Today -100: December 31, 1923: I got nuthin’

Nuthin’

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Today -100: December 30, 1923: Of tax cuts & arms sales

Bankers, railroad presidents, lawyers, real estate operators and industrialists are just some of the diverse range of people expressing support for Treasury Sec. Andrew Mellon’s tax-cut plans, the details of which were (finally) released yesterday. They say the cost of living will go down and a dollar will again be worth... wait for it... a dollar.

The US will sell the Obregón government in Mexico military supplies to defeat the Huerta uprising, including millions of rounds of ammunition, but not the cruisers Obregón wanted. Or airplanes.

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Today -100: December 29, 1923: Of pardons, names, and microphones

Chicago bootlegger Philip Grossman, the guy Calvin Coolidge pardoned who turned out not to be in prison but a fugitive, admits having paid thousands to a Republican politician for that pardon. His commutation may now not come through. Update: okay, I’ve now checked Wikipedia. The district court will send him back to prison, saying the president doesn’t have the power to pardon in contempt of court cases (the contempt consisting of selling booze when a court had told him not to), because that would violate separation of powers. The Supreme Court in 1925 will rule that presidents do have that power.

The New York Nursery and Child’s Hospital picks the names that will be foisted on foundlings in 1924. These are chosen “at random,” but assigned by sex. Annnnd race, although I don’t see anything especially racial in the names chosen. For example, white Protestant boys (are there no Catholics or Jews? do they get surrendered somewhere else?) will get names like Frederick Olmstead, Alexander Halliday, and Stephen Oliver. White Protestant girls will be Elizabeth Kemberley, Anne Draper, Margaret Dryden, etc. While black boys will be William Clinton, George Getty, Ralph Phime, etc. 

Dr Phillips Thomas has invented a microphone that can record insect noises too high for the human ear, so we can find out what they're saying about us.

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Today -100: December 28, 1923: Of cane-guns, private business transactions, bombs, prohibition courts, and hypnotized cops

The Japanese Cabinet resigns, taking responsibility for the attempted assassination of Prince Regent Hirohito. Immediately, on the same day. A young Communist, I guess, used a cane-gun, which is cool, right? Hirohito continues on to the Diet, which he opens “with customary ceremonies” without members of the Diet (dieticians?) knowing what had happened until later.

Spain foils a Communist plot, which may or may not be real, against the dictator Gen. Primo Rivera, whose name I’ve run out of puns for. Many arrests are made.

In the slow-moving Senate investigation of Tea Pot Dome led by Robert La Follette, Harry Sinclair of the eponymous oil company refuses to answer questions about his “private business transactions.”

A bomb is thrown at a Jewish women’s society ball in Vienna, with one killed & 43 wounded. The cops think the perps are from the Society of Awakening Hungarians.

Federal judges rule that the IRS’s “Prohibition Court,” created to collect taxes from bootleggers, is unconstitutional. It notes some of the people “taxed” had not been convicted of bootlegging.

Headline of the Day -100:  

In Sebenico, Croatia. The cop was told to “shoot” a piece of wood at the audience. Finding that it wouldn’t fire, he switched to his service revolver, which did, then arrested three audience members. When brought out of the trance, he went insane and was committed. I don’t think I believe this story.

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Today -100: December 27, 1923: Of anti-Semitism

Romanian police and troops are standing guard at the universities in Bucharest, Jassy & Klousenburg to protect Jewish students from violence. Some professors are refusing to lecture in the presence of soldiers.

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Today -100: December 26, 1923: A normal course

Former Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos will return to Greece, as requested by 270 members of the Constituent Assembly, but says he won’t take over his old job and will just be mediator and adviser to his country (yeah, sure) to get it back to “a normal course,” whatever that means.

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Today -100: December 25, 1923: Of pardons, assassinations, and raids

Pres. Coolidge issues 11 pardons, including for an 18-year old Mexican woman 14 months into a drugs sentence, a guy who was blinded by an accident in prison, and a black man (several of the pardonees are black) who, as a minor, killed his stepfather to stop him beating his sister 21 years ago. One pardoned Chicago bootlegger, Philip Grossman, was probably put on the list accidentally, or because of bribes, but he’s not actually in prison and has been a fugitive from justice for the last year. He’ll surrender now to get his commutation.

