Today -100: July 2, 1915: Of Admiralty business, war babies, and blackmail

Headline of the Day -100:

Britain announces that the Armenian was “engaged in Admiralty business,” so Wilson doesn’t have to upbraid Germany over sinking this particular ship and killing these particular American citizens (and mules). Also, the u-boat ordered the Armenian to stop and fired warning shots, but the mule ship tried to run (the captain admits this), which under the rules for this kind of thing made the Armenian fair game.

The Archbishop of York, presiding over a committee on “war babies,” says the responsibility for men giving way to temptation rests not chiefly with them, but with those who, often against the will of the men, pestered them with their attentions.

Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin D. Roosevelt has an emergency appendectomy.

Rudolph Malik, an Austrian salesman stuck in the US after the war began, is indicted for sending a letter to Woodrow Wilson demanding $300 or he’d commit a “political crime.” (Update: in court his lawyer will claim that Malik’s threat didn’t constitute a criminal act because there is no such thing as a “political crime” in US law).

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