Today -100: October 1, 1924: Of not being overchoice in the selection of adjectives

The League of Nations, or at least its Arbitration Commission, alters the proposed war-no-more protocol to meet Japan’s objections, allowing nations to ignore the World Court on issues the court considers internal if they have previously submitting the issue to the League.

The special counsel investigating Teapot Dome locates $90,000 in bonds given to then-Interior-Secretary Albert Fall by a Canadian company laundering Sinclair Oil money.

The New Jersey Democratic Party convention will condemn the Klan by name while the Republican Party’s convention plans to ignore it and hope it goes away.

A letter in the NYT from one Morgan Van Woert says his extremely sensitive wife was not offended by “What Price Glory,” because she’s been on an army base before and “men who are engaged in the profession of arms are not overchoice in their selection of adjectives.” And one T. Woodhouse writes that “An adjective of a sanguinary or of a deistic nature need not necessarily make for profanity.”

Albert Einstein might join the faculty of Jerusalem University.

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Today -100: September 30, 1924: Of skyscrapers, ballot access, and kids

After seeing the plans of architect Mario Palanti, Mussolini says he’ll build the tallest skyscraper in the world in Rome, 88 stories & 1,100 feet, which would make it taller than the Eiffel Tower or the Woolworth Building. (This will not, of course, happen.)

The Louisiana secretary of state rejects petitions to put Robert La Follette’s name on the ballot, saying many of the signatures are of people previously registered as Democrats, and they need to all be independents. Even Calvin Coolidge says this is fucked up.

Germany gives a condition for joining the League of Nations: it cannot be required to allow French troops to pass through Germany to assist Poland in war against Russia.

Child actor Jackie Coogan (“The Kid,” “Oliver Twist), who is fronting an Armenian relief group, meets the pope. Tomorrow he’ll meet Mussolini, an experience I’m sure he’ll salt away for future roles:

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Today -100: September 29, 1924: Of internal matters & women congresscritters

At the League of Nations, Japan is demanding that the outlawing-war thing allow for, um, some issues considered by the World Court as internal matters not to be so considered (yeah, I’m being lazy about figuring this out). This is about US anti-Japanese-immigration laws and discrimination against Japanese people in South Africa, Australia and other countries. Japan could stop the disarmament conference happening if it doesn’t get its way.

Alice Paul of the Woman’s Party points out that only 6 states have nominated a woman for Congress (Pennsylvania has nominated 5 and Ohio, Illinois, Tennessee, Kansas & New Jersey one each). This shows, she says, that it is up to women to organize for women.

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Today -100: September 28, 1924: Of duels, gutter language, awakenings, and fasts

Democrats are delighted that the nomination of Theodore Roosevelt Jr for NY governor lets them pound on the issue of the Teapot Dome scandal, to which he is tangentially linked, doing damage to both TR Jr and the national Republican party.

The notification speech to TR Jr will be given by none other than “Wild Bill” Donovan.

An intra-Fascist duel: Italian Deputy Roberto Farinacci is wounded in a duel with swords with Prince Pignatelli, but not as badly as he will be fishing with hand grenades in the ‘30s. The cause of the duel is unexplained.

Secretary of the Navy Curtis Wilbur criticizes the Maxwell Anderson/Laurence Stalling play “What Price Glory” as “full of gutter language,” which “were characteristic of the old-time sailor before the navy was made clean.”

Douglas MacArthur is promoted to major general at only 44.

In Csonográd, Hungary, seven “Awakening Hungarians” members who threw bombs at a Jewish society event a year ago (that’ll wake you up) are acquitted, the judge claiming that there was insufficient evidence after a confession supposedly obtained by torture is withdrawn.

Headline of the Day -100: 

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Today -100: September 27, 1924: Of fish in the wintertime

Daylight Saving Time ends tonight -100: don’t forget to stop the pendulums of your clocks for an hour.

The NY Democrat Convention nominates Alfred E. Smith for governor for the 4th time and some other people, all male, for various state offices. The platform says Prohibition is ineffective and isn’t honestly or efficiently enforced and calls for legalizing beer and light wine. “Did you ever pick up a fish in the wintertime in the open air?” Al Smith asks. “I can think of nothing that is as cold and as sticky and as clammy as a fish in the wintertime. If you want to improve upon that sensation, pick up [the Republican] platform and look at it.”

