Today -100: November 10, 1919: Only astronomers are affected. Also: in your face, Newton!

The American Federation of Labor calls the injunction against the coal strike so “autocratic” as to “stagger the human mind” and offers its support to the miners.

More Palmer Raids™ Saturday, on 71 “radical headquarters.” 25 tons of literature are seized, including addresses from Lenin to the US people and “disguised or open pleas for revolution in many languages”. Assistant US Attorney General Francis Garvan says the Federation of Unions of Russian Workers approved a plan for the overthrow of the US government via assassinations and bombings. The document, captured in the Baltimore raid, was printed only in Russian. So they’re planning to deport any alien who’s a member.

Evidently Russian plans for a world revolutionary uprising on the 7th were thwarted by various governments (Germany, Italy) taking “stern measures,” or simply came to nothing (Switzerland).

Headline of the Day -100: 

This is the dethronement of Isaac Newton by Albert Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity. He published the theory in 1916, but it has now been proven by Arthur Eddington’s expedition to the island of Principe and Andrew Crommelin’s to Brazil last May to observe the solar eclipse and measure the bending of light. If you want a proper explanation of that, it won’t come from the president of the Royal Society, where these results are presented. He says it’s pointless to try to explain relativity to the man in the street. But there are several books just out for the centenary, including one with the title Einstein’s War: How Relativity Triumphed Amid the Vicious Nationalism of World War I. Astronomer W.J.S. Lockyer (son of the inventor of helium) says Einstein’s discoveries “do not personally concern ordinary human beings; only astronomers are affected.”

Parliamentary candidate Lady Nancy Astor says “Women are essential to the introduction of a policy of thrifty, national housekeeping, which is imperative to establishing the empire on a sound post-war foundation.” I wonder how many servants it takes to oversee the thrifty housekeeping at Cliveden.

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