After 25 minutes, a Paris jury acquits Germaine Berton, the 20-year-old anarchist who assassinated Marius Plateau, leader of the far-right monarchist Camelots du Roi, in January. Her lawyers described it as a political act and essentially put the Camelots on trial, correctly pointing out that they preach and practice violence against radicals. Thanks to France’s weird judicial system, that means the Camelots’ lawyer can participate in the trial.

The federal Prohibition cops conduct a raid in Williamson County, Illinois of supposed moonshiners and bootleggers, taking in 75 people. The feds operated without the knowledge of local cops, using volunteers. You know, Klansmen.

The Irish Free State releases Countess Markievicz.

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Today -100: December 24, 1923: Of propaganda, dazed Greeks, and illnesses the require vibratory stimulation

Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes shows his “evidence” that Soviet Russia is conducting propaganda in the US: an article from last year in Izvestia about the close relationship between Russia and the Third International, whose president, Grigory Zinoviev, hopes that the Workers Party of America “will now more successfully conduct its work among the millions of American proletarians.”

Headline of the Day -100:

A republic? A new king (evidently Britain is ready and willing to supply one)? The return of Eleftherios Venizelos as prime minister for the 4th time?

Although the Irish Free State is releasing many interned political prisoners, Éamon de Valera is still in his cell, reading Einstein.

For her (ahem) Christmas stocking:

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Today -100: December 23, 1923: Vive l’anarchie

Anarchist Marcelian del Val is executed in Toulon for killing 3 cops. He refuses a mass, saying “I mock religion.” His last words: Vive l’anarchie.

Russia is adopting the metric system, phasing it in by 1927.

Chief Deskaheh is trying to get the League of Nations to recognize the Iroquois as an independent state.

Germany has been slow in developing radio, and the government is hampering it with strict, indeed ridiculous, rules. To even purchase a radio, one must get a license after proving oneself a citizen of Germany of good moral character. No one is allowed build their own radios, and the models they’re permitted to buy can receive only certain stations and not transmit. Chancellor Wilhelm Marx will soon make the first broadcast by a prominent German person.

Canada will soon hang its first Eskimos. Ottawa says this is necessary to stop Eskimos committing murders, so many murders.

The French navy airship Dixmude (originally a German zeppelin seized as reparations) is feared lost in the Sahara, caught in a gale. It did, in fact, blow up off the coast of Sicily, killing 52 passengers and crew, the largest air disaster to date. Only 2 bodies were ever recovered.

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Today -100: December 22, 1923: Of reeds

William Randolph Hearst is throwing his weight behind Sen. James Reed of Missouri to be the Democratic nominee for president, although Reed hasn’t shown much interest in the job. If that fails, Hearst may just let his papers support Coolidge.

Russia says the papers US Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes is citing as proving Russia encouraged US Communists to prepare for revolution are forgeries.

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Today -100: December 21, 1923: Not taking no for an answer

The South Dakota Ford-for-President Club ignores Henry Ford’s refusal to run for president and will go ahead working to put his name on the ballot.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee will investigate Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes’ accusation that Russia conducts propaganda in the US for the overthrow of the government. Some congresscritters think Hughes is just making shit up. Hughes cites an alleged instruction from Grigory Zinoviev to US Communists to prepare for revolution. 

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Today -100: December 20, 1923: No persuasion was sufficient to put them straight

France awards Marie Curie a pension of 40,000 francs per year for herself and her children on the 25th anniversary of the discovery of radium.

Henry Ford says once again that he isn’t running for president and endorses Coolidge. He says 90% of the people “feel perfectly safe” with Cal. In fact, he suggests that the C-Man is too busy running the country to campaign, so everyone should just concede the election to him, I guess.

What’s the opposite of a beer hall putsch? Rumor was that another Nazi coup was scheduled during a performance of Tosca, but it didn’t happen.

A bill granting dictatorial powers to the Bavarian government fails to win 2/3 of the votes in the Landtag.

10 members of the Russian group Laboring Truth are arrested because “no persuasion was sufficient to put them straight.”

 

The KKK sets off 12 bombs on the campus of the University of Dayton, Ohio, a Catholic institution and burn a cross. You’d think that would make the NYT, wouldn’t you? It doesn’t. 

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Today -100: December 19, 1923: Principles!

