13 September 1916

The Masses Not Allowed

The American revolutionary magazine The Masses, dubbed "frank, arrogant and impertinent" by its most famous contributor John Reed in 1911, wanted to "do as it pleases and conciliate nobody". During the first World War this attitude brought The Masses the finishing stroke. The September 1916 issue describes a court case against New York newsstands that refused to sell the magazine because of its antimilitarism. In 1918 it was no longer mailed by the postal services and the bell of death tolled for this legendary magazine.

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