Today -100: August 14, 1920: Of no bias, coal & salt, and more ponzi schemes,

The Tennessee State Senate ratifies the Susan B. Anthony Amendment by a surprising 25-4 (out of 33). The lower house will be more difficult. Carrie Chapman Catt denies a charge made by Sen. Walter Chandler that she supports racial intermarriage. He says he based his accusation on a speech in which she said that “suffrage knows no bias of race, color or sex.”

The Red Army is within 20 or 25 miles of Warsaw. Russia’s peace terms to Poland (which seem to be trickling out bit by bit) include a referendum within a year on the future of former Russian Poland, with unrestricted propaganda in the meantime. Russia also wants control of Poland’s coal and salt mines.

The Old Colony Foreign Exchange Company, another Boston ponzi scheme, unrelated to Charles Ponzi, is raided and its officers arrested. Like Ponzi, it promised 50% profits in 90 days. Many of its investors, like Ponzi’s, are Italian immigrants. The district attorney had warned the public against investing with it, but noted that there was no law to shut it down; the patsies kept on enthusiastically handing their money over. Many Boston cops, by the way, are Ponzi investors. The lawyers are still working on it, but those who benefited from being at the top of the Ponzi pyramid can probably be sued by Ponzi’s creditors for (at least) their profits. The NYT suggests that those who profited are receivers of stolen goods.

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