Monday, September 25, 2017

Today -100: September 25, 1917: The ignorant zealot goes where the paid traitor sends him


Theodore Roosevelt demands that the Senate figure out a way to expel Robert La Follette.

In Congress, Rep. “Cotton Tom” Heflin (D-Alabama) is attacked for his comment, made after the State Dept claimed that at the start of the year Germany spent $50,000 to influence Congress, that he could think of 13 or 14 members of Congress who “acted suspiciously” and that there was a certain German-run cardroom where pro-German congresscritters could “win” large sums (in a newspaper interview he will deny having given). On the House floor, though, he refuses to name names.

The NYT says that if Germany was trying to sway Congress when the two countries were at peace, they must still be doing it. “The thing needs no proof.” The Times also needs no proof to accuse the pacifist movement of being pro-German: “The ignorant zealot goes where the paid traitor sends him.”

Germans complain that at a time when railroad cars can’t be found to transport food, the crown prince got a special train to bring opera singers from Munich to his headquarters. Two newspapers have been suppressed for mentioning this.

The House of Representatives votes 181-107 to create a Committee on Woman Suffrage. Joseph Walsh (R-Mass.) objects to giving in to the White House picketers, who he calls “the nagging of iron-jawed angels” and “bewildered, deluded creatures with short skirts and short hair.” In response to the states’ rights argument, Jeanette Rankin points out that it is nearly impossible to amend some state constitutions. New Mexico, for example, requires 3/4 of the votes and 2/3 in every county.


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

3 comments:

  1. I've got to thank you for posting this every day. I have read a number of histories of the time period, both while in college and before and after and several novels written about the same time, but to see it unfold in what amounts to "real time" is depressing and amazing.

    It does appear as though the NYT has always been a propaganda organization that provides some news as opposed to a new organization that does some propaganda. Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The NYT in the grips of full war fever is not a pretty thing, that's for sure.

    I too am finding the day-to-day live-blogging to be vastly different from other ways of doing history.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I intend to steal your first line there.

    ReplyDelete