This political season seems a good time to scroll back to a vintage ad first depicted on KintlaLake Bloghere almost 18 months ago. The year was 1919. The advertiser was Remington UMC, the campaign was "For Shooting Right" and post-war nationalism was the proud refrain. Remington placed a series of unapologetic ads in popular sportsmen's magazines like Outing and Forest and Stream. The opening paragraphs of one of those ads -- "More American Reserve Power" -- should ring clear and true with every independent citizen-patriot:
"The strength that comes from the hills was never worth more in this country than it is today. Both to the man himself and to all about him.
"No poison-pollen of Old World imperialism gone to seed can contaminate -- nor any attempt of crowd-sickened collectivism undermine -- the priceless individualism of the American who truly keeps his feet on the earth."
I can't get those words out of my head. While the current campaign for President of the United States insults my intelligence and promises to assault individual liberties, strangely it's the century-old work of a Remington copywriter that resonates.
The passage offers me no solutions, of course -- it's merely rhetorical refuge from my frustration with a government gone mad and a People gone to sleep.
In a 1788 letter to Col. Edward Carrington, a Virginia Delegate, Thomas Jefferson wrote,
"The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield, and government to gain ground. As yet our spirits are free."
I see a nexus between the Remington ad and Jefferson's letter. Without expressing resignation, both acknowledge the enemies of Liberty, and both celebrate the wellspring of true independence:
"...the priceless individualism of the American who truly keeps his feet on the earth."
"...our spirits are free."
The key is this: Liberty resides in the individual spirit. Political winds may swirl around us and the burden of bureaucracy may bend our backs, but we remain Americans -- citizens of a nation, not subjects of its government.
"If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen!"
(Samuel Adams, whom Thomas Jefferson called "truly the Man of the Revolution," from a speech delivered at the Pennsylvania State House in Philadelphia on August 1, 1776)
"...The right to own and bear arms is a natural right of man, guaranteed by our Bill of Rights, but superior to all laws and constitutions. It is our only defence against tyranny, and, as such, will never be relinquished by Americans who respect their birthright." (Horace Kephart, from "The Gun: A Fool I' the Forest," published in the February 1901 issue of Outing magazine)
It looks like I'm back for one more encore. I've been asked to serve a third term as your president.
I don't think anyone's done that before. But George Washington hung around until the Revolutionary War was won. Roosevelt hung around until World War II was won. Reagan hung around until the Cold War was won. If you want, I'll hang around until we win this one, too.
Do you feel that incredible energy in the air here today? I'll tell you what it is. It's the feeling you get when you're making a difference in the future of your country.
That was my goal -- to make a difference -- when I became your president two years ago. So I set some lofty goals. I said I'd do my part if you'd do yours. Now, just two years later, we've accomplished them all.
All except one.
First, I asked you to rebuild our NRA membership, and you have. Not by just a few thousand members, but by one million members.
Second, I asked you to rebuild our NRA war chest, and you have. I don't mean just in dollars, but in sense. The good sense of the NRA leadership you see here today. Your leaders are qualified, competent, unified, and believe me, fearless.
Third, I wanted to bring the NRA back to the table of mainstream political debate, and we have. You saw Wayne on that tape. I'd say we're not just at the table.
We're eating their lunch.
But more than anything else, I asked you to believe in each other again. To believe that gun ownership is as wholesome as it is constitutional. To believe that an NRA sticker on your windshield is a sign of pride. To believe that a kid who wants to plink at tin cans is not a kid gone wrong. To believe that the great flame of freedom our founding fathers ignited has not grown cold.
I declare that mission accomplished! I look around this great hall and I see the fire is in your eyes, the pride is in your hearts, and the commitment is here in your presence today. The NRA is baaaaaack...
All of which spells very serious trouble for a man named Gore.
Didja see that Gore rally in D.C. last weekend? One of the marchers said, "The hands that rock the cradle rule this nation." And I thought, No madam, the hands that rock the cradle rule our families and governments and corporations. The hands that wrote the Constitution rule this nation.
All the anti-gun celebs came out to march. Tipper Gore was there, Rosie O'Donnell was there (I like to call her Tokyo Rosie). A fine actress, Susan Sarandon, was there and shouted with great diplomacy and stateswomanship, "We Moms are really pissed off!"
