Today -100: July 19, 1920: You are in sight, so prepare

Cox & Roosevelt meet Woodrow Wilson at the White House. Cox promises WW to fully carry out Wilson’s promises about the League of Nations. Wilson also issues a statement, saying he & Cox are “absolutely at one” on the League. Cox says he was “most agreeably surprised” at how well Wilson was.

Former prince Joachim, the youngest (29) son of former kaiser Wilhelm, commits suicide. He was divorced and broke, possibly because of his gambling. The official line is that he was suffering from “a fit of excessive dementia,” which is the worst kind of dementia. I’d forgotten that early in the war Wilhelm named him king of Lithuania, which never took. He also composed marches, including “With God for King and Country,” which I’m sure is a real toe-tapper, or goose-stepper or something. The Hohenzollerns want to cover up the nature of his death, but the authorities refuse to cooperate.

Col. Gerald Smyth, a divisional commissioner of the Royal Irish Constabulary, is shot dead by an IRA hit squad in the Cork & County Club. Last month he told constables to shoot anyone with their hands in their pockets or who otherwise looked suspicious – “You may make mistakes occasionally and innocent persons may be shot, but that cannot be helped and you are bound to get the right persons sometimes. The more you shoot the better I will like you” – the majority of cops then resigned. According to one account, one of the gunmen said “Were not your orders to shoot at sight? Well, you are in sight, so prepare.”

Eugene Debs, imprisoned Socialist Party candidate for president, is refusing to be interviewed by reporters, for some reason.

Jack Dempsey says he is willing, after all, to box a black boxer, if there’s a public demand for it. He blames the previous statement that he wouldn’t on his manager. He explains: “I need the money.”

North Carolina Gov. Thomas Bickett sends a National Guard machine gun company to the town of Graham to protect 3 black prisoners from potential lynch mobs, with orders to “shoot and shoot straight” if necessary. Wikipedia says Graham was the site of a Klan lynching of one Wyatt Outlaw, the first black town commissioner and constable, in 1870.

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