Tuesday, January 25, 2022

Today -100: January 25, 1922: Anybody knows good whisky


Egyptian nationalists, following Gandhi’s model in India, call for a boycott of the British. Lord Allenby orders the arrest of the 8 leaders who signed the manifesto and the suspension of the 4 newspapers that published it. 

Some assholes argue before the Supreme Court that the 19th Amendment was wrongly ratified, that it destroys the equal representation of states in the Senate (how?) and is “an attempt to put shackles on our great democracy,” which will obviously lead to revolution. The lawyer, William Marbury, says the power to amend the Constitution does not contain “the power to destroy.” Why, he speculates, if this ratification were accepted, a future amendment could establish a monarchy. Um, no one tell the Trumps.

A federal judge in Brooklyn presiding over a Prohibition case rejects the government’s offer to have a chemist analyze supposed liquor, saying the jury could decide for itself: “Anybody knows good whisky.” So the jury pass a bottle around, then go to lunch, taking the bottle with them. When they return, the evidence is mysteriously missing, and they vote to acquit.

Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon rejects a bonus for WW I veterans as contrary to his plans to pay down the debt and as damaging industrial revival.

At the Washington Conference, Japan repeats that it will only leave Siberia when it damned well feels like it.

Gen. Walther von Lüttwitz, one of the leaders of the Kapp Putsch, currently a fugitive hiding in Hungary, asks if Germany can send along his pension, please and danke. 

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