I must ask, pissed off about what? If it's crime, why aren't you pissed off at the failure of this Administration to prosecute gun-toting criminals?
If it's accidents, why aren't you pissed off at swimming pool owners, or stairway owners, or pickup owners?
Why aren't you pissed off that gun accident prevention programs aren't in every elementary classroom in America?
As a matter of fact, why aren't you pissed off at parents who're oblivious that their kids are building bombs in their bedrooms?
Why aren't you pissed off that Mr. Gore wants registration and licensing instead of parenting and prosecution?
Which leads me to that one mission left undone: Winning in November. That's why I'm staying on for a third tour of duty.
Today I challenge you to find your third term, and serve it. Find your extra mile, and walk it.
Only you know what you can do between now and that decisive November day to turn the tide of these elections in favor of freedom. I ask you to find it and fulfill it.
Go the extra distance, find that extra member, write the extra check, knock on one more door, work one more hour, make one more call, convince one more friend, turn the other cheek if you must, but find your third term and serve it.
That's your part to play. What more important role can there be...than to bequeath our freedom to the next generation as pure and intact as it was given to us. As Mr. Lincoln commanded: "With firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us finish the work we are in...and then we shall save our country."
Each of us in his own way, plus all of us in our collective millions, must give that extra measure that freedom demands of us.
Let me tell you what I mean. Until a few hours ago I was finishing my 80th film in Vancouver, Canada. I was there because I love my craft and I love to feed my family.
So you'll forgive me if I'm a little tired. I flew all night, across a continent and three time zones, to be here with you. I'm here because I love my country and I love this freedom.
But it was just the most recent flight in thousands of flights, the most recent mile on thousands of roads I've travelled in my ten years of active service to this great Association. It's been a helluva ride.
I remember a decade ago at my first annual meeting in St. Louis. After my banquet remarks to a packed house, they presented me with a very special gift. It was a splendid hand-crafted musket.
I admit I was overcome by the power of its simple symbolism. I looked at that musket and I thought of all of the lives given for that freedom. I thought of all of the lives saved with that freedom. It dawned on me that the doorway to all freedoms is framed by muskets.
So I lifted that musket over my head for all to see. And as flashbulbs popped around the room, my heart and a few tears swelled up, and I uttered five unscripted words. When I did, that room exploded in sustained applause and hoots and shouts that seemed to last forever.
In that moment, I bonded with this great Association. And in thousands of moments since, I've been asked to repeat those five words in airports and hotels and rallies and speeches across this land.
In your own way, you have already heard them. That's why you're here.
Every time our country stands in the path of danger, an instinct seems to summon her finest first -- those who truly understand her. When freedom shivers in the cold shadow of true peril, it's always the patriots who first hear the call. When loss of liberty is looming, as it is now, the siren sounds first in the hearts of freedom's vanguard. The smoke in the air of our Concord Bridges and Pearl Harbors is always smelled first by the farmers, who come from their simple homes to find the fire, and fight.
Because they know that sacred stuff resides in that wooden stock and blued steel, something that gives the most common man the most uncommon of freedoms. When ordinary hands can possess such an extraordinary instrument, that symbolizes the full measure of human dignity and liberty.
That's why those five words issue an irresistible call to us all, and we muster.
So as we set out this year to defeat the divisive forces that would take freedom away, I want to say those words again for everyone within the sound of my voice to hear and to heed, and especially for you, Mr. Gore:
From my cold dead hands! (National Rifle Association President Charlton Heston, in opening remarks delivered at the NRA Annual Meeting on May 20, 2000)
Speaking last Friday in Roanoke, Virginia, Pres. Barack Obama now-infamously said,
"If you've got a business, you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen."
Mitt Romney, at a campaign event yesterday in Irwin, Pennsylvania, responded:
"Something happened on Friday -- President Obama exposed what he really thinks about free people and the American vision and government, what he really thinks about America itself.
"He probably wants to understand why his policies failed. If you want to understand why his policies have failed, why what he has done has not created jobs or rising incomes in America, you can look at what he said.
"And what he said was this, he said, and I quote -- and he's speaking, by the way, of businesses like this one, small businesses, big businesses, middle-size businesses, mining businesses, manufacturing, service businesses of all kinds. He said this:
'If you've got a business, you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen.'
