Today -100: December 11, 1913: Of peace, temperance, women’s parties, and independence

Sen. Elihu Root wins the Nobel Peace Prize because of... his work in the pacification of Cuba and the Philippines as secretary of war, as well as his work on arbitration treaties while he was Roosevelt’s secretary of state.

Secretary of State Bryan, bucking for his own prize, says there will be no war between the US and any other country during the present administration. In fact, he says, the time is coming when there will be wars at all, and disputes between nations will be solved by reason and argument.

The Women’s Christian Temperance Union and the Anti-Saloon League hold the largest prohibition demonstration Washington DC has ever seen. About 1,000 of each sex.

Sir Richard McBride, Prime Minister of British Columbia, rejects the demand of suffragists for the government to bring in a bill for women’s suffrage, saying that it would start a slippery slope leading first to women members of Parliament and then to the formation of a women’s party which would attempt to run the affairs of the country.

Headline of the Day -100 (London Times): “Damages for Seduction.” There are two words in that headline that need explanation; I believe “for” is relatively self-explanatory. The “seduction” was by a doctor who supposedly drugged his 17-year-old typist. The £350 damages were awarded to... her father, for injury to his property (the daughter, that is). Who is pregnant, by the way.

China’s Gen. Chang Hsun, who back in September was forced by a Japanese threat to invade Nanjing to apologize for insults to the Japanese flag (and, secondarily, for the deaths of some Japanese people), proclaims the province of Kiang-Su independent of China.

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