The Unknown Soldier (The Atlantic Monthly, 1927)Ten years after Congress decided to enter the war in Europe, James Truslow Adams (1878 – 1949) wrote this article that appeared in The Atlantic Monthly in which he noted that one of the maladies of the modern era was the creation of a new type of collective thinking that celebrated "the common man": "Man has always delighted to honor the great...But now for the first time whole nations, and those the most enlightened, have come to honor the man of whom we know nothing: the Unknown Soldier. As a matter of unfortunate fact, the particular body may be that of one who fought the draft to the last ditch and was a slacker in service. That, however, is of course wholly irrelevant; for it is not really the Unknown Soldier who thus receives the almost religious adoration of his people, but the Common Man, for that is what he is intending to typify..." Looking Back at the War with Regret (The Nation Magazine, 1927)"Ten years ago the American people reversed its national tradition against entangling alliances and participation in the political struggles of Europe in order, as it is fondly believed, to make the world safe for democracy, safeguard the rights of small nations and the principle of self-determination... If the causes and justifications for our intervention were based on facts, some evidence of their truth ought now, after ten years, to be apparent." Things 'Americain' in France (Literary Digest, 1927)Whether for good or for ill, the American people have left their thumb print on much of the French language - the liberal sprinkling of the adjective "Americain" was ever present in 1927, as it is today. This article seeks to explain the meanings and origins of such French expressions as "Oncle D'Amerique" or "Homard a l'Americaine" -among other assorted phrases inspired by the free and the brave.
Virginia Woolf Reviews E.M. Forster (Atlantic Monthly, 1927)Virginia Woolf (1882 – 1941) had her say regarding the novels of E.M. Forster (1879 – 1970):
"There are a many reasons which should prevent one from criticizing the work of contemporaries... With a novelist like E.M. Forster this is specially true, for he is in any case an author about whom there is considerable disagreement. There is something baffling and evasive in the very nature of his gifts." Rebel General John McCausland: the Terror of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania (The Nation, 1927)This small notice from The Nation marked the death of General John McCausland (1836 – 1927), C.S.A.. Much to the disappointment of the town elders residing in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, McCausland (pardoned by President U.S. Grant) escaped the hangman and outlived every last Confederate general ever put in the field.
General Pershing On The W.W. I Cemeteries & Monuments of Europe (American Legion Monthly 1927)Ten years after Wilson's declaration of war U.S. General John J. Pershing (1860 – 1948)wrote this article concerning the American W.W. I monuments and cemeteries scattered throughout France, Belgium, Italy and Britain. Franco-American Relations After W.W. I (Literary Digest, 1927)Ten years after America entered the First World War, thrice elected French Prime-Minister André Tardieu (1876 – 1945) put pen to paper and came up with a book about the complicated relations between France and the United States "Devant l'Obstacle" (1927):
"They go on repeating the words 'American friendship' without realizing that America as a nation does not want friendships, and separates herself from her political associates the moment she can do so, as unceremoniously as she did in 1919, when she signed a separate peace with Germany. Few French students know or remember that less than twenty years after Lafayette left the American shores, America was at war with the country to which she virtually owed her freedom..."
Click here to read another article in which André Tardieu slanders the Americans.
Click here should you wish to read good thoughts by a Frenchman concerning America's entry into W.W. I. Zhang Zuolin: Chinese Strong Man (The Nation, 1927)An interview with Zhang Zuolin (1873 – 1928), the Chinese warlord who oversaw Manchuria and much of North China during the last fifteen years of his life. The article was written by the old China-based correspondent Randall Gould.
"Marshall Zhang, drawn to Peking from his native Mukden 'to cooperate with the foreign ministers in saving China from Bolshevism', talks in terms of nations but continues to think in terms of provinces. Anyone who has spent half an hour with him knows this. The Strong Man of Mukden has improved his propaganda vocabulary but he is using the same old brain - shrewd, keen, but sharply limited."
1920s Road Rage (The American Magazine, 1927)"Is it possible for a person to drive an automobile and remain a human being?"
