1934 – Page 2 – Old Magazine Articles

Their Songs of Loathing
(New Outlook Magazine, 1934)

Well, here they are: the songs of the Nazi hit parade – all the ditties you’ve loved tapping your toes to – songs like Storm Troops on the March, or Up, Up, To Strife, Nation to Arms and who can forget that old classic: Wessle Song…

It doesn’t get much better than this.

Today shadows have fallen upon the once-proud German universities. The professors have been forced out of the temples of learning or driven into exile or subjected to a subtle pressure which has changed their academic detachment into clumsy conformity with Hitler’s ideals. Today shadows have fallen upon the once-proud German universities. The professors have been forced out of the temples of learning or driven into exile or subjected to a subtle pressure which has changed their academic detachment into clumsy conformity with Hitler’s ideals.

Click here to read Hitler’s plan for German youth.

Winners in the 1920s Ad Game
(New Outlook Magazine, 1934)

This article is composed of 15 thumbnail biographies that serve to profile the most victorious men (and one woman) to have ever plied their craft in the world of American advertising during the Twenties and early Thirties. The fact that many of the clients listed herein are still around today will indicate how thoroughly these innovators had succeeded in making their names household words. Some of the the brainiacs profiled are Stanley Resor of J. Walter Thompson, Raymond Rubicam of Young & Rubicam, Gerard Lambert of Lambert & Feasley, Bruce Barton of BBDO and copywriter Lillian Eichler.

The A.E.F. in North Russia 1918 – 1919
(American Legion Monthly, 1934)

Illustrated by a photograph depicting the cold weather uniforms worn by each of the six Allied armies that served time in Siberia(North Russia), this article is a reminiscence told by one of the American veterans of that cold, uncomfortable and long-forgotten campaign.

– from Amazon:

Why did we go to Russia? by Harry J. Costello

Incompetence at the Helm
(New Outlook Magazine, 1934)

A columnist writing for the magazine New Outlook following the first nine months of the New Deal, weighed carefully all the assorted alphabet agencies and edicts that President Roosevelt created in hopes that the U.S. economy would once more spring to life. He concluded that there was nothing to look forward to and compared FDR to the con-men on the street corners who scam the passersby into playing their shell games; difference being that FDR’s shells were both empty.

Click here to read about the first 100 days of the Roosevelt administration.

The Era of Bartering
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1934)

Scrip (sometimes called chit) is a term for any substitute for legal tender and is often a form of credit – so reads the Wikipedia definition for those items that served as currency in those portions of the U.S. where the bucks were scarce.
The attached news column tells a scrip story from the Great Depression – the sort of story that was probably most common on the old frontier.

‘Outlines of Fascism”
(New Outlook Magazine, 1934)

Will fascism come in the wake of the New Deal? The writer surveys its rapid post-war spread through Europe, reviews its origins in the writings of Pareto and Sorel and indicates steps that lead to its establishment.

An article about FDR’s Alphabet Agencies can be read here…

An article that refutes the argument as to whether FDR was a fascist can be read here…

U.S. Congress Approves Naval Expansion
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1934)

In 1934, the members of the U.S. Congress were able to see how ugly the world was becoming – and with this forethought they approved the Vinson Act. This legislation did not violate any of the restrictions agreed to under the Washington Naval Treaty and provided funds for 102 additional ships to be added to the American fleet by 1942.

The 1934 German Economy
(New Outlook Magazine, 1934)

Attached herein are thumbnail reports on how the Third Reich economy was faring during the last six months of 1934. For the month of October a report begins –

The developments in the German trade situation in recent weeks are best summed up in the following newspaper headline of recent date:

REICH TO GLORIFY HUNGER AS VIRTUE

The Problem With Codes
(New Outlook, 1934)

Robert Benchley, Humorist
(Stage Magazine, 1934)

New Yorker theater critic, columnist, actor and Algonquin wit Robert Benchley (1889 – 1945) was interviewed for Stage Magazine and photographed by theater shutter-bug Ben Pinchot:

Sometimes he writes digests of the news which The New Yorker calls ‘The Wayward Press’ and signs them Guy Fawkes for some quaint reason…

Click here to read more about the The New Yorker.

‘Nobody Starves”
(New Outlook Magazine, 1934)

This article attempted to explain to that portion of the reading public fortunate enough to have jobs, just how the county relief programs worked and what was provided to the subscribers. The journalist did not weigh-in as to whether she approved or disapproved of the program but sought to explain that in places like the Mid-West, where houses outnumbered apartment buildings, allowances for such possessions were made. In the congested cities of the East it might be expected that the family car be sold prior to receiving relief funds, but in the states where distances were greater subscribers were permitted to hold on to their cars.

Dormant Capital
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1934)

This article reported on a phenomenon that is common in our own day as well as the era of the Great Depression. It exists in any locale that fosters a lousy environment for business – for when the entrepreneurial classes loose their daring for investing in commercial ventures and when bankers refuse to loan money for fear that they will never be paid back, it leads to the creation of what is called dormant capital – money that should be working, but isn’t.

There is now piled up in banks some $46,000,000,000. As opposed to $39,000,000,000 at the low point of 1933, and the idle capital is on the increase. World trade has virtually broken down.

As one editorial makes clear, FDR had a tough time freeing up private capital for investments, click here to read it.

Unlikely Communists & Red Teachers
(New Outlook Magazine, 1934)

This article starts out discussing that during the Great Depression communism was beginning to appeal to a small number of unlikely Americans of the country club variety; by the fifth page, however, it heats up considerably when the subject turns to the number of communists who are charged with the instruction of American youth:

Although no accurate statistics on the subject are available, surveys and various reports indicate that there are 150,000 enthusiastic, thinking young Communists in the public schools and state universities of the United States today. Not nearly that many men are enrolled in the American Army. And the figure is a minimum – some estimates place the scholastic communists at 250,000.

The favorite newspaper among American communists was THE DAILY WORKER – read about it here…

German Veterans of the War
(American Legion Monthly, 1934)

The Versailles Treaty insisted that Germany must have no W.W. I veterans organizations or conventions of any kind; 18 years later the Nazi leadership in Germany thought that was all a bunch of blarney and so the War Veterans Associations was formed. This article tells about their first convention (July 30, 1934).

The American Culture of 1914
(American Legion Monthly, 1934)

Appearing in a 1934 magazine for American war veterans (who by that year were well into their middle years and very much looking the part) was this curious column recalling the summer of 1914 and all the various goings-on that had taken place in the world and in American popular culture.

Is your name Anderson?

The Big Spenders in Washington
(New Outlook Magazine, 1934)

The figure pictured in the far left of this image is one of the biggest spenders in FDR’s cabinet and

Bankrolling Economic Stagnation
(New Outlook Magazine, 1934)

Read an article about the 1935 dolar … Click here to read about the end of the Great Depression…Read more

‘The House the New Deal Built”
(New Outlook, 1934)

Here is a short article that appeared a year and a half into the administration of President Roosevelt and it lays the nation’s economic short comings right upon the doorstep of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. The writer articulated how unrecognizable the nation had become in such a very short span of time. The president’s anti-competition policies were wreaking havoc on an already damaged economy.