Today -100: May 1, 1912: Of funeral ships, primaries, trusts, and women talking

The cable ship Mackay-Bennett reaches Halifax with 190 of the Titanic dead. They’d already dumped 116 more into the ocean, only 57 of whom were identified (the rest didn’t have enough left to be identifiable), thus leading to tedious plot developments that go nowhere on “Downton Abbey.” 60 of the bodies brought in have not been identified, and are believed to be mostly crew members.

In the Massachusetts primary, Republican voters split nearly evenly between Taft & TR (however, voters also voted for 8 at-large delegates, and the ones they elected are all pledged to TR, it said so right on the ballot). The NYT thinks this result discredits the whole idea of popular primaries, “a first-rate device for splitting a party wide open and inviting defeat on election day.”

On the Democratic side, Champ Clark defeats Wilson, but turnout was much lower than for R’s. Also, the ballot had a little flaw in that there were delegates pledged to the state’s Gov. Foss listed on the ballot, 36 of whom were elected, but Foss himself was not on the ballot. Some consider that those delegates are morally obligated to ignore their pledge and follow the results of the popular vote.

The Taft Admin files an anti-trust suit against International Harvester. One can’t help thinking that the timing is political, since the Tafties have been attacking TR for having halted this action when he was president five years ago.

The LA Times reports ever so respectfully about the forthcoming big women’s suffrage parade in NYC, suggesting that the order that marchers not talk while marching will be impossible for women to obey.