"Do gasoline and courtesy mix?"
"Can you tell me why Ottis Throckmorton Whoozies, secretary of the Golden Rule Society, will smile sweetly, lift his hat and say graciously, 'I beg your pardon. I'm really awfully sorry. Please excuse me,' when he accidentally steps on a strange woman's foot in a theater lobby, yet will lean out and make faces at his own grandmother if she fails to slow up her flivver and allow him to 'cut in' on a congested highway?"
"There's something about a windshield that distorts a man's outlook on life."
Click here to read about Lincoln, the joke teller.
''Film Cannot Be Art'' (The Dial Magazine, 1927)In this article, a 1920s critic forthrightly states that the primitive state of movie cameras renders them unfit as capable tools with which art can be created. He expands on his remarks by pointing out that 1920s film technology generally will never be able to render thought-provoking plots or articulate narratives until some necessary advancements are made in the field.
Another anti-silent film article can be read here...
-an additional article from the 1920s defaming silent film can be read here...
Charles Lindbergh: Loved by the French (Literary Digest, 1927)For any American born after the death of De Crevecoeur (1813), it seems like a new day when a Frenchman has something nice to say about American culture, and that is precisely why this column seems so terribly unique.
Just Another Classified Ad from Dixie... (The Nation, 1927)The attached file is a digital facsimile of a classified ad that was once posted in a Georgia newspaper long after the Emancipation Proclamation was passed into law. The editors at THE NATION saw fit to title the notice as an "interesting little advertisement" when they reproduced it six months later on their pages. Yet, for the Southerners who set the type-face, applied the ink, delivered the paper and subscribed, the ad was typical of so many other classifieds that had appeared during the past one hundred and fifty years, and it was not, as the Yankees put it: "...the request of someone who never heard of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution of the United States."
Charles Lindbergh: American Hero (Literary Digest, 1927)"'Truth is stranger than fiction' is an old writer's saw that the pen plodders know and the general reader doubts. But that truth and fiction may be one and the same thing in comes to light in the story of Charles Lindbergh's flight. No fiction writer could have contrived a story more perfect and right in it's details...In a few short days an unknown lad has become the hero of the world. His name is on the lips of more people than any under the sun. His face etched in more minds than any living human. The narrative question of the story, 'Will he make it?' is on everybody's lips, from President to beggars." A Diagram of Lindbergh's Plane (Literary Digest, 1927)Originally created for the editors of the now defunct Aero Digest, the diagram depicted the interior of The Spirit of St. Louis (also referred to to as "The Ryan Transatlantic Monoplane") shows the layout of the famous craft, and the placement of the water supply, air vent, earth inductor compass and more. The Spirit of St. Louis weighed 5,000 pounds, could travel at the speed of 135 miles per hour and had a wing span measuring 46 feet. ''Charley'' Lindbergh in Brooklyn (The Chicagoan Magazine, 1927) The Roots of Communist China (The Nation, 1927)A dispatch from the old China watcher Lewis S. Gannett was printed in the left-leaning American magazine, THE NATION:
"All China has been won to half the Nationalist program - that which is directed to the reestablishment of national independence. The fundamental conflict between 'moderates' and 'extremists' is, I think, between short-sighted men who think that the Nationalist passion can subside without causing fundamental changes in China's social fabric, and those who recognize the inevitability of industrialization in China and are determined that their country shall not pass through all the miserable phases of capitalistic industrialism which created a disinherited proletariat in the West." Questioning German War Guilt (The Nation, 1927)This article from THE NATION was written by Alfred Von Wegerer in the interest of refuting Versailles Treaty article 231, which reads:
"The Allied and Associated Governments affirm, and Germany accepts, the responsibility of Germany and her allies for causing all the loss and damage to which the Allied and Associated Governments and their nationals have been subjected as a consequence of the war imposed upon them by the aggression of Germany and her allies."
Von Wegerer, like most Germans at that time, got mighty hot under the collar when he stopped to consider that Germany was blamed entirely for the start of the First World War. This article was written nine years after the close of the war when a number scholars on the allied side had already stepped forward to question, what has come to be called, "the war guilt clause".
