Today -100: January 26, 1912: Of kaiser divisions and free speech

German Socialist Karl Liebknecht, fresh off an 18-month prison term for anti-militarist propaganda, wins the “kaiser division” of Potsdam (where Wilhelm lives most of the time). The SPD is now the largest party in the Reichstag, with more than 100 seats.

First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill agrees to find a new location for a Home Rule meeting scheduled for Feb. 8 in Ulster Hall, but insists that Unionists will not prevent him from making the speech. “It is my duty to keep my promise to the Ulster Liberal Association and assert the right of free speech in public meeting. ... It has... become of importance to public liberties that a meeting should take place at Belfast on Feb. 8”. The hall was where Churchill’s father coined the phrase “Ulster will fight, and Ulster will be right.”