The Literary Digest – Page 11 – Old Magazine Articles

America Commits Itself to the War
(Literary Digest, 1928)

In writing a piece for La Revue Mondale ten years after the Armistice, Stéphane Lauzanne (1887 – 1928), Editor-in-Chief of the semi-official Paris Matin wrote a few bitter-sweet words about the American character and how it was both a hindrance and a benefit to the Allies in the war. Yet he was full of praise when he recalled the bold and forward-thinking manner in which America entered the war and committed both blood and treasure.

Click here to read an interview with the World War I American fighter pilot Eddy Rickenbacker.

French Insecurity in the Face of German Might
(Literary Digest, 1913)

Attached is a 1913 article from an American magazine in which the journalist reported on a strong sense of insecurity experienced by France as a result of Imperial German military hubris. The reporter illustrated the point with various quotes from French papers of the day and in a similar vein, sites a number of German papers that express an arrogant contempt for France.

Colorful Menswear
(Literary Digest, 1937)

This 1937 fashion report let it be known that men’s fashions were getting more colorful; items that we associate with the Fifties such as plaid cummerbunds made their appearance first in 1937. The first clothing item to cross the color line was, in all probability, the Hawaiian shirt – which came into vogue some five years earlier.

Click here to read a related article from 1919.

Dogs as a Source of Food
(Literary Digest, 1897)

This article originally appeared in a French magazine and it lists numerous cultures, both ancient and modern, that eat dogs regularly:

We do not know the edible dog or the edible cat, in France, and probably since the siege they have been little served (openly at least) on the tables of Paris restaurants. At Peking, and throughout China, there is no dainty repast without its filet or leg of dog; the cat is rather a dish of the poorer classes.

Leniency For The Defendants of the Hebron Massacre
(Literary Digest, 1929)

Jews do not seek vengeance, despite the opinions commonly held in certain quarters that the god of of the Jews is a a God of vengeance. We repudiated
this concept of God and religion and religion since the days of when Joshua established the cities of refuge and have entirely outgrown it since the days of the Bible prophets… Wes stand with the majority proponents of the ennobling suggestion, and trust that the counsel of forgiveness, mercy and loving-kindness will prevail.

Christians 2: Buddhists 1′
(Literary Digest, 1921)

In 1921 a Kyoto Bible school was challenged by a neighboring Buddhist temple. The confrontation did not involve the finer points of theology (not openly, anyway) but which of the two tribes was superior at baseball. It was a Hell of a game.

The uncredited foreign correspondent made it known within the opening paragraphs that the Kyoto Buddhists were irked by the spread of Christianity in that region of Japan and chose to deploy any means at their disposal to gain some sort of advantage.

Twenty-one years later a Japanese team would play an American team. Read about that game here…

The Case Against Flappers
(Literary Digest, 1922)

A collection of low opinions concerning the Flapper and her confederates, gathered from numerous clerical magazines throughout the fruited plane:

There is a great deal of frank talk among them that in many cases smacks of boldness. One hears it said that the girls are actually tempting the boys more than the boys do the girls, by their dress and conversation…

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.

The Nazi Book Burnings
(Literary Digest, 1933)

American columnist Walter Lippmann of the The New York Herald Tribune wrote:

They symbolize the moral and intellectual character of the Nazi regime. For these bonfires are not the work of schoolboys or mobs but of the present German Government acting through its Minister of Propaganda and Public Enlightenment.

CLICK HERE to read an article from 1923 about the abitious Adolf Hitler.

Read about the American reporter who became a Nazi…

Diplomatic Relations with Japan
(The Literary Digest, 1933)

This article is about the diplomatic relationship that was maintained between the United States and Imperial Japan during the earliest months of the FDR administration.

Click here to read about the Japanese rejection of the Washington Naval Treaty in 1935.

‘German Ersatz”
(Literary Digest, 1937)

Speaking of Evil Geniuses, let’s not forget all that the German chemists did to dream-up efficient substitutes for motor fuel, rubber, coal and various metals just before Hitler launched the war in Europe.

The most significant little word in the German vocabulary of 1937 is Ersatz. In two syllables, which, literally translated, means ‘substitute’, it summarizes the bold experiment in rigged economy which is Adolf Hitler’s Four Year Plan… The Reich’s great chemical industry went into high gear immediately, and at this point Ersatz became the big little word of the German language.

The Fascist Blue Shirts of Portugal
(Literary Digest, 1933)

Black shirts in Italy, Brown shirts in Hitlerite Germany and now comes a new imitator in Portugal’s Blue-Shirt Fascist movement known as National Syndicalism.

Portugal’s Fascism is described by a Lisbon correspondent of the London Morning Post as a blend of Hitlerite Fascism and Mussolini Fascism. Because it is called the National Syndicalist movement it must not be confused with the Red Syndicalism of Spain. Its leader is Dr. Roalo Preto, who is said to bear a personal resemblance to Hitler.

A movement of opinion and ideas toward a more just and equitable social organization…We aim at substituting the principle of liberty of work by a system of ‘harmony of direction’ under which capital, technical knowledge, and labor will cooperate under the protective care of the State in maximum productive return for the welfare of the nation.

Sun Yat-sen is Returned to Power
(Literary Digest, 1923)

A magazine article about a political leader who is considered the founder of modern China: Sun Yat-sen (1866 – 1925):

The return of Sun Yat-sen to power in South China is much more than a mere personal triumph, who are assured by his adherents, who say that it is ‘a sign of the times which merits the thoughtful consideration of the Great Powers in their roles of guardians of the Far East.

‘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…

When Germany Quit the League of Nations
(Literary Digest, 1935)

In October, 1933, Baron Konstantin von Neurath (1873 – 1956), Germany’s Foreign Minister, sent a telegram to the Geneva Disarmament Conference announcing Germany’s resignation from the Conference and the League of Nations. The resignation will become effective Sunday, October 20, two years after notice of retirement was given… In March, 1935, Chancellor Hitler announced universal military conscription for Germany, thereby making the Treaty of Versailles a ‘scrap of paper’.

Italy left the League of Nations in 1937 – click here to read about it.

Jewish Americans Boycotted German Products
(Literary Digest, 1935)

Having suffered from a Jewish-lead boycott of German goods that had been in place for two years, the businessmen of Nazi Germany dispatched Dr. Julius Lippert (1895 – 1956) off to Washington in order soothe hurt feelings and bring an end to it all. Seeing that Lippert was a devoted anti-Semite and the whole dust-up commenced because of the widespread anti-Semitic sensations that made up the very core of Hitler’s Germany were still in place and not likely to subside any time soon, Washington functionaries probably yawned and informed him that there was nothing that could be done on the Federal level.

Fascist Italy Quits the League of Nations
(Literary Digest, 1937)

Italy’s friction with the League of Nations began May 11, 1936, when her delegates stalked out of a lively League Council meeting after it had voted to continue economic sanctions against her over the Ethiopian war.

Nazi Germany quit the League years earlier, click here to read about it…

The Economic Collapse of the World
(Literary Digest, 1933)

Published in May of 1933, the attached article concerned the much anticipated London Economic Conference which was scheduled to convene the following month in London. The world leaders who agreed to assemble were all of one mind in so much as their shared belief that collectively they would stand a better chance in defeating the economic depression that was bedeviling all their respective countries. It was their intention to meet and review all existing international trade and tariff agreements and to make an effort at stabilizing the currency exchange rates.