1923

Articles from 1923

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.’

Sun Yat-sen is Returned to Power (Literary Digest, 1923)

A magazine article about a political leader who is considered the founder of modern China: Sun Yat-sen (1866 – 1925):

The return of Sun Yat-sen to power in South China is much more than a mere personal triumph, who are assured by his adherents, who say that it is ‘a sign of the times which merits the thoughtful consideration of the Great Powers in their roles of guardians of the Far East.

The Lure of College Atheism…(The Literary Digest, 1923)

They enter college as Christians and graduate as atheists or agnostics’, say some whose sons and daughters come home with a sheepskin showing proficiency in the arts and sciences and little, or none at all, in religion. The college is repeatedly blamed for this vital lack, and is not infrequently defended of the charge of failing to establish a religious background for the student.


Out of the Mouths of Babes: Girl Evangelists in the Flapper Erastyle=border:none

The Military Police in France (American Legion Weekly, 1923)

A genuinely funny reminiscence written by an anonymous Doughboy recalling his days as an M.P. in war-torn France during the First World War:

Now that it is all over I wonder what did I gain from my experiences as an M.P. in the great Army of Newton Baker’s Best?…Watching the dawn coming rosily up over snow-clad barracks roofs and rows of tents; informing careless privates, sergeants, lieutenants and even majors to ‘button that there button’; listening to the dull bang-slamming of artillery barrages on crossroads; jotting down the names of high-spirited young men found in cafés at the wrong hours -such things aren’t of much lasting value.


Click here to read an article about the sexually-transmitted diseases among the American Army of W.W. I – and the M.P.s in particular…

Remembering the American Dead (The Atlantic Monthly, 1923)

Always stationed to the most forward field hospitals during America’s five major campaigns, a former W.W. I nurse penned this moving reminiscence that recalled her experiences tending to the soldiers who slowly died in the army hospitals. Haunted by the memories of these dying boys, she asked her readers as to whether they feel the world has kept the promises made to those who sacrificed so much: is the France they died to protect a better place? is the country that demanded they fight a better place?


Click here for clip art depicting the nurses of World War One.

Free Enterprise And The Assimilation of Immigrants (Readers Digest, 1923)

The testimony given in this column from the early Twenties is as true today as it was then. It was written by a 1905 immigrant who observed that the first word immigrants learn when arriving in America is BUY. When presented at every corner with products they’d never seen before in tandem with the smiling and encouraging face of the sales staff, the immigrant can’t help but feel an inner drive to join the American society:

And when he succumbs, why wonder that he grows more aggressive, demanding higher wages and striking when the demand is denied?

In Defense Of Chemical Warfare (Reader’s Digest, 1923)

This article is very different from the others posted in the W.W. I Poison Gas Warfare section of this site. The column is a spirited argument advocating for chemical weapons, recalling the productive roll they played in the Great War. It was written by General Amos A. Fries (1873 – 1963) who had commanded the U.S. Army Chemical Warfare units during the First World War:

Poison gas is the most effective weapon mankind has ever devised. Will any nation with its back to the wall, and fighting for its life, hesitate to use it?

Resident Aliens: Not Eligible for the 1917 Draft (American Legion Weekly, 1923)

Here are a few lines from The American Legion Weekly that reported to their disappointed veteran readership that the foreign-born men residing legally in the United States who were previously accused of shirking the 1917 draft were, in fact, absolved from service and thus free to swear the oath of citizenship, after having been slandered as draft dodgers and alien-slackers until the finer points of the selective service law was clarified.

Draft-Dodgers and Deserters in Federal Prison (American Legion Weekly, 1923)

Only eight men are serving sentences as draft deserters in Federal penitentiaries, Mr. Taylor declares. ‘Yet, the number of men defying our country in its hour of need, was many times the number who deserted the Army after the Armistice.’ Thirty-nine men, he states, are still serving time for desertion from the Army, and the draft deserters are serving shorter average sentences than are the soldiers who took unauthorized leave of the service after the Armistice.

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