Today -100: April 19, 1924: Of borders, square deals from klansmen, and honorary Fascists

But what about Mexican immigrants? An amendment to the racist immigration bill is proposed, authorizing a permanent Border Patrol agency to patrol the Mexican and Canadian borders.

Judge A.S. Wells dismisses the 5 charges against former Oklahoma governor J.C. Walton, who was impeached and removed from office last year in part for his war against the Ku Klux Klan. Says Judge Wells: “I hope that J.C. Walton will be fair enough to say that he got a square deal from at least one Klansman.”

Composer Giacomo Puccini is named an honorary Fascist.

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Today -100: April 18, 1924: Afterward their heads were filled with vicious ideas

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Tourists would now only be able to watch Cal working at his desk as they troop through the Oval Office.

Composers, including John Philip Sousa and Irving Berlin, protest a bill that would allow radio stations to play their copyrighted music without paying royalties. That’s the Dill Bill, by the way, which seems like the starting point of a song, but no one sang one to the Sen. Patents Committee. The composers tell the committee that income from song-writing has dropped 50% in the last year, as free radio play means they can’t sell sheet music. Sousa says, “The Radio Corporation of America gets money, doesn’t it? If they get money out of my tunes, I want some of it, that’s all.”

In the immigration bill, the Senate decides to admit immigrants on the basis of 2% of the 1890 census. It is pointed out that only 1 immigrant would be permitted from Italy, an ally during the Great War, for every 5 Germans. Royal Copeland (D) says as a New Yorker he must speak out for the Jews, although he never met one until he was in college (he’s originally from Michigan).

Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures, and the Louis B. Mayer Company merge, becoming the Metro-Goldwyn Corporation (MGM), including not only production but the Lowe chain of theaters.

The Trenton YWCA condemns Atlantic City bathing beauty parades. The local’s president, Miss Pauline Smith, warns, “It was noticed by competent observers that the outlook on life of girls who participated was completely changed. Before the competition they were splendid examples of innocent and pure womanhood. Afterward their heads were filled with vicious ideas.”

The father of murder victim Ted Grosh, student at Arizona State University, wants to be hangman at the execution of his son’s killer (who is black). The state prison superintendent has no objection.

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Today -100: April 17, 1924: Of oil, graft, and wooden legs

A commission appointed by Pres. Coolidge says the US may run out of oil soon, and the Navy should be given priority.

Charles R. Forbes, the former director of the Veterans’ Bureau, as well as former assistant director Charles O’Leary and Nathan Thomson, president of the Thomson Kelly Company of Boston, are indicted for conspiracy to defraud the United States. $3 million (or $5m; unclear) of Bureau property (blankets, bandages, etc) was sold to Thomson for $600,000 under the pretense that it was unusable.

Speaking of veterans, S. Harry Smith wills the false leg he got to replace the leg he lost in the Great War to Treasury Sec Andrew Mellon. Some sort of protest against his compensation being reduced. To be clear, Smith is alive.

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Today -100: April 16, 1924: The man who would not have an ambition for that office would have a dead heart

The NY state Democratic convention nominates Gov. Al Smith for president. The resolution is offered by Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of the party’s vice-presidential nominee in 1920. Smith admits, “The man who would not have an ambition for that office would have a dead heart.” But he plans to just keep on governoring until the national convention, without campaigning. But if the convention should happen to nominate him...

The Senate follows the House in voting for a ban on Japanese immigration, with no debate and by voice vote.

Major General Leonard Wood, Governor-General of the Philippines, a man so general they generaled him twice, warns against granting independence to the Philippines: “We must not be swept off our feet by the purely local and artificial agitation produced by a small group”. It will take many years for the “development of national defense and the building up of individual civic courage,” he says.

Can you beat it?

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Today -100: April 15, 1924: Of troubled periods, veiled threats, independences, and hiding cops

Pres. Coolidge, addressing the Continental Congress of the Daughters of the American Revolution, calls on women to vote in this “current troubled period,” presumably referring to the ongoing Senate investigations of his Cabinet members.

The Senate rejects continuing the Gentlemen’s Agreement with Japan on immigration, 76-2, and will ban immigration by any Japanese. There’s a lot of bitching about Japan’s “veiled threat” (the ambassador warned of “grave consequences” if this passed) and how it’s improper for one country to interfere in the affairs of another, even if those affairs involve racist discrimination against that country’s citizens. Otherwise, the Senate changes the basis on which the 2% per country limit is based from the 1890 census to the 1910 and sets a total limit of 161,000 per year, less than half of the number coming now.