Mother Jones endorses Calvin Coolidge!!!???

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Today -100: September 26, 1924: Inefficiency, Insincerity and Laxity ‘24!

In California, Robert La Follette will have to run on the ticket of the Socialist Party, which is already on the ballot, after the state Supreme Court bars his electors standing on the ballot as independents. La F. assails the court’s 4-3 decision to ignore the 50,000 who signed petitions.

The NY Republican Convention nominates Theodore “Ted” Roosevelt Jr. (age 37) for governor on the first ballot and an honest-to-gosh woman, Florence E. S. Knapp, for secretary of state. It passes the platform plank condemning the Ku Klux Klan by name. The platform denounces Al Smith’s administration for “inefficiency, insincerity and laxity in the conduct of the Government.”

Roosevelt will resign as assistant secretary of the Navy to run for governor. He’s the last of three Roosevelts to hold that post.

The NYT says of TR Jr.’s gubernatorial nomination, “As the son of his father, he was brought forward mainly as a figurehead [for US Sen. James Wadsworth], and a second-choice figurehead at that” after Assembly Speaker H. Edmund Machold pulled out.

After getting the play “What Price Glory”’s language toned down, the cops will now be visiting every Broadway show. It seems that last year the Legislature snuck through some language in a disorderly conduct bill supposedly just dealing with pickpockets that lets the cops interfere with plays whose language they deem offensive. However, the objections by military officials to What Price Glory go beyond language. An official report “attack[s] the play for making the marines swear, drink, quarrel over women and exhibit faulty discipline.” Imagine marines in real life behaving like that! The wearing of military uniforms, which is illegal for civilians, is allowed for plays, but only if they aren’t “discreditable” to the military. The play’s producer, Arthur Hopkins says he’s cut out 3 expressions “that are used in the best families and by our noblest public officials.”

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Today -100: September 25, 1924: By name

The New York state Republican convention’s Committee on Resolutions votes 25 to 24 behind closed doors, and after a long fight, to condemn the Ku Klux Klan by name.

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Today -100: September 24, 1924: Of juniors and prices of glory

Certain elements of the NY Republican Party are lobbying hard against Theodore Roosevelt Jr. being named as nominee for governor. Some object to him as a “wet” (when he was in the Assembly he voted for 2.75% beer), some are worried about his loose connection to Teapot Dome as assistant secretary of the Navy, and some are kluxers, because he once gave a speech denouncing the Klan. State convention fights over the Klan have become rather a theme this year, for both parties.

NY Mayor John Hylan orders the commissioner of licenses to censor Maxwell Anderson and Laurence Stalling’s recently opened play about the Great War, “What Price Glory” (which you might know from the 1926 movie version directed by Raoul Walsh or the 1952 John Ford version with Jimmy Cagney) – too much of marines talking like, you know, marines. All that language has been removed from the Cagney film.

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Today -100: September 23, 1924: Of missing links, governors, old colonies, and contemptible conspiracies of fraud and deceit

There is supposedly a tribe of “missing links” in Indonesia. Or possibly monkeys. Either way, the Dutch colonial administration is sending an expedition to find them.

Two days before the NY Republican Convention, itself being held only 6 weeks before the general election, Assembly Speaker H. Edmund Machold, who was expected to win the nomination easily, withdraws from the governor’s race, presumably realizing that Al Smith’s re-entry into the race means he’d be crushed. So... Theodore Roosevelt Jr.?

Women delegates to the convention will push for Florence E. S. Knapp to be nominated for secretary of state.  She’s the only Republican woman candidate for any office in NY.

The German cabinet will decide whether to apply for League of Nations membership. And whether to demand its former colonies back, or at the very least Tanganyika.

The French cabinet omits funding for the embassy at the Vatican from the next budget, reversing the post-war moves towards reconciliation with the Church. This is partly due to the fierce anti-clericalism of the Socialists and Communists and partly due to the Church’s attempts to retain the powers it had in Alsace-Lorraine when it was part of Germany.

Disgraced former attorney general Harry Daugherty demands that John W. Davis stop talking about him and calls the charges against him “a contemptible conspiracy of fraud and deceit”. Which is the worst kind of conspiracy of fraud and deceit.

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