Igor Stravinsky and the Player Piano (The Independent, 1925)"Igor Stravinsky (1882 – 1971), acclaimed as the most distinguished, if not the greatest, of living composers, now sojourning in America after an absence of ten years, ardently advocates and practices the composition of mechanical music - of not merely piano music, that is, which can be played on an automatic instrument, but music composed without purpose of performance by hand, designed for the player-piano solely, and intended to take advantage of characteristics and limitations inherent in an instrument operated by a perforated roll of paper." "There is anew polyphonic truth in the player-piano. There are new possibilities. It is something more. It is not the same thing as a piano..." The Downfall of a Dirigible (The Independent, 1921)A 1921 article from The Independent reported on the accident that doomed the dirigible Z-R2 in the skies over the British town of Hull. This British-built R-38 class airship was to be handed-over to the U.S. Navy and had a mixed crew composed of both Yanks and Brits; five of whom survived. Among the dead was Air-Commodore E.M. Maitland (b. 1880).
Jewish Population Growth in New York (The Independent, 1921)Attached is a spirited article that gives an account of the Jewish population surge in 1920s New York. Even as early as 1921, nearly half of the Jews in all of North America lived in that city and every fourth New Yorker was a Jew.
Click here to read about the Jewish population growth in the Unites States during the 1920s. Educating the Negro (The Independent, 1921)Attached is a 1921 account of the Hampton Institute; it's past, present and future is entirely outlined in this magazine article that was written by a celebrated journalist of the time, Mr. Talcott Williams (1849 - 1928).
Click here for the Ku Klux Klan Archive. The Vote Obtained (The Independent, 1920) The Fear of the "Nipponification" (The Independent, 1920)Interesting figures revealed by the U.S. Census Bureau in 1920 served to relieve much of the race-conscious anxiety among some of the members of the Anglo-Saxon majority. KEY WORDS: Xenophobia, U.S. Census Bureau, Figures of the U.S. Census Bureau, Yellow Peril, Asian American, Asian American History, Asian American Studies. African-American Stevedores in the U.S. Army (The Independent, 1919)An article written by David Le Roy Ferguson (dates unknown), an African-American pastor assigned to minister to the black Doughboys posted to the depot at St. Nazaire, France. The men of his flock were stevedores who were ordered to perform the thankless task of off-loading cargo from the various supply ships arriving daily to support the A.E.F.. Aside from working as cooks or in other service positions, this was a customary assignment given to the African-Americans during the war; only a small percentage were posted to the 92nd and 93rd combat divisions.
Pastor Ferguson's magazine article salutes the necessary labor of these men while at the same time adhering to the usual simple descriptions of the African-American as cheerful, musical and rather crude. ''The Real Yellow Peril'' (The Independent, 1921)Three cheers for the late Earl S. Parker, long-suffering secretary of the now-defunct American League of Justice (California) who recognized the tyranny inherit in the California Alien Land Bill of 1921! Seeing that the Japanese immigrants had been dealt enough cruelty by being denied citizenship, he was quick to point out that it was wrong to deny them real estate as well.
Click here to read about the Yellow Peril in Canada. A Profile of Mahatma Gandhi (The Independent, 1921)Attached is a 1921 account of the anti-colonial struggles waged by the forty-eight year old Mahatma Mohandas Karamachand Gandhi (1869 - 1948). This well-illustrated article from THE INDEPENDENT touched on Gandhi's popularity among the Indian people of all faiths, his various boycotts and acts of non-cooperation as well as comments made by his admiring British adversaries. Anti-Immigration Legislation (The Independent, 1920)"The measure is not intended as a basis for permanent immigration policy, but simply as an emergency" injunction" to halt immigration until Congress... can determine the policy it wishes to adopt" A Review of ''Beautiful and the Damned'' (The Independent, 1922)One of the first reviews of F. Scott Fitzgerald's second novel, The Beautiful and Damned
(1922). The reviewer was impressed:
"The Beautiful and the Damned is a real story, but a story greatly damaged by wit."
Three Collections of War Poetry Reviewed (The Independent, 1919)A review of three volumes of World War One poetry: From the Front edited by Lt. Clarence Edward Andrews (dates?), Songs From The Trenches by Herbert Adams Gibbons (1880-1934) and Robert Graves' (1895–1985) "Fairies and Fusiliers". The Hampton Institute as it Stood in 1921 (The Independent, 1921)Attached is a 1921 account of the Hampton Institute; it's past, present and future is entirely outlined in this magazine article that was written by a celebrated journalist of the time, Mr. Talcott Williams (1849 - 1928).
Click here for the Ku Klux Klan Archive. ''The Baseless Fear of War'' by Andrew Carnegie (The Independent, 1913)Andrew Carnegie (1835 - 1919) tried his hand at clairvoyance and wrote this article in response to the constant plea for money from the U.S. Department of War, which he found completely unnecessary and excessive. "Our naval and military officials must dream of wars since most of them never even see one." The Backdrop of the Harlem Renaissance (The Independent, 1921)The excitement that was 1920's Harlem can clearly be felt in this article by the journalist and Congregational minister, Rollin Lynde Hartt:
"Greatest Negro city in the world, it boasts magnificent Negro churches, luxurious Negro apartment houses, vast Negro wealth, and a Negro population of 130,000..."
