Today -100: January 31, 1924: Indisposed

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Speaking of indisposed, the Senate Teapot Dome committee appoints 3 doctors to see if former Interior Sec. Albert Fall really is too sick to testify (his own doctors testified today, behind closed doors).

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Today -100: January 30, 1924: No colonies, no remedies

Eleftherios Venizelos has another heart attack while debating opposition leader Alexandros Papanastasiou in the Greek National Assembly about unbanning royalist newspapers.

Navy Sec Edwin Denby says he won’t resign, even if the Robinson resolution calling for him to do so passes. He defends the legality of the Teapot Dome leases.

Responding to resolutions in the Senate calling for his removal from office, Attorney Gen. Harry Daugherty says “I am not worried about the situation in Washington.” He says he doesn’t feel a need to respond to the attacks against him, and that’s why he’s in Florida instead of Washington. Sure it is.

Pres. Coolidge regrets that Americans are so pessimistic.

A German professor has supposedly found a cure for African sleeping sickness. The German Colonial Society wants to leverage that to demand the return of its pre-war colonies. “No colonies, no remedies,” says the head of the Bremen branch, Edouard Achelis.

Is this the most cynical approach to sleeping sickness? Well, the real cure these days is Eflornithine. The pharmaceutical company that owns the patent stopped manufacturing it in the mid-1990s because the disease affected poor sub-Saharan Africans and was therefore not very profitable. Fortunately, after a few years they resumed production when they discovered that Eflornithine also treats unwanted facial hair in rich white women, and that’s a population Big Pharma knows how to market to.

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Today -100: January 29, 1924: Of special counsels, noisy but negligible minorities, and have you driven a Ford lately, comrade?

The Senate passes a resolution calling on Coolidge to fire Navy Sec. Edwin Denby and any other Navy personnel who did bad shit in the Teapot Dome & Elk Hills leases. (I just had to correct a typo “Teapot Dom.” “Teapot Dom & Elk Hills” sounds like a middling porno. Just saying.)

The House gives Coolidge up to $100,000 for the special counsel he was forced to promise to appoint to look into Teapot Dome / Elk Hills. Dems complain that Coolidge claimed there were D’s as well as R’s involved in the scandal. Many of the attacks in the debate focus on Attorney Gen. Harry Daugherty. House minority (D) leader Finis Garrett notes that Coolidge’s decision to appoint a special counsel, “admit[s] before the world that he cannot risk his own attorney general to protect the interest of the government, and at the same time that attorney general remains in the Cabinet.” Assistant Secretary of the Navy Teddy Roosevelt Jr. is also being called on to resign by congresscritters of both parties.

The NYT reports, from unnamed sources, that Teapot Dome has not proved profitable for Harry Sinclair’s Mammoth Oil and he might be willing to give up the lease if he was compensated for his investment so far (he expected to make $100 million).

Mussolini rejects the idea of an alliance during the next parliamentary election with any other parties, which he calls “a noisy but negligible minority.”

Mayor Daniel Hart of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, not only says he supports the American Legion for breaking up a Communist meeting yesterday, but in future the city will only license meetings approved by the Legion.

Ford has a deal to export automobiles to Russia, probably ones manufactured in its Danish branch.

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Today -100: January 28, 1924: Of cold funerals, reeds, and Fiume

Walter Duranty of the NYT reports that Lenin’s funeral is really cold, so cold, did I mention how cold it was?

Sen. James Reed of Missouri announces his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for president.

American Legion members break up a Communist meeting in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania in honor of Lenin. They force Communists to salute the flag. On their way to the meeting they ran across Mayor Daniel Hart, who said he’d send the cops to assist them.

Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini and Yugoslav Prime Minister Nikola Pašić sign the treaty annexing Fiume to Italy. And there’s a mutual defense provision.

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Today -100: January 27, 1924: Shall the United States have corrupt government or clean government?

Pres. Coolidge issues a statement saying he has the Justice Dept observing the Senate Teapot Dome inquiry, and will prosecute anyone who needs prosecutin’ and cancel any contracts “illegally transferred or leased.”

