Today -100: November 1, 1914: Of fancy prices, occupations, and the eight hour penalty

Theodore Roosevelt criticizes the anti-Catholic attacks on NY Gov. Martin Glynn, saying that Progressives treat everybody alike, whether they’re Catholics, Protestants, or Jews, just as long as they’re not black.  OK, he didn’t say the last bit, but c’mon.

The French and British armies are buying so many American horses, at “fancy prices,” that the US army is getting worried about running short for its own needs and thinking about banning further exports.

The US is not only not withdrawing from Vera Cruz, but is considering expanding its intervention in Mexico.  It’s currently moving army & navy officers to Vera Cruz and the border.  Meanwhile, Carranza says that he won’t do the things the US has demanded he not do as a condition of withdrawing from Vera Cruz, like not double-charging duties already collected by the Americans and not arresting customs officials who worked for the US, but that these are matters of Mexican sovereignty, not to be decided by ultimata from foreign nations – he doesn’t want to set a bad precedent for Mexican sovereignty.

Headline of the Day -100:  “Allies Giving One More Chance to Turkey to Keep Out of the War.”  They ask Turkey for an explanation of the bombardment of Sevastopol, which was evidently too subtle for them to understand.  Actually, there is speculation that the German officers running the Turkish military might have acted under orders from Germany rather than Turkey, and they’re giving Turkey a chance to back down (and fire all the Germans).  Turkey is being informed that it won’t just be fighting Russia, but France and Britain as well.

The LA Times prepares for Tuesday’s elections with its usual calm, measured, unbiased attitude.  Headlines today include “HOW GOVERNOR JOHNSON HAS SOAKED THE STATE.: Amazing Official Record of Extravagance and Boss Politics that Have Cost the People of California Millions of Dollars--Indictments that Have Stood the Test of Challenge--Not Mere Accusations, but Facts” and “Girls Oppose Vicious Law” (orange and lemon farmers send “girl” packers into the city to urge voters to reject what the LAT calls “the Socialist universal eight hour penalty”).  The Times also has an editorial against Prop. 3, the 8-hour day, and Prop. 45, the 6-day week: “It is a part of the punishment of a convict in a penitentiary that he cannot choose his own time for work or rest. ... It is designed to rank the working men and women of this State with thieves and assassins in that it prescribes the number of hours in which they will be permitted to work... It makes of them slaves and the slavery is not any the more tolerable because a law instead of a man is the master.”

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