Scribner's Commentator
Scribner's Commentator self-described as The National Magazine for an Independent American Destiny was a leading isolationist publication and the unofficial voice of the America First Committee. It appeared from November 1939 to January 1942. The journal was the result of the 1939 merger of Scribner's owned by the publisher Charles Scribner’s Sons and Commentator owned by Charles S. Payson, president of Payson Publishing Company.[1] The primary mission of Scribner's Commentator was to counter the liberal Jewish-dominated interventionist media.[2] Although the publication was seen as primarily political about half of the articles were devoted to nature stories and human interest features.[3]
Douglas M. Stewart was the day-to-day publisher although his cousin banker Jeremiah Milbank who helped to finance the operation was considered the co-publisher. Francis Rufus Bellamy was the first editor with Lowell Thomas as assistant editor. By the middle of 1940 both Bellamy and Thomas were replaced by George Eggleston.
Contents
Move to Lake Geneva
In July 1941 the offices and staff of ten moved the publication from New York to Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, a popular retreat for wealthy Gentiles. The building that held the new offices was a remolded blacksmith’s shop. The move was necessary since while in New York, the publication had received considerable harassment from the communist-leaning paper PM in addition to stolen correspondence from the US mail.[4]
After the attack on Pearl Harbor Scribner's Commentator cease publication. There is speculation the issue prepared before December 7 was never mailed and a final "Win the War" January 1942 issue was quickly put together and sent to subscribers.[5] Subscribers were offered a refund on their remaining subscription or the option of receiving DeWitt Wallace’s Reader's Digest.[6] In the past Reader's Digest reprinted several articles from Scribner's Commentator.
Scribner's Commentator had a circulation of 30,000.[7] Its sister publication was the weekly newspaper, The Herald.
Contributors
A
- C. B. Allen, "Lindbergh Today" (September 1940) issue 8
- Fred Allen
- Paul Arden "Pan American Relations" (December 1941)
B
- Owen Baldwin, "Latin American Markets" (November 1941)
- Gov. Raymond E. Baldwin
- Alva O. Bitner, "The American Farmer Speaks" (December 1941)
- Blair Bolles
- Douglas Borgstedt, "Off Too War"; "At The Mercy Of The Wheel"
- Victor Hugo Boesen, "They Sell Dinosaur Tracks"
- Boris Brasol, "Aid to Stalin--Incredible" (November 1941)
- Nicholas Broughton, "America in a Hostile World" (November 1940)
C
- Sen. Arthur Capper
- Orestes H. Caldwell
- James B. Carey, "Labor and Defense Strikes" (January 1941)
- Father Kenan Carey (November 1941)
- J. Perry Carmer, "Leopold and Dunkerque" (December 1941)
- Robert Carroll, "Is This My War?" (July 1941)
- Gloria Chandler, "Children Need Drama" (November 1941)
- William Chamberlain
- Sen. Bennett Champ Clark
- Sen. D. Worth Clark, "The Men behind Our War Scare" (September 1940)
- Miriam Marsh Clark, "Government by Gallop" (September 1941)
- George H. Cless, Jr., "The William Allen White Reign of Terror" (December 1940)
- Carl Crow
D
- Alan Devoe, "Our Poisonous Snakes" (August 1940); "The Days Of A Turtle"
- Dr. Ramond L. Ditmars
- Kunigunde Ducan, "Draft" (June 1941)
- John Durant, "Trotting America’s Oldest Sport"
E
- Malcolm Easterlin, "Peyote--Indian Problem #1"
- Jane Ellsworth, "Backwash from Wave of the Future" (June 1941)
- Theodore English, "Alcoholics Anonymous" (January 1941) [2]
- Ernestine Evans, "Woman Against War"
F
- John T. Flynn, "Radio--Interventionism’s Trump" (April 1941) "Nazi Economy--A Threat?" (August 1941)
- Henry Ford, "An American Foreign Policy" (December 1940)
- Rev. Harry Emerson Fosdick, "Are We Fit for Democracy?" (January 1941)
G
- Virginio Gayda (May 1941)
- Lillian Gish, "I Made War Propaganda" (November 1941)
- William Griffin, "When Churchill Said Keep Out!" (February 1941)
H
- Major General Johnson Hagood, "When We Invade Japan" (June 1940) "Shake-Up The Generals?" (August 1941)
- William Hague, "Should We Feed Europe?" (January 1941)
- Albert Hall, "Cecil Rhodes: Father of 'Union Now'" (June 1941) "Reviewing the Refugee Problem" (September 1941)
- Abbott Hamilton, "Refugee Scholars and American Education" (December 1941)
- Lieutenant Herbert W. Hass, "The Scarface Man"
- Don Herold, "Fantasy Is Not That Easy"; "Sea At The Cinema"
- Hubert Herring, "And So To War"
- Maurice Hindus
- Rev. John Haynes Holmes
- Sen. Rush D. Holt, "Patriotism in Rearmament" (November 1940) "Is Churchill Good Enough for Roosevelt?" (July 1941)
- Graeme K. Howard, "America and a New World Order"
- Frazier Hunt, "A Lesson in Propaganda" (October 1940)
- Robert Maynard Hutchins, "The Proposition Is Peace" (July 1941)
J
- Ernest E. Johnson, "Shall Negros Save Democracy?" (November 1941)
- Sen. Hiram W. Johnson, "Let’s Declare Ourselves" (December 1941)
- Gen. Hugh S. Johnson, "Hell Bent For War"
K
- Brigadier General George C. Kenney, "Our Air Power Today" (July 1941)
L
- Hon. Phillip LaFollette, "The Arsenal Of Dying Europe?"