Cordell Hull, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, says the Teapot Dome scandal is “the greatest political scandal of this or any other generation.” He says the 1924 election will be partly fought on the issue should the US have corrupt government or clean government. He points out that when Coolidge was VP he sat in the Cabinet (the first to do so) when the oil leases were discussed, and never said a word about Teapot Dome or any of the other Harding Administration scandals until yesterday, when he said he was reluctant to believe anyone involved had criminal intent.

Japan’s Prince Regent Hirohito gets married. Mrs Prince Regent and him inform the imperial spirits that they are doing so. 122 imperial spirits, evidently.

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The 1919 treaty disarmed Bulgaria, so they are unable to fight the wolves, who were not disarmed by the treaty.

The US Bureau of Biological Survey reports that wolves are being hunted to extermination in the West. Also prairie dogs. It’s bragging about this.

Former president Balthazar Brum of Uruguay fights a duel with current Minister of War Rivera over the latter’s intention to introduce conscription. Neither is hit.

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Today -100: January 26, 1924: Of loans (or “loans”)

Harry Sinclair’s personal attorney tells the Senate Teapot Dome hearings that last year Sinclair loaned (or “loaned”) $25,000 in Liberty bonds to then-interior secretary Albert Fall to buy some ranches in New Mexico. That’s in addition to the $100,000 loan (or “loan”) we already knew about. Rep. John Morehead (D-Neb.) introduces a resolution for the cancellation of the Teapot Dome lease on the ground that it was corruptly obtained. Which it was.

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Today -100: January 25, 1924: Poodles defended

Oil tycoon Edward Doheny admits to the Senate Teapot Dome inquiry that he loaned $100,000 to Interior Secretary Albert Fall in 1921, shortly before Fall granted him the lease on the Navy’s oil reserves in California. He says it was just a coincidence and Fall was an old friend. The money was of course delivered in cash, brought by Doheny’s son.

The Labour government will restore diplomatic relations with Russia, and has already chosen an ambassador.

Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald warns India not to try anything, in case you were wondering if a Labour government would defend imperialism.

Petrograd is changing its name to Leningrad.

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Italians are often afflicted by throat affection.

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Today -100: January 24, 1924: Evolution!

The North Carolina Board of Education votes to ban the teaching of evolution.

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Today -100: January 23, 1924: Lenin RIP

Vladimir Lenin dies.

The NYT’s  Walter Duranty predicts that Stalin and Trotsky will “bury the hatchet over his grave.”

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Ramsay MacDonald becomes the first Labour prime minister of Britain.

Harry Sinclair, to whom journalists caught up in Plymouth on his way to Le Havre, denies bribing then-Interior Secretary Albert Fall for the Teapot Dome lease: “The entire situation is a political move and a case of American politics.”

Japanese Foreign Minister Matsui Keishiro tells the Diet that the treatment of Japanese on the Pacific Coast of the US is “regrettable.”

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Today -100: January 22, 1924: Six or eight cows

The Senate Teapot Dome inquiry heats up, with Archie Roosevelt, son of Pres. TR, testifying. Archie was a vice president with a Sinclair Oil subsidiary; he resigned yesterday to save his reputation from the Teapot Dome scandal. He doesn’t seem to have been involved in it but at the time of the sale of the Naval reserves he was at Sinclair Oil and his brother TR Jr. was assistant secretary of the Navy, which just looks bad. He testifies that Harry Sinclair paid $68,000 to the foreman of then-interior secretary Albert Fall’s New Mexico ranch. He also reports that Sinclair has skedaddled for Europe to avoid having to testify (Sinclair had him buy the ticket and keep his name off the passenger list). Archie cites Sinclair’s secretary G.D. Wahlberg as his source on the payment, but Wahlberg testifies he knows nothing about it. He says Sinclair did give Fall “six or eight cows” and Roosevelt must have misheard that as “$68,000.” Edward Doheny, at first thought to have also fled to Europe, actually went to New Orleans, but definitely not to consult with Sinclair, perish the thought. He also has the nerve to say that if the Mexican rebels continue interfering with his oil interests in Tampico, he’ll demand the US government do something about it (and indeed Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes threatens consequences if Tampico port is mined).

