Today -100: June 11, 1924: Of premature climaxes

The Republican National Convention opens. Rep. Theodore Burton (Ohio) gives the keynote speech, saying most people “look to President Coolidge rather than to Congress for leadership.” That would be the Republican Congress, whose lack of complete subservience to Coolidge is pissing him off. And evidently also the delegates in the hall, who receive the speech enthusiastically.

Sen. William Borah of Idaho rules out being Coolidge’s running mate, this time without caveats.

Will Rogers is calling this the “Republican Vice President conscription convention.” Rogers is in the press gallery, palling around with William Jennings Bryan. Bryan asks him if he’s the one who writes a humorous column and says he himself is writing a serious article, but if he thinks of something comical, he’ll pass it on to Rogers. Rogers says he’ll do the same if he happens to think of something of a serious nature. Another version  of the story of the meeting of this surprise comedy double act has WJB telling Rogers “I believe you write laughable things, while I write serious things,” to which Rogers replies, “It may be that each of us has a wrong opinion of his own work.” Listening to Burton’s keynote speech, they both think he peaked in the middle, when he called on La Follette’s followers not to bolt the party; Bryan says “The speaker suffered from a premature climax.”

Coolidge’s father declines to attend the Convention – he has potatoes to plant.

Headline of the Day -100:  

 

French Prez Alexandre Millerand resigns after both houses of the National Assembly vote against him (what they voted on specifically is unclear to me). Millerand is a little over halfway through his 7-year term and argues that it’s unconstitutional to vote him out, while his Left-wing (Bloc des gauches) opponents argue that it was unconstitutional for him to violate the neutrality of his office by siding with Poncaré. The left refuses even to debate the matter or to “enter into relations with a Cabinet which by its composition is the negation of the rights of Parliament”.

Detroit quarantines and cordons off a 15-block section of the city after a smallpox outbreak. The quarantine is lifted after 15,000 people are vaccinated.

The LA Dry Squad raids Charlie Chaplin’s Beverly Hills home and find a boiler in the basement that turns out to be a water softener rather than a still. Who called the fuzz on the Little Tramp?

I don’t know what says “air of careless smartness” more, the knickers or the socks.

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