Today -100: August 17, 1916: Too much is not expected of him

The Allies are firing more than a million shells a day on the Somme, a river that never did anything to them.

The German Army is reducing the meat ration for soldiers, even on the front lines. And there will be one day a week without any meat at all. No fish either. Or cheese.

The railroad companies say the 8-hour day demanded by the unions is a matter of suicide or murder – suicide if they give in, murder if Pres. Wilson forces it on them.

A French soldier is being court-martialed for resisting the commands of a superior officer. What the French are finding interesting about the case is that the officer was a doctor who wanted to subject him to what sounds like a crackpot electrical treatment for his deviated spine. Are soldiers allowed to refuse treatment when it comes in the form of an order?

Headline of the Day -100:

And missed a perfect opportunity to settle this whole mess with a few rounds of Rock Paper Scissors.

Sigo Myers, president of the National Bank of Savannah, complains in a letter to the NYT about labor agents who come to the South to lure away negro workers with offers of (gasp) higher wages than they can get picking cotton. “The higher rate of wages offered temporarily for these negroes causes discontent among the remaining, who are generally ignorant of conditions elsewhere and do not realize that these higher wages are but a passing phase of labor shortage”. The North will regret importing negroes because they aren’t accustomed to the Northern climate and are “constitutionally careless in their habits”. The negro is simply better off in the South: “He is better understood there, more consideration is shown for his weaknesses, too much is not expected of him”.

Fog of War (Rumors, Propaganda and Just Plain Bullshit) of the Day -100: A Romanian newspaper says that Germany has offered Romania part of Austria if it remains neutral.

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