On the Wednesday before Thanksgiving each year, The Wall Street Journal. republishes two editorials.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

I'm late this year. I haven't checked, but I am sure they were in place this year, on page A14 of last Wednesday's paper or near it.

For 2024:

The Desolate Wilderness

And the Fair Land

Edited to add: see the links to non-paywalled articles here. Hat tip, Dennis Donovan

Tue Dec 3, 2024: Here are the archived versions of the WSJ articles you mentioned:

Due to the paywall, I can't link to the articles. I hope the images are still available. In Windows, right click and choose "Open image in new tab." Mac and Linux users, you can figure it out.

Replant the American Dream

By David Ignatius
Friday, November 25, 2005

{snip}

On the Wednesday before Thanksgiving each year, the Wall Street Journal republishes twin editorials that evoke America's special gifts: "The Desolate Wilderness" and "And the Fair Land." They describe the pilgrims' fears as they departed Europe in 1620, and the measureless bounty they and their descendants found in the new land. The spirit we celebrate on Thanksgiving Day is our most powerful national asset. We need to put America's riches back on the table and share them with the world, humbly and gratefully.

[e-mail]

Per The Wall Street Journal.'s policy, access is behind a paywall.

Folks, this here's writing.

OPINION | REVIEW & OUTLOOK
And the Fair Land

Nov. 24, 2020 6:44 pm ET

Any one whose labors take him into the far reaches of the country, as ours lately have done, is bound to mark how the years have made the land grow fruitful.

This is indeed a big country, a rich country, in a way no array of figures can measure and so in a way past belief of those who have not seen it. Even those who journey through its Northeastern complex, into the Southern lands, across the central plains and to its Western slopes can only glimpse a measure of the bounty of America.

And...

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OPINION | REVIEW & OUTLOOK

The Desolate Wilderness

Nov. 24, 2020 6:46 pm ET

So they left that goodly and pleasant city of Leyden, which had been their resting-place for above eleven years, but they knew that they were pilgrims and strangers here below, and looked not much on these things, but lifted up their eyes to Heaven, their dearest country, where God hath prepared for them a city (Heb. XI, 16), and therein quieted their spirits.

When...

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Let's see what we can do about that. Due to the miracle of the internet, there are images of the two editorials available. If they don't display properly, right click on them and open them in a new tab. That worked for me this morning.

I used to have images of the articles. The links to the images don't work anymore. I'll see what I can find.





"Vermont Connecticut Royster"? Really? Really:

Vermont C. Royster

Vermont Connecticut Royster (April 30, 1914 – July 22, 1996) was the editor of the editorial page of The Wall Street Journal from 1958 to 1971. He was honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He won two Pulitzer Prizes for his writing, and numerous other awards. Royster was famed for providing a conservative interpretation of the news every day, especially regarding economic issues.

Early life

Although his life began and ended in Raleigh, North Carolina, the parts in between took him to the rest of the world. He was named after his paternal grandfather. His distinctive first and middle names were the result of a family tradition of using the names of states for offspring, begun by his great-grandfather. In addition to his grandfather's unusual name, his great-uncles were named Arkansas Delaware, Wisconsin Illinois, Oregon Minnesota, and Iowa Michigan Royster. They were usually called by their first and middle initials. These names were so unusual that for many years they were printed in the Ripley's Believe It or Not! series of books. Royster's father, Wilbur High Royster, owned and operated the Royster Candy Company in Raleigh, which in the early 1900s sold chocolate, peanut brittle, and other candies across the Carolinas and Virginia. His family also had a strong connection to the nearby University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Vermont's grandfather had taught Latin and Greek at the university, and his great-uncle Wisconsin Royster had helped create the medical school at UNC.

Career

Royster was a 1935 graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; during his time at UNC he was a member of the Philanthropic Society and served as the editor of the student newspaper, The Daily Tar Heel. Soon after graduating, he moved to New York City and secured a job as a reporter for the New York City News Bureau, and a year later began his 61-year career with The Wall Street Journal.

{snip}

With a name like that, he has to be good.

Looking forward to his first Thanksgiving as President, John F. Kennedy would have sat down and read these editorials over breakfast that Wednesday morning. The day before Thanksgiving in 1961 was November 22.

Thu Nov 23, 2023: On the Wednesday before Thanksgiving each year, The Wall Street Journal. republishes two editorials.

Wed Nov 23, 2022: On the Wednesday before Thanksgiving each year, The Wall Street Journal. republishes two editorials

Wed Nov 24, 2021: On the Wednesday before Thanksgiving each year, The Wall Street Journal. republishes twin editorials

They had an editorial yesterday {in 2020}, saying that they had been getting grief for publishing them, but that they would go right ahead and publish them again this year anyway.

Wed Nov 25, 2020: On the Wednesday before Thanksgiving each year, The Wall Street Journal. republishes twin editorials

Wed Nov 27, 2019: On the Wednesday before Thanksgiving each year, The Wall Street Journal. reruns twin editorials.

Wed Nov 21, 2018: On the Wednesday before Thanksgiving each year, The Wall Street Journal. reruns twin editorials.

Wed Nov 22, 2017: On the Wednesday before Thanksgiving each year, the Wall Street Journal republishes twin editorials.

[Dennis Donovan]

1. Here are the archived versions of the WSJ articles you mentioned:

The Desolate Wilderness

And the Fair Land

[mahatmakanejeeves]

2. Cool. I'll have to link to them next year, or wait for your 2025 reply. And good morning. NT