"That 'somebody else' is government, in his view. He goes on to describe the people who deserve the credit for building this business. And, of course, he describes people who we care very deeply about, who make a difference in our lives -- our schoolteachers, firefighters, people who build roads.
"We need those things. We value schoolteachers, firefighters, people who build roads. You really couldn't have a business if you didn't have those things. But, you know, we pay for those things.
"The taxpayers pay for government. It's not like government just provides those to all of us and we say,
'Oh thank you, government, for doing those things.'
"No, in fact, we pay for them and we benefit from them, and we appreciate the work that they do and the sacrifices that are done by people who work in government. But they did not build this business."
And that's the truth -- not bankable truth, alas, but truth nonetheless.
Although most of us know the stern, finger-pointing Uncle Sam from the 1917 U.S. Army recruiting poster, he first appeared on the cover of Leslie's Weekly magazine over the caption, "What Are You Doing for Preparedness?"
Among the artist's other patriotic characters was the distaff Columbia. Flagg's Uncle Sam personified American power, authority and resolve, both at home and abroad, while his Columbia evoked Liberty, industry, unity, complacency -- human qualities, human aspirations, human failings.
In short, Uncle Sam embodied the U.S. government and everything it represents. Columbia stood for the People.
Of Flagg's many propaganda illustrations, perhaps my favorite is a menacing-looking Uncle Sam holding a pistol, from a 1917 Leslie's cover. It was captioned, "Get Off That Throne!"
I'll close with one more American propaganda image from the World War I years. This one was created not by James Montgomery Flagg but by renowned illustrator J.C. Leyendecker, a poster promoting the Boy Scouts of America's 1917 Liberty Loan Campaign.
The other day I happened upon an essay entitled, "The Gun as a Weapon of Education," written by one Edward Cave and published in a 1918 edition of The Outlook.
The headline was intriguing, certainly, but the subhead hooked me:
"Lessons from the Long Trail that Goes 'Way Around Beyond the Bleak and Barren Mountains of Mere Marksmanship to the Happy Valley of Sportsmanship"
Knowing of the author's connection to Scouting, I scanned the piece for a mention. These lines jumped out at me:
"A couple of years before the Germans turned loose their war, for eight months I disturbed the pious and pacific calm of the National headquarters of the Boy Scouts with the rude idea that Baden-Powell, the British soldier who originated the Boy Scout idea, meant their slogan, 'Be Prepared,' to imply prepared to carry a gun, not a harp."
That, my friends, is absolutely priceless. Cave continued:
"Despite instructions, I drilled my troop of Boy Scouts, and drilled them hard. Since then I have had the satisfaction of vindication on both counts. In addition, I have had the satisfaction of helping a good many thousands of Boy Scouts and plain ordinary boys to learn how to shoot a .22 rifle properly. I joined the National Rifle Association of America and the United States Revolver Association, and recently induced the former to encourage boys to take up target-shooting outdoors with the .22 rifles."
Cave's assertion that he influenced "a good many thousands of Boy Scouts and plain ordinary boys" was no idle boast -- in 1915 he published Boy Scout Marksmanship, a seminal work on the subject and a valuable primer for boys within and beyond the uniformed ranks.
Later in the text, I chuckled at Cave's expressed intent to "square up some old accounts" -- that is, to needle certain types of people that he found particularly annoying. Specifically:
"Folks who are afraid of a gun, but otherwise all right.
"Folks who will not let a big-enough boy have a gun.
"Folks who are fond of roast chicken -- and, if necessary to get it, would chase a pet rooster till red in the face and chop his head off -- yet raise objection to all hunting, and are classified among wild life conservationists as sentimentalists.
"Pacifists -- the worst of the lot."
That passage is another keeper, for sure. Cave closed his engaging essay with this:
"Far away on the horizon you see what at first appears like a fog in some distant valley. It is the smoke pall above some city, and it reminds you, hunter that you are, of the vaporings of the city men you know who can never stand where you do, nor even rise above their droll little chimneys, yet presume to force upon their fellows their narrow conception of a world outlook.
"Poor little wall-warped and roof-stunted boys who were never allowed to have a gun!"
"The Gun as a Weapon of Education" is a fun read -- playful and unapologetic, relevant despite its advanced age. I recommend it.
