Today -100: May 11, 1914: Of scabs, men of tact, and dulling the brain

Woodrow Wilson orders the military ruler of the Colorado strike zone to stop the influx of strike-breakers.

Some IWW protesters invade John D. Rockefeller Jr.’s church, the Calvary Baptist Church in NYC. Ushers beat them up and eject them, as was the custom. The pastor went on with his sermon on “Samson, the Man of Sunlight, the Man of Tact.”

Thomas Edison bans cigarettes at his plants. “They Dull the Brain,” say his No Smoking signs. Of course Thomas Edison being Thomas Edison, he only did this after some scientific and some not-so-scientific investigation: 1) he investigated 20 brands of cigarettes and found poisonous material in the paper, 2) he talked to a Mexican who told him that everyone in Mexico smokes; “That is why Mexicans as a race are not clear-headed.”

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