Today -100: June 20, 1919: Of ruins, confidence, brutality, and brass & machine guns

Headline of the Day -100: 

Italian Prime Minister Vittorio Orlando 

loses a vote of confidence in the Chamber of Deputies, 259-78. I’m not sure to what extent this is about disappointment over the peace terms and how much about internal matters, namely the high cost of living. (The NYT suggests tomorrow that Orlando took up the annexationists’ maximal territorial demands in order to distract from economic conditions, which just lead to disappointment when he failed to get the Allies to agree to all his demands.)

Headline of the Day -100:  

The lower house of the Ohio Legislature passes a resolution asking Governor James Cox to block the Jack Dempsey-Jess Willard heavyweight world champion boxing match, saying such matches are “brutal in their nature and not conducive to good morals.” I assume their real reason it that they all put money on Willard before seeing how fat he’s gotten.

A strike at brass factories in Waterbury, Connecticut leads to violence between picketers and scabs and fights with the cops, one of whom is probably fatally wounded. Machine guns are set up on roofs, but not used on the strikers, yet.

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