Today -100: November 2, 1920: Of the civilization of the world, complacency, crude work, and opera

Gov. James Cox says if ever a campaign was based entirely on a great moral issue, it’s definitely his, “because the thing to be decided is whether the civilization of the world shall tie itself together into a concerted purpose to prevent the tragedies of war”.

Harding says he awaits the vote with complacency.

Harding’s father accosts Judge W.S. Spencer of the Marion County Probate Court on the streets of Marion, accusing him of spreading stories (yes, the secret negro thing, not that you’d know it from the NYT). Spencer denies it and knocks down a farmhand who claims to have heard him do so. Later in the day, Spencer signs an affidavit denying having spread the rumor and Dr. Harding apologizes.

Eight die in fights during Cuban elections.

Six cops are killed in Ireland, presumably in retaliation for Lord Mayor MacSwiney’s death. And Kevin Barry, an 18-year-old who killed a cop in September and was convicted by a military court-martial, is hanged. This will be a big deal because of his age. It’s the first execution of the Sinn Féin disturbances, unless you count the people killed by Black and Tans and other government hit squads.

Montgomery, Alabama cops, assisted, if I interpret the article correctly, by Klansman, have killed 3 black men and arrested 13 in an alleged gang that burned cotton mills, 3 black churches, and a couple of homes. The chief of the state Law Enforcement Department says “White men are not back of the lawlessness because the work is too crude.”

Although the Georgia attorney general ruled that the 19th Amendment overrode for the new women voters the state’s normal 6-month voter registration period, some precincts might reject women’s ballots anyway.

Paris Opera musicians are on strike. Musicians want to be paid according to the rarity and difficulty of their instruments, with extra pay, for example, for players of the heckelphone and sarrusophone. Also extra pay for musicians playing the French horn call in “Siegfried.” Male actors who put on blackface are to get an extra 5 francs, women 3 francs. Blueface (as in Salome) is also 5 francs.

(2020 Update: the Paris Opera is considering banning blackface, probably because they don’t want to pay that 5 francs.)

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