The British Parliament votes no confidence in the Baldwin government, 328-256. During the debate, Baldwin asks “Do my honorable friends look like a beaten army?” He complains about the lack of gratitude in politics.

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Today -100: January 21, 1924: Of blockades and lack of confidence

Winston Churchill still wants Parliament to delay voting no confidence in the Baldwin government, and then when it does to make that vote also repudiate “socialism.” Which, hey, just leaves the 3rd-place Liberal Party of which Churchill is still a member. Fancy that.

The US sends a cruiser to Tampico to threaten the Huertista rebels if they again attempt to enforce their blockade of the port.

Mexican soldiers travel through the US, from Naco, Arizona to El Paso, Texas. They are made to register with Immigration, which takes 4 hours to process the 1,500 soldiers.

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Today -100: January 20, 1924: Whether there is land there or not it should be the property of the United States

Secretary of the Navy Edwin Denby tells the House Naval Affairs Committee that the real purpose of sending the dirigible USS Shenandoah to the Arctic is to look for any previously undiscovered land and then annex the hell out of it. “This area is certain to be of high strategic value if we look forward to warfare and commerce in the future. Whether there is land there or not it should be the property of the United States.”

The Philippine Legislature adopts a budget, eliminating all funding for Gov.-Gen. Leonard Wood’s office and his yacht (they don’t like him very much).

The Communist Party conference in Moscow ends with unanimous approval of the Central Executive Committee’s policies and castigation of opponents as “factionaries.” Stalin counts the “six errors” of Trotsky.

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Today -100: January 19, 1924: Of faulty actresses and tankers

Mabel Normand is in a state of complete nervous collapse, please excuse her from attending the hearing in the case of her chauffeur shooting that guy. Edna Purviance does come, but claims she was in another room and can’t remember anything that happened that evening.

The Huertista rebels fire at a couple of American commercial ships, including a Sinclair Oil tanker, which were running their barricade at Tampico.

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Today -100: January 18, 1924: It would be a waste of time to indulge in the thankless task of slaying a suicide

The crew of the dirigible USS Shenandoah think that surviving that gale means it can totally fly to the Arctic (Spoiler Alert: the USS Shenandoah will never fly to the Arctic). 

Former British Prime Minister H.H. Asquith, somehow once again leader of the Liberal Party, will back a no-confidence motion against Stanley Baldwin’s Conservative government, ensuring that the next government will be Labour. He says the Tory government would be remembered for confusion, vacillation and impotence. You may insert your own joke here. He says, “It would be a waste of time to indulge in the thankless task of slaying a suicide.” Winston Churchill, still in the Liberal Party but not in Parliament, roars a protest against Asquith’s move.

The Obregón government in Mexico asks permission to move its troops through US territory to attack the Huertista rebels. This will also require permission from Texas (Arizona and New Mexico’s governors have already given theirs).

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Today -100: January 17, 1924: There is no such thing as liberty without observance of the law

At the White House, Pres. Coolidge declares to delegates of the Anti-Saloon League annual convention, “there is no such thing as liberty without observance of the law.”

The US Navy dirigible Shenandoah is torn from its mooring in Lakehurst, New Jersey and dragged 60 (other reports say 80) miles with its crew before they regain control. It was out of radio contact most of the time, so radio stations stopped regular broadcasting and asked listeners to look out for it and report in. Finally WOR Newark heard back from the Shen. It’s nose will require expensive repairs.

The House Immigration Committee approves a ban on Oriental immigrants, although immigration officers could allow in individual students, merchants, whatever.

Philadelphia Director of Safety Gen. Smedley Darlington Butler drafts Philly’s firemen into his war on “bandits,” giving them .45 revolvers so they can “pitch in.” He also wants 100 motorcycles because vroom vroom.

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Today -100: January 16, 1924: Vigorously resented

The Democrats choose New York City for their Convention. It came down to a bidding war, because the party still has a deficit from the 1920 election. $255,000, including broadcast rights and preparing Madison Square Garden.

Rebel Gen. Adolfo de la Huerta declares a blockade of the port of Tampico, and the US is not best pleased, calling it an unwarranted interference with ordinary commercial transactions and saying it would be “vigorously resented.” Vigorous resentment is the worst kind of resentment.

