The British and Sinn Féin come to a deal, or at least the latter concede after Lloyd George threatens behind closed doors to unleash the army on Ireland. Ireland will become the “Irish Free State,” a term we haven’t heard before. It’s the same as the dominion status, like that of Canada or Australia or South Africa, that Lloyd George has been offering, but it’s not called dominion status because that sounds to the Irish like it implies subordination. “Free state” and “republic” are evidently the same word in Gaelic, saor statt, or there is no word for republic, or something. The Free State even gets its own military. The oath of members of the Dáil will be to the Constitution of the Free State, and to be “faithful” to the king, whatever that means. Neither the Free State nor Northern Ireland are allowed to establish a religion, or discriminate against a religion.
The State of the Union Address. Harding says “there are growing assurances of the permanency of the peace which we so deeply cherish.” So that’s good. He wants flexible tariffs, cooperative agricultural marketing to prevent the demographic drift to urban areas, irrigating arid lands for veterans, etc. He supports workers’ rights to organize, but wants to eliminate strikes, lockouts, boycotts, or anything else that would make that organizing effective.
In Canadian national elections, the Liberals, led by Mackenzie King, defeat the Conservatives, knocking them into 3rd place behind the Progressives. Prime Minister Arthur Meighen loses his parliamentary seat, as do ten other cabinet members. The election was largely fought on the issue of tariffs. Agnes Macphail (Progressive-Ontario) is elected the first woman MP in Canada (women have been eligible since 1919).
NYC Mayor John Hylan demands an investigation of new history textbooks: “The school children of this city must not be inoculated with the poisonous virus of foreign propaganda which seeks to belittle illustrious American patriots.”
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