editor – Page 195 – Old Magazine Articles

The U.S. Sixth Engineers and the 1918 March Offensive
(The Stars and Stripes,1919)

By editor / November 25, 2017

When the Doughboys began arriving in France the infantry and artillery were kept in the rear areas and taught the necessities of World War One trench warfare. This was not the case with engineering units of the A.E.F. who were dubbed noncombatants and dispatched hither and yon to attend to those duties deemed appropriate for men with such training. The U.S. Sixth Regiment of Engineers were rebuilding roads on the Somme when the German army came across no-man’s land on March 21, 1918 (a.k.a. Kaiserschlacht: the Kaiser’s battle) and they were quickly ordered to go in support of a nearby British regiment. These engineers were the first Americans to come under German fire and their story is told here by Private E.P. Broadstreet, who was there.

The experiences of the 108th Engineers (Thirty-Third Division) during the Argonne campaign is also told in this article.

Another first-hand account of that day can be read in an interview that appears in this book: Make the Kaiser Dance.

1919, Stars and Stripes Archive, The Stars and Stripes

C’est la Guerre
(The Stars and Stripes, 1919)

By editor / November 25, 2017

One of war’s many, many sad stories. This one concerned a German mother living in Coblenz during the American post-war occupation and how she came to realize that her son would not be coming home.

1918, Stars and Stripes Archive, The Stars and Stripes

Private Abian A. Wallgren: Cartoonist
(The Stars and Stripes, 1918)

By editor / November 25, 2017

If there was any mascot who best represented the staff of the old Stars and Stripes, it would have been their primary cartoonist (even though he was a Marine), Abian Wallgren; who went by the name, Wally.

This cartoon was from his on-going series, Helpful Hints

1917, Animals (WWI), Popular Mechanics Magazine

The Elephant on the British Home Front
(Popular Mechanics, 1917)

By editor / November 20, 2017

We are told that the attached picture could only have been snapped in the more eccentric parts of Britain during the Great War and that it serves as graphic proof that the farm labor shortage was as dire as the farmers declared that it was.

1936, The Literary Digest

Military Buildup in the United States
(Literary Digest, 1936)

By editor / November 18, 2017

At midnight, December 31, the Naval Limitations Treaty of 1930 will expire and, tho a treaty of a sort was negotiated last April, apparently it will not be ratified and put into effect by the end of the year.

With this in mind, Congress authorized the construction of two battleships at the cost of $50,000,000 each.

And is it worth it, in these days of fleet and deadly torpedo planes or great diving bombers clutching demolition bombs weighing a ton apiece? Naval experts think so. The Battleship, they say, is still the backbone of the battle-fleet. In the phrase of the street, the battleship can dish it out.

The Navy would soon learn that they were actually living in the age of the aircraft carrier.

Click here to read more about the expansion of the U.S. Navy.

1915, Modern Art, The Literary Digest

Henri Gaudier-Brzeska
(Literary Digest, 1915)

By editor / November 16, 2017

Barbusse Described the Winter Trenches
(Collier’s Magazine, 1917)

By editor / November 15, 2017

The war has changed many things, and it may have altered conceptions of military smartness as well. For from Paris, the home of ‘mode’ and ‘chic’, comes a daily fashion hint from the front that is upsetting. It is from Henri Barbusse (1873 – 1935), author of the novel Under Fire (Le Feu, 1916) and describes the winter costumes of a squad of French Territorials:

Hides, bundles, blankets, pieces of cloth, knitted hoods, woolen caps, fur caps, mufflers, wound around or worn like turbans, headgear knit and double knit, coverings and roofings of tarred, oiled or waterproofed capes and cowls, black, or all colors once of the rainbow; all these cover the men obliterating their uniforms as well as covering their skins, making them look immense and cumbersome…

1940s Fashion, 1948, Collier's Magazine

Forties Ski Mode
(Collier’s Magazine, 1948)

By editor / November 15, 2017

Clipped from the pages of a 1948 issue of COLLIER’S MAGAZINE were these four color pictures of skiers loafing about the slopes in a place that had just recently been discovered for such purposes; it was called Aspen, in Colorado.

You will no doubt notice that there is no real difference between the skiing togs worn by either gender; both wore only wool, jaunty ski sweaters and pegged trousers.

Click here if you would like to read the entire article about Aspen in 1948; there are additional color photographs.

