Today -100: January 5, 1913: Nick picked

The Idaho Supreme Court does indeed fine and jail (for 10 days) for contempt the publisher and two editors of the Capital News, simply for reporting Theodore Roosevelt’s remarks criticizing the Court’s ruling keeping him off the ballot. Roosevelt says this proves the need for the power to recall judges.

The British Medical Association’s attempt to get doctors to boycott the national insurance program, or at least extort higher fees out of it, has failed, as 10,000+ doctors sign up.

Rumor has it (correctly) that Taft will name Nicholas Murray Butler as his running mate for 1912. That is, the guy who will share in his humiliation next week and receive the 8 Electoral College votes won by Taft (Vice President Sherman died the week before the election). Butler, 50, has been president of Columbia University since 1901 (and will be until 1945), where he is perhaps best remembered for his efforts to restrict the number of Jews admitted. He won a Nobel Peace Prize in 1931 for his work as president of the Carnegie Endowment, and from his position on the Pulitzer committee he prevented Hemingway being awarded the Pulitzer Prize for For Whom the Bell Tolls, which he found offensive. In 1920 he ran for the Republican presidential nomination under the slogan “Pick Nick as President for a Picnic in November,” but Harding stole his pic-a-nic basket. Dude had a PhD in philosophy and the slogan he chose was “Pick Nick as President for a Picnic in November.”

Headline of the Day -100: “Badger in Command of Atlantic Fleet.” Sounds like the name of a crappy children’s book, but in fact refers to Rear Admiral Charles J. Badger.

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