Today -100: August 22, 1914: Of indemnities, peace, linoleum, splashes, and chaunceys

Germany imposes a war levy of $40 million on Brussels and $10 million on Liège, in violation of the rules of war as codified by the Hague Conference of 1899.  Bakers in Brussels will be required to supply the Germany Army with bread, at local prices. Various other goods, including cars and horses, are being “bought” at fixed prices by the Germans. Prominent Brusselèèrs have been taken hostage against the good behaviour of the populace.

Headline of the Day -100:  “Peace in Santo Domingo.”  The first sentence elaborates: “Peace plans, supported by the guns of American warships and a regiment of marines, have been agreed upon by the warring factions in Santo Domingo.”  Because nothing says peace like American warships and marines.

Japan’s ultimatum to Germany over Kiautschou (which has expired, unanswered) is freaking out some Americans.  Sen. Jacob Gallinger (R-NH) offers a resolution supporting the territorial integrity of China, which is evidently threatened when Japan holds a piece of it but not when Germany does.  Gallinger thinks Japan intends to seize every Pacific island between Japan and San Francisco.  The US has told Japan that it “understands” that Japan will confine any military actions to Kiautschou and if it plans to go beyond that at any point it needs to consult with the US first.

The war has struck home for Americans: it may affect linoleum manufacturing, which depends on imports of burlap from Scotland, where all the workers are now off at war, and those plants are in turn dependent on jute from India, which was transported on German ships before the war.

Orville Wright, flying a hydroplane with an army lieutenant as passenger, splashes down unexpectedly in the Miami River (Ohio), and they have to swim ashore.

Theodore Roosevelt takes back his endorsement of the alliterative Harvey Hinman for governor of New York.  Hinman will be the Republican candidate, but now the Progressive Party has to find its own candidate.  One possibility is Chauncey J. Hamlin.  I don’t know who Chauncey J. Hamlin is, but he is our Name of the Day -100.  Chauncey J. Hamlin.

Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan says of the Constitutionalist victory in Mexico, “Watchful waiting wins in Mexico.”

This is a genuine advertisement at the bottom of the NYT’s front page:

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