Today -100: June 18, 1914: Woodrow Wilson forgets about the Jews

Parliament authorizes the Admiralty to invest $11 million in the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, to ensure plentiful oil supplies for the Navy’s ships. Winston Churchill complains that trusts have driven up the price of oil.

Rebel brigade commanders refuse Carranza’s order to come to Saltillo to consult about who should replace Pancho Villa. They tell Carranza they no longer recognize him. Evidently some of the friction between the two leaders comes from Villa’s having sneakily appropriated the entire shipment of arms that arrived on the Antilla, depriving Carranza’s eastern forces of ammunition. By the end of the day, it seems to be over, with Villa restored to command.

The Huertaist delegates to the Niagara conference make public their note to the US delegates rejecting the idea of a Constitutionalist as interim president: “In a country unused to electoral functions, such as Mexico,” they say, if Constitutionalists were in control of the government they would rig the next elections (Huerta is about nothing if he is not about free and fair elections). Why, they say, it wouldn’t even be good for the rebels, who would be accused “of having brought about the intervention of a foreign nation to enable them to achieve power, and of wielding an authority submissive to a foreign Government.”

Theodore Roosevelt won’t make any campaign speeches in the fall. Doctor’s orders, bad larynx, he says, or possibly whispers. It’s almost like he doesn’t care about the Bull Moose Party’s prospects unless he’s running for something himself.

William Lorimer, the former US senator from Illinois who was expelled in 1912 for having gotten the seat through bribery, is about to be indicted for the failure of the La Salle Street Trust & Savings Bank, of which he is president and which he and his partner looted through loans to corporations owned by themselves, using valueless securities as collateral.

Woodrow Wilson responds to a letter wondering whether, in his address at dedication of the American University, he forgot about the Jews when he said, “scholarship has usually been most fruitful when associated with religion, and scholarship has never, so far as I can this moment recall, been associated with any religion except the religion of Jesus Christ.” Wilson says he was speaking off the cuff and did “not stop to consider the whole field”. Used to be president of Princeton.

Greece threatens Turkey with war if it doesn’t stop persecuting ethnic Greeks. Greek PM Eleftherios Venizelos says in the National Assembly, “If a stop is not put to these conditions the Hellenic government will be forced not to content itself with joining in the lamentations of unhappy refugees.” Meanwhile, Turkey is declaring martial law in Asia Minor in an attempt to prevent Greeks fleeing the country.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court upholds the state’s eugenic marriage law, saying it’s not discriminatory even though it makes only men undergo physical examinations. They seem to have addressed the problem that the $3 fee set by the law is too low by saying that doctors should just give $3 worth of examining, which is close enough for government work.

There are now a few militant suffragettes in Canada, who have taken to turning their backs when “God save the King” is sung in theaters.

In Champaign, Illinois, a special policeman, Michael Murphy, raises his hand to stop a car he considered to be exceeding the limit stop, but he isn’t in uniform and the driver ignores him, so he shoots at the car, which turns out to contain Graf Johann von Bernstorff, the German ambassador. He misses. Mr. Murphy is no longer a special policeman.

Headline of the Day -100: “Kaiser Wilhelm II Collides in Fog.” A ship, not the actual royal person.

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