A Message To Garcia

"This literary trifle, A Message to Garcia, was written one evening after supper, in a single hour. It was on the Twenty-second of February, Eighteen Hundred Ninety-nine, Washington's Birthday, and we were just going to press with the March Philistine. The thing leaped hot from my heart, written after a trying day, when I had been endeavoring to train some rather delinquent villagers to abjure the comatose state and get radioactive. The immediate suggestion, through, came from a little argument over the teacups, when my boy Bert suggested that Rowan was the real hero of the Cuban War. Rowan had gone alone and done the thing - carried the message to Garcia. It came to me like a flash! Yes, the boy is right, the hero is the man who does his work - who carries the message to Garcia."

Good Reading Rack Service, no date

"Where There's A Will"

"Say, darling, do you have a will?" Asked, of her husband, Mrs. Quill. Her husband answered: "Yes and no - "I drew one many years ago, "But that was long before we married, "And since then I have been so harried "In my business, I've neglected "To have my testament perfected. "I want you to have all I own, "So I shall call on Lawyer Bone, "To make a will which, if you please, "Would let you live in style and ease." But Quill lived on, so rushed and busy (His occupation kept him dizzy), He never got around to Bone, And, dying, left his wife alone, With only what the law allowed. So half of what he left, a crowed Of Quill's collaterals have taken, And widow Hannah's half forsaken. One hasn't really much respect For thoughtless men whose grave neglect To change their wills to guard a mate Has left her in the hands of Fate."

Good Reading Rack Service, 1960

Let's Face It Now

"One of the most common sources of difficulty for a widow and her family is not being able to find the husband's legal papers - his will, insurance policies, social security card, army discharge papers, deed to house, deed to cemetery property, etc. Be sure your wife, or some member of the family, knows where you keep these papers. If you change the place, tell someone about it. If the place is a safety deposit box at the bank, be sure someone at home knows where you keep the key. Fill out the bank form giving somebody "right of access" to your box in case of death."

Good Reading Rack Service, 1955

Oil Con-Serves For You

"What is conservation? Not miser-liness. Not hoarding. Not string-saving. Not penny-pinching. Not refusal to use available natural resources. Not refusal to use farm land, farm product, forest products. Not refusal to take iron, coal, oil, etc., out of the ground prudently and for useful purposes. Conservation is not negative!"

Oil Industry Information Committee, no date

A Step In The Wrong Direction

"With competition as the mainspring of our economy, we built a strong country with an unequalled standard of living. Free competition has long been the best spur for plentiful production, and the most reliable watchdog of fair prices. The government has now stepped in to destroy competition - in only one business so far, the business of producing natural gas. But this is one long step in the wrong direction. For if the government can destroy competition in one competitve business, it can destroy it in another - and another."

Natural Gas and Oil Resources Committee, no date

Everyday Law In Everyday Language

"The purpose of this booklet is to help you recognize situations that demand legal advice and those which you can handle yourself by use of common sense plus some knowledge of the law. Do not expect a simple, comprehensive statement of The Law on every point raised in the following pages. You may be reading this booklet in any of forty-eight States, each of which has its own courts with their own views as to the proper answers to these problems. Any honest lawyer will tell you that although he may have known the answer to your question yesterday, he had better check today to make sure that a new decision has not been handed down since he last looked at the point. So, even if we had the space and presumption to state the law of all forty-eight States on the points we are going to cover, and you had the time to pick out your State's answer, the answers might be out-of-date by the time you read this. Therefore, nothing in this booklet is intended as legal advice regarding any concrete legal situation."

Birk & Company, 1952

How The Courts Protect You

"Happily, most Americans pass their entire lifetime without seeing a court in session, except perhaps when they serve as jurors or are called to testify as witnesses. The administration of justice often seems remote and vague. And yet, it is the system of courts, with their hundreds of judges, which has made American democracy work. Without judges and juries to pass on the facts and apply the law, and without the checking of errors by higher courts to which appeals are taken, and without a Supreme Court at Washington, ever mindful of the tendencies of human nature to grasp for power and oppress minorities, our precious liberties would be as chaff in the wind. Equal justice before the law is our cherished ideal. Rich and poor, the alien and the citizen, men and women of every race or creed find our courts open to receive their pleas; and it is commonplace to see the lowly prevail over the mighty as our courts grind out their judgments."

Alumni Offset Inc. & Richard Hall, 1953

You And Your Supreme Court

"Oyez, oyez! All persons having business before the honorable Supreme Court of the United States are admonished to draw near and give their attention, for the Court is now sitting. God bless the United States and this honorable Court." 