The Verville Packard Battle Plane: 178 Miles Per Hour (The Independent, 1920)A short notice reporting on the one pride and joy of the U.S. Army Air Service, the Verville Packard, and how this one aircraft performed at the Pulitzer Trophy Airplane Race of 1920. The article is illustrated with a photo of the plane and the aviator, Lt. C.C. Mosley, who piloted the craft at the impressive speed of 156.5 mph. The Fear of the 'Nipponification' (The Independent, 1920)Interesting figures revealed by the U.S. Census Bureau in 1920 served to relieve much of the race-conscious anxiety among some of the members of the Anglo-Saxon majority: "The report of the Census Bureau on the number of Japanese residents in the United States shows that the number has been much exaggerated by those panic-stricken persons who affect to dread the rise of a new Japan in America...the Japanese population of the three states on the Pacific coast increased more slowly from 1910 to 1920than it did in the previous decade. There are 70,196 Japanese in California, which has a total population of 3,426,861; in other words about one Californian in every fifty is a Japanese."
The U.S. Census figures for 2011 indicated that the Asian-American population numbered over 17 million, with the lion's share still residing in the West and the vast majority having arrived after 1965.
California Courts Overturn Alien Pol Tax (The Independent, 1921) New York and the Real Jew (The Independent, 1921)An energetic and wonderful four page article which gives an account of the Jewish growth of New York. Even as early as 1921 "nearly half of the Jews of North America lived there" and every fourth New Yorker was a Jew. Click here to read about the Jewish population growth in the Unites States during the 1920s. A Walk Through Five W.W. I American Battlefields (The Independent, 1919)Attached are some of moving observations penned by the Editor of The Independent, Hamilton Holt (1871 - 1951) when he toured Seicheprey, Cantigny, Chateau Thierry, St Mihiel and the Argonne battle fields -- which were the five battlefields where General Pershing chose to launch operations in the European war against Imperial Germany. There is one winsome photograph of the Aisne-Marne Cemetery as it appeared shortly after the conflict.
Within a year Holt would change his mind about the war as well as the treaty signed at Versailles.
Post-W.W. I Society and the New Spirit of the Twenties (The Independent, 1920)In 1920 there were many articles celebrating the three-hundredth anniversary of the Puritan's arrival on Cape Cod. This one writer decried the lack of enthusiasm that marked the modern age following the end of the Great War - a world that stood in contrast to the Pilgrim spirit. Religious faith, patriotism, and the belief in human progress had all been called into question by the mass carnage experienced during the war. Shell shocked and traumatized, the world seemed different: the old order had collapsed, replaced by an age of machines. The author of this column, Preston Slosson, was one of the observant souls to realize that the legacy of the First World War was disillusionment and cynicism.
"Our stock of idealism has temporarily run low and a mood of cynicism has replaced the devoted enthusiasm of 1918..."
Click here to read a 1916 article about life on the German home front. The U.S. Senate's Report on the Titanic Disaster (The Independent, 1912)"The White Star Company is properly condemned for the fact that there was no suitable provision for saving life, no drill of the sailors, and further, that the bulkheads separating the watertight compartments did not close properly."
Quotas in 1921 Immigration (The Independent, 1921)One hundred years ago the U.S. Government processed immigrants through a quota system - entry would be granted if the applicants arrived before the quota amount arriving from their country had not been reached - and if they passed their physical examination. The immigration agents did not accept one nationality for citizenship officially while permitting hundreds of thousands from this same country to reside illegally, as is the practice today. The attached column pertains to how unfair the quota system was and how it tended to break-up families. President Harding's response to this issue is quoted.
"...many would-be immigrants arriving at the port of New York had been refused admission and been sent home again, because they had happened to arrive a few hours after their country's legal quota for the month..."
Alien Poll Tax Overruled (The Independent,1921)A report on the California Supreme Court of 1921 which saw fit to overturn a piece of legislation that mandated an alien poll tax. The tax had been passed into law just one year earlier and was found to be in conflict with the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution.
Read another article about Asian immigration to California. A Doughboy Remembers (The Independent, 1920)On the second anniversary of the Armistice, an American veteran of the war looked back on his days in military training. In this article, he walked the grounds of his old cantonment wistfully recalling how each plot of ground was put to use:
"...the K.P.'s peeling potatoes at the doors of the mess hall, the prisoners digging ditches or working on the coal pile, the guards walking their posts, the officers with their ladies under the trees... Here, under these trees, were the tents of the medical staff... There were the horse-stalls... That thrill, that enthusiasm, that lofty notion that the country was greater than the man..." Segregated Infantry Divisions in France (The Independent, 1919)A spirited commentary concerning how the African-American Doughboys came to see France, rather than their own homeland, as the land of equality and liberty. It was written by Oscelo E. McKaine, who was serving as a second lieutenant in the all-black 92nd Division. In later life he would play an important roll in the South Carolina civil rights movement.
Click here to read about the first Black Marines.
Read an article about racial integration in the U.S. military. Shall Tobacco Follow Alcohol? (The Independent, 1919)The same forces that saw to it that alcohol was outlawed were debating as to whether or not liquor should be similarly restricted. It is interesting to read this piece because the same exact arguments are used to this very day as to the same subject. Tobacco was as well understood eighty six years ago. KEY WORDS: Outlawing Tobacco, Prohibition of Tobacco, Second-Hand Smoke, Congress and Smoking, Tobacco Laws, Congress and Tobacco, History of Tobacco, History of Tobacco in America... Moratorium (The Independent, 1921)A single column from 1921 reported on a proposal before the U.S. Congress to drastically reduce the numbers of immigrants who were entering the United States at that time.
The bill passed. Post-War Germany Struggled Under the Versailles Treaty (The Independent, 1921)A 1921 column that clearly pointed out all the hardships created for Germany as a result of the Versailles Treaty.
The framers of that agreement could never have envisioned that the post-war landscape they designed for Germany would be pock-marked with such a myriad of frustrations - such as the border skirmishes between Germany and Poland, inflation, famine, the Salzburg Plebiscite and such harsh reparation payments that, when combined with all the other afflictions, simply served to create the kind of Germany that made Hitler's rise a reality.
Another article about the despondency in 1920s Germany can be read here...
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