Hilton Philipson, husband of British MP Mabel Philipson, says she may quit Parliament soon because she’d probably prefer looking after their three children. Considering that she will (Spoiler Alert) not quit and will stand for, and win, re-election, one has to wonder why Hilton is airing this in public.

The chair of the House Insular Affairs Committee, Louis Fairfield of, where else, Indiana, says he’ll introduce a bill for a plebiscite in the Philippines on independence – in 25 years.

The Irish Free State wants to send an ambassador to the US, but the US says that’s up to the British. Canada is also considering separate representation in Washington.

Greece celebrates the end of monarchy by declaring martial law and censoring royalist newspapers. Admiral Pavlos Kountouriotis will serve as provisional governor until a real president is chosen.

British Home Sec. Arthur Henderson defends the actions of 2 cops discovered spying on a Communist Party meeting in London from underneath the platform.

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Today -100: April 14, 1924: Of veeps, doll houses, ex-kings, borgs, and anglers

Coolidge already has almost all the delegates he needs to secure the Republican nomination, so everyone’s thinking about running mates. Frank Lowden, to win over farmers? Gen. Charles Dawes? Navy Sec. Curtis Wilbur?

British prohibitionists complain that Queen Mary’s doll house,
https://www.rct.uk/collection/themes/Trails/queen-marys-dolls-house
designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, has a wine cellar. With real wine in teeny bottles.

The Greek referendum abolishes the monarchy.

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Aloha means “hello,” “goodbye” and “resistance is futile.”

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Today -100: April 13, 1924: Of immigration and investigations

The House passes the Johnson Immigration Act, including the provision banning Japanese people. Not even a roll call on that part.

Treasury Sec. Andrew Mellon complains that Senate investigations of the Bureau of Internal Revenue have destroyed its morale and work has ground to a halt. He says that like it’s a bad thing.

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Today -100: April 12, 1924: Unwarranted intrusion is the worst kind of intrusion

Pres. Coolidge complains to the Senate that its investigation of Treasury Sec. Andrew Mellon is “government by lawlessness” and “unwarranted intrusion.” Cal says the Committee’s demands go beyond “legitimate requirements” – it wants a list of companies Mellon is involved with. Mellon is especially worried about the Finance Committee hiring Francis Heney as investigator. Heney is famous for rooting out corruption in San Francisco and elsewhere, but the controversy is that his expenses will be paid personally by Sen. James Couzens (R-Michigan), who will also pay for lawyers and accountants, because no one had allocated funds for them and Couzens is quite rich. Mellon, who is also quite rich, calls it a “private inquisition.” Dems are suggesting that Coolidge is trying to scupper the investigations altogether and are resentful of his scolding tone.

There’s a hung jury in Indiana Gov. Warren McCray’s embezzlement trial.

Japan protests the US immigration bill, which passed the House and is pending in the Senate The note marks the first time the terms of the 1907 “Gentlemen’s Agreement” are made public (Japan agreed to restrict emigration to the US, the US to allow families of existing immigrants to come and not to segregate Japanese children in schools).

Japan will extend military conscription to South Sakhalin and then to other colonies, but not to Korea or Formosa, because Koreans and Formosans aren’t ethnic Japanese.

John Sloan, believed to be the last survivor of the Mexican-American War, dies at 95. According to Wikipedia, he’s not.

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Today -100: April 11, 1924: Five million free Italian citizens rallied as one man around the symbol of Fascismo

Bureau of Investigation chief William Burns admits sending 3 agents to Montana to investigate Sen. Burton Wheeler, contradicting former attorney general Harry Daugherty’s denial last week.

People like the Dawes Report so much that it’s being suggested that if Coolidge’s candidacy implodes because of all the Harding scandals, Charles Dawes might be a better candidate.

Mussolini’s electoral victory is celebrated in Rome by a crowd of 100,000, probably some of whom are not assholes, probably. He addresses them from the balcony – where else? – of the Foreign Office. “Five million free Italian citizens rallied as one man around the symbol of Fascismo, and I do not allow and we will not allow the Italian people to be insulted by attempts to make the world believe that they were herded to the polls like a flock of conscienceless beasts.” No, the flock of conscienceless beasts didn’t need any herding.

Hiram Johnson denies that he will drop out of the Republican presidential race. He says the party’s reaction to Teapot Dome shows it is “dominated by the unholy alliance between crooked big business and crooked politics.”

Aliens aren’t allowed to own dogs in Pennsylvania, I guess?

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