Today -100: August 11, 1926: Persecutive religious laws are the worst kind of religious laws

Headline of the Day -100:

The Vatican’s Osservatore Romano says there will be no negotiations with Mexico unless it withdraws its “persecutive religious law” but will trust to the “invincible arms of prayer.” The invincible arms of prayer and a nickle will get you a cup of coffee.

Pres. Coolidge refuses to receive a deputation from the Knights of Columbus who want the US to intervene in Mexico’s religious affairs. He considers those a domestic matter for Mexico, which is a refreshing change of pace for US policy towards Mexico.

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Today -100: August 10, 1926: Of quiet cities and sore losers

FACT CHECK! The Associated Press investigates rumors that Stalin is dead in a revolt and army mutiny and that Trotsky has fled Moscow. They find that “Moscow is as quiet as any American city on Sunday morning.”

Texas Gov. Miriam “Ma” Ferguson has reneged on her promise not to stand in a run-off if she failed in the Dem. primary, which she very much did. So there will after all be a run-off on the 28th. She’s also trying to get Attorney Gen. Dan Moody thrown off that ballot for alleged campaign finance irregularities (contributions from candidates for other offices) and miscounted ballots.

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Today -100: August 9, 1926: Of power in the Philippines

Coolidge’s envoy to the Philippines, Col. Carmi Thompson, says the status of the Philippines should be settled – annexation, autonomy, whatever – for a long period during which there will be absolutely no reconsideration of independence, in order to create the settled conditions needed for Firestone to build the giant rubber plantations that Filipinos do not want. Gov. Gen. Leonard Wood wants to be given more power, including the power to make appointments without the approval of the Legislature, which has not been compliant lately no matter how many times he nominates the same people. He also wants Americans heading departments, he wants control over the cops, the annulment of laws passed by the Lege limiting his power, etc.

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Today -100: August 8, 1926: Thousands of priests have come here to make our people fanatics and sink them in ignorance

Katherine Langley (not that you’d know “Mrs. John W. Langley”’s first name from the NYT) wins in the Republican primary for Kentucky’s 10th congressional district, the very seat her husband John resigned in January as he faced a prison term, which he is currently serving at Atlanta Penitentiary, for Volstead violations including securing “medicinal” alcohol for bootleggers and attempting to bribe a Prohibition agent.

Mexican Pres. Plutarco Elías Calles tells US reporters “in our Latin-American countries foreign priests have meant calamity, especially Spanish and Italian Catholic priests. They have all been outcasts from Rome... Thousands of priests have come here to make our people fanatics and sink them in ignorance.” He says he will accept no foreign mediation. He says he considers the boycott “as ridiculous as if I should dress as a clown and got out into the streets.”

Mexico’s (possibly Mexico City’s?) Health Department bans the Charleston from public dance halls because it might cause heart failure.

Col. Carmi Thompson, the former US treasurer, who Coolidge sent to the Philippines to check on conditions, says that while many, many Filipinos want independence, they have no actual grievances.

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Today -100: August 7, 1926: If it could be done, it had to be done, and I did it

Gertrude Ederle of New York, 20, who won a gold medal at the 1924 Olympics, becomes the first woman to swim the English Channel. 5 men have previously done so, but none as quickly (14 hours, 31 minutes), and that with a choppy sea that greatly increased the length she had to swim. Her 2003 obituary says she sang “Let Me Call You Sweetheart” while she swam to set a rhythm. She says “I just knew if it could be done, it had to be done, and I did it.” Also, she was promised a red roadster if she did it.

The Vatican’s Osservatore Romano says Mexico’s new laws constitute a “real and true substitution of civil power for that of the Church.”

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Today -100: August 6, 1926: Anyone can do it

The Knights of Columbus asks Pres. Coolidge and the State Department to “put an end to this ignominious contempt that has been shown by President Calles for American appeal,” claiming that in its actions against the Catholic Church, Mexico has “insulted, degraded and expelled American citizens, men and women, under circumstances that are abhorrent to our conception of constitutional government.” My favorite sentence of this article: “Demand was made for protection of American citizens and that they be treated with the same consideration and respect that is shown to Mexicans in this country.” Be careful what you wish for.