Good Reading Rack Service, 1957

You And The Law

"Whenever you think about "the law," it's probably about the cop on the corner, a private detective on television or some vague sort of trouble. Actually, under the American system of government, "the law" is a set of ground rules to help you play the game of life successfully. It gives you certain rights and privileges in return for certain duties and responsibilities. These ground rules are necessary in a society because we need an umpire to yell "fair" or "foul" when our deeds or desires conflict with those of our neighbors - and vice versa."

Good Reading Rack Service, 1958

Rediscovery Of America

"I have just returned from a 10,000-mile automobile journey of exploration of the United States after an absence of 15 years, revisiting the cities, towns and localities I used to know. I have been living abroad since 1940, and this was like moving into a new world. It was like being given a ringside seat for a close-up of the greatest peaceful social and economic revolution in recorded history. I had never seen an atomatic-energy plant, a Negro major-league baseball player, a jet-aircraft base of guided-missile center, a one-price housing development or a real super-market, married students' quarters in a university or the impact of 60 million cars rolling the highways. I had yet to encounter such new Americana as the luxury motel and a worker-owned factory. I was a stranger to a whole new way of life in a one-story, servantless, do-it-yourself, own-your-own home United States."

Good Reading Rack Service, 1956

A Briton Looks At America

"Realistic Americans understand that they cannot be liked by everybody in the world, and that even those who admire them will not like everything they do. Yet there are times when the criticisms leveled against this nation seem to pass all reasonable bounds. Whatever the United States does or does not do, someone points a finger of blame. In the great postwar time of trial, we appear to have become everybody's scapegoat. Never was this truer than in the present critical days."

Employee Relations Inc., 1957

The Day I Was Proudest To Be An American

"From the day of the United Nations' inception the voices of the famished, the diseased, and the despairing have been heard in its halls, calling for help. How have the nations of the world answered their please? Irene Dunne was deputized to give the United States' response at the U.N. Miss Dunne was a member of the U.S. delegation to the twelfth U.N. General Assembly. It was a new role for her. Usually she's seen on the screen. Her very first movie, Cimarron, won the Motion Picture Academy Award, and she quickly became a Hollywood luminary. What is it like to be a U.S. delegate to the United Nations? After my years in the movies I thought I was used to drama and excitement. But Hollywood has nothing that can approach the United Nations in these spheres. In the past I have greatly enjoyed making people laugh. Some of my favorite films have been comedies. At the United Nations, there is no time for comedy."

Good Reading Rack Service, 1959

The American Dream

"During the Second World War, I met on the train a lieutenant who had just returned from fighting in Italy. He had been in the North African campaign. He had fought in Sicily. He wore the Purple Heart ribbon with his campaign ribbons. I asked him what he thought of America. It was a hard question to ask of a man who had been gone so long, who had been fighting for his country...who had been wounded in action...It was almost an impertinence. He said that after what he had seen in North Africa and in Italy, he appreciated America more than ever." 

McGraw-Hill Book Company Inc., 1951

The Secret Of America's Greatness

"Every thoughtful American has a strong conviction as to what kind of country he wants this to be. He must start by knowing what kind of country it is, and that is not easy amidst the dust storms of current controversy. He must have ideas as to what it is that makes for weakness, and then strive to support the one and overcome the other. America is a great country, a magnificent country. But those are mere words unless we know why. If America is great we must understand what made her so, in order that as individual citizens, we may know what we must do that she may remain great. Our nation must not go on making the staggering sacrifices now being required of us unless we are sure what it is we are seeking to preserve."

Little, Brown & Company, 1953

Our New Old Glory

"Old Glory" has acquired a new look - 49 stars in seven staggered rows of seven each. And on July 4, 1960, it will have 50 stars. The 49th star, of course, represents the new State of Alaska which was admitted to the Union January 3, 1959, when President Eisenhower signed an executive order setting the new design of 49 stars for the Official Flag of the United States. Now that Hawaiian statehood has been approved by Congress, Old Glory will have 50 stars, but the new design, whatever it is, will not become official until July, 1960."

A Help-Your-Self Booklet, 1959

Sweet Land Of Liberty

"When I arrived in America over 55 years ago, I had nothing except the suit of clothes I was wearing and faith in the new land I was coming to. I have been eternally grateful that this country was, in Benjamin Franklin's words, a land "where people do not inquire of a stranger, 'What is he?' but 'What can he do?'"

