Pathfinder Magazine – Page 2 – Old Magazine Articles

The Political Landscape
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1920)

Weeks after the Prohibition Amendment came into effect, there was much scurrying about by all politicians on both the state and Federal levels – all looking for allies they could rely upon to either defend or overturn the legislation, depending upon their respective constituencies. The first question put to each representative was, “Are you wet or dry?” Shortly before this article went to press, Congress held a vote to repeal the Volstead Act: the repeal was rejected by a vote of 254 to 85.

Israel: Home to Three Major Faiths
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1949)

This article about the newly established nation of Israel will give a sense as to how difficult it is to govern, seeing that the land is dear to the three Abrahamic religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

The Government Film Business During WW II
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1944)

“Government movies are now having their greatest boom in history. The boom is tied to the war, but many capital observers believe that it will continue into the post war era, and that the large-scale production of films by the Government telling the people what’s what and how to do it is here to stay.”

Free College?
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1948)

The concept of a free college education paid for by the Federal Government was not the brain child of the Vermont Marxist Bernie Sanders, but an idea that was briefly pursued by the education advisers of U.S. President Harry S Truman:

“Today the average American of 20 – 24 years of age has completed 12.1 years of schooling, an all-time high…Last week the President’s Commission on Higher Education issued a report aimed at pushing the average still higher. It urged that free public education be extended through the first two years of college.”

Even as early as 1894 socialism was recognized as wishful thinking.

‘The Equal Rights Amendment” Voted Down
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1937)

The author of this 1937 column pointed out that the Equal Rights Amendment had been submitted before Congress for passage each and every year since 1923, and each time it received a nay vote.

State Sponsored Ignorance
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1940)

The editors of Pathfinder Magazine were rightfully scandalized to report that the Mississippi State Senate voted in favor of purchasing two sets of civics books for the school children of their state:

[The] idea behind this, said the Senate Education Committee, was to eliminate instructions for voting from the books to be distributed to Negro pupils.

The Doomed Amelia Earhart
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1937)

Published one month before her disappearance, this is one of the last interviews Amelia Earhart was to give.

Massacre
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1937)

Late last week 30 prominent Ethiopians were tried as ringleaders in the attempted assassination [of Marshal Rodolfo Graziani]. They were to serve as public examples of Italy’s determination to rule over her new African domain. All other natives found in possession of arms were shot by Fascist firing squads, more than 1,000 terrified men being mowed down in a bloody Mussolini-ordered revenge.

Mr. Kinsey’s Report
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1948)

Although much of what Dr. Alfred Kinsey wrote concerning male sex patterns has been debunked in our own age, his conclusions were taken quite seriously in the late Forties and early Fifties. This slender column serves as a summary and review regarding his studies that were published in his 1948 book, Sexual Behavior in the Human Male (1948).

From Amazon:

Sexual Behavior in The Human Female and Sexual Behavior in the Human Male Two Volume Set

The Monument at Montfaucon
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1937)

Why Do Detergents Have Such Wacky Names
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1952)

This column praises those brainiacs of Madison Ave who obsess over single syllable words (and sounds) in an effort to propel their client’s product to the tip-top of the profit-pantheon.

The right name can zoom a product into a commercial success. The wrong one can wreck its sales and waste the advertising dollars spent promoting it… If one day you hear of a product called ‘Heck’ or ‘Gosh’, don’t be surprised. Slang is more popular than the king’s English in product naming. Again, it’s because you use it more naturally. Newest proof of this came after the phrase ‘poof – there goes perspiration’ (a TV commercial for Stopette spray deodorant) made ‘poof’ a new American slang word.

Wanderers No More
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1938)

Here is a pretty middle-of-the-road type of article that explains the creation of British Palestine, the Jewish migration and the Arab unrest:

Writing in his History of Zionism, Nahum Sokalow looked in to the future: ‘The Jews have grown tired of their roll as the homeless Chosen People and would prefer to be a self-supporting small nation with a quiet spot of earth for themselves…’. The spot for which the Jews had yearned proved to be about as quiet as a live volcano.

The Pentagon Prepared for W.W. III
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1951)

Shortly after the Soviet Union successfully tested their first atomic bomb, the brass hats who work in the Pentagon saw fit to take the first step in preparing to fight an atomic war: they gave the order to create a subterranean headquarters to house a military command and control center for the U.S. and her allies.

The finished chamber, according to local observers, will be 3,100 feet long, contain four suites for the top brass (the Joint Chiefs of Staff, among others), and provide operational quarters for some 1,200 technicians in peacetime, or 5,000 if atomic bombing threatens the Washington command.

Commonly known as Site R, it is located not terribly far from the presidential retreat, Camp David, and in the subsequent years since this article first appeared, the complex has grown considerably larger than when it was first envisioned. Today, Site R maintains more than thirty-eight military communications systems and it has been said that it was one of undisclosed locations that hosted Vice President Dick Cheney (b. 1941) shortly after the September 11th terrorist attacks.

A related article can be read here…

Let The UN Keep The Peace
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1950)

In the fall of 1950, U.S. Secretary of State Dean Acheson stood before the United Nations General Assembly and reminded them that five years earlier, when the U.N. Charter was conceived, it was agreed that the U.N should have a military arm with which to enforce its edicts. He prodded their memories to a further degree when he reminded them that they’d have one today if the Soviet delegates hadn’t objected so vociferously.

Korea has shown how ill prepared the United Nations is to stop aggression. The defense of Korea is nominally a U.N. responsibility. But 98% of the effort, and an equally high percentage of the ‘United Nations’ casualties, come from the United States.

Dr. Freud
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1939)

This is a profile of Dr. Sigmund Freud that appeared during the last months of his life. In the Spring of 1938 Freud and his family had fled to London in order escape the Nazis.

The Battle Over History in the Twenties
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1926)

What do you know: the same arguments existed 100 years ago, too…

The Battle for the Atlantic
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1943)

The attached is an uncredited article from the later days of 1943 concerning the continuing struggle for supremacy of the North Atlantic:

It was plain to see that due to the Allied tactics which drove the U-boats from the seas last summer, sinking 90 subs in 90 days, something new had to be added… the newer [German] subs have larger conning towers, painted white this time instead of black – packing at least two new guns, and shooting it out in the open instead of from ambush… Brazil has recently reported 11 sinkings in the South Atlantic.

The Necessity of Overthrowing Russia
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1950)

This is a profile of the American Cold Warrior James Burnham (1905 – 1987), who is remembered as being one of the co-founders of the conservative monthly, National Review. What is little known about Burnham is the fact that he was a communist in his early twenties and a steady correspondent with Trotsky. It didn’t take long before he recognized the inherit tyranny that is the very nature of communism – and from that moment on he devoted much of his life to revealing to the world the dangers of that tyranny.