Today -100: September 25, 1911: Of trains, navies, and exercising self-restraint

Booker T. Washington charters a Pullman car for his sole use to avoid Jim Crow laws while traveling in Texas.

The NYT seems to think that in any war, Italy, with its larger, more modern navy, would definitely beat the Ottoman Empire, which has an army 1 million men larger.

The timing of the Italian move on North Africa derives from a claim that it deserves to be “compensated” for France’s achieving exclusive dominance over Morocco by being given similar status in Tripoli.

Some reverend dude giving a sermon against booze read out a letter from President Taft: “The excessive use of intoxicating liquor is the cause of great poverty and crime... Each person must determine for himself the course he will take in reference to his taste and appetites; but those who exercise the self-restraint to avoid it altogether are on the safer and wiser side.” Well, if anyone knows about exercising self-restraint, it’s William Howard Taft.