Wednesday, May 29, 2019

Today -100: May 29, 1919: Of escapes, crown jewels, fight-less motors, aptonyms, mad ex-kings, pogroms, and disgusting Magyars


Earlier this month, rigged courts-martial in Germany convicted Lt. Kurt Vogel, one of the soldiers involved in the murders of Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg, a sacrificial lamb to give an appearance of fairness to a system that let off everyone else involved. Vogel, who was sentenced to 2 years for “failure of discipline and abuse of power,” escapes with the aid of a “Lt. Lindemann,” who presents Moabit Prison with fake transfer papers. Lindemann is actually Wilhelm Canaris, later Hitler’s spy-master, later still executed after conspiring to assassinate Hitler. Vogel flees to the Netherlands. He will later be pardoned by Hitler.

An inventory of the former Austrian emperor’s imperial jewels finds that many have been substituted with fakes.

At a dinner in London in honor of Harry Hawker, whose trans-Atlantic flight attempt failed, he makes fun of the successful American flight, noting it had ships stationed “every twenty yards,” which just “shows you have no fight in your motor.” The Royal Navy has gotten criticism for not giving him the sort of support the Americans got, but he says a chain of ships would have shown a lack of faith in the airplane. You know, the airplane that crapped out in the middle of the Atlantic.

Ads throughout today’s paper from manufacturers of the spark plugs, oil, varnish, etc used in the NC-4.

Germany’s counter-proposal to the peace terms includes a demand that any loss of territories should only follow referenda in those territories and that Germany be allowed to join the League and run its old colonies as mandates. Oh, and other things that they know will never happen. The Allies are preparing to re-establish the naval blockade of Germany if it refuses to sign.

Democrats are increasingly saying that if the Republican Senate rejects the League of Nations, Wilson will have to run for a third term.

The former King Ludwig III of Bavaria is going mad, like pretty much every previous Mad King of Bavaria. He fled the country in February, scared that the Hungarian Revolution would spread to Bavaria, but now believes Bavaria won the war, so naturally he wants to return in triumph.

Ignace Jan Paderewski, the Polish prime minister, lies that there hasn’t been a single pogrom in Poland. He blames all reports of pogroms on Germany, which he says is preparing to invade.

Headline of the Day -100: 

“The Hungarian revolution has deeply disappointed Russia, for which Béla Kun is most of all to blame,” Lenin says. Also, Moscow is the only center of world revolution and everybody should obey it.

In Lamar, Missouri, one Jay Lych is lynched. Lynch was white and had just been sentenced to life for killing a sheriff and his son.

Five black churches, 2 black schools, and a lodge hall are simultaneously set on fire in Putnam County, Georgia by the Ku Klux Klan. Which is about to be a thing again.

Former president Taft responds to Sen. James Reed’s claim that the League of Nations would be a “colored League.” In fact, Taft says, the white races would always have unquestioned ascendancy. After all, India and South Africa’s representation will be determined by whites...


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