The Literary Digest – Page 21 – Old Magazine Articles

Grim Determination on the German Home Front
(Literary Digest, 1916)

This report, filed from Switzerland, stood in stark contrast to hundreds of other articles previously published by the Allied presses that reported how regretful the Germans were for having provoked war and how economic privations were making them even more-so. This unnamed journalist insisted that the German home front that he saw in 1916 was composed of a proud and determined people who were fully prepared to see the war through to a German victory.

T.E. Lawrence: Tiresome Literary Celebrity
(Literary Digest, 1933)

Hannen Swaffer (1879 – 1962), long-time dead British journalist who once presided as the Grand Pooh-Bah of Fleet Street’s chattering classes declared in this editorial that one by one the war heroes of the past are being debunked and now it is Lawrence’s turn…

Read these various accounts that serve as proof that there is a life after this one.

T.E. Lawrence and the Literary Coup of 1935
(Literary Digest, 1935)

The accidental death of T.E. Lawrence (1888 – 1935) triggered an event within the publishing world that was much discussed in all quarters:

THE SATURDAY REVIEW of LITERATURE, weekly guide-post for the literati, last week scooped the world with an air-tight exclusive story that was scheduled to be front page news fourteen years hence. The editorial coup was a review of Thomas Edward Lawrence’s (Lawrence of Arabia) final book, The Mint, which by the terms of his will was not to be made known to the world until 1950.

M.G.M. Casting Director Billy Grady Tells All
(Literary Digest, 1936)

Back in the day, he was responsible for casting 91,000 film actors each year, he was,

Hollywood’s No. 1 casting director, Billy Grady: broad-shouldered, open-faced Irishman, a terror to counterfeits, a down-right softy when he encounters an honest man – or woman.

This article tells much of his life story and provides a blow-by-blow as to what his days were like. One of the more interesting aspects of the article addressed the charities that were designed to aid and comfort those many souls who worked as extras in the movies. Today, extra players (also known as ‘atmosphere) are extended benefits through the Screen Actors Guild – but this was not always the case.

‘Troublesome Mesopotamia”
(Literary Digest, 1920)

This is a very interesting magazine article concerning the 1920s British experience in Iraq (Mesopotamia); regardless as to where the reader stands concerning the 2003 Iraq War, you will find a striking similarity in the language used in this piece and the articles printed prior to the U.S. infantry surge of 2008:

Unless there is a complete change of policy, Mesopotamia, which has been the grave of empires, is now likely to be the grave of the Coalition.

Click here to read more articles about the British struggle for 1920s Mesopotamia.

Germany and the German-Americans
(Literary Digest, 1897)

The attached article briefly recalls the general discomfort that the German government experienced when confronted with a unique social sect called German-Americans. As handsome and affable as they might have been, these volk still irked the Kaiser and his administrators to a high degree, although this article points out that the Fatherland was warming to them slowly.

This article makes a number of references to the Bancroft Treaty and how the agreement pertained to a particular German-American family named Meyer. After years spent in the U.S., Meyer the elder returned to Germany along with his wife and children – the story became a news-worthy when it was revealed that his draft-age son, a naturalized Yank, resisted military conscription and was thrown in the hoosegow. It was at that moment when the American embassy stepped forward.

Not surprisngly, Hitler didn’t like German-Americans any better than the Kaiser…

The Crown Prince in Exile
(The Literary Digest, 1919)

In the attached magazine interview, Kaiser Wilhelm’s son and fellow exile, Crown Prince Wilhelm III (1882 – 1951, a.k.a. The Butcher of Verdun), catalogs his many discomforts as a refugee in Holland. At this point in his life, the former heir apparent was dictating his memoir (click here to read the book review) and following closely the goings-on at Versailles.

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

Social Washington During the Depression
(Literary Digest, 1937)

Washington Society, long shackled, kicked the lid off last week, swung into the most dazzling season it has had since the Depression spawned bread lines, and knocked the wealthy back on their heels.

Money is spinning again; hostesses are plotting major campaigns; diamonds and pearls are coming out for renewed display; caviar and terrapin reign supreme once more…

Click here to read about American high society during the Depression years.

Napoleon Takes Charge
(Literary Digest, 1922)

The Napoleon who plays the Monday-morning-quarterback in these columns was created by the tireless researcher Walter Noble Burns (1872 – 1932); his version of Bonaparte explains what went wrong on the Western Front and how he would have beat the Kaiser – but not before he dishes out liberal amounts of defamation for the senior commands on both sides of No Man’s Land.

The war’s stupendous blunders and stupendous, useless tragedies made me turn over in my sarcophagus beneath the dome of the Invalides. I can not conceive how military men of even mediocre intelligence could have permitted the Allied Army to waste its time by idly lobbing over shells during a three-years’ insanity of deadlocked trench warfare.

