Today -100: April 15, 1914: If the flag of the United States is ever run up in Mexico it will never come down

Sorry about the lateness: Blogger seems to have eaten the original post.

In response to the Mexican Federal regime’s refusal to fire a 21-gun salute to the US flag, as ordered by Adm. Mayo, to apologize for the insult of having briefly detained some American sailors who were wandering around a war zone in uniform, Pres. Wilson is sending the entire North Atlantic fleet to Tampico. Or, to put it another way, Admiral Badger is being sent to back up Admiral Mayo.

Some theories floating around: 1) Huerta is provoking a US military intervention as an excuse to retire semi-gracefully, 2) Huerta is provoking a US military intervention in order to unite the country behind him.

Any wariness in Congress about military intervention has evaporated: “No Senator questioned the right of the United States to occupy Tampico or Vera Cruz as a step to enforce respect for the uniform, and all agreed that a firm course must be followed from now on. Many Senators of long experience and conservative judgment expressed the view that the ordering fo the fleet to Tampico meant armed intervention, but this belief did not seem to lessen their satisfaction. ... There was little inclination to comment on the fact that stronger measures seemed to be in contemplation to enforce a matter of etiquette than were adopted as a result of the murdering of American and foreign residents in Mexico.” Sen. Borah (R-Idaho): “if the flag of the United States is ever run up in Mexico it will never come down. This is the beginning of the march of the United States to the Panama Canal.” Sen. Chilton (D-West Virginia): “I’d make them salute the flag if we had to blow up the whole place.” Sen. James Martine (D-NJ): “No one thinks the president has ordered these ships to Tampico to start a Presbyterian Sunday school.”

Pancho Villa captures San Pedro. The one in Mexico, not the one south of L.A.

The Automobile Club of America decides to admit women as members, but without voting rights, and no more than 500.

Providence, Rhode Island had planned to appoint two policewomen, but has discovered that cops have to be voters, and RI doesn’t have women’s suffrage.

New York State reduces the number of hours children under 16 may work from 54 to 48 per week, and from 9 to 8 per day. Adult women are limited to 54 hours a week.

NY Gov. Glynn vetoes bills to introduce a new legal plea of “guilty but insane” and to remove the old plea of “not guilty because insane.”

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