editor – Page 102 – Old Magazine Articles

Harold Ickes Magazine Article 1935 | Secretary of the Department of the Interior Harold Ickes 1935

1935, New Deal, New Outlook Magazine, The Great Depression

Harold Ickes Wrote the Relief Checks
(New Outlook, 1935)

By editor / April 10, 2021

When Harold Ickes (1874 – 1952) assumed his post as FDR’s Secretary of the Department of the Interior he found himself in charge of three distinct governmental concerns. The first of these elements to be lorded over was the public lands (mines, forests and Indian reservations). His second responsibility was involved with the drilling of oil. The third and most observed cell in his official asylum was that of Administrator of Public Works Three Billion Dollar Fund. He was under instruction to spend this as rapidly as possible…It would give work to the workless, get money into circulation and encourage business.

Click here to read about President Harry Truman…

1923, Censorship, Pamphlet Produced by the National Park Service

The German Atrocities that Never Were
(The Nation, 1923)

By editor / April 10, 2021

The post war period was the time when the press had to start figuring out what was true and what was false in all matters involving the reports that their assorted papers and magazines had printed during the conflict. Admiral Sims of the U.S. Navy caused a stir when he went on record announcing that a particularly odious policy observed by the Germans, widely believed to have been true, was in fact, a falsehood:

I stated…that barring the case of the hospital ship Llandovery Castle I did not know of any case where a German submarine commander had fired upon the boats of a torpedoed vessel…

1920, How We Advertised America, Posters

George Creel and His Posters
(How We Advertised America, 1920)

By editor / April 10, 2021

This essay was written by President Wilson’s Director of the Committee on Public Information, George Creel (1876-1953). It first appeared in Creel’s post-war memoir, How we advertised America
and gives a thorough rundown of the planning and the creativity that went into the mass-production of what is today a highly-prized collectible; the American World War I poster.

Twenty years later Creel wrote an article in which he explained his belief that America cannot be censored. Click here to read it.

Click here to read about how the mass-marketing techniques of the W.W. I era was used to promote KKK membership…

1918, Posters, Sea Power Magazine

Over There’ by Albert Sterner
(Sea Power Magazine, 1918)

By editor / April 10, 2021

An American sailor in white uniform stands in the center bearing the Stars and Stripes, and at his side stands Columbia, in shining armor and with a drawn sword, pointing across the sea to direct the gaze of the sailor Over There to the battlefield of the nations, where he must carry his flag to victory for the sake of the free country whose uniform he wears. In the background beneath the flag is shown the battle fleet steaming out to sea.

– so wrote the editors of Sea Power Magazine who were so moved by the W.W. I U.S. Navy recruiting poster Over There by Albert Sterner (1863 – 1946) that all they could do was describe it’s powerful lines and overall design.

1917, Photoplay Magazine, Silent Movie History

Hollywood Star Condemns the Draft
(Photoplay Magazine, 1917)

By editor / April 10, 2021

The silent film actor J. Warren Kerrigan (1882 – 1947; played in such films as Captain Blood, Samson and Delilah and The Covered Wagon) was singled out for ridicule following a poorly conceived remark that all artists should be exempted from military service. The editors of Photoplay Magazine counter-attacked with a short list of the creative souls who have served regardless of their talents to entertain or provoke thought.

Apparently getting skewered in the press had no effect on him; he still wouldn’t register for the draft for another thirteen months.

Morality in Hollywood | Moral Corruption in Hollywood

1922, Silent Movie History, The Smart Set

Moral Corruption in Hollywood
(The Smart Set, 1922)

By editor / April 9, 2021

Appearing in their monthly column, Repitition Generale, H.L. Mencken and George Jean Nathan briefly explored the reoccurring topic regarding Hollywood immorality:

So long as the majority of figures in the field of movies are recruited from the social and aesthetic slums, so long will the smell of Lime house cling to the movie’s scandals.

Speaking of moral corruption, read this article about the actor Errol Flynn…

White Russian Refugee Camp Pera Turkey 1922 | Николай Николаевич Романов

1922, European Royalty, Vogue Magazine

The Russian Nobility Struggled in Exile
(Vogue Magazine, 1922)

By editor / April 7, 2021

Luciene Murat (1876 – 1951?), a distinguished member of the French nobility wrote this Vogue article shortly after her return from Turkey in 1922. It is the sort of column that could only have been written by an over-indulged member of the post-war European high-society types, which makes it all the more enjoyable to read. Her reminiscences of her visit to the city of Pera are especially interesting for the observations made regarding the recently displaced White Russians of her acquaintance who reluctantly resided there in some discomfort.

1922, Current Opinion Magazine, Fashion

Japan’s Rebellion Against Western Fashions
(Current Opinion Magazine, 1922)

By editor / April 7, 2021

Contrary to the headline written above, this interesting article does not simply discuss the (temporary) Japanese rejection of European and American clothing in the Twenties but also touches upon earlier days when Western styles were fully embraced by the nobility of that country.

There is in Japan a growing revolt against European clothing…The Japanese have endured agonies in their efforts to get our hats, our trousers, our corsets…

Alan Seeger American War Poet | Alan Seeger 1916 Combat Death | Grace D Vanamee Poem 1917

1917, Poetry, The Art World

Alan Seeger: He Did Not Fail That Rendezvous
(The Art World, 1917)

By editor / April 7, 2021

Although the U.S. President Woodrow Wilson asked Americans to be neutral in thought and deed on all matters concerning the war in Europe [before to April, 1917], the sympathies of the American people firmly stood with the French and their allies. Whether they served as soldiers or non-combatants, the American public was proud of those young Americans who expressed their outrage by volunteering to serve among the French or British armies. Numbered in that group was the Poet Alan Seeger (1888 – 1916), who fought with the French Foreign Legion and was killed on the Somme. The following poem was written by Grace D. Vanamee (1867 – 1946) in response to Seeger’s very popular poem I Have a Rendezvous with Death (North American Review, October, 1916).

