---
title: The Menace front page, 12 April 1913 (Aurora, Missouri)
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/the-menace-front-page-1913/
description: Front page of an anti-Catholic weekly. A boxed counter in the masthead prints "574,845" total subscriptions above a line asking readers to hand the copy…
section: Collection
---

[Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)

**Content note:** Anti-Catholic newspaper front page with a skull-and-crossbones emblem labelled 'Temporal Power' and claims of a Roman Catholic conspiracy. This object is shown as it was published. [Why](https://propagandaarchive.org/about/#as-it-was)

[![The Menace front page, 12 April 1913 (Aurora, Missouri)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/the-menace-front-page-1913.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/the-menace-front-page-1913.jpg)

# The Menace front page, 12 April 1913 (Aurora, Missouri)

Front page of an anti-Catholic weekly. A boxed counter in the masthead prints "574,845" total subscriptions above a line asking readers to hand the copy to another, and the banner headline reports a "Conspiracy Against The Menace" by "the Romanists" under a skull-and-crossbones emblem labelled "Temporal Power".

- **Date:** April 12, 1913
- **Period:** [Pre-1914](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#era=pre-1914)
- **Made by:** The Menace (Menace Publishing Co., Aurora, Missouri); editor Rev. Theo. C. Walker
- **Region:** [North America](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#region=north-america)
- **Country:** [United States](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#country=united-states)
- **Medium:** [Newspaper pages](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#medium=newspaper-page)
- **Issuer type:** [Media](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#actor=media)
- **Regime:** [Wilson Administration](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#regime=wilson-administration)
- **Leader:** [Woodrow Wilson](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#leader=woodrow-wilson)
- **Audience:** [Domestic public](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#audience=domestic-public)
- **Purpose:** [Demonize](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#purpose=demonize)
- **Themes:** [Religion](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=religion), [Media and information](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=media-information)
- **Techniques:** [Bandwagon](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/bandwagon/) [Scapegoating](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/scapegoating/)
- **Source:** Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- **Source:** [Library of Congress (Chronicling America)](https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn89066178/1913-04-12/ed-1/?sp=1), retrieved September 29, 2026
- **Rights:** Public domain (U.S. newspaper published 1913, more than 95 years ago) The Menace (Aurora, Mo.), 12 April 1913, p. 1. Library of Congress, Chronicling America; image produced by the State Historical Society of Missouri.

## Text on the object

Original (English) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
When You Have Read This Copy of The Menace, Will You Favor Us By Handing It to Another?

[counter box] Total subscriptions previously reported 569,714
New subscriptions last week 12,317
Subscriptions expiring last week 7,186
Gain for the week 5,131
Total number subscriptions this date
574,845
Total edition printed last week 596,360

[emblem: skull and crossbones under a triple crown] TEMPORAL POWER
A PUBLIC MENACE

Established April 15, 1911. This Is Number 104
THE MENACE
Menace Publishing Co., Publishers. Incorporated Under Missouri Laws
PUBLISHED WEEKLY AT AURORA, MISSOURI   PRICE 2c   SATURDAY, APRIL 12, 1913

[emblem: schoolhouse] THE ANTIDOTE
FOR PAPAL POISON

PUBLISHED for the preservation of liberty, the promotion of progress and the advancement of civilization. As a means to this end we advocate the absolute separation of church and state, the taxation of all church property and the compulsory education of all children up to the age of fourteen years in the public schools.
ENTERED AT POSTOFFICE, AURORA, MO., AS 2ND. CLASS MATTER
REV. THEO. C. WALKER, Editor
MARVIN BROWN, Associate Editor

A Heretofore Unheard of Conspiracy Against The Menace Brought to Light!

Federal Prosecution of the Appeal to Reason in Kansas Reveals Plot of the Romanists to Discredit and Destroy This Paper By Associating It With Socialist Propaganda. Evidence at Preliminary Hearing In Girard Shows That Deal Had Been Made Whereby Certain Government Officials Were to Help Destroy The Menace In Lieu of Roman Catholic Aid In Campaign Against Appeal and Socialism!

[left column] K of C NEWS
PETER E. BURRESS SUES THE MENACE FOR LIBEL
Asks Damages From Anti-Catholic Publication In Sum of One Hundred Thousand Dollars

[sub-heads further down] The Skein Unwinds; Rome's Air Castles Fall; Disseminating Disease; Sample Copy Rates

[illegible: the remaining columns of body text are not transcribed]
```

Transcribed from a 3000-pixel view of the page: masthead, counter box, emblems, banner headline, deck headline and the lead sub-heads. Body columns are not transcribed. The circulation figures add up as printed (569,714 + 12,317 - 7,186 = 574,845).

[← Tripoli è italiana! (postcard)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/tripoli-e-italiana-postcard-1912/) ["The Feminine of Jekyll and Hyde" (Puck, 1913) →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/puck-feminine-of-jekyll-and-hyde-1913/)

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- [Vote Against Woman Suffrage](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/georgia-vote-against-woman-suffrage-1915/) (1915 · Fear appeal, Bandwagon)
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