Today -100: September 9, 1924: Of groundswells

Reacting to the Chinese civil war, the US, Britain, Italy and Japan land forces in Shanghai to defend their nationals.

In the Maine general elections, Republicans win the Senate seat and all 4 House seats, with Ralph Brewster elected governor. The Democratic campaign against him focused on his Klan backing.

The German cabinet discusses whether to officially inform other nations of Chancellor Wilhelm Marx’s repudiation of the war guilt clause of the Versailles Treaty.

Robert La Follette says Progressives are now even with Republicans. Evidently there’s a groundswell.

Coleman Blease will win today’s South Carolina Democratic primary for the US Senate (and – Spoiler Alert) the general election. Blease was this blog’s frenemy back when he was governor (1911-15), so a quick recap of some of the highlights of his record is in order. Blease supported lynching (“where black men commit crimes against white women, and are lynched for it, I declare Constitutions do not apply. For that, there is a higher law than the Constitution”). He opposed black people going to school, and opposed the drinking of Coca-Cola. He revoked the licenses of 3 notary publics who supported the accusation by a railroad ticket agent that he tried to cut in line and got abusive when she refused to let him. He sold pardons but also pardoned thousands for capricious reasons such as “he has the same name as my childhood friend,” almost emptying the state prisons before he left office. He opposed medical inspection of school children and promised to pardon any father who killed a doctor who tried to examine his daughter.

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