I would like to introduce you to the St. Croix Review:

      The St. Croix River borders Wisconsin and Minnesota. Stillwater, Minnesota is where the St. Croix Review has been published for thirty years. Stillwater was one of the first towns established in Minnesota (1843) and was the home of lumberjacks, lumber mills, and the state prison. Near Stillwater the river broadens out to a mile in width.

      Today Stillwater is a small town, and the perspective of the SCR is midwestern: valuing common sense, enterprise, and honesty.

      Angus MacDonald is the founder and publisher of the SCR. He came the U.S. in 1946 from Australia with a degree from the College of the Bible (Victoria, Australia). He obtained a Ph.D. in Philosophy from Columbia University in New York City, and served as a Congregational Minister for twenty-five years, finally settling in Minnesota in the 1960s.

      It was during the turbulent 60s (1968 to be exact) that Angus MacDonald thought the nation needed another conservative journal, as the national newspapers, radio, and television were dominated by a left-leaning point of view. Alternative voices were ridiculed, and the country had only a couple of alternative publications so he launched the SCR.

      The thirty-year history of the SCR resembles that of a self-sufficient farmer on the edge of the American frontier. All the various tasks involved in publishing the journal were done by Angus: to cut expenses he bought a printing press and printed the next issue, even though he had never printed before. He typeset the articles, kept track of subscribers on index cards, and typed every address on each label sent out (computers didn’t exist in 1968). Each issue of the journal for twenty-five years was printed, folded, collated, stitched and cut, sorted and addressed by hand. And of course Angus wrote editorials the whole time.

      It has taken tenacity to survive, and the coming of the computer age has been a blessing, allowing much greater ease and efficiency in publishing. But the perspective of the review has remained the same: common sense, enterprise, honesty.

      Today the SCR is prospering, with a world-wide readership. Angus’ son Barry Myles MacDonald, has now assumed the editorial duties and will be carrying the publication into the twenty-first century.

      The following are the principal views of the Review: The United States is now as wealthy as it has ever been, and more wealthy than any nation has ever been, if we consider how widespread the wealth is spread throughout our people. But there are many areas of concern:

1) The traditional family structure is under attack, with divorce and single parentage common.

2) Our schools are falling behind in ability to teach math and science compared with the schools of other industrialized nations.

3) People of various and rich religious heritage are being made to compromise or minimize the expression of their faith.

3) Little by little the structure of the nation as envisaged by the Founders is undermined.

4) Politicians today are fostering class, gender, and racial tension so that they can be elected.

5) The judiciary is activist, assuming a legislative function.

6) Government is increasingly centralized.

      We are in danger of forgetting what has brought our prosperity in the first place: freedom and self-reliance has given us a thriving economy, and strong religious values have kept us honest.

      The trend of the twentieth century (throughout the world) has been government by bureaucracy, which marginalizes the individual and corrupts the culture.

      I hope that you have enjoyed this introduction, and are interested in subscribing to the St. Croix Review.

Best Wishes,
Barry MacDonald