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Today -100: January 15, 1924: Of drivers’ licenses and the Klan issue in Louisiana

NY Gov. Al Smith points out to the Legislature that NY is behind other states in setting automobile regulations. He suggests a statewide system (not just in NYC) of drivers’ licenses (upstate Republicans have blocked this in the past), giving the state the power to revoke licenses and to collect accurate data on accidents.

The Louisiana primary vote is tomorrow, and candidates have been forced to declare themselves on the Ku Klux Klan. The 3 Democratic gubernatorial candidates, one of whom is Huey Long, all oppose the Klan, and Lt Gov Hewitt Bouanchaud says he will follow outgoing Gov. John Parker’s policy of not appointing any to office (Bouanchaud is Catholic). Long is also running against Standard Oil.

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Today -100: January 14, 1924: Of conventions, valets, states, and cynical allusions

The DNC is about to pick a site for the Convention, and William Gibbs McAdoo’s backers are fighting the choices of machine-ridden Chicago or New York, especially NY (NY Gov. Al Smith doesn’t feel like a major candidate, but maybe he does to McAdoo.) Maybe they should find someplace cooler in the summer, in case....

After church, Calvin & Grace Coolidge go to the negro section of Washington to visit dying Arthur Brooks (I almost typed Albert Brooks), White House valet since 1909.

A delegation of representatives of the 3 leading Puerto Rican political parties, appointed by the Legislature, is coming to the US (that’s how the NYT phrases it), along with (US-appointed) Gov. Horace Towner. Those parties have all dropped demands for independence, but they want statehood, not territorial status, and they want it as soon as possible. The NYT opposes statehood because the majority of Puerto Ricans are illiterate.

Students from 16 Eastern universities gather at the U of Penn to discuss getting rid of drinkers and bootleggers at their universities. One step: “ask the Faculties to avoid cynical allusions to the matter.”

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Today -100: January 13, 1924: In which is revealed what were the best contracts the United States government ever made

The British railway engineers & firemen union says it will order a strike, but won’t say when. Which is embarrassing for the Labour Party’s plans to form a government. 

NYC Police Commissioner Richard Enright is charging 13 of the 22 inspectors, as well as a bunch of deputy inspectors and captains, with failure to enforce Prohibition.

Former Interior Secretary Albert Fall says the Teapot Dome and Elk Hills deals were “the best contracts the United States government ever made,” and he’d love to tell the Senate Committee all about it... health permitting. Which it didn’t yesterday when he was supposed to appear. He’s currently hiding out in Palm Beach, although he denies that he’s hiding out.

At the Communist Party conference in Moscow, acting PM Lev Kamenev attacks War Minister Leon Trotsky, after which a censure resolution is adopted. Evidently Trotsky is supporting economic positions contrary to those of the Central Committee. Trotsky is not present, being ill. Lenin is not present, being dying.

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Today -100: January 12, 1924: The King’s Peach

The British Cabinet decides that the King’s Speech can’t be broadcast on radio, since it’s a political speech (written by the party currently in power), and those are banned from the airwaves.

Eleftherios Venizelos gives in, oh so reluctantly, and will form a Greek government after all, after the Liberals prove too divided to form one.

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Today -100: January 11, 1924: Oops

A British battleship bumps a British submarine, accidentally – or so they’d have us believe – sending all 43 submariners to the bottom of Portland Bill, which is a body of water rather than a hipster coffee shop. Elsewhere in the exercise, two other subs have a fender-bender.

The West Virginia Democrats endorse former ambassador to Britain John W. Davis for president. Let the Johnmentum begin!

A state constitutional amendment is proposed in the NY Assembly to increase the gubernatorial term from two years to four. Another suggestion is to allow women to serve on juries. Not require them to, mind you; that didn’t happen until the mid-70s (which explains “Twelve Angry Men”).

The state of Illinois steps in to stop dry raids in Williamson County conducted by the Ku Klux Klan. They’ve also been beating & robbing Italians, as was the custom.

