Today -100: November 3, 1913: Of arms, meteorites, trams, and pitchforks

Gen. Carranza of the Mexican Constitutionalists asks the US to allow the rebels to import arms from the US.

Headline of the Day -100: “Nearly Hit By Meteorite.” In Malden, Massachusetts. Two high school students claim to have been sickened by the fumes.

Street car strike in Indianapolis. Strikebreakers shooting at the crowd kill one of their own. Four cops turn in their badges rather than protect scab-operated street cars. The sheriff will swear in 250 businessmen as special deputies tomorrow. (Update from tomorrow’s paper: this was evidently in the nature of a draft, like jury duty; the sheriff issued summonses. But only 50 people showed up, and the Democratic sheriff was accused of sending summons almost exclusively to Republicans to prevent them working in the election Tuesday.)

Sen. “Pitchfork Ben” Tillman (D-SC) complains in a letter to the Spartansburg Herald that Gov. Coleman Blease keeps stealing the best bits from his speeches. For example, “I am the originator of the phrase ‘To hell with the Constitution.’ I used it in Chicago.” Tillman also again declares himself in favor of lynching assailants of women (I’m not sure what the context is for that, or if it’s just something he tacks on whenever he writes to the press, which wouldn’t surprise me one bit).

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