Today -100: October 4, 1912: Of Balkan Wars, electors, homicides, brothels, and startled bankers

The war in the Balkans is rumored to have begun with an attack by Turkish troops on Serbia and fighting on the Bulgarian-Turkish border. I think these are false rumors.

Theodore Roosevelt is finally allowed to testify before the Senate about past campaign contributions. He introduces telegrams he wrote to the RNC in 1908 (when he was president but not a candidate) objecting to Standard Oil being asked for money (which he had also refused to do in 1904).

The California Supreme Court rules that President Taft’s electors cannot appear on the November ballot, even by petition. It rules that the state Republican convention, dominated by Theodores, was empowered by state law to select electors, even if it had repudiated the national ticket. California Tafties are trying to figure out what to do next. One option, challenging the constitutionality of CA’s primary law in order to ensure that California sits out the 1912 presidential elections entirely, was decided against because the Progressives would just call the Legislature into special session and name pro-Roosevelt electors.

NYT: “The increase of the number of homicides in American cities is disheartening, but it is probably explainable on other grounds than the degeneracy of the Nation.” So that’s okay then.

Oh, Christ, it goes on to blame immigrants from Southern Europe (i.e., Italy), and notes that the city with the highest homicide rate, Memphis, has a large negro population.

Woodrow Wilson is happy about the selection of William Sulzer as Democratic candidate for governor of New York, although he doesn’t seem to be entirely sure what his name is.

NYC Mayor Gaynor says William Randolph Hearst owns several brothels on West 58th Street.

Headline of the Day -100: “Heavy Woman Hit Bankers.” 265-pound Mary Bopa, drying her laundry on the roof of the Indiana Harbor State Bank, trips and falls through a skylight. Being bankers, they demanded that she pay for the skylight and the table she fell on. She refused.

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