Today -100: March 17, 1910: Of meat, trolleys, over-complicated electoral systems, and equal pay

The meat strike (boycott), which began in Cleveland and spread throughout the Midwest, is officially over. It was always supposed to be a 60-day event, but in practice most 1910 Americans simply couldn’t last much more than a week without beef. The price of beef has increased by 20% or so since the strike was announced.

The Philadelphia general strike continues. The transit company again claims a record number of trolleys in operation by scabs, with only one small child run over.

The Prussian Diet votes to reform the state’s electoral system, very slightly. There will be direct suffrage (presently, groups of 150 citizens vote for delegates who in turn elect members of the Diet), but Prussia will retain the three-tiered system in which electors are classified according to the amount of taxes they pay, each group electing one-third of the Diet, so that a small number of rich people in the 1st tier elects the same number of MPs as the vast majority of people in the 3rd tier.

NYC’s board of education votes 23 to 15 against equal pay for women teachers.