Today -100: May 2, 1914: Of May Day, neutralization, mobs, and sulphur

New York police attack May Day celebrants in Union Square, using a squabble between Socialists and Anarchists as an excuse to unleash their clubs on both, as was the custom.

Mexican rebels are beginning their attack on Tampico, even though the US asked them nicely not to because that’s where Mexico keeps our oil. The US called for “neutralization” of the oil fields. Carranza rejects the idea. Nor is he receptive to the idea of a cease-fire with the Federals. In other words, the rebels are winning.

Mexican Foreign Minister José Portillo y Rojas is fired, which is significant since there is no vice president, meaning he was next in line if Huerta resigned.

The NYT keeps insisting that the residents of Vera Cruz welcome the American occupation and would like it to continue.

The US is trying to track down rumors that Edward Ryan, a doctor for the Red Cross, was arrested by the Federal authorities in Zacatecas, Mexico as a spy and sentenced to death. Huerta orders his release, if he is indeed a prisoner.

William Burns, the private detective investigating the Mary Phagan murder, is mobbed in Marietta, Georgia, Phagan’s home town, and forced to leave the city by a crowd evidently more interested in seeing a Jew executed for the murder than a negro, even if the latter was actually guilty.

Kiev orders 580 Jewish families to leave the city and closes three private girls’ high schools.

Obit of the Day -100: Herman Frasch, America’s sulphur king. He is survived by his daughter, the sulphur princess I guess.

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