Today -100: June 19, 1913: Of the rabbit theory, the Fed, and potty-mouthed Mother Jones

George Bernard Shaw writes to the London Times about women’s suffrage, observing that during the recent parliamentary debate on the Dickinson Bill, Asquith opposed suffrage “explicitly on the ground that woman is not the female of the human species, but a distinct and inferior species, naturally disqualified from voting as a rabbit is disqualified from voting. ... Many men would vote for anything rather than be suspected of the rabbit theory. It makes it difficult to vote for the Liberal Party and then look the women of one’s household in the face.”

Pres. Wilson proposes legislation to establish a new central bank, the first since Pres. Jackson strangled the Second Bank of the US. It is hoped that the Fed will counter-act the periodic panics and bubbles to which the US economy has been subject, and thus stabilize the currency. So that went well.

It’s the mineowners’ turn to present evidence at the Senate investigation into the West Virginia coal wars. They say that their hired goons only used their guns in self-defense, and quoted speeches by “Mother” Jones urging miners to arm themselves. The lawyer for the owners questioned a (negro) collier: “Did she use any profane language?” “She swore a good deal for a lady.”

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