Today -100: March 25, 1926: Guilty guilty guilty

The trial for the murder of Giacomo Matteotti ends with 2 of the defendants acquitted and 3 found guilty of unintentional murder. Amerigo Dumini, Albino Volpi and Ameleto Poveromo (whose name in his Italian Wikipedia article is translated by my web browser as Hamlet the Poor Man) are sentenced to nearly 6 years, but will get the benefit of time served and an amnesty law for political murders and be out in a couple of months. Dumini and Hamlet the Poor Man will be re-tried after World War II and get longer sentences. Dumini will electrocute himself while changing a lightbulb in 1967.

The New Jersey Hotel Men’s Association is fighting a bill in the NJ Lege which would allow black people denied service in hotels, theatres, restaurants, etc to sue for $500.

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

Today -100: March 24, 1926: I never heard a more self-complacent speech in my life

The Reichstag defeats a motion of no confidence in Chancellor Hans Luther 259 to 141 after Luther tells them that the Locarno treaties form the basis of his policies. The debate features the debut speech of Grand Adm. Alfred von Tirpitz, the unrestricted-submarine-warfare guy from the last war, who says Locarno and the League of Nations would bring Germany “into complete dependency on France,” adding, “but not in some kinky sexual way.” He may not have said the last bit.

In the British Parliament, Foreign Sec. Austen Chamberlain survives a resolution brought by former PM David Lloyd George to reduce his salary (by how much is not specified here) after a vote of 325 to 136. Chamberlain’s speech was marked by “ill-temper” and “a feeling of self-satisfaction,” was “conspicuous for length rather than clearness, for acidity of tone rather than power of argument.” Former PM Ramsay MacDonald says “I never heard a more self-complacent speech in my life.” Everyone’s a critic.

At the Matteotti trial, the lawyers for 3 of the accused say that Matty totally brought it on himself by not surrendering after the Fascists “conquered” but continued to “torment” the poor Fascists until they could take it no more. Part of this blame-the-victim approach is to assert that they killed him because he was a nasty person and not because he was an MP; there’s a special penalty for people who murder MPs.

is a claim I’m pretty sure we’ve seen a few times before.

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

Today -100: March 23, 1926: When Irish elves are smiling

The NY State Senate kills bills to restore state enforcement of Prohibition.

Vera, Countess Cathcart’s play Ashes of Love opens on Broadway, with the countess playing the lead role. The audience found it “dull” and laughed in all the wrong places, according to the NYT. She evidently sucks as both a playwright and an actor.

Mysterious “elfin” music is heard near Milltown, Ireland.  Hundreds have traveled thence to catch a glimpse of the elves.

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

Today -100: March 22, 1926: Of dictators and humanized public institutions

Headline of the Day -100:

No kidding.

Actually, the article, which does not mention Herr Hitler at all, is about media tycoon Alfred Hugenberg, the Rupert Murdoch of his day, whose far-right German National People’s Party (Deutschnationale Volkspartei, or DNVP) is still a couple of inches shy of fascism. HuggyBear’s preferred dictator, if any, is not revealed.

Labor Secretary James J. Davis is evidently so vital to the functioning of the federal government that Coolidge told him not to run for governor of Pennsylvania, so he says he won’t, although he does inform us of what his platform would be if he did run, which he says he won’t. He would “humanize our public institutions,” which is a good way of describing reforms or probation and juvenile courts and abolishing poor houses. He really won’t run for governor, although it sure sounds like he’s champing at the bit. He will be elected to the US Senate in 1930.

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

Today -100: March 21, 1926: Of vets-screwer-overs, illinium, and nipples

Charles Forbes, the former head of the Veterans’ Bureau, which he and his cronies robbed blind, begins a two-year sentence at Leavenworth, of which he’ll serve 20 months.

Element #61 has been discovered by scientists at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, and named illinium. In other news: no, they haven’t, they just think they have. Which is probably why my computer doesn’t recognize the word “illinium.”

Headline of the Day -100:

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

Today -100: March 20, 1926: Is it a dog or a fish?

John Calvin Coolidge Sr. deeded his farm to Pres. Coolidge 3 weeks ago and other property before that. Inheritance tax avoidance? The deed was actually owned until 3 weeks ago by the estate of his father, Calvin Galusha Coolidge, who died in 1878. The successful businessman/farmer/etc died supposedly penniless and without a will.

NYT Op-ed on JCC Sr.: “The most that could be got out of his close-lipped Yankee taciturnity was the expression of his belief that his son would do ‘fairly well’ as President.”

King George visits a London exhibition of Canadian artists and is baffled, by a Futurist painting, as was the custom, asking “Is it a dog or a fish?” (the artist is sadly unidentified, nor is the species depicted in the artwork revealed, which is just poor journalism). 