Good Reading Rack Service, no date

Needed: Uncommon Men

"Eighty years is a long time for a man to live. Mine has been a life of work in many lands under many kinds of governments, both good and bad. I have watched the two great World Wars with their holocausts of death, destruction and famine, and have taken some part in remedy of their terrible aftermaths. I have particiated in the search for a healing peace. I have witnessed the legacy of war - in doubting minds, brutality, crime and debased morals. Moreover, I have witnessed in 20 nations the workings and philosophy of that anti-Christ, Karl Marx. From all these experiences, there rise constantly in my mind the forces which make for progress and those which may corrode away the safeguards of freedom in America. I want to tell you something about these forces, but I shall endeavor to do so, not in the tones of Jeremiah, the Prophet of Doom, but in the spirit of Saint Paul."

Good Reading Rack Service, 1954

The Obligation of Freedom

"In a certain state there is no speed limit for automobiles on the open highway. One day, in this state, a highway patrolman stopped a man who was going ninety-five miles an hour around a curve, and cautioned him about speeding. The driver's answer was: "This is a free country - I can drive as fast as I want." In a small town in another state lived a man who belonged to an unpopular minority political party. This man published a small weekly newspaper in which he upheld his party's views, constantly criticized local government officials. One day he was visited by a group of citizens who told him that the community wanted no part of him or his newspaper and that he must stop publishing it. His reply was similiar to the driver's: "This is a free country - I can publish my opinions if I want to." Most Americans will agree that the driver was wrong and the publisher right. But why? Both were appealing to the individual's freedom to do as he wishes - and this is a freedom most American's value very highly. Neither man was breaking the law. What then was the difference between the two situations? Where do we draw the line between freedom and abuse of freedom?"

National Research Bureau Inc., no date

How We Can Keep Our Freedom

"It was evening. Benjamin Franklin was walking home. All through the long summer, the delegates to the Constitutional Convention had been sworn to secrecy about their discussions. Now, with the document signed and ready for ratification by the people, they were free to talk about what they had done. Out of a crowd of men clustered on a street corner, one man rushed up to Franklin. "Tell us, sir, what kind of government have you given us?" he asked. Benjamin Franklin paused. "A republic," he said. And then he smiled. "If you can keep it."

Good Reading Rack Service, 1959

The Difference Is Only Ten Cents

"The difference between success and failure in business," said the manager of a highly successful Detroit corporation, "is only $.10." He then went on to explain his remark. "The business man who takes in $1.00 and spends only $.95 is on the road to financial independence. But the fellow who takes in $1.00 and spends $1.05 is heading for the rocks." 

A Help-Your-Self Booklet, 1960

Pace-Setters For Prosperity

"America is a whale of success," said a wise statesman some years ago in referring to our thriving economy. But today, when our success in bettering our standard of living is more sweeping than ever, we are slow about admitting it. We seldom stop critizing our own shortcomings because we believe that nothing is fixed, frozen or final, and that the search for improvement is a continuing responsibility. Though "The Star Spangled Banner" is our official anthem, the refrain we constantly chant is "Anything You Can Do, You Should Do Better."

Good Reading Rack Service, 1953

How The Other Half Lives

"We Americans tend to think that our way of life is the normal thing - that everybody lives as we do. It's true that millions in the great cities of the world, and particularly in the more modern countries of Western Europe, live much as we Americans do. But all of them and all of us together represent less than half of the world's population, and our standards are not normal for the world as a whole. So let's look at how the "other half" lives. By the yardstick of the average Asian, African or South American and the rest of the two billion, three hundred million people of the world, our most commonplace standards are simply beyond imagination. Most of what we have and use in our daily life is available even in Europe only to the very rich. For example: The other half can't eat what they want to. The fact is - most of the people on earth eat what they themselves grow, and go hungry when they have no harvest."

Good Reading Rack Service, 1955

Other People Are Important, Too!

"Of course you are important! But are you one of those people who forgets that other people - the cop on the corner, the milkman, the secretary - are important too? Once you realize this fact - and do something about it - you are way ahead in dealing with people and in gaining popularity and success. This booklet will show you the little things that you can do to and for other people that will let them know just how important they are, too. It will show you how to use this asset (and it's a strong asset because it's a hidden asset) to make yourself better liked - and more successful in your everyday life."

Good Reading Rack Service, 1956

The Vanishing American

"When the United States was born some 200 years ago, it was dedicated to a new and bold concept of citizenship: freedom of the individual from domination by government. This philosophy became the so-called American way of life, which has given us the highest standard of living in the world. As a nation, we have grown rich. And by all indications, we have every intention of growing richer, materially, culturally, and in every other way."