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Today -100: January 10, 1924: Of assassinations and censorship

Franz Josef Heinz, the self-proclaimed president of the “Autonomous Government of the Palatinate,” is assassinated, alongside a couple of bysitters, in the Wittelsbacherhof Hotel restaurant in Speyer by members of the Viking League paramilitary group, who presumably would prefer the Palatinate remain in Germany.

Ohio bans Mabel Normand and Edna Purviance films. Ditto Michigan for Normand.

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Today -100: January 9, 1924: Um, sure

Coolidge wants the tax-reduction bill passed before the veterans’ bonus bill. Also, he opposes the Democrats’ alternative tax bill, which he says favors the rich by taxing them the most when they have the power to pass on those taxes to consumers.

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Today -100: January 8, 1924: Go out and get some

Coolidge puts an embargo on arms sales to the Huertaista rebels in Mexico.

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This is the sort of authoritarianism you can expect when you put a US Marine general on a leave of absence, one Smedley Darlington Butler, in charge of a city’s cops (and firemen and elevator inspectors). Gen. Butler says “I have a free hand and will not be interfered with by the politicians.” He tells 2,000 cops at the Metropolitan Opera House, “I don’t believe there’s a single bandit notch on a policeman’s gun in this city. Go out and get some.” Spoken like a veteran of many imperial wars treating the mean streets of Philly like the Philippines.

Elsewhere in law enforcement, Birmingham, Alabama police have gotten 5 black men to confess to 8 axe murders through the use of “‘truth serum,’” the NYT’s quote marks presumably indicating they were falsely told they had been injected with truth serum.

The New York State Moving Picture Commission declines to ban the films of Mabel Normand or Edna Purviance as many other locales are doing because the infatuated chauffeur of the former shot a guy in the presence of the latter.

Michigan Agricultural College (Go Aggies!) is planning to broadcast a sort of running account of a basketball game on the radio. This will be a first.

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Today -100: January 7, 1924: Of peace plans, bombs, and munitions

Edward Bok, former editor of the Ladies’ Home Journal, sponsored a $100,000 prize for the “best practicable plan for U.S. cooperation in world peace.” Of the 22,165 submissions, he chose:  join the World Court, cooperate with the League of Nations, which has to change the provisions of its Covenant (“substitute moral force and public opinion for military and economic force...”)... I’m gonna stop there, since this is just the Republican position from when they were torpedoing Wilson’s attempt to join the League. This is... nothing... justifying my ignoring all the stories about this contest until now.

Someone throws bombs at the Japanese Imperial Palace. The police leap into action and suppress a newspaper that reports the incident, which seems to have been more in the nature of a demonstration than an actual attack intended to hurt anyone. A Korean is arrested, as was the custom.

The State Dept warns against US arms dealers selling to the Mexican rebels, but it’s not a formal ban, at least not yet.

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Today -100: January 6, 1924: Hail King Harry!

Eleftherios Venizelos, returning to Greece from exile, is elected president of the National Assembly almost unanimously and celebrates by having a heart attack. Before this, Venizelos said he intended to remain in office only until the possibility of a civil war passes.

Mexican rebel general Adolfo de la Huerta orders rifles & machine guns & ammo for both in New Orleans to test the US government’s claim when it sold arms to the Mexican government that there is no embargo on arms sales to Mexico.

The NYT says the British public is “resigned” to the possibility of a Labour government and thinks it might not even be a calamity. The possibilities of a fusion Tory-Liberal cabinet, or the king simply putting Asquith in office, are fading. Those “resigned” Britishers are reassuring themselves that Labour can’t do anything especially radical with a minority in Parliament and zero members in the House of Lords.

Albania keeps offering its crown to foreign princes & dukes, and keeps being turned down. Now they’re trying American oil guy Harry Sinclair, who just a few days ago testified very much against his will at the Senate Teapot Dome hearings. His connection with Albania is that he breeds horses there.

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Today -100: January 5, 1924: Of arms sales and censorship

The US sells 5,000 rifles, 5 million rounds of ammunition, and 8 aeroplanes to Mexico to use in crushing the rebellion. Coolidge is ignoring Congress to make the sale, like a common Joe Biden.

As New Hampshire bans Mabel Normand’s movies, and Ohio and Kansas look to follow, Mabel appeals to Americans’ sense of fair play. Good luck with that.

