Today -100: September 27, 1926: Of guilt, throngs, crown princes, bunny hats, and umpires

French PM Raymond Poincaré calls on German Foreign Minister Gustav Stresemann to acknowledge, indeed to embrace, German’s guilt for starting the Great War.

Allen Dulles, the future CIA director, resigns from the Foreign Service because any further promotions (he was just named counselor to the legation at Peking) would entail expenses beyond his salary ($8,000 a year for the Peking gig) and he just can’t afford to supplement his little diplomacy hobby out of his own pocket.

Headline of the Day -100:

THRONG. With an R.

German newspapers claim that former crown prince Wilhelm, grandson of former kaiser Wilhelm, has enlisted in the German army as a private. He did not. They wouldn’t let him, of course, but he is also barred because he was made a lieutenant of the First Prussian Footguards during the war at the age of 10.

Headline of the Day -100:

The overseas soldier hat is made of Australian rabbit fur. The army is looking for a substitute.

Especially in New York, you often hear “Kill the ump,” but instances of umpicide are surprisingly rare. Anyway, at a game on Long Island between the Centuries and the Cubs, the brother of the Centuries’ catcher objects to a call of “out” and slugs the umpire, fatally.

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.

Today -100: September 26, 1926: Of shorter weeks and radio wars

Henry Ford establishes a 5-day work week as permanent policy, after it was trialed in some plants in July. But only those workers who “deserve” it will get the same pay as they did for 6 days.

Russia is engaging in a “radio war,” supposedly the first, with Romania, broadcasting propaganda into that country. Romanian military stations are trying to block it by broadcasting buzzing. You need a license to own a radio set in Romania, and none are allowed near the border. The first Romanian radio station opened this month, playing phonograph records.

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.

Today -100: September 25, 1926: ...and prosperity

The Republicans have a slogan for 1926: “Coolidge and prosperity.”

Ross Gilmore Marvin, part of  Robert Peary’s Arctic expeditions, was reported drowned in 1909. Now, Kudlooktoo, an Inuit attached to that expedition, who recently converted to Christianity, admits having shot him when Marvin tried to fire another Inuit and send him off without any supplies.

Black people, who know slavery when they see it, resist being conscripted to clean up after the hurricane in Florida, getting in a gunfight with marines in Miami.

And 3 black men are rumored, probably maybe falsely, to have been lynched for looting dead bodies near Miami, shot and then burned.

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.

Today -100: September 24, 1926: Of boxers, hurricanes, and petitions

Gene Tunney beats Jack Dempsey to become heavyweight champeen, but Dempsey makes a lot more money out of the fight.

Florida police and militia and specially deputized American Legionnaires round up anyone who can’t prove they have a job and force them to help in hurricane cleanup. No mention of paying them anything.

Anti-typhoid serum and “medicinal” whiskey are being widely distributed.

It will be impossible to determine how many people died in the hurricane because many were buried without any record being kept, especially in Miami and Miami Beach. People who ask the cops for information are directed to the newspaper offices.

Charles Ponzi, in jail in Texas awaiting extradition to Massachusetts, offers Houston Mayor Oscar Holcombe the deeds to his Florida properties to sell for hurricane relief. Holcombe says no, calling it “an attempt to gain publicity at the expense” of hurricane victims.

The Mexican Congress rejects the Episcopate’s petition to drop the anti-Church bits of the Constitution and related legislation. Also, the Petitions Committee noticed that many of the signatures came from non-Mexican-citizens. Since Coolidge declared all this none of our business, the Church’s hope that outside nations would overawe the Mexican government is fading.

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.

Today -100: September 23, 1926: Of poor devils, occupations, and radio fads

Gen. Lincoln Andrews, the head of federal prohibition enforcement, says prohibition agents will be fired if they drink and future hires will be required to take a pledge of total abstinence. One exception: agents who have to testify in court that they tasted the evidence and, yup, it’s whisky alright. Andrews calls those agents “poor devils” because “the product now available is of the most atrocious quality.”

Relief workers helping survivors of the Miami hurricane ask for medicinal whisky and are informed fuck you.

