Reconsidering Poison Gas as a Weapon (Current Opinion, 1925)An article about J.B.S. Haldane (1892 – 1964), formerly a British combatant of the Great War who became a chemist (and pioneer geneticist) during the inter-war years studying not merely the effectiveness of poison gas but the question as to whether the weapon was more humane than bullets and artillery shells:
"The future lies with poisonous smoke made from arsenic compounds and with mustard gas. Of the latter, he says, it kills one man for every forty it puts out of action, whereas, shells kill one for every three."
His musings concerning atomic energy are referred to as are some of his quack-theories regarding the effects of gas warfare on people with dark skin. Anticipating the War with Japan (The Saturday Review, 1925)The Great Pacific War
was one of the truly remarkable books to hit the shops in 1925; the problem was that this would not be recognized until at least 1944. Unlike the unfortunate writers charged with the task of reviewing the novel, the author, Hector C. Bywater (1884 - 1940), was something of a clairvoyant, and was able to spell out how the war between Japan and the United States would unfold; the contested islands and the American victory. He wrote that the war would commence with a Japanese surprise assault, he recognized the importance that naval aviation would play and he predicted the Kamikaze attacks. Some elements of the war he did not predict, such as Hiroshima, but in 1945, after the smoke had cleared and the bodies were buried, many were amazed to pick the book up and read how much he got right. Hats from the Spring of 1925 (The Delineator, 1925)Tenderly ripped from a copy of "Delineator Magazine" was this one page that featured nine chic illustrations of the fashionable hats for the Spring of 1925. "The small hat trimmed on top with an artichoke bow, pom-poms, gardenias, roses, water lilies, violets or quills is very popular...Hats for general wear remain head-size. The large hat is seen occasionally with afternoon gowns and will be worn with more formal Summer frocks."
Click here to see a beautifully photographed article about the fashionable hats of 1947.
Group therapy for weight loss celebrates its 60th year...
The Life of Woodrow Wilson (Current Opinion, 1925)Here is a 1925 review of William Allen White's (1868 – 1944) biography Woodrow Wilson: the Man, his Times and his Task:
"Whether or not Woodrow Wilson will live as a world figure depends not so much upon what work he has done as upon what the chance of time and circumstance will do with his work. He must live or die in world fame bound upon the League of Nations. If that stands he may tower beside it...If the League crumbles, then Wilson will become one of the host of good men who spent their zeal striving for futile things."
An article about Wilson's reluctance to go to war can be read here...
Click here to read a list of Wilson's Fourteen Points for the Versilles Treaty.
50,000 Klansmen March in Washington, D.C. (Literary Digest, 1925)A report on the August, 1925 KKK march in Washington, D.C.:
"The parade itself marshaled 'from 50,000 to 60,000 white-robed men and women' as the correspondent of the The New York Times estimates, and H.L. Mencken tells us in the New York Sun": "The Klan put it all over its enemies. The parade was grander and gaudier, by far than anything the wizards had prophesied. It was longer, it was thicker, it was higher in tone. I stood in front of the treasury for two hours watching the legions pass. They marched in lines of eighteen or twenty, solidly shoulder to shoulder. I retired for refreshment and was gone an hour. When I got back Pennsylvania Avenue was still a mass of white from the Treasury down to the foot of Capitol Hill - a full mile of Klansmen..."
Click here to learn about the origins of the term "Jim Crow".
The Revolution in 1920s Fashion (Saturday Review of Literature, 1925)A clever observer of the passing scene typed these words about the social revolution that he had been witnessing for the past six years:
" In those dark ages before the war women's fashions changed from year to year, but generally speaking at the dress-makers word of command...The first short skirt sounded the knell of his dictatorship, and since then womanhood has never looked back...I say again that [today's fashion] is a phenomenon which the social historian appears to be passing over."
Click here to read about the fashion coup of 1922. Recognizing the Potential of Wind Power (Current Opinion, 1925) Eighty-three years ago, aircraft pilot Major Kurt Bilau (formerly of the Imperial German Air Corps) was intrigued by the abilities a properly designed propeller; he applied his curiosity to the design of a windmill in order to experiment with the possibility harnessing the power of the wind as a source of energy.
This magazine article briefly explains what a success that experiment was. Bilau's "aerodynamo" was able to convert a sixteen-mile per/hour wind into an amount of energy that was measured at sixty horse power. These days, the good works of Kurt Bilau are very actively being improved upon and his same theory is being adapted to harness the power of underwater sea currents.
Click here to read a 1947 article about the battle against air pollution.
Click here to read a 1951 article about America's polluted rivers.
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..." Christian Radio Broadcasting Begins in Earnest (Current Opinion, 1925)Believing that vast numbers of broadcast-clergy can only damage the credibility of the church in the long-run, this article was written which concerned the personal quest of one observant Christian who wished to see that the amount Christian programming be reduced. The author pointed out that by 1925 "One out of every fourteen broadcasting stations in the United States is today owned and operated by a church or under a church's direction..."
Click here to read about the Christian broadcasts of Oral Roberts... | 
