to whether or not to allow the Darwin theory of evolution to stand as a legitimate topic for discussion and instruction in their respective school systems. Mentioned in the article was one of the major players leading the charge on behalf of creationism: William Jennings Bryan (1860-1925).
Three years following the publication of this magazine article, Bryan would be standing in defense of Christian faith during the famous Tennessee Scopes Trial.
Why Men Don’t Like Going to Church
(Literary Digest, 1900)
Assorted reasons were put forth in the attached article from 1900 as to why the Christian male prefers to remove himself from the pews every Sunday; here is one:
If we consider the minister, and his power in the pulpit, sincerity must be at the heart of all that comes from him. Men are drawn by earnestness and honesty, and frankness, more than by beauty and the fragrance of flowers. Truth is what man wants, not the straining after effect, which results in verboseness, for he will come only to hear the unvarnished truth, red-hot from a courageous heart.
Click here to read a 1929 article on the same exact topic.
H.L. Mencken Admonishes Catholic Hierarchy
(The Smart Set, 1921)
After the slaughter of the First World War, the Christian Churches were under heavy scrutiny for essentially serving as enablers in each of the individual combatant nations – failing utterly to bring an end to the violence. In their monthly collaboration, Repition Generale, George Jean Nathan (1882 – 1958) and H.L. Mencken (1880 – 1956) launched a broadside at the Christian Bishops for their elite, bullet-proof status in the world.
In 1900 people wanted to know why men didn’t like going to church…
Billy Sunday Goes to New York City
(The Literary Digest, 1917)
Mr. Sunday pays his compliments to New York and gratefully revises his first impressions. He declares that when he first saw the big building(s) he believed they were right when they called it the ‘graveyard of evangelism’.
The Bible and Slavery – Part 1 –
(The North American Review, 1864)
This is a book review written during the American Civil War, of a British work titled, Does the Bible Sanction American Slavery by a well known anti-imperialist of the time named Goldwin Smith (1823-1910).
The Southern people tell us, that, under their training, the African has become a Christian. When they receive their runaway negroes, who are sent back to them in obedience to the law, as fellow-Christians, not as servants, but as brothers beloved, the mission of St. Paul and his Master to both will be accomplished.
Billy Sunday in Columbus, Ohio
(The Literary Digest, 1913)
Presbyterian preacher Billy Sunday (William Ashley Sunday, 1862 – 1935) was, without a doubt, one of the leading figures advocating for the adoption of Prohibition in 1919. When it became clear to many that Prohibition was causing far more problems than it solved, he continued to strongly support the legislation, and after its repeal in 1933, the Preacher called for its reinstatement.
Christians Butchered
(Literary Digest, 1922)
Attached is an article filed during the closing days of the Greco-Turkish War (1919 – 1922) which takes into account that seven years after the 1915 Armenian slaughter in Asia Minor, the victorious governments of the West had never dolled out any punitive measures whatever, and the murder of Christians was continuing under cover of the Greek military withdrawal from that region.
…the Christian population is flying, like herds of frightened sheep, and the fate of those who lag behind is death.