Today -100: April 22, 1913: Of pauses, strikes, cat & mice, alien land bills, mad dogs & princesses, and maniacs

Secretary of state Bryan is working on a proposal for all countries to delay any future wars for 6-month or 1-year cooling-off period. His plan includes a no-fair-building-up-your-military-during-the-cooling-off-period provision that makes it even more unrealistic than it already is.

The Paterson, NJ silk strike is now in its 9th week, and the owners have been bringing in AFL organizers to counter the leadership of the Wobblies. The two labor groups are now happily denouncing each other and breaking up each other’s meetings, as was the custom.

The British Parliament passes the Cat and Mouse Act, whose purpose is supposed to be to deal with hunger-striking prisoners without resorting to forcible feeding, but the government refuses to accept an amendment banning forcible feeding.

The California Legislature is still mulling over various anti-Japanese land bills, but Gov. Hiram Johnson, an alleged progressive, doesn’t know what all the fuss is about: “Californians are unable to understand why an act admittedly within the jurisdiction of the California Legislature, like the passage of an alien land bill, creates tumult, confusion, and criticism, and why this local act of undoubted right becomes an international question.” Oo, oo, I totally know the answer to this one. Johnson points out that Arizona, Washington, Illinois, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Missouri, Kentucky and Texas all have similar laws.

Royal Headline of the Day -100: “Mad Dog Bit Princess.” The princess is Princess Maria Immaculata, sister-in-law of the king of Saxony, and the dog is her own lapdog, which has been behaving oddly. She gets the rabies vaccination.

Other Royal Headline of the Day -100: “MANIAC NEAR KING GEORGE.; Swallows Half a Sovereign and Tries to Jump Through Window.” Actually, that’s all there is to the story (well, he also tried to swallow his glasses).

Um, the sovereign is a £1 coin.

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