Click here to read an article about life in a W.W. I German listening post…

The World Wide Military Expansion
(The Literary Digest, 1935)

A 1935 magazine article which presented a table of statistics regarding the the European military expansion and then concluded by stating:

It seems fair to offer the opinion that a major war is likely within the next ten years because the pressure of rising armament expenditure promises to be so great as to develop the explosion that bound to come.

In 1940 former W.W. I Prime Minister David Lloyd George wrote an editorial in which he condemned the leaders of Europe for procrastinating rather than dealing with Hitler when Germany was still weak.
Click here to read it.

The KKK in Federal Court
(The Literary Digest, 1928)

Attached is a two-page article about that day in 1928 when the KKK stood before Judge W.H.S. Thomson in a Federal Court in Pittsburgh:

A Daniel has come to judgment, in the opinion of many a newspaper writer, when a Federal judge in a formal opinion read the bench delivers a denunciation of the Ku Klux Klan in terms as strong as any of the private enemies of that organization have ever used. Federal Judge W.H.S. Thomson, in concluding that complicated KKK trial, remarked that the Klan was an ‘unlawful organization’ coming into court ‘with filthy hands after open and flagrant violation’ of the law…

CLICK HERE to read about African-Americans during the Great Depression.

Is Bobby Jones Losing Interest in Golf?
(Literary Digest, 1929)

The two page article attached herein addresses the meteoric rise of the American golf legend Bobby Jones (1902 – 1971). Said to have been a child prodigy in the game, he made his mark early, winning the 1923 U.S. Open against Bobby Cruickshank (1894 – 1975) at the age of 19. Trophies came to him effortlessly during the course of the following six years and, judging from the question posed above, the golf journalists were right: Bobby Jones was losing interest in the game – he would leave competitive golf the following year.

‘Failure of Indians as Soldiers”
(The Literary Digest, 1897)

The last of the companies of Indians enlisted in the regular army of the United States has been mustered out after six years trial, at Omaha, Nebraska. The Omaha WORLD-HERALD intimates that the failure of the experiment may not be entirely due to the Indians.

The journalist reporting on this matter opined that all subjugated people should never be expected to fight for a tyrannical government.

The Era of Nationalized Religions
(The Literary Digest, 1935)

In 1935 the Biennial Congress of the Western Section of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (13,000,000 strong) gathered in Richmond, Virginia in order to discuss their concerns regarding the spread of nationalized religions in such nations as Soviet Russia and Nazi Germany:

As for anti-religious communism, said Doctor Charles S. Cleland, ‘In our missionary circles this is more to be feared than nationalism. The latter may be, and oftentimes is, a patriotic movement, while the former aims only at destruction. Communism of the type now referred to seeks not only the suppression of Christianity, but of all religions. Its purpose is to make governments entirely secular, and to free the national life from all forms of faith and worship.

The Klan Influence Within the Protestant Churches
(Literary Digest, 1922)

The zeal of the Ku Klux Klan to ‘support the Church’ has been displayed by many signs, and intimations multiply, we are told, that certain Protestant ministers are in its confidence and would seem on occasion to be directing it’s activities. But to some ministers the Klan’s mark of approval appears to be embarrassing, a favor which they would much prefer to do without. Scarcely a Sunday passes without the publication of the news that a Klan has visited a church in a body, simply to signify approval, or to remain decorously through the service.

Lofty Words Printed on Behalf of the Klan
(The Literary Digest, 1923)

A collection of remarks made by Klansmen in their own defense as well as a smattering of similar statements made by newspaper editors and various other high-profiled swells of the day:

This editor has repeatedly affirmed privately and publicly that he is not a member of the Ku Klux or any other secret organization. But when it comes to secret societies, he sees no difference absolutely between the Ku Klux and many others, the Knights of Columbus, for instance…

Click here to learn about the origins of the term Jim Crow.

The KKK Factor and the 1924 Elections
(Literary Digest, 1924)

Written on the heels of the 1924 election, this article listed who among KKK candidates won or lost their respective contests. The journalist collected a number of opinions pulled from as many as twenty mid-western newspapers, including two Klan-owned papers: The Oklahoma Fiery Cross and The Illinois Kourier.

Klan Victories in Oregon and Texas
(The Literary Digest, 1922)

The Ku Klux Klan victories in Texas and Oregon, where the influence of the hooded organization is said to have elected a United States Senator in one instance and a Governor in the other, indicates to The Nation that

the Ku Klux Klan has now passed out of the amusing stage and has entered the domain of practical politics to challenge our existing parties.