France (finally) begins to withdraw its troops from the Rhineland. 7,000 of them anyway.

Thomas Edison says radios should not be used for music because of distortion. Once the “radio fad” passes, he says, people will return to the phonograph. Radio dealers are finding them unprofitable.

Speaking of the radio fad, the BBC says it will only employ men as radio announcers, because of the heavy physical strain involved.

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.

Today -100: September 22, 1926: Of mikados

A London revival of “The Mikado” elicits complaints by using actual Japanese garb or modern Japanese garb, whatever “Oriental Oxford bags” might be. Loose pants, I guess.

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.

Today -100: September 21, 1926: Of reservations, degeneracy, and machine guns

The US has been negotiating to join the World Court, provided it be given equal status despite requiring certain “reservations,” such as not allowing League of Nations advisory opinions in any case involving the US.

Former prince Eitel Friedrich of Prussia, the second son of former kaiser Wilhelm, is divorcing ex-princess Sophie Charlotte for the crime of... auditioning to be in movies, which is just plain embarrassing to the good name of Hohenzollern. She will bring counter-charges of degeneracy. Next month the court will declare him the guilty party, or the more guilty party.

Gunmen with machine guns do a drive-by at Al Capone’s Hawthorne Inn in Cicero, Illinois. This article is wrong that Capone was next door during the attack. He was in fact hiding under a table. Over 1,000 rounds are fired from seven cars into the Hawthorne & the neighboring Anton Hotel, which is also Capone-owned (Capowned?), but no one is killed. A family in a car experiences some injuries; Capone comes out and promises to pay their medical and presumably car-repair expenses, which will amount to $10,000.

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.

Today -100: September 20, 1926: Zeal!

The corpses of the bandits who kidnapped & killed Jacob Rosenthal are still hanging from trees or, as the NYT puts it,  

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.

Today -100: September 19, 1926: Miami is in ruins

A hurricane hits Miami and Palm Beach, killing several hundred people and doing $100 million of damage to Miami. Tropical Radio station reports “Miami is in ruins”.

Cuba is negotiating with Italy to take some of the latter’s excess population.

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.

Today -100: September 18, 1926: Of bandits & citizenship

A day or two after bandits kill Jacob Rosenthal, Mexico executes 7 of them, all Indios, with more to come. Their bodies will be left hanging from trees, as was the custom. 3 more are killed when their compadres attempt to rescue them.

France has been arresting naturalized US citizens who were born French for evading military service to their former country. Also, American citizens born in France to American parents.

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.

Today -100: September 17, 1926: We oppose the return of the saloon

The Connecticut Democratic State Convention calls for repeal of the 18th Amendment, calling it “an indefensible curtailment of personal liberty.” But it says as long as the indefensible curtailment of personal liberty remains the law of the land it should be enforced, and “We oppose the return of the saloon.” 

The L.A. County orders the arrest of Aimee Semple McPherson, her mother, and three others involved in her disappearance last May. The charge: conspiracy to defeat justice, including paying a woman to pretend it was she rather than Sister Aimee who inhabited the love shack in Carmel.

Mexican bandits who kidnapped Jacob Rosenthal of Long Island kill him when the Mexican authorities refuse to allow his family to pay the 20,000 peso (c.$10,000) ransom and send soldiers in not-very-good disguise to the drop-off point.

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.

Today -100: September 16, 1926: I’ve just been strutting myself

Coolidge bans arms exports to Nicaragua. This is aimed at the rebels rather than the government. 

Sen. Rice Means loses the Colorado Republican primary for re-election, another sign of the declining influence of the Ku Klux Klan. 

The 3rd Ku Klux Klan convocation authorizes Imperial Wizard Hiram Evans to stay in hotel bridal suites during his travels. And they’re giving him a yacht. He will adopt a standard of living commensurate with the “dignity of the Klan.” “Boys,” the Imperial Dentist announces, “I’ve just been strutting myself. I’m going to leave it to you whether I shall continue to do so.”

In Canadian federal elections, the Liberal Party comes slightly short of a majority. Mackenzie King will probably be able to stitch something together allowing him to continue as prime minister.

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.