Today -100: September 6, 1911: Rumors of war

Truman Newberry, who was Roosevelt’s Secretary of the Navy, is charged with murder after running over an 8-year-old girl (or 7 years old, according to the article a week later saying the charges were dropped).

Rumors of impending war with France continue to grow in Germany. There are runs on banks in some places, and a story is running around that the ambassador to France was murdered in Paris. Rumors also arose from the early return of a regiment of German dragoons to their base in upper Alsace from maneuvers, however that was actually due to dysentery (the French army is also conducting maneuvers, which can’t be helping stem the ol’ rumor mill). Socialist unions in Germany have been talking about calling a general strike in the event of war. Non-socialist (which I take to mean Catholic) unions have been calling them traitors.