Today -100: February 19, 1915: All the things we have been trying to forget

Germans are very excited about news that the blockade of Britain will involve zeppelins as well as submarines. What’s the German for “That is so fucking steampunk”?

The Iowa Legislature votes in prohibition.

Frank James of James Gang fame (I believe he was the Ringo) dies at 74. He’d been a farmer for 30 years. He was tried once, but was never convicted of any crimes.

Woodrow Wilson tells a deputation of mostly German-American women that banning the export of munitions to warring countries would be an un-neutral act at this time.

Jacob Dickinson, secretary of war under Taft, says that the US land forces aren’t in a state of readiness for defense, and calls for rearmament, saying no one could suspect the US of preparing for world conquest if it did so.

Protests in Atlanta by Southern women’s groups against a theatrical production of Uncle Tom’s Cabin has resulted in the removal of scenes involving slave auctions and the whipping post and the change of the play’s name to Old Plantation Days. Said Mrs. Joseph Morgan, president of the Women’s Pioneer Society, “The play appeals to all the things we have been trying to forget.” The Daughters of the Confederacy says the play carries suggestions that are filled with injustice and misrepresentation of the South. Like the fact that there used to be slavery within living memory, probably.

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