A Help-Your-Self Booklet, 1959

A Quiet Revolution

"The American workman, though he shares and cherishes the political and moral heritage of his forefathers, has a living standard so far above any realized in the past as to be almost recognizable. It was only a few generations ago that the workingman, in America as in every other nation, accepted without question living standards that would today be considered impoverished in the extreme and cruel beyond measure. Like his ancestors, he had grown up in a world in which abundance was not known except for the rare man of wealth, and in which "living standard" was a synonym for bare survival. This booklet describes the "quiet revolution" that has brought about today's prosperity."

Good Reading Rack Service, 1959

Our Horn Of Plenty

"What are the major desires of American men and women - for themselves and their children and neighbors - and how can they make those desires come true? Wars, social changes, depressions, and political arguments sometimes make it seem that we Americans disagree over the road most of us want our country and its citizens to travel, but the great majority of the American people agree on six common goals. 1) A Growing National Income 2) A Bigger Share for Lower-Income Groups 3) Pay Based on Work Done 4) More Economic Security 5) Helping Each Person To Make The Most of Himself 6) A Chance For Each To Earn His Own Income"

Good Reading Rack Service, 1955

If The Shoe Fits

"You and I know that we live in the greatest country on earth, with the finest people to be found anywhere. Everything we know about our way of life compared to the rest of the world tells us we live on an island of plenty and freedom in an ocean of want and hideous tyranny. But that doesn't mean we're perfect - all of any of us. In fact some of us sometimes show such unpleasant traits that it's a wonder the rest of us tolerate us. I mean tax cheaters, sloppy tourists, non-voters, jury-dodgers, dangerous drivrs, and others we all know who make our glorious country less wonderful than it could be. Perhaps you have felt like telling off such pests in person or in print, but never quite got around to it. I've often choked off a blistering remark to a road hog or constant complainer, but now at last I've put my thoughts about them down on paper in a series of letters. Maybe you'd like to join me mentally in sending these letters to some friends or acquaintances who don't seem to understand or appreciate the America in which they live. "If the shoe fits..."

Good Reading Rack Service, 1955

What Are We Missing?

"I read an article recently which stated that Americans use 19 million sleeping pills a day, mainly to cure sleeplessness and headaches resulting from worry. Why, I asked myself, are we Americans in such a state today?"

Good Reading Rack Service, 1953

The Most Unforgettable Character I've Met

"I had been warden of New Jersey State Penitentiary for only a short time when I was told that one of the lifers wanted an interview. The name was James Duncan. He was serving the seventh year of a life sentence. At first the name meant nothing to me. Then I remembered - a sun-swept New Jersey golf course, a professional tournament. Jim Duncan had been only 18 then, but he was already known as one of the best golfers in the state. I remembered watching at the first tee as his litche, young body coiled and uncoiled in effortless, powerful swing. It was one of the longest, cleanest drives I had ever seen and, because I had always been deeply interested in sports, things like that had a way of filing themselves in my mind. What was Duncan doing here? I looked up his case. During prohibition he had taken a job piloting a rum-running speedboard along the New Jersey coast. One night the boat was hijacked. A few days later the body of the hijacker, a notorious racketeer, Mike Dries, had been found. With the two other members of the boat's crew, Duncan had been accused of the killing. All three men had been found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment. Duncan had gone to prison on his 19th birthday."

The Reader's Digest Association, 1953

The Blessing Of Struggle

"When I was a young man, Theodore Roosevelt was President. He attracted national attention when he said: "I wish to preach not the doctrine of ignoble ease, but the doctrine of of strenuous life." He said of himself, let me wear out, not rust out. He told young men to hit the line hard. He told women not to shirk their prime function to bear children. He said this at a time when any woman who had more than two children was considered sub-human, if not a little indecent."

A Help-Your-Self Booklet, 1958

Living Legends

"On Christmas morning, 1920, a mother stood in the doorway of the living room and chuckled as her three-year-old boy scampered to the brilliant Yule tree. He'd known this day was coming. For days he hung around his father, and for nights he tried to hold off bedtime. "One more Indian story," he would plead. Now the child approached the tree and pounced on the tiny tricycle his mother had bought in Baltimore. There were other gifts, too, and much excited tearing at the tissue. A slight fever had flushed the little boy the day before, but he seemed fine now. That night he went to bed weary and happy."

A Help-Your-Self Booklet, 1959