Today -100: April 10, 1912: The man that pulls the rope should hang by the rope

There have been few real opportunities to test the relative popularity of Taft & Roosevelt, with there being so few primaries and no such thing as opinion polls. This means that the Illinois primary is especially important symbolically and as a measure of what the voters might do in November. And TR kicked Taft’s ample behind, gaining more than twice as many votes. Roosevelt supporters are making the case that while the Tafties, with their tight grip on the party machinery, can secure Taft’s re-nomination, the Illinois primary shows that he’s too unpopular to win the general election.

On the Democrat side, Speaker of the House Champ Clark beat Woodrow Wilson by better than 3 to 1.

A black man, Thomas Miles, is lynched in Shreveport, LA, after he is acquitted “because positive proof was lacking that he wrote letters to a young white woman”.

Pres. Taft makes an anti-lynching speech at Howard University, saying “The man that pulls the rope should hang by the rope.”

NY Governor Dix is planning a European vacation. On the Titanic, when it returns to England from its maiden voyage (which commences.... today).