Read about the total lack of war guilt that existed in 1950 Germany... Christ is Big Box Office (The Literary Digest, 1927)This is a review of one of the first movies to tell the story of Jesus, The King of Kings , which was directed by one of Hollywood's earliest seers: Cecil B. DeMille (1881 – 1959). The film was genuinely adored in all circles; one critic gushed: "Cecil B. DeMille's reward for The King of Kings will be in heaven..."
Click here to read about the 1922 discovery of King Tut's tomb. Congress Adresses the Problem of the Hip-Flask (Literary Digest, 1927)Seven years after wine and spirits were banished from the land, the government in Washington felt pressured to discipline all those restaurateurs who failed to defenestrate their patrons who brought illicit drink into their establishments. This is an article about how an attempt was made to get restaurant owners to police their customers. ''Me & My Flapper Daughters'' (American Magazine, 1927)A Victorian father embraced the spirit of the Flapper rebellion, welcomed it into his house and testified that it made his daughters better and their family bonds stronger. Ruth Elder: American Super-Girl (Literary Digest, 1927)An article about American pilot Ruth Elder (1902 - 1977), who attempted to be the first woman aviator to fly to Paris; crashing in the Atlantic mid-flight: "she has to her credit the longest flight made entirely over water, beating the Pacific fliers by about 200 miles...She will rank with the most daring fliers of this year of aerial wonders." Elder parlayed her notoriety into a starring roll in a Hollywood movie that came out the following year: "Moran of the Marines".
Read a 1918 article about the women's city.
•Hanna Reitsch Remembers Her Days Flying for the Third Reich• Farina (Hollywood Vagabond, 1927)Attached is a glowing review that praises the dramatic talents of a seven-year-old boy: Allen Clayton Hoskins (aka, "Farina") - one of the few African-Americans to have been chosen to perform in the ensemble cast that made up the "Our Gang" comedies.
"One of the most gifted thespians in the silent drama is Farina, the negro child actor whose facile expression has created no end of comment... Placed in the midst of a group of children, all of whom have been tutored over a period of several years in the intricacies of and politics of photoplay acting, Farina has created a high standard of achievement... this troupin' Nubian has given the others of the gang plenty to aim at in the form of a thespic target."
''Soldier Man Blues from Somewhere in France'' (Literary Digest, 1927)This article is essentially a collection of lyrics from an assortment of songs sung by the Black Doughboys who were charged with the task of loading and unloading trucks far behind the front line trenches. It was written in 1927 to serve as a review for Singing Soldiers by John J. Niles, who compiled the labor songs while stationed in France as a fighter pilot:
"All dese colored soldiers comin' over to FranceAll dese soldiers an' me Goin' to help de Whites make de Kaiser dance All dese soldiers an' me..." ''Learn War No More'' (Literary Digest, 1927)Following World War One there existed a poor taste in the collective mouths of all the participating combatant nations; as a result, 1927 saw a small rebellion against much of the military training taking place on some U.S. campuses. This article lists a number restrictions that various academic institutions had placed on those military organizations active on college and high school grounds. Prohibition - Chicago Style (The Chicagoan, 1927)By 1927 it was common knowledge to every Chicago-based journalist that any reporter who wrote truthfully or seemed in any way outraged by the business practices of Al Capone - and others of his ilk, was likely to be found face down in Lake Michigan. The writer who penned this piece probably had that fact in mind while sitting at the typewriter; it is not an apology for the Chicago gangsters, it simply implies that they are established, the police are complicit - so get used to it. The writer then begins to explain how the bootlegging and distribution business operated - some of the up-and-coming hoods of the day must have been gratified to read that there was plenty of room for advancement within each organization.
Click here to see a chart indicating the decreased murder rate following the repeal of Prohibition.
A history of Chicago vaudeville can be read here...
''Why I Live in Paris'' by a Former American Soldier (American Legion Monthly, 1927)This piece was penned by an anonymous expatriate, a former American soldier of the Great War who went into some detail comparing life in 1920s Paris to the life he knew in America, and he is quite funny about it. He described a Paris that Hemingway, Stein and Fitzgerald didn't talk about.
