Modernist Magazines and Digital Humanities

          Rosanna Cinquemani    

          In The New Age magazine on September 29th 1921, scientists expressed their opinions on "weapons" used in war such as posionious gas. Sir T. Edward Thorpe states on page 258 of the article entitled "Our Generation" that "Posion gas is no merely contary to european military tradition; it is repugnant to the right feeling of civilized humanity. It in no wise displaces or supplants existing instruments of war, but creates a new kind of weapon, of limitless power and deadliness." He is stating how it's against the right way we should be feeling or going about the war. It is no longer a war with just weapons and the most skillfull wins but has become a war where posion gas is used against civilized humanity to kill people; it is the opposite of traditional war weapons.

              This whole article speaks about how war is something evil and works against all morals. Edward Moore, the author of this article, states people aren't against war because of the simple fact that it goes against anything we call "human", like the existence of living or the commandement which states, "love thy neighbor". People have become repulsed by the thought of war because it is something more deeper then this, it is the fact that war is a "terrible" crime that goes against the 'spirit of man". In other words, it is and never was a fair fight nor is it a form of civilized compromise. It is killing of perhaps innocent people so that people gain more power or money for themselves. People, Edward Moore states, are killing one another for reasons that are immoral and disgusting. Scientists also believe that the tactics that are being used to kill have become harsh and "evil".   

     In this article by Edward Moore, he discusses how life was like for the generation living in America after World War One had ended. This article can be found in the September 15, 1921 isssue of The New Age. This article was particulary interesting to me, because when I was first browsing through the articles in this issue, I skimmed through an article on Foreign Affairs and then an article on World Affairs. Both of the previous articles dealt with freedom and the financial situations of Europe. When I came across "Our Generation", it spoke about America and the unemployment rate and situation that we faced right after the war. I think that he titled this artilce "Our Generation" to show how a new generation has formed that Moore is disgusted with. He wants to show how this generation that formed is not like the one that he grew up in, and that this genertion of people is one that he wishes he wasn't a part of, based on their poor decisions and lack of intelligent governing.

     Research tells me that the year 1921, was one of the worst years to find employment in America. The rate of unemployment during this year skyrocketed as a result of end of war production, as well as the influx of labor from returning troops. Global trade also contributed to this financial crisis; America had a wartime inflation caused by the borrowing and printing of money to fund the war effort. Moore quotes "The Condition of the unemployed is becomming worse and worse; and the withdrawal of the unemployment dole from thousands of human beings shows more clearly than most of us can endure how inadequate is our current amount of goodness and intelligence to deal with tragedy." Some women had also managed to hold onto the jobs they had aquired during the war, making it even harder for men to find work. The frustration of the removal of the unemployment dole shines through in this article, making America seem unintelligent and inadequate to make logical decisions during a time of need. The removal of the unemployment dole basically took away applications from those who were willing and able to work after the war.