How did elementary language arts teachers of yore respond to policy issues in their own day? A review of the first two volumes of Language Arts, then called The Elementary English Review (1924-1925), suggests the journal served as a dynamic and productive space for language arts teachers and scholars to share their work and debate its merit. Much of this debate focused on what encompasses an appropriate language arts curriculum, including what books are of value (and to whom) and the relationships between curriculum and students' lives. We argue there is much to learn, and much hope to be found, in the space that would become Language Arts.