"Back in America I sincerely thought that my hometown had the worst telephone system in the world. This was a colossal error..."
Click here to read about the fall of Paris...
The Blessings of Poison Gas (Literary Digest, 1927)Having examined the collected data from the First World War, scientists and soldiers alike were drawing surprising conclusions as to the inefficiency of chemical agents in warfare. No doubt, it was articles such as this that lead to the decision not to use gas in the Second World War:
"Poisonous gas as used in warfare is 'a blessing, not a curse,' and makes for the future security and peace of the world'", declares J.E. Mills, of the U.S. Chemical Warfare Service
"...Theoretically one ton of mustard gas could kill 45,000,000 men. Actually one ton of mustard gas as used at the front caused about twenty-nine casualties, of which one died." Famous Edith Sitwell (Literary Digest, 1927)Edith Sitwell (1887 – 1964) had appeared on the literary horizon some fourteen years before this profile was read in the American press and by 1927 all concerned seemed to have decided that she had attained a respectable level of notoriety and was worthy of being labeled "famous":
"Miss Sitwell is described by THE SKETCH (London) as 'an author who dislikes simplicity, morris-dancing, a sense of humor, and every kind of sport except reviewer-baiting.'"
The Battle of Belleau Wood in Retropspect (Literary Digest, 1927)Nine years after he commanded the U.S. Fourth Corps during World War One, Major General Joseph T. Dickman (1857 - 1928) reconsidered the necessity of fighting for that ground in his memoir, The Great Crusade , and concluded that:
"Belleau Wood was a glorious, but an unnecessary sacrifice... It was magnificent fighting, but not modern war." The battle was fought by the U.S. Marines attached to the Second Division, which was under the command of General Dickman. If you would like to read a small piece regarding the war record of the U.S. Fourth Corps in France, click here.
Click here to read about the regrets of the American invalids from W.W. I.
Chaos in Nanking (The Nation, 1927)An excerpt from a longer article written by an eyewitness concerning the atrocities that took place in 1927 Nanking as the victorious Nationalists forces entered the city. Reference is made to the bombarding of that city by both British and American gunboats. Click here to read about the 1937 sacking of Nanking.
The Anti-Asian Immigration Laws of 1924 (The Nation, 1927)"The Immigration Act of 1924 denied admission to the United States to wives of American citizens if these wives are of a race ineligible for citizenship. Hindus, Chinese and Japanese are ineligible. Hence the curious and cruel fact that while an Oriental merchant with his wife may enter America, the wedded wife of an American-born citizen is held at the coast for deportation."
''Where Moscow Is Teaching China to see Red'' (Literary Digest, 1927)Attached is a 1927 American magazine article that reported on the Soviet influence taking place in China. Attention is paid to the activities of a young Soviet named Karl Berngardovich Radek (born Karol Sobelsohn: 1885 - 1939):
"Russia has been the only country to assist the Nationalist China movement to which they all hope to devote their lives. Men who believe in the 'dictatorship of the proletariat' have furnished much of the brain-power that has organized, directed and articulated the Chinese popular uprising in it's successful Northern drive...As far as foreign culture is concerned, China is still much more deeply steeped in American and British idealism than in those of modern Russia" WINGS: Directed by William Wellman (Life Magazine, 1927)Appearing in an issue of [the old] Life Magazine, that was almost entirely devoted to the 1927 American Legion convention in Paris, was this Robert Sherwood review of the blockbuster silent film Wings. Directed by an American Air Corps veteran, William Wellman (1896 – 1975), Wings was the only silent film to win an Academy Award for Best Picture (at that time the category was titled "Most Outstanding Production").
