Today -100: July 31, 1912: Of race riots, supremacist progressives, and electrifying defectives

The British inquiry into the Titanic sinking blames it on the ship going too fast. And not keeping a proper watch (although it didn’t rule that binoculars are necessary in the future). It says there was no discrimination against third-class passengers in the evacuation.

Oh good, more race riots. 1) At a brick yard in Little Ferry, New Jersey. Weapons of choice: razors and bricks.

2) And in Fordyce, Arkansas, where the state national guard raided the negro neighborhood for unknown reasons.

Asked about his Progressive Party being organized in the South on a lily-white basis, Theodore Roosevelt totally wimps out, saying he has nothing to do with it, and it’s up to the guys who organize it in the South who they want to invite to their state conventions.

Worrying Headline of the Day -100: “Electricity for Defectives.” The NY Board of Education is being asked to try out a wacky idea of Nicola Tesla’s to test whether putting wires with high-frequency currents in the walls of classrooms containing “defective” children will improve them in some way. What could go wrong?