Today -100: September 11, 1915: Of precedents, menaces to society, and peace terms

Carranza (rather belatedly) rejects the US plan for a conference to settle Mexico’s affairs and pick a president who is not Carranza. He says that accepting such a foreign initiative “would impair profoundly the independence of the republic and would establish the precedent of foreign interference in the determination of [Mexico’s] interior affairs”. He doesn’t add, presumably because he is too modest, that his troops have lately been kicking Pancho Villa’s ass.

William Sanger is convicted of giving a copy of his wife Margaret’s birth control pamphlet to a spy sent by Anthony Comstock. Comstock tells the court that he was threatened (he does not say by whom) with being shot if he went forward with this prosecution. The judge calls Sanger a “menace to society” and says women suffragists should instead advocate women having children. Sanger refuses to pay the $150 fine and is sentenced to 30 days.

The British Trades Union Congress votes down a resolution for the Labour Party to formulate and advocate peace terms satisfactory to the working class.

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