Greece orders King George and Queen Consort Elisabeth into exile. She’s the daughter of the king of Romania, so that’s where they’ll go.

The State Dept replies to a Russian telegram about negotiations leading to US recognition, saying the US government “is not proposing to barter away its principles.” The next paragraph is a demand that Russia restore property confiscated from US citizens, if you were wondering what those principles are.

Italy warns France it wouldn’t accept an independent Rhineland, much less annexation by France of the German territories it’s currently occupying.

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Today -100: December 18, 1923: But certainly no better

William Gibbs McAdoo announces his candidacy for president. He says the US won’t “progress in any direction through the Republican policies of stand-stillism and wishful thinking”.

A French court-martial is trying 40 German Düsseldorf police for breaking up a demonstration of Rhenish separatists on September 30th. A couple of French soldiers were injured, but the main charge is that the police didn’t obey French orders not to do anything.

Former kaiser Wilhelm wins a libel suit against an editor who published a story claiming that in 1895 Willy caused a naval officer on the royal yacht to commit suicide. Evidently he rode a bicycle off a mountain path into the sea.

New Jersey Gov. George Silzer approves the extradition to Georgia of a negro, Silas Parmore, accused of killing the Iron City police chief. Silzer says if anything happens to him, there will be no more extraditions to Georgia. An all-white Georgian jury will sentence Parmore to hang, but the state Supreme Court will overturn the verdict and he’ll be acquitted in a second trial 2 years from now, at which point Georgia Gov. Clifford Walker will write to Gov. Silzer that this proves that “the State of Georgia and its people are no worse than those of other States.”

A.W. Birch, owner of a hotel in Marlow, Oklahoma, is shot and killed defending (unsuccessfully) a black porter in his employ from a lynch mob. The all-white town doesn’t allow black people after dark.

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Today -100: December 17, 1923: Of counter-offensives, rocket men, and something electrical

Mexican Pres. Obregón launches a counter-offensive against the rebels with however much of the army still obeys him. The former general will evidently lead the troops in person.

Today -100 is the 20th anniversary of the first powered flight by the Wright brothers.

Is this the next step?

Has Henri (?) Melot invented a jet plane? One without a propeller, and therefore able to reach higher altitudes?

New York Edison asks

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Today -100: December 16, 1923: I am delighted that a President of the United States has discovered the First Amendment to the Constitution

Coolidge commutes the sentences of 31 people still in prison for convictions under the Espionage Act during the Great War, for, you know, speaking against the war. Just in time for Christmas! In doing this, Coolidge is following the recommendations of a committee set up by Harding. Sen. William Borah says “I am delighted that a President of the United States has discovered the First Amendment to the Constitution and has had the courage to announce the discovery.”

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Today -100: December 15, 1923: They’re expected to nominate Calvin Coolidge sober?

In the French Chamber of Deputies, Socialist MP and future PM Léon Blum says the government’s Ruhr policy obtained neither reparations nor security, and indeed imperiled both.

Prohibition officials are already planning to prevent the attempts of bootleggers to bring into Cleveland next June the huge quantities of booze required to lubricate the Republican Convention.

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Today -100: December 14, 1923: Wait, is he saying that Winston Churchill was... drunk? Unpossible!

Hiram Johnson is furious at the RNC decision to over-represent the South at the National Convention, which he sees as a Coolidge move to pump up the number of tame delegates. Yup, but another reason is that blacks in the North are threatening to bolt the party.

Rep. Frank Clark (D-Florida) protests the rule against congresscritters having sofas in their offices.

The French women’s suffrage bill is running into trouble, as was the custom. The current version does have women voting at 21 instead of 25, but includes a provision for fathers to have an extra vote for each of their children (including illegitimate ones). The Chamber rejects the government’s request for a postponement until it can come up with a position on women’s suffrage. The government is also considering a bill to make voting compulsory.

Lord Alfred Douglas is sentenced to 6 months in prison for criminally libeling Winston Churchill, who he accused of having taken bribes to lie about the Battle of Jutland. After an amusing trial in which Bosie’s lawyer hectored Winnie on the stand, the jury is out 7 minutes, even after hearing from a witness who saw Churchill in “an unfortunate condition” outside Boodle’s Club in 1913. Churchill denies having ever been a member of the club.

Polish Jews have been paying smugglers to get them into Germany.