1935, Hollywood History, Rob Wagner's Script Magazine

Hollywood and the Game of Bogus Plagiarism Law Suits
(Rob Wagner’s Script, 1935)

By editor / November 14, 2017

A bitter article written by a Hollywood veteran concerning what was at the time recognized as a growing cottage industry: recreational law suits that lay claim to falsified violations of movie plagiarism.
Robert Lord (b. 1902, Best Original Screenplay Oscar in 1932) penned this two page article and outlined it all quite clearly as to how the plagiarism game was played in 1930s Hollywood.

1951, Aftermath (WWII), Pathfinder Magazine

Post-War Nazis
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1951)

By editor / November 10, 2017

By clicking the title link posted above you will see a photo of what appears to be the Fascist’s answer to the von Trapp Family Singers – but hold, good reader – it was something far more sinister.

Read about American censorship in Occupied-Japan…

Horst Wessel magazine article newspaper article | Horst Wessel Song Lyrics

1939, Ken Magazine, The Nazis

Horst Wessel: Nazi Martyr
(Ken Magazine, 1939)

By editor / November 10, 2017

This 1939 article from Ken Magazine lays out the real story of the life and death of Nazi storm trooper Horst Wessel (1907 – 1930) – not the one believed by the fascists he left behind:

In Germany, 1930, a pimp killed another pimp for cutting in on his girl’s territory. The slain pimp was a Nazi named Horst Wessel. Then Hitler came into power, and propagandist Goebbels, in need of a ‘Hell-rouser’, dreamed up the Wessel legend, made him an official Nazi martyr-saint.’

Banking Practices during the GREAT DEPRESSION

1932, Pathfinder Magazine, The Great Depression

‘Dishonest Banks”
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1932)

By editor / November 6, 2017

Read an article about the 1935 dolar … CLICK HERE to read additional primary source articles about the Great Depression…Read

1935, F.D.R., New Outlook Magazine

‘Voting Strength”
(New Outlook, 1935)

By editor / November 4, 2017

As one wise old wag once pointed out:

When robbing Peter to pay Paul, you can pretty much be guaranteed of Paul’s support come election time.

This 1935 opinion piece went into greater detail on this matter believing that this is (and has been for the past 70 years) the campaign strategy of the Democratic Party.

1922, Aftermath (WWI), The Literary Digest

To Outlaw War
(Literary Digest, 1922)

By editor / November 4, 2017

Not pacifists, but soldiers, have signed what several editors term one of the most striking and remarkable appeals for peace that have come to their tables.

Veterans of the 1914-1918 slaughter called for their respective governments to oppose territorial aggrandizement and demanded that an international court be established to outlaw war; following the establishment of said court, the immediate effort to disarm and disband sea and air forces and destroy the implements of warfare should begin. The American Legion Commander-in-Chief, Alvin Owsley (1888 – 1967), was among the signators.

Click here to read an article about the German veterans of W.W. I.

1917, L'Illustration Magazine, Zeppelins and Dirigibles

Zeppelin Diagram
(L’Illustration, 1917)

By editor / October 26, 2017

A schematic plan of a German World War One Zeppelin that illustrates the airship’s bombay, crew quarters and gondola.

1915, Harper's Weekly, Letters

A Briton Writes From Ypres
(Harper’s Weekly, 1915)

By editor / October 18, 2017

In a letter to his family, a soldier from one of the Scottish territorial regiments gives an account of his experiences fighting in Belgium.

He was in the thick of the fighting that came as a result of the Kaiser’s desperate attempt to take Ypres, yet he indulges in no heroics. He writes as though reporting a cricket game or a boat race.

1918, Pamphlet Produced by the National Park Service, Prohibition History

A Brief History of Drinking in America
(The Nation, 1918)

By editor / October 11, 2017

When only a few wet months were left before all alcohol was banned from the United States, THE NATION reviewed the 1918 Anti-Prohibition Manual and the Year Book of the United States Brewers Association (1917) and came away with this brief, but amusing and informative history of drinking.

1912, First Nations, The North American Review

The Trail of Tears
(The North American Review, 1912)

By editor / October 11, 2017

Twenty five years after the long march that has come to be known as the ‘Trail of Tears’, an account of that sad injustice was written by one of the first archeologists of the American south-west, O.K. Davis.

The troops and Indians marched side by side for two days for Fort Bowie. Then, Geronimo, Natchez, and about twenty men…escaped…

The second half of the article is available upon request.

Author name: editor