1937, Benito Mussolini, Pathfinder Magazine

WANTED: BAMBINI
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1937)

By editor / April 7, 2021

Since 1922 Italy’s marriage rate has fallen to 7.2 per 1,000 of population, her birth rate to 22.2 per 1,000 and her excess of births over deaths to 8.7 per 1,000. The newspaper IL POPOLO d’ITALIA of Milan has estimated that the steady decline in the birth rate has deprived Il Duce of 15 army divisions.

1915, Poison Gas

Gas Attack Horrors
(NY Times, 1915)

By editor / April 7, 2021

French novelist Pierre Loti (né Julien Viaud: 1850 – 1923) filed this dispatch from a forward aid station in the the French sector where he witnessed the suffering of the earliest gas attack casualties:

A place of horror which one would think Dante had imagined. The air is heavy, stifling; two or three little night lamps, which look as if they were afraid of giving too much light, hardly pierce the hot, smoky darkness which smells of fever and sweat. Busy people are whispering anxiously. But you hear, more than all, agonized gasping. These gaspings escape from a number of little beds drawn up close together on which are distinguished human forms, above all, chests, chests that are heaving too strongly, too rapidly, and that raise the sheets as if the hour of the death rattle had already come.

Click here to read about the new rules for warfare that were written as a result of the First World War – none of them pertain to poison gas.

1916, Letters, The Cambridge Magazine

Reprimand from the Trenches
(Cambridge Magazine, 1916)

By editor / April 7, 2021

This letter was clipped from a German newspaper and subsequently appeared in a British magazine some months later; it was written in response to a letter from a 13 year-old German girl who wrote to her brother at the front. She encouraged him in his sad, murderous work in her letter that was positively dripping with an affected air of trench-swagger. Outraged that his school-age sister should make such a vulgar suggestion, the soldier’s response was admirable and seemed much like the prose of Erich Maria Remarque.

1927, Immigration History, Pamphlet Produced by the National Park Service

The Anti-Asian Immigration Laws of 1924
(The Nation, 1927)

By editor / April 6, 2021

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.

Failed Attempts to Amend The Constitution | Child Labor Legislation 1937

1937, Child Labor, Pathfinder Magazine

Putting An End To Child Labor
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1937)

By editor / April 6, 2021

A column that recalls the failed efforts to banish child labor by adding a prohibitive amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The effort had the backing of the the American Federation of Labor and the National Child Labor Committee and was opposed by forces on Capitol Hill who felt that the issue was best addressed by each individual state. The opposition was composed of the American Bar Association, The Farm Bureau Federation, the Daughters of the American Revolution and Cardinal William Henry O’Connell of the Boston Archdiocese.

Child Labor Amendment in the Great Gepression | NRA and Child Labor

1933, Child Labor, New Outlook Magazine

Child Labor
(New Outlook Magazine, 1933)

By editor / April 5, 2021

As you can read in this article, you’ll find that child labor throughout most of the Thirties had not been eradicated fully and was very much alive in some of the more brutal parts of the nation. That said, you might be surprised to know that the proposed amendment to the constitution concerning the ban on child labor (18 and bellow) has never been ratified by the Congress even to this day. When this column was written the proposed amendment was already nine years old and the politician who penned it held that the legislation was similar Prohibition in that it attempted to impose a moral code upon the American people. He believed that this was matter best left to the states; he further pointed out that the recently passed National Recovery Act had abolished child labor by fiat (and when the NRA was invalidated by the Supreme Court in 1935, child labor abuses increased a small degree).

Child labor was finally brought under control with the passage of the Fair Labor Standards Act in 1938.

1940s Fashion, 1949, The Diamondback

Campus Fashions for Autumn
(The Diamondback, 1949)

By editor / April 5, 2021

Designing women are working toward the return of the chemise dress, the raccoon coat, the slicker rain coat, the ankle bracelet, multiple chains of beads, etc. Anything they have forgotten, your imagination may safely supply.

Important in high fashion this year are the scissors skirt, long and impossibly tight, the winged collar, featuring a neckline that juts off at a terrific angle, the bat collared suit – which looks more like a cartwheel than a costume. One can happily assume that these creations will never take on the campus…. Safer predictions are that the campus co-ed will take to tweed suits, especially those trimmed in velvet…

1940s Fashion, 1949, The Diamondback

The Short Hair of the Late Forties
(The Diamondback, 1949)

By editor / April 5, 2021

The shingle cut, the feather trim, the French Scissors cut or the cherub cut – no matter which you choose – a short hairstyle flatters your face…. When the American college girl first began to clip her long tresses, the general reaction was one of general horror. Now that the surprise has worn off, the various advantages of short hair become apparent: trim locks are cool, easy to take care of, smart looking and stylish.

1929, Men's Fashion, The Literary Digest

The Dress-Reform Movement and Male Attire
(Literary Digest, 1929)

By editor / April 5, 2021

A few short paragraphs from a late-Twenties issue of Literary Digest recalled the terribly unproductive plans of the short-lived dress-reform movement and the frustrating nature of the human male in most matters sartorial:

The male is a shy creature, and has always been particularly fearful of appearing conspicuous…

Click here to read an editorial about the need for reform in men’s attire.

Author name: editor