Today -100: September 11, 1917: Of suffrage, coup attempts, newspapers, and war taxes

Maine’s referendum vote rejects women’s suffrage nearly 2 to 1 (on an incomplete count).

Russia: Gen. Lavr Kornilov is fired as Commander in Chief of the Russian armies after he asks to be named dictator of all the Russias, please, threatening to march on Petrograd. The government declares a state of siege. Foreign Minister Tereshchenko thinks it’s all a big misunderstanding which will be cleared up. The misunderstanding part is not entirely untrue – a go-between reported Kornilov’s suggestions as ultimata, which made Kerensky understandably nervous about Kornilov’s request that Kerensky come to talk in person. But Kornilov’s desire to impose authoritarian discipline on Petrograd as he had reimposed it in the military would have brought him into conflict with the civilian government sooner rather than later. So it’s sooner.

The US government closes down the Philadelphia Tageblatt, a German-language socialist paper, and arrests the editor and 5 others for treason and shit.

The Senate passes the taxation bill. With provisions for consumption taxes on coffee, sugar, tea and cocoa removed, the war will be funded from increased income taxes, an excess war profits tax, and distilled spirits.

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