Today -100: December 23, 1914: Of generals, prohibition, potatoes, menacing Arabs, fair play, and art students

Georges Weill, a deputy in the German Reichstag for Metz (Lorraine) since 1912, who was at the café with Jean Jaurés when he was assassinated, has been “missing” since then.  Turns out, he volunteered for the French Army.  His German citizenship will be stripped from him in 1915.  When Lorraine is re-incorporated into France, he’ll be a deputy in the French parliament (1924-8).

French Commander in Chief Gen. Joseph Joffre fires 24 generals.

Rep. Richmond Hobson (D-Alabama)’s proposed prohibition amendment to the Constitution fails in the House, getting 197 votes to 189, well short of the 2/3 needed.  The voting was very much not along party lines.  The NYT calls the idea a federal usurpation of the rights of the states.

Austria bans the hoarding of potatoes, and regulates their price.

A short NYT article about French opposition to Japan sending troops to Europe to fight on the Allied side intriguingly suggests that one reason the government rejects the idea is that it is deferring to US opposition.

Headline of the Day -100:  “Arabs Menace Christians.”  In Hodeida, Arabia (now Yemen).

There is a race war going on in South Carolina near the town of...  what for it... Fair Play.  4 or 5 dead black men, 4 wounded white men, including a magistrate who is said to be dying.

Artists to the front: Of the 2,000 students at the National School of the Fine Arts in Paris at the start of the war, 1,800 have joined up. And some of the professors.  A bunch of them have died, including no one I’ve ever heard of, but perhaps would have if they’d lived.  Several prominent Futurists are in the army, which doesn’t bode well for their, well, you know, future.

Headline of the Day -100:  “Russians Care Nothing for Lodz.”

Headline of the Day -100:  “Russians Moving on Thorn.”  Sounds painful.

Romania will return most of the territory it captured from Bulgaria during the Second Balkan War.  This seems to be Romania protecting its flank for when and if it goes to war against Austria.

The Germans occupying Ghent are demanding 1 million cigars, 1 million cigarettes, and all the wine in town.  For Christmas.

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