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

Today -100: March 19, 1926: Of Seniors and challengers

Pres. Coolidge’s father, Col. John Calvin Coolidge Sr., dies at age 80. A retired JP and former Vermont legislator and senator, Senior also occupied posts ranging from constable to road commissioners to town selectman. The president was informed onboard the train he was taking to Senior’s bedside.

Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Land of Mist is published, in which he shits on his Professor Challenger character, who discovers the spirit world, or something. At least Doyle didn’t do this to Sherlock Holmes.

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

Today -100: March 18, 1926: Of leagues, gross immorality, and pygmies

The League of Nations Assembly fails to admit Germany to the League because of the whole fight about who gets to join the Council and in what order. Everybody’s blaming Brazil. The League will take this up again in the next session in five months.

Famous biologist J.B.S. Haldane, who will coin the word “clone,” at least in its modern sense, wins his appeal against his expulsion from the Cambridge University staff by the Sex Viri committee (If you are at work, do not google “sex viri”) for “gross immorality” because he was named as a respondent in the divorce case of Charlotte Franken, which some people seem to think is none of Cambridge’s business. He will marry Franken later in the year.

An expedition to Dutch New Guinea led by Berkeley Prof. Matthew Stirling begins next month. It’s looking for pygmies, as one does.

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

Today -100: March 17, 1926: His death was a tremendous blow to me

The New York Assembly Judiciary Committee, dominated by Republicans,  kills Gov. Al Smith’s measures for a 4-year gubernatorial term, for reapportionment for both houses of the Legislature on the basis of – can you imagine it? – population. It does approve a referendum for a pay raise for the governor, whose current $10,000 a year is less than that of some of his appointees. The State Senate Judiciary Committee kills a proposal for a referendum to ask the US Congress to modify the Volstead act to permit the sale of light wines and beer. The Assembly’s Labor and Industries Committee kills Smith’s proposal for a 48-hour work week for women & children.

The first witness at the much-delayed Matteotti murder trial, Amerigo Dumini, leader of the Fascist death squad, admits to organizing the Socialist leader’s kidnapping, but claims Matteotti died of natural causes, as one does during a kidnapping: “Matteotti was not murdered, he died. His death was a tremendous blow to me.” Dumini says he couldn’t have been part of the actual killing because he was driving the car. Then why did you have bruises when you were arrested 2 days later? he is asked. He denies he had bruises only to be shown the report of the police doctor. Old war wounds and insect bites, he says. And what about all the blood on the car if Matty died of TB? It ain’t going well for Dumini. He is unable to substantiate his claim that Matteotti was involved in the 1924 murder of Fascist Nicola Bonservizi in France (which he wasn’t).

The Indianapolis City Council adopts an ordinance pushed by the White People’s Protective League for residential segregation by race.

The House of Representatives votes 48 to 2 to reject an amendment to the DC Appropriations Bill withholding the salary of any teacher who teaches evolution or “disrespect to the Bible, partisan politics or that ours is an inferior form of government.”

Headline of the Day -100:

“I can totally pull out in time,” Herbert Hoover says.

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

Today -100: March 16, 1926: Kitty!

The Great Smoky Mountain Conservation Society sends Pres. Coolidge a wildcat as a, you know, pet. Instead, he’ll be sending it to the zoo.

The Italian government makes its first (?) use of the law allowing it to strip the citizenship of expats who criticize the Fascist regime, in this case the radical journalist Carlo Tresca, currently residing in New York.

Lady Vera Terrington, who was the 4th woman Member of Parliament (1923-4), is divorcing Harold, the 2nd Lord Terrington, for adultery. He says he will fight the suit.

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

Today -100: March 15, 1926: If they don’t want them that’s their look-out

Capt. Frank Doudera, a famous hunter, is bringing two timber wolves he captured in Quebec to New York, intending to give one to Mayor Jimmy Walker and the other to Brooklyn Borough President Joseph Guider. This according to a telegram he sent the Canadian Pacific Railway, which informed the NYT. Do they WANT timber wolves, the intrepid reporter asks. “I don’t know,” but “if they don’t want them that’s their look-out.”

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

Today -100: March 14, 1926: Of booze and bribes

An Anti-Saloon League delegation visits the White House, trying to get Coolidge to condemn the move in Congress to, um, water down the Volstead Act. Coolidge evidently tells them he doesn’t see any need to inject himself into the Prohibition discussion.

The US government, as I probably mentioned, is suing to cancel Harry Sinclair’s Teapot Dome oil lease. Wallace Abbott, secretary to former Interior Secretary Albert Fall, was supposed to testify about Sinclair’s bribing of Fall; instead, he commits suicide.

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