Remington, as far as I know, didn't push a club of its own during those years. Its advertising took a different tack as well. "War Department Offers Rifle Shooting Medals to Boys," from a 1917 issue of the Saturday Evening Post, is an example of Remington's approach. It used the lure of government-sanctioned marksmanship awards, along with the credibility of the Boy Scouts and the NRA, essentially to soft-pedal the brand. An excerpt from the copy:
"Another thing -- you don't have to shoot any special make of rifle and ammunition to compete for these National Medals. You can use any make of .22 caliber rifle and .22 short cartridges.
"We hope, of course, that you will select Remington UMC. Certainly you will, if you ask advice from men who know."
Two years later the W.J.R.C. was on the scene. Remington adjusted its pitch accordingly. "News Indeed for the Young Man and his .22" popped up in a 1919 issue of Collier's. The ad's subhead -- "Individual Shooters Recognized by N.R.A. -- No need to join a Club" -- was an appeal to youthful independence and a shot across Winchester's bow. Later, this:
"Now don't hesitate to write us just because your rifle or ammunition is not Remington UMC. You don't even have to tell us what make you do shoot -- now. We'll take a chance that you will come to Remington UMC as your skill develops and you become more critical about your arms and ammunition."
And so the two companies exchanged volleys, vying for young shooters, their skirmish lasting nearly a decade. Which one prevailed?
Remington is still around -- it's the oldest company in the U.S. still making its original product, the oldest continuously operating manufacturer on the continent, the only American company that makes both guns and ammo here in the U.S. and the largest domestic manufacturer of long guns.
Winchester, which always struggled, sadly (or mercifully) is gone.
The W.J.R.C. had a successful nine-year run before it was absorbed by the NRA. Its descendant, the NRA Marksmanship Qualification Program, continues to thrive.
My fascination with vintage ads, especially those promoting firearms and outdoors gear, continues. I'm especially drawn to depictions of the Winchester Model 67, of course, like the 1956 ad that I posted on Friday, and to the Winchester Junior Rifle Corps.
First up this morning is "Add a Colt to Your Motoring Equipment," clipped from a 1922 issue of Life magazine. In the early days of the automobile Americans were learning that their new-found mobility, however rudimentary by today's standards, quickly could transport them "beyond the reach of help." What Colt called "the growing menace of auto bandits and thieves" was a relatively fresh concern for the motoring masses.
The other ad I'll share today, "Don't envy the fellows who own rifles," comes from a 1918 issue of Arms and the Man, forerunner of the National Rifle Association's American Rifleman magazine. Even though the readership of Arms and the Man was predominantly adult males, clearly Winchester's aspirational pitch also drew a bead on young boys. This line spoke to both audiences:
"Every boy wants to own a rifle, and every boy who has the right stuff in him should have one."
What American boy, after all, doesn't believe that he has "the right stuff"? And what self-respecting father would admit that he's raising a boy who lacks it?
The two-pronged approach is reminiscent, it seems to me, of another Winchester ad that I posted here last year.
Naturally, the ad includes the W.J.R.C. spiel. It's interesting to note that the program was taken over by the NRA in 1926.
(That ad, which featured the Model 67 just a few years before Winchester pulled the plug on its 26-year production run, appeared in the April 1956 issue of Field & Stream magazine.)
"['God Bless the U.S.A.'] is a country song. This is Brooklyn. This is not the country."
(Dina Rosado, president of the PTA for NYC P.S. 90, voicing her disapproval of the school's kindergarten class waving American flags and singing the Lee Greenwood classic near the school on Monday. A week earlier P.S. 90's principal, Gina Hawkins, barred the five-year-olds from performing the piece at their graduation ceremony, judging its lyrics "too adult" and offensive to "some people and cultures.")
"If sales figures mean anything, the faster a .22 can shoot and the more rounds its magazine can hold, the more popular it is with American hunters. Just why that's so is kind of puzzling, considering the animals hunted, the ranges involved and types of shots normally offered. Most targets are relatively small; more are taken under 50 yards than over; and the majority are standing or sitting rather than moving.