- Stanton B. Leeds, "Chambrum--Soldier of France" (January 1941) "The Real Pétain" (July 1941)
- Col. George Chase Lewis, "The Truth About our Air Defenses" (July 1940)
- Fulton Lewis, Jr., "The Barter Theatre" Vol.8 #3
- Col. Charles Lindbergh, "Impregnable America" (January 1941); "Lindbergh for the Record" (August 1941); "Time Lies with Us" (November 1941); "A Plea for American Independence"
- Philips H. Lord
- Mrs. Ernest Lundeen, "My Husband, Senator Lundeen"
M
- Col. Robert R. McCormick, "Can America Fight in Europe?" (February 1941)
- J. P. McEvoy, "Young Man With A Camera" (August 1940); "Dickinson--The Sin Buster"
- Wheeler McMillan and Frank Chodorov, "Hitler--Economic Threat?" (March 1941)
- Graham McNamee
- Robert A. Millikan (Nobel Laureate)
- J. T. Moll, "Fool’s Gold"
- Kenneth Monroe, "British Propaganda: 1940 Version" (November 1940) "Freemasonry--A Study in Contrasts" (June 1941)
- Helen Morgan, "You Might As Well Give Up" (August 1940)
- Gerald W. Movius, "Comic Strip Propaganda" (November 1941)
- Rep. Karl E. Mundt
- Edward R. Murrow, "They Don’t Want To Fight"
N
- Albert Jay Nock, "Out Of The Night--A Review" (June 1941); "Review of Jawaharlal Nehru Toward Freedom" (August 1941); "You Can’t Do Business With Hitler --A Review" (November 1941) "A Review of National Socialism" (December 1941)
- Sen. Gerald P. Nye
O
- Will Oursler, "Hit And Run--And Loose"
P
- Paul Palmer "Col. Lindbergh’s Mail--An American Phenomenon" (October 1940)
- William Lyon Phelps
- Amos R. Pinchot, "The Roosevelt-Laski Scheme" (October 1941)
- Walter B. Pitkin
- Jonathan T. Pratt, "War Partnership--It Can’t Be Limited"
- Nina Wilcox Putnam
- Surgeon General Thomas Parran, "Lifting The Shadow Of Syphilis"
R
- Daniel A. Reed, "Fiscal Foolishness and Defense" (July 1940)
- Don Rogers, "Rickenbacker--Air Lines Wizard"
- William G. Ryan, "I Fought in Spain" (December 1941)
S
- Paul R. Sanders, "Europe’s Mildest Dictator" (November 1941)
- Ivan T. Sanderson
- Porter Sargent, "Getting Us Into War"
- Joel Sayre, "From Gags To Riches"
- Monsignor Fulton T. Sheen
- John Selfridge, "Hollywood Crown Colony" (January 1941)
- Ruth Sheldon, "Indians--Our Minority Problem" (December 1940)
- Kate Smith
- Earl Sparling, "Small Loans Are Big Business" (June 1941)
- Emerson L. Spencer, "Just A Football Scapegoat" (December 1941)
- Jesse Rainsford Sprague, "Go West Young Man" (August 1940)
- Ollie Stewart, "The Negro--American Nationalist"
- Gene Sutherland
T
- Frank J. Taylor, "America’s Gastronomic Guide" (June 1941)
- Alex Templeton
- Lowell Thomas
- Lois and Donald Thorburn, "Beau Saboteurs" (June 1940) "Dear Elmer" (August 1940)
- Freeman Tilden, "The New York Influence--America’s Journalistic Poison" (December 1940)
- Ralph Townsend, "Japan--Our Commercial Prize" (November 1940); "Publicity Reversal Technique" (December 1941) "The High Cost of Hate"; "Mercy--Strictly Political"
- Irving D. Tressler, "War’s Book of Etiquette" (December 1941)
- Ray Tucker, "Johnson’s Johnson Act" (February 1941)
- Col. Roscoe Turner
W
- Harvey Weston, "Anglo-American Relations" (September 1941)
- Sen. Burton K. Wheeler
- Maj. Malcomb Wheeler-Nicholson
- John J. Whiteford, "The Paradoxical Chinese" (February 1941)
- Maj. Al Williams, "Real Air Power for Americans" (August 1940) "I Rebuke Seversky" (July 1941)
- Lorenz G. Wolters, "Alec Templeton--Genius and Showman" (December 1941)
- Gen. Robert E. Wood, "War or Peace--America’s Decision"
- Thomas Wood, "My Morning With Radio" (January 1941)
- Frank Lloyd Wright, "The American Quality: In Search of American Architecture--With Frank Lloyd Wright" (October 1941)
- Roger Wylie, "Latin America--Economic Pawn" (May 1941)
Y
- Howard M. Yates, "Bolivia’s Refugees--A Warning" (October 1941)
Sources
- The Conservative Press in Twentieth-Century America, by Ronald Lora, William Henry Longton, pages 279-281
- Roosevelt, Churchill, and the World War II Opposition, by George T. Eggleston, page 235
Notes
- ↑ The Conservative Press in Twentieth-Century America, by Ronald Lora, William Henry Longton, page 273
- ↑ The American Axis, by Max Wallace, page 255
- ↑ The Conservative Press in Twentieth-century America edited by Ronald Lora, William Henry Longton, page 274
- ↑ Roosevelt, Churchill, and the World War II Opposition, by George T. Eggleston, page 101
- ↑ [1] Notes of a Magaziner X by Paul W. Healy
- ↑ Roosevelt, Churchill, and the World War II Opposition, by George T. Eggleston, page 156
- ↑ The Conservative Press in Twentieth-Century America, by Ronald Lora, William Henry Longton, page 398