Today -100: January 21, 1914: The antagonism between business and government is over

Pres. Wilson appears before both houses of Congress to lay out the principles behind five anti-trust bills he will send them. These would 1) set up an Interstate Trade Commission (for disseminating information, not enforcement, except for fining corporations that do not provide information to it); 2) ban interlocking directorates; 3) better define the existing Sherman Anti-Trust Act; 4) allow individuals, not just the attorney general, to initiate anti-trust suits; 5) something or other about railroad securities. “The antagonism between business and government is over,” Wilson says. In other words, he’s denying that these measures are as radical as business types will no doubt make them out to be.

Headline of the Day -100: “Union Breaks Up Funeral.” During the funeral service for a Mrs. Marion Auzone of Trenton, the hearse drivers were informed that the musicians playing the dirge were non-union, so they quit and drove off. The pallbearers had to carry the coffin to the cemetery, stopping for occasional breaks, and if you’re not thinking of that Monty Python episode by now I don’t even want to know you.

The Wisconsin eugenic-marriage law is declared unconstitutional, both for setting doctors’ fees for issuing health certificates too low ($3) and for impairing the right of matrimony. However, the circuit judge did not agree that the law was unfair in only demanding medical examination of men.

The Ulster Women’s Unionist Council is organizing Ulsterwomen to participate in the upcoming civil war: driving ambulances, nursing, carrying messages, etc.

A French dancing teacher sues the archbishop of Paris for banning the tango. Loss of business.

Has the NYT been covering the Haitian revolution and I’ve just missed the stories? Anyway, the rebels have defeated government forces in a battle and the minister of war is running for his life.

The NYPD has some sort of objection to the play “The House of Bondage.” A play by one Joseph Byron Totten, something about a brothel, described by the New York Telegram as “so scarlet it screams.” Evidently it’s already been so expurgated in response to police pressure as to be silly, and it lasted 8 performances.

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