Today -100: December 9, 1913: To speak for myself would be an impertinence

Woodrow Wilson meets a deputation of suffragists and says that he supports the creation of a standing committee on women’s suffrage in the House, but since the subject wasn’t in the Democratic party platform, he won’t publicly give his personal views (on this or any issue). “I conceive it to be part of the whole process of government that I shall be spokesman for somebody, not for myself. To speak for myself would be an impertinence. When I speak for myself, I am an individual; when I am spokesman of an organic body, I am a representative.” I call bullshit.

Gov. Hunt of Arizona sends a message to Mexican rebel leader Carranza asking him to knock off all the executions. Carranza replies, reassuring him that the only people executed were real “traitors to the cause of popular government.” So that’s okay then.

The House of Representatives votes 317-11 for a resolution in favor of Churchill’s proposed naval holiday (when everyone else agrees to it, of course).

Gaston Doumergus forms a new French government from the Radical, Socialist, and Radical-Socialist parties (in France, parties tend to drift to the right over time; the Radical-Socialist party, of which the new PM is a member, is neither).

Paris City Council decides not to let Catholic nursing orders back into Paris hospitals (they were expelled following the legal separation of church and state in 1905). The debate was heated; there will be a duel.

Huerta’s family leaves Mexico City for Guadalajara, allowing easy escape from the country if the Huerta Junta loses the war.

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