*Watch the Exciting Trailer of William Wellman's film, WINGS* The Battle of Belleau Wood in Retropspect (Literary Digest, 1927)Nine years after he commanded the U.S. Fourth Corps during World War One, Major General Joseph T. Dickman (1857 - 1928) reconsidered the necessity of fighting for that ground in his memoir, The Great Crusade, and concluded that: "Belleau Wood was a glorious, but an unnecessary sacrifice...It was magnificent fighting, but not modern war." The battle was fought by the U.S. Marines attached to the Second Division, which was under the command of General Dickman. If you would like to read a small piece regarding the war record of the U.S. Fourth Corps in France, click here. His Route to Paris (Literary Digest, 1927)Attached is a 1927 illustration depicting that broad expanse that separates the continents of Europe and North America and presents for the viewer the various transatlantic routes chosen not only by Charles Lindbergh but other pilots as well.
Alabama Klan Convictions (Literary Digest, 1927)A few of the members of "the Hooded Order" down Alabama way got some unexpected news in 1927 when they discovered that their standard maneuvering tactics, so often relied upon to skirt the law, had failed them utterly. Three separate set-backs in as many months had resulted in the criminal convictions of thirty-six members of the Ku Klux Klan; so surprising was this event to the local residents, the Alabama press corps and those ink-stained wretches way up North at the THE LITERARY DIGEST, that soon the nation found everyone was discussing it. This article is essentially a collection of assorted opinions gathered from across the United States concerning this stunning defeat for the Alabama Klan. Oh Boy! Two-Way Video Chatting (Literary Digest, 1927)The attached jazz-age magazine article is about the creation of what we have come to call video communication; that is to say, the electronic compliance between telephone and video screen working in complete harmony in order that both participants can view one another during the conversation - and although one-sided, this did take place as early as 1927 when future President Herbert Hoover, in Washington, addressed an audience in New York (they were not viewed by the former). Who Won World War One? (Life Magazine, 1927)"Who won the war?" asks the satirist Herb Roth (1887 - 1953) in this cartoon that appeared in print ten years after America's entry into the war.
By the time 1927 rolled around, the popular opinion across the Western world was that the war of 1914 - 1918, and the subsequent peace treaty that followed, was a big mistake that left a bad taste in everyone's mouth. Although there was paper work indicating that World War One was victoriously brought to a close by the collective strength of the French, British, and American armies (among other nations) - by the time 1927 rolled around it didn't feel like anyone's victory.
Click here if you would like to read about the 1918 Armistice Day celebrations in Paris.
Click here to read about W.W. I art. The Invention of Football's Lateral Pass (Literary Digest, 1927)A football article in which various wonks from 1927 muse wistfully about the earliest use of the lateral pass (1902) and how the game of football was forever changed as a result. Football coach and sportswriter, Sol Metzger (1880 - 1932) is quoted numerous times throughout as he is credited as the first offensive end in the history of football to catch a lateral pass (during the Thanksgiving Day game of 1902 between Cornell and Pennsylvania). The lateral pass is identified in this article as being the brainchild of Dr. Carl S. Williams, who was at that time the football coach of the University of Pennsylvania.
A diagram of the 1902 play is provided. The Flapper as a Religious Force in the World (Literary Digest, 1927)"Scorned for too long by churchmen as an ambulatory example of folly, the flapper at length finds herself defended by the Church. She is not, in this new view, the brainless, overdressed Jezebel that she has been pictured to be. 'She is a symbol of the times. As she sweeps down the street, she is like nothing so much as a fine, young spirited puppy-dog, eager for the fray'."
Unlike some members of clergy, the wise sages of Hollywood were clearly numbered among those who held favorable views about flappers, but they didn't always produce films that were sympathetic to their causes; for example, the editors of Flapper magazine hated this movie. ''Soldier Man Blues'' (Literary Digest, 1927)This article is essentially a collection of lyrics from an assortment of songs sung by the Black Doughboys who were charged with the task of loading and unloading trucks far behind the front line trenches during the First World War. It was written in 1927 to serve as a review for Singing Soldiers by John J. Niles, who compiled the labor songs while stationed in France as a fighter pilot:
"All dese colored soldiers comin' over to France All dese soldiers an' me Goin' to help de Whites make de Kaiser dance All dese soldiers an' me..." | 
