Today -100: September 22, 1911: Of reciprocity derailed, war engines, and women’s suffrage in California

Canada’s Liberal government loses the elections spectacularly (to the extent that any Canadian election can be described as spectacular), killing the chances of the tariff reciprocity treaty with the United States. I guess Canada didn’t want to be annexed after all. President Taft is surprised and disappointed, and the NYT is downright insulting: “Prejudice and delusion have triumphed in Canada”.

A war engine being tested in Italy exploded, killing 6 people. I really don’t know what a “war engine” might have been, not in 1911 anyway.

The NYT explains that the collision of the Olympic is “distinctly reassuring” about the safety of the big new liners.

The LAT explains its opposition to women’s suffrage: women don’t want it. “Woman has ‘rights,’ cares and burdens enough. Her supreme ‘right’ is the right NOT to vote. ... The Times honors and respects the women of Los Angeles more than those who are trying to lure them from the mellow radiance of the home into the fierce glare of publicity.”

You can read the ballot pamphlet arguments for and against Prop. 8.