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Today -100: January 4, 1924: Chin out

40 or so people die in a starch explosion at the Corn Products Company in Pekin, Illinois.

There have been disturbances at the vault in Marion where Warren G. Harding’s body is entombed, possibly aimed more at the guards than Harding, possibly by children: bugles blown, stones thrown at the guard houses, etc. So Lt. Harriman, in command of the guard, sends for riot guards and says he’ll shoot at future people causing disturbances.

Rep. William Upshaw (D-KKKGeorgia) demands that Pres. Coolidge “begin a righteous crusade by breaking every jug and bottle in official Washington and by using the Executive guillotine on the neck of every drinking official including army, navy and Cabinet officers.” In other words, that Cal fire every government official who engages in “drinking devilment.” Upshaw also wants to deport aliens who break Prohibition (we’ve been hearing that idea frequently of late). And a lot more ideas along those lines.

Mabel Normand has an appendectomy in the same hospital in which Courtland Dines is staying after being shot by Normand’s chauffeur. Memphis censors say her films will be banned in the city forever. They haven’t decided about Edna Purviance yet. Kansas Attorney General Charles Griffith will ask the censor board to ban films featuring both women. Will Hays is rushing to California to look into the affair, “and I have my chin out,” whatever that means.

John D. Rockefeller, 84, likes to play golf, and to be praised for how he plays golf. He keeps dimes in his pocket to hand out to anyone who applauds one of his shots.

For weeks before he was exiled, King George of Greece wouldn’t have his hair cut because he was afraid Greek barbers would do a Sweeney Todd on him, I guess. The first thing he did when he arrived in Bucharest was to get a haircut.

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Today -100: January 3, 1924: Of scofflaws, pernicious non-Communist influences, and worried mustaches

A banker in Quincy, Massachusetts who glories in the name Delcevare King, is sponsoring a contest with a $200 prize to come up with an epithet for people who drink in violation of Prohibition laws which will be so harsh, so cutting that it will “stab awake the conscience of the drinker,” like “scab” or “slacker.” Entries received so far include bootocrat, boozshevik, law-jacker, sliquor and wetocrat. The winner, which will be announced in a couple of weeks: “scofflaw,” a new coinage sent in separately by two people. The obituary of Mr King in the ‘60s says the term was mostly used at that time for parking and other automobile-related offenses. How is it used today?

Russia extends its ban on religious schools to all private schools in order to combat “pernicious non-Communist influences.” It also bans corporal punishment in all schools.

Greece’s coup regime turns power back to the National Assembly, calling for a republic. Still, “No Parliament ever exhibited more worried mustaches.”

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Today -100: January 2, 1924: Of referenda, actresses & shootings, orderly procedures, hand-shaking, and corsets

Former Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos suggests a referendum to decide whether Greece will become a republic, or, if it stays a monarchy, whether a different ruling family shall reign.

Denver oil man Courtland Dines is shot by actress Mabel Normand’s chauffeur (with her gun) because, he says, Dines was bothering Normand. Edna Purviance, Charlie Chaplin’s leading lady, also witnesses the shooting. The story implies that there was drinking involved. Dines was in a dressing gown, more proof that silent movies were documentaries.

Although there’s a movement in Congress to express opposition to arming the Obregón regime in Mexico, Coolidge intends to go right ahead regardless under authority the administration claims he has, “in the interest of orderly procedure,” whatever that means. These opponents have coined “the Harding doctrine,” for a policy of not selling arms to foreigners (Harding refused to allow an earlier proposed arms sale to Mexico).

Mussolini’s dictatorial powers expire.

 

President Coolidge and First Lady Grace hold the traditional New Year’s Day reception and both shake hands with 3,891 people.

King Albert of Belgium says his country’s financial future depends on 1) reparations from Germany, 2) exploiting the Belgian Congo.

Maternity corset, for fuck’s sake.

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Today -100: January 1, 1924: Of arms and ashes

There’s a movement in the Senate to stop the proposed arms sales to the Mexican government for use against rebels. Some senators think it would break international law.

A thief is caught stealing the ashes of some saint in Avezzano, Italy. The crowd beat him up and set him on fire, as was the custom.

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