"Admittedly, when a cottontail dashes hellbent for the nearest cover, a repeating rifle makes it possible to correct an improper lead or make up for poor range estimation and put a quick second or third shot where it counts. At least, that's so theoretically. From my own experience, and from what I have observed in the field, follow-up shots, especially those rapped out in short order, seldom put meat in the pot. My second .22 sporter taught me that many decades ago. "My first was a Model 67 Winchester, a single-shot bolt action with a 27-inch barrel and open sights. If the first shot missed, the bolt had to be opened (ejecting the spent hull), a new cartridge pushed into the chamber manually, the bolt closed again -- and then the striker knob had to be pulled back to cock the action.
"Slow that action might have been, but memory says the rifle was deadly accurate. Of course, boyhood memories tend to mellow with time, but I remember quite clearly that whenever some serious shooting was in the offing, my buddies preferred to borrow my rifle instead of depending on their own.
"That old Winchester also taught me that if I took a few extra seconds aligning sights and target, there usually wasn't any need for a second shot."
(From Al Miller's "Rimfires" column in the September-October 1994 issue of Rifle magazine)
While casting about the 'Web over the last 20 years, I've noticed that finding what I'm looking for doesn't stop me -- often it only spurs me to search for something else. That's what happened last week, when I unearthed that January-February 2009 issue of Rifle magazine.
Thus encouraged, I began stalking an even older rag that's eluded me.
I also linked to a fascinating article from a 1958 issue of Guns. At the time I couldn't offer a pdf of the piece.
Now I can -- click here to download the August 1958 issue of Guns magazine. The article ".22's for Survival?" begins on pages 34 and 35, continuing on page 58. Even though 54 years have passed since its publication, I believe it's as useful now as it was provocative then.
Last year I lamented that Gil Sengel's excellent article on the history and development of the Winchester Model 67 had vanished from Google Books. Months of occasional (but persistent) cyber-sleuthing finally paid off -- I found the January-February 2009 issue of Rifle, which includes the article, on an ftp site.
To download the magazine in pdf format, right-click here and select "Save target as" or "Save link as." Open the file, flip to page 64 and start enjoying "Winchester Model 67: A Product of Another Era."
(U.S. Patent 984,519 was awarded to John Moses Browning on February 14, 1911. The U.S. Military would adopt this design a month later as the M1911 pistol.)
(U.S. Patent 4,539,889 was awarded to Gaston Glock on September 10, 1985. This was the dawn of the Glock pistol in America. For a more familiar-looking design, check out Fig 24 of the same patent.)
(U.S. Patent 632,094 was awarded to John Moses Browning on August 29, 1899. This design would become the Winchester Model 1900 bolt-action .22 rifle, forerunner of my trusty Winchester Model 67.)
Among the most popular posts here on KintlaLake Blog is "Castle Doctrine, with a Norwegian accent." It features a 1917 ad for Iver Johnson's Arms & Cycle Works, noting its unapologetic expression of a citizen's right to defend home and family.
Here's another, clipped from a 1922 issue of Hearst's International: The ad's bold headline -- "Self-preservation is the first law" -- sets the table for the copy that follows:
"Our forefathers who framed the Constitution of the United States recognized the right of citizens to protect their persons and property.
"And so the second amendment was inserted, which says, '...the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.'"
If Iver Johnson or his sons were around today, I'd like to think that they'd be advocating for our Second Amendment rights -- with or without a commercial interest, political correctness be damned.
On this rainy Sunday morning I'm compelled to return to that 1948 Handbook for Boys (1953 printing) and what it has to say about edged tools. Chapter 15 opens with this paragraph:
"Pioneers who settled America and built homes, and cut farms and roads out of a wilderness, depended more on their axes and knives than on any other equipment except their guns. A knife and axe still are a woodsman's most useful tools."
I'm not suggesting that these eight pages, crafted over 60 years ago as a primer for young Scouts, are either comprehensive or conclusive. The information is, however, fundamentally sound and has aged well.
"Levon Helm passed peacefully this afternoon. He was surrounded by family, friends and band mates and will be remembered by all he touched as a brilliant musician and a beautiful soul."
Levon Helm was an American treasure, his talent and energy gifts to us all. I haven't the words to express my respect for the man, my love of his music or my sadness at his passing. Safe travels, brother.
The year was 1919. The advertiser was Remington UMC, the campaign was "For Shooting Right" and post-war nationalism was the proud refrain. Remington placed a series of unapologetic ads in popular sportsmen's magazines like Outing and Forest and Stream.