In Kansas’s Republican primaries, all the candidates backed by the Ku Klux Klan lose. The anti-Klan Emporia says, “The Klan now stands a busted community in Kansas. Any one can afford to kick it around and revile it. When the Klan endorses a candidate now, he will clod it away like a mangey dog.” A note to Kansans: clod away all the kluxers you like but leave the dogs the fuck alone.

There’s a smallpox outbreak, 5 cases so far, in Brooklyn.

The union of movie cowboys protest the Army & Navy renting out troops to movie studios.

Harry Houdini, 52, stays in an airtight coffin underwater in the Hotel Shelton swimming pool for 91½ minutes. This isn’t an escapology thing or a trick but purely controlled breathing. He has a telephone and a buzzer so he can periodically indicate that he doesn’t need rescuing. After being released he says “Anyone can do it.”

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Today -100: August 5, 1926: No more wars for oil!

R.T. Haslam, MIT professor of chemical engineering, says new techniques to extract oil from coal will eliminate wars for oil, so that’s good.

Montgomery Ward, hitherto solely a mail-order company, plans to open 1,000 brick-and-mortar stores.

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Today -100: August 4, 1926: The Church will refuse to listen

Bishop Pascual Díaz, Secretary of the Mexican Episcopate responds to reports that the Church is seeking unconditional mediation with the Mexican government. No, he says, there will be no mediation unless the government revokes or suspends all its laws and decrees on religious stuff; “Otherwise the Church will refuse to listen.” Wow. “The government is trying to corrupt the Church and we refuse to permit it.”

A US Navy court of inquiry decides that the Lake Denmark, New Jersey naval depot explosions last month were no one’s fault, it was an act of God, with the lightning and all. Nonsense, the depots were too close together and set off a chain reaction.

The British send an ultimatum to the Nizam of Hyderabad demanding that British officials be given key posts in the princely state. They’re claiming massive corruption.

Mussolini issues a decree banning non-Fascist intellectual, charitable or sporting public events.

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Today -100: August 3, 1926: Of national sovereignty, piety, and war bread

British Foreign Secretary Sir Austen Chamberlain defends the British-Italian pact establishing zones of influence in Abyssinia. He claims his Lake Tsana plans were more or less approved by the late Emperor Menelik; whether he has any proof of this is unclear. He will tell the League of Nations that the pact doesn’t involve any question of national sovereignty, which isn’t complete bullshit at all.

After several incidents of non-Catholics visiting the Vatican refusing to kneel before the pope, applicants for an audience will be questioned about their intentions and levels of piety.

Mussolini asks Italians to help the financial situation by eating “war bread,” with a maximum of 80-85% wheat, to cut down on wheat imports. Pastries and luxury breads made with wheat flour will be banned.

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Today -100: August 2, 1926: Of poniards and Zangwill

A Catalan anarchist tries to assassinate Spanish dictator Miguel Primo de Rivera by throwing a dagger (poniard) at him as he drives by, as was the custom. It misses.

Mexico claims to have uncovered a plot to assassinate Pres. Plutarco Elías Calles.

Israel Zangwill, British novelist (pioneering locked-room mystery The Big Bow Mystery [1891]; Children of the Ghetto: A Study of a Peculiar People [1892]), playwright, Zionist, dies at 62.

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Today -100: August 1, 1926: It’s a miracle!

The cross on the spire of the Church of San Jerónimo in Mexico City has started shaking, obviously in protest at the government persecution of the Catholic Church.

The Catholic boycott campaign includes 2,000 car owners in Mexico City canceling their licenses.

Manuel Quezon, president of the Philippines Senate, says Filipinos want Governor-General Leonard Wood, who he calls “an amiable gentleman,” replaced by a civilian, even an American (Quezon will be president in a few years). He’s cautiously interested in US plans, promoted by Harvey Firestone, to grow rubber in the Philippines but doesn’t want the development of large plantations.

Texas Democratic county conventions meet and unanimously tell Gov. Miriam “Ma” Ferguson to resign – now – as she promised to do if she lost the primary.

Headline of the Day -100:

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Today -100: July 31, 1926: Of legations and med students

Mexican police fire into a crowd which refuses to leave the Church of San Rafael in the capital. The head of the Vatican’s legation is ordered out of the country within 24 hours, extended to 48 hours at the request of the Italian embassy.

Hungary thinks it has too many doctors, so it bans any new women medical students.

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