Sunday, July 31, 2022
Today -100: July 31, 1922: Of excommunications, Asia minors, and klandidates
Saturday, July 30, 2022
Today -100: July 30, 1922: Of cockeys, unconvincing parades, and women candidates
Friday, July 29, 2022
Today -100: July 29, 1922: Of betrayed war ministers, hungry hungry intellectuals, lynchings in hope, assassination plans, and helicoplanes
Thursday, July 28, 2022
Today -100: July 28, 1922: Of crashes, jazz, pleasing and serving white people, and prison escapes
Two US army reserve aviators are arraigned for violating NYC’s minimum 2,000-feet limit for flying machines. They were actually flying their military plane at 0 feet at the time they crashed in Far Rockaway, but they were pretty low even before that. If they question the ability of cops to determine if they were flying at 2,000 feet, evidence will be introduced that people could see their faces.
Headline of the Day -100:
James Vardaman, the former governor and US senator from Mississippi, says Woodrow Wilson only opposes his run for senator because the last time he was senator, “I performed my duties... with the intention of pleasing and serving the white people of Mississippi and not to please or flatter the occupants of the White House.”
The IRA blow a hole in the wall of Dundalk Gaol in County Louth, and 105 prisoners, I think just IRAers, escape. Half are recaptured by evening.
Italian Fascists are pouring into Ravenna to fight Socialists & Communists. Several dead. The Fascists give Socialist, Communist & Republican leaders (all of them, or just in Ravenna?) 24 hours to leave the country.
Wednesday, July 27, 2022
Today -100: July 27, 1922: Of shipwrecks and Italian governments (but I repeat myself)
A British company will try to salvage gold from the wreck of the Lusitania. An American company that wanted to do the same asked the US government to protect its plans, since the ship was sunk in international waters, but the government says no.
While the German federal government has yet to use its brand new Republic Defense Act, Bavaria has used its version (which the German Cabinet calls “illegal and unconstitutional”) to ban two anti-Semitic newspapers. I guess this is in aid of the claim that Bavaria’s rejection of the federal act is about some sort of state’s rights principle rather than an attempt to protect monarchists and far-right terrorists.
In Italy, political leaders (Vittorio Orlando, Ivanoe Bonomi) are either refusing or failing to form a government. Outgoing premier Luigi Facta suggests the king get Catholic Party leader Filippo Meda, who brought down Facta’s coalition, to do it.
Tuesday, July 26, 2022
Today -100: July 26, 1922: Of putting the people to work, defying Berlin, and fish civil wars
Henry Ford has a cunning plan to end civil strife in Mexico by opening motor assembly factories and “putting the people to work.”
Headline of the Day -100:
Bavaria has passed its own version of the central government’s Republic Defense Act and will reject any enforcement inside Bavaria of the federal law by the courts and police set up by that law. But it’s their justification that’s most startling: the Weimar constitution allows states to promulgate extraordinary measures if there’s danger coming. In this case, Bavaria is saying that that danger would be the furious reaction of Bavarians to implementation of a federal law to protect the republic from terrorists.
Former kaiser Wilhelm is suing the author Emil Ludwig in a Berlin court to prevent the publication or performance of his play Bismarck’s Dismissal, not because it’s libelous, but on the principle that there should be no portrayal of his ex-highness during his lifetime. Willy’s real complaint is that Ludwig makes Bismarck look better than him (his lawyer is named Dr. Frankfurter, by the way). (Willy will win the case).
Headline of the Day -100:
Monday, July 25, 2022
Today -100: July 25, 1922: Of independence, republic defense, and rum-running
The Philippines now has three political parties, the latest being the Collectivist Party (Partido Nacionalista-Colectivista) of Manuel Quezon, president of the Senate and future president of the country. All 3 parties want independence.
The German state of Bavaria is resisting implementation within its borders of the federal Republic Defense Act (Republikschutzgesetz) which was just passed in response to the assassination of Walther Rathenau and is aimed at terrorist groups. The Bavarian governing coalition breaks up over this stance, and the left is threatening a general strike. The ability of the central government to get the Bavarian military to enforce the law is questionable.
The US asks Britain to help suppress rum-running from its Caribbean colonies. Britain has no treaty obligation to do so, and I’m not sure any non-US law is being broken.
And isn’t “rum-running” a rather delightful phrase? Say it out loud: rum-running rum-running rum-running.
Sunday, July 24, 2022
Today -100: July 24, 1922: Of klandidates and hearses
The big winners in the Texas Democratic Party primary (votes not all counted yet): the Ku Klux Klan and the candidates it supports. Among the latter: Earle Mayfield, who is well ahead of former impeached governor James Ferguson and will indeed be the next US senator; incumbent Gov. Pat Neff; and many down-ballot races.
After some act(s) of violence, Britain is already threatening to take back control of Egypt.
A hearse transporting a corpse from Long Island to Manhattan is stopped five separate times by prohibition agents sure it was carrying booze.
Saturday, July 23, 2022
Today -100: July 23, 1922: Of flatheads, wool battles, masks, and radio
Headline of the Day -100:
What the hell is going on in the Senate?
KKK “Acting Wizard” E.Y. Clarke orders klansmen to refrain from wearing masks, except in their lodge rooms. This is in response to Gov. Thomas Hardwick of Georgia’s threat to ban masks.
The German Reichstag passes laws allowing women into the legal profession and exempting women employees of the federal government from disciplinary measures because of unwed motherhood.
In May, NYC metropolitan area radio stations agreed to divide up daily broadcasting hours between them. The popular (and high-wattage) WJZ, Newark refused to go along, and the other stations are demanding it be forced off the air. This wouldn’t be an issue if the Commerce Dept didn’t restrict radio stations to 360-meter waves.
Friday, July 22, 2022
Today -100: July 22, 1922: Of aerial traffic cops, arsenic, and limericks
The NYPD’s aviation dept will start sending up planes to pull over private planes violating the new minimum flying height of 2,000 feet, “using force if necessary.”
Headline of the Day -100:
The Irish Free State captures Limerick & Waterford from the rebels.
Thursday, July 21, 2022
Today -100: July 21, 1922: To any reaction we will answer with insurrection
Two men are executed in Sing Sing. One of the official witnesses is a blind man who wants to “sense the feeling” of an execution.
In the Italian Chamber of Deputies, Mussolini says of the prospective new Cabinet, “Soon the Fascisti will have to decide whether to continue their struggle in a legal or insurrectionary form.” He says no government will be able to govern Italy “should machine guns against the Fascisti figure in its program. We have numerous disciplined well-organized forces. We will react with extreme violence against any attempt to oppress us.” “To any reaction we will answer with insurrection.”
The NYT thinks the next Italian government may not have the same problem with violence: “Communists and Fascisti fight hard enough, but their energies are usually exhausted after a few days and they go home till the next inspiration moves them.” So much New York Timesiosity in that combination of ethnic stereotype and both-sidesism.
Wednesday, July 20, 2022
Today -100: July 20, 1922: Of domestic peace and shylocks
Italian PM Luigi Facta loses a vote of confidence in the Chamber of Deputies when the Catholic party turns against him. Evidently he’s failed to secure domestic peace. Mostly because he hasn’t tried.
Russian delegate to the Hague Conference Maxim Litvinov tells an AP reporter between acts of a gala performance put on for the conference of “Shylock,” which... yeah, that Russia won’t attend any more conferences.