Today -100: May 3, 1914: Suffrage for women is a question that men will decide according to the demands of women

9,000 march in a women’s suffrage parade in Boston, not normally a hotbed of suffragism.

A military commission investigating the Colorado coal strike blames the Ludlow Massacre on Greek strikers – the phrase “ferocious foreigners” appears in its report. The union boycotted the inquiry because it was not conducted publicly. The report essentially blames the suffocation deaths of 11 children and two women in a pit on the lack of foresight of the strikers in not digging a big enough pit for people to hide in while the militia shot at them and set their camp ablaze. It also blamed the strikers for hiding behind women by placing their own defensive rifle pits where the National Guard could not help killing non-combatants with return fire. While claiming it was not determining who was responsible for the strike, “we feel that for their treason and rebellion against organized society, with the horrible consequences of anarchy that followed, certain union leaders must take responsibility before man and God.”

The coroner’s jury, however, says the Ludlow fire was deliberately started by the state militia, mine guards, or both.

Secretary of War Garrison issues a proclamation that all persons in the Colorado strike area who are not in the military must turn in their arms, mine guards as well as strikers (but probably not the state militia, which will simply leave the area).

Headline of the Day -100: “Mexicans Demand the Prompt Surrender of Pumping Station.” Several hour stand-off, with a few shots fired at the end, just to make a point.

Headline of the Day -100, runner-up: “Mexicans Will Not Attack Us Again.” A cease-fire. After the Battle of the Pumping Station.

There are repeated rumors that Huerta is about to flee, while everybody is still fussing about details of the mediation process – where should it be held? Havana?

Joseph Caillaux, the French former prime minister and finance minister whose wife shot the editor of Le Figaro, challenges Fernand d’Aillières, who ran against him for parliament, to a duel. D’Aillières’ election posters said those who voted for Caillaux would be “accomplices in crime.”

Name of the Day -100: Rep. Samuel J. Tribble (D-Georgia), who I haven’t run across before but is causing trouble, as Tribbles do, by preventing a provision to double the number of chaplains in the Navy. He said navy personnel who live in cities can just go to church and complained that 3 of the current navy chaplains were not born in the US. There followed a discussion about how many Jews there are in the Navy.

The German Reichstag is considering a bill against nudity in art that might “arouse the phantasies of unripe youth.” The phrase comes from a decision of the Imperial Supreme Court about postcards of famous but nudey works of art that works are only indecent which injure the feelings of modesty of a normal person, as opposed to the phantasies of horny unripe youth.

NY Mayor John Purroy Mitchel, addressing a Suffrage Day meeting in Carnegie Hall, says that women don’t really need the vote, but will get it when enough of them want it: “Suffrage for women is a question that men will decide according to the demands of women.”

A suffrage meeting in Brooklyn sends its resolutions off to Pres. Wilson by carrier pigeons.

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