Today -100: August 13, 1913: Of conspiracies and naughty first ladies

The Wilson Administration has been whispering privately that there is a conspiracy to get the US to intervene militarily in Mexico. The NYT pooh-poohs that notion.

Another Wilson Administration conspiracy theory: Treasury Secretary William Gibbs McAdoo has been saying that New York banks conspired to reduce the price of government bonds in order to defeat the bill creating the Federal Reserve system. Republicans in Congress demand that he prove it, while Democrats say he was just giving his personal, not official, opinion.

Oh wow, this is lame: after days of failing to answer the charges against him, and as the Legislature is considering impeachment, NY Gov. William Sulzer finally comes up with an explanation: it’s his wife’s fault. Clara Sulzer pops up to say that it was she who diverted those campaign funds, forging Bill’s signatures on the checks without his knowing anything about it so she could speculate on the stock market. (Update: she will then become conveniently ill and unavailable for questions). Gov. Sulzer is telling anyone who will listen that an extraordinary session of the Legislature doesn’t have the power to impeach anybody (if you squint at the state constitution, you can come to that interpretation), and that he would be within his rights to hold his office by force of arms.

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