Today -100: August 16, 1926: Of nullification, valentinos, and lynchings

Rep. George Holden Tinkham calls on Attorney Gen. John Sargent to institute criminal proceedings against the Anti-Saloon League for violations of the Corrupt Practices Acts and for perjury, covering up its fundraising and spending amounting, Tinkham says, to $50 million over the years, including paying congresscritters, to buy the 18th Amendment and enforcement laws. Tinkham attacks the Justice Dept’s failure to enforce the Corrupt Practices Act of 1925 which, he says, amounts to nullification.

Rudolph Valentino is operated on for a gastric ulcer and appendicitis (he didn’t actually have the latter, I gather).

A masked mob storms the Wythe County, Virginia county jail and lynches a black man, Raymond Bird, shooting him, then hanging him from a tree.

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Today -100: August 15, 1926: I don’t believe that any man can be successful who seeks great political honors

NY Gov. Al Smith attends a private dinner in his honor at the Hotel Statler in Buffalo. After Erie County Democrats give, like, 15 speeches in a row about how he needs to run for re-election, Smith says he doesn’t wanna and it would damage his health and it’s bad to act like only one person can lead the party, and...

He adds that of course if the State Convention nominates him anyway (on Sept. 28 for a Nov. 2 election day), he’ll just have to suck it up.

One Frank Power (not his real name, it will come out) claims to have in his possession the body of Lord Kitchener, whose ship was torpedoed in 1916. The alleged corpse was allegedly recovered by an alleged Norwegian fisherman. “Power” has brought a coffin from Norway to London.

The Supreme Lodge of the Knights of Pythias rejects a proposal to help lepers in the Philippines.

In a letter to the League of Nations, Italy defends its accord with Britain establishing “zones of influence” in Abyssinia, echoing Britain’s earlier letter to the League in saying that the agreement was for Abyssinia’s good and certainly wouldn’t violate its rights. Neither country explain why they negotiated in secret from the world in general and Abyssinia in particular.

Lawsuits between Gen. Erich Ludendorff and his banker, Dr. Borchardt of the, ahem, Sinner Banking House, lay bare some top-shelf tax evasion on the general’s side. General L accuses his banker of keeping some of the money he moved offshore (if Switzerland counts as offshore) and the banker responds that the general was asking him to do illegal things and wanted his account hidden under someone else’s name. This all might give impetus to the left’s demand that Ludey be stripped of his pension.

Italy is preventing Italians from touristing abroad. Even Swiss women married to Italian men are not being allowed to visit their relatives.

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Today -100: August 14, 1926: Yay! they’ve found a woman to blame!

Several of Mexico’s episcopate meets to protest against a possible prosecution of the archbishop of Mexico City for statements he made to a newspaper. The government has said won’t happen but I guess the archbishops called the meeting before that happened. The episcopate blames the laws affecting the Catholic church on Belinda Zarada of the Anti-Clerical League.

Coolidge approves the first two airway routes.

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Today -100: August 13, 1926: Of budgets

Coolidge’s 1928 budget will include a large increase in Prohibition enforcement spending. Since he’s still committed to reducing spending overall, that money will  come out of the Army and Navy, which won’t need it after the League of Nations Arms Conference leads to all sorts of disarmament, probably. Already previously congressionally-approved battle cruisers will not be built and naval maneuvers will be canceled due to lack of fuel. So Coolidge is doubling down on Prohibition enforcement ahead of his re-election run.

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Today -100: August 12, 1926: Of property seizures and kloters

Mexico orders the seizure of property controlled by members of the Catholic clergy, some of it hidden under the names of private citizens.

Texas Gov. Miriam “Ma” Ferguson officially states that she’s not dropping out of the re-election race or resigning after losing the first primary, as she promised to do. She says Attorney Gen. Dan Moody only won the primary because of the Klan vote.

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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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