Collier’s Magazine – Page 3 – Old Magazine Articles

Child Labor During W.W. II
(Collier’s Magazine, 1943)

“Throughout the land, child labor is making a comeback as already inadequate laws buckle under pressure of fraudulent appeals to patriotism. Here is what greed and indifference are doing to America’s greatest asset: its children:”

“[The Devious] prefer children – the child worker is cheaper, more agile and willing, has less bargaining power. So the cry goes out for more and more children, ‘to help win the war!'”

“Just how it helps win the war for an Alabama girl of 11 to work in the fields till she collapses and is taken to a hospital with heart trouble has not been made clear.”

”My Patient, Adolf Hitler”
(Collier’s Magazine, 1941)

Dr. Eduard Bloch (1872 – 1945) was the Austrian physician who treated the family Hitler throughout the 1880’s up until 1908. He knew the future tyrant well. Oddly, the doctor seems quite sympathetic toward Hitler – he couldn’t have known that his patient would become one of the greatest monsters of the Twentieth Century, but he had read Hitler’s book and knew what he was capable of.

“What kind of boy was Adolf Hitler? Many biographers have put him down as harsh-voiced, defiant, untidy; as a young ruffian who personified all that is unattractive. This simply is not true. As a youth he was quiet, well-mannered and neatly dressed.”

The Bombed-Out Germans
(Collier’s Magazine, 1944)

A report by a Swiss journalist as to what becomes of the Germans who are left homeless after the bombings:

“In most cities they immediately get 200 marks cash payment. The money is fresh and clean from the press… With cup in hand, the bombed-outers wait in the streets for the army goulash truck to drive up and give them a feed. Sometimes they wait for as much forty-eight hours. People who don’t like or cannot get the army goulash build themselves a fire and cook the horses, dogs and cats that lie around the street…”

He was One of a Kind
(Collier’s Magazine, 1943)

Here is an article by George Creel (1876 – 1953) regarding the life and career of General George Marshall (1880 – 1959) and all the unique elements within him that made him an ideal Chief of Staff for his time:

“He can not only talk with civilians in their own language, but he can also see things from the civilian point of view. Even during the years when Congress denied adequate appropriations for the Army, no one ever heard him snarl at rotten politicians. He saw the unwillingness to prepare for war as a democracy’s hatred of war, and even while regretting it, he understood.”

Click here to read about the Marshall Plan.

”With Eisenhower in Sicily”
(Collier’s Magazine, 1943)

“On the first day of operations, I heard him say, ‘By golly, we’ve done it again! By golly, I wouldn’t have believed it1’ Meaning the surprise landings really turned out to be a surprise. And [turning to the press corps] he added, ‘This is the period when you fellows want to know everything, but military folks are scared to death just now. Darn it, I can’t tell you anything! After all, I’m the man responsible.”

Hollywood Feels the Actor Shortages
(Collier’s Magazine, 1943)

“What Hollywood is saying secretly and can’t say publicly is: The Armed Forces are taking away all our actors, all our technical men. Things are serious now; in six months they will be desperate. But if anybody in Hollywood got up and said that unless a great change in public policy is made, the movies might be out of business in six months…”

“[Movie stars have] a duty and Hollywood has a duty and they should be made to stick to it.”

Amphibian Engineers
(Collier’s Magazine, 1943)

“The motto of the Engineer Amphibian Command is “Put’em Across”, and its principle is aptly put by Brigadier General Daniel Noce (1894−1976) , chief of the U.S. Army’s amphibious operations in the European theater, who built this force from scratch. ‘Water between us and the enemy is an avenue, not an obstacle’ he says.”

Fair Treatment
(Collier’s Magazine, 1943)

To us, the most interesting part of this 1943 editorial is in the opening sentence, where an accounting is given as to the number of prisoners acquired after a full year and a half of war. The U.S. military had amassed 22,000 Germans, 14,000 Italians – yet only 62 (sixty-two) Japanese prisoners of war! This is famously due to the instructions given to the Emperor’s combatants to not be taken prisoner – but we certainly expected there to be more than that. The writer goes on speaking in favor of just treatment for Axis prisoners – but please don’t pamper our Nisei in Arizona.

Frank Coffyn
(Collier’s Magazine, 1934)

Frank Coffyn (1878 – 1960) was one of the earliest pioneer aviators in the United States. In this article he recalls those heady days when he regularly broke bread and talked shop with the likes of Orville Wright and other assorted fathers of aviation. Coffyn has long been remembered for being the first pilot to fly his camera-mounted Wright Flyer over Manhattan and under both Brooklyn and Williamsburg Bridges in 1912 – which he recalls herein.