Today -100: April 8, 1916: You don’t want to see how cranky Germany gets without its morning coffee

Germany is running out of coffee.

Chancellor Theobald Bethmann Hollweg’s speech to the Reichstag a couple of days ago has proven popular in Germany, in part because everyone’s interpreting it as supporting their own positions, especially those who take opposing views on whether to annex Belgium and other territories. While he denied any policy of conquest, his language about keeping Germany’s borders secure and about “those political and economic guarantees which we must demand for Germany’s safety” suggest he plans to retain... well, who knows? Lithuania? most of Poland? part of France?

The Guangdong province declares independence from China.

Illinois State’s Attorney Maclay Hoyne claims to have discovered a massive international anarchist plot to assassinate the monarch of every country in the European war. Hoyne’s informer says he was personally at a meeting in Chicago at which lots were drawn to choose one of the assassins.

Henry Ford says his victory in the Michigan presidential primary was an anti-war protest against “military preparedness and the exploitation of the workingman by the moneyed munitions interests.”

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