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Today -100: December 13, 1923: Of yucatans, counsels of dormancy, duels, and equal pay

The Mexican rebels claim to have taken Yucatan. 

The Republican National Committee restores the over-representation of the South at its Convention.

Democratic presidential candidate William Gibbs McAdoo calls Coolidge’s State of the Union address a “counsel of dormancy.” He says the US can, contrary to Cal’s claim, afford tax cuts and the Bonus at the same time.

Dueling is experiencing a minor resurgence in France, the latest being between aviator Raoul Moupin and writer Albert Nitar. Moulin is hit in the shoulder.

A referendum in Boston turns down equal pay for women teachers.

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Today -100: December 12, 1923: Of alliterative princes

The French Chamber of Deputies again takes up women’s suffrage, and as usual some idiot proposes instead to give male heads of families an extra vote for each child they have (including illegitimate ones). A measure to give the vote to women over 25 is accepted in principle.

Prussia, annoyed that people still refer to former kaiser Wilhelm as “kaiser,” strips him of the title. He is now Prince of Prussia, the same title his son has.  (Update: Next month Prussia will defend this, saying also that the Hohenzollerns never had the right to the name Hohenzollern. The name hasn’t appeared on their birth & death certificates, etc.)

Jewish students are beaten up by Christian students at Budapest University. Authorities are threatening to close the U.

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Today -100: December 11, 1923: Of bonuses, ended dictatorships, and Bohemians

Coolidge calls for a $300 million in budget cuts per year. He says he opposes the soldier Bonus because it would make tax-cutting “impossible for years to come.” He finds no “sound reason” for the Bonus. Able-bodies vets can just get jobs.

Rebels are headed, by train, for Mexico City.

Headline of the Day -100:  

Rather than ask for a renewal of his dictatorial powers from a Chamber which has tamely given him every damn thing he asked for, he wants elections for a new Chamber to give him dictatorial powers without the accusation that it is unrepresentative.

The Republicans are adjusting the apportionment of delegates to the 1924 Convention. California feels short-changed (presumably to screw over Hiram Johnson?), as do black people from the South, which is seeing its delegates cut in half because, well, no one votes (or is allowed to vote) Republican in the South. Traditionally, many of the Southern delegates have been black, providing tame backing for the party leadership, which paid them well for it. Now the party is thinking it’s been 60 years since the Civil War and they might someday be competitive in the South, so they’ve been ditching their black supporters there. One fun way to do that is to hold the conventions that pick delegates in segregated hotels.

People at the Greenwich Village Historical Society complain about the influx to the neighborhood of long-haired male and bob-haired female Bohemians.

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Today -100: December 10, 1923: Hey, it worked for James T. Kirk

William Jason Fields, incoming Democratic governor of Kentucky, will not attend his own inaugural ball because there’ll be dancing and he doesn’t believe in dancing (he’s a Methodist, you see) and will ban it from the executive mansion.

The Huertista rebels capture Jalapa, the capital of Vera Cruz state.

Three “adventurers” will soon start a two-year voyage on a 36-foot yawl. They’ll be looking for a tribe of Indian Amazon-type warrior women (oh, and they’re supposed to be white) they expect to find at the sources for the Amazon River, having believed a tall tale by a sea captain. “The main purpose of our venture is to find a new type of feminine beauty.”

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Today -100: December 9, 1923: We’re going to Cleveland!

The Reichstag passes an emergency powers act allowing Chancellor Wilhelm Marx’s Cabinet to do whatever it wants without further Reichstag authorization for an indefinite period. The vote is 313-18, with 39 left-wing members of the Social Democratic Party ignoring the party whip and staying away.

Pres. Coolidge decides that the 1924 Republican Convention will be held in Cleveland (they’ve been using Chicago exclusively since 1904 but support for Hiram Johnson is strong there so...). The Republican Party is thinking about sending out 2,000 trained speakers to explain Treasury Sec. Andrew Mellon’s plan for reducing taxes mostly on the rich (dropping surtaxes from 50% to 25%). “Duh, we’re Republicans” would seem to cover it.

The Nash County, North Carolina commissioners protest Gov. Cameron Morrison’s sending troops to Nashville to prevent the lynching of a black man on trial for assaulting a white woman. Morrison, not exactly innocent of participating in racist violence in the past, says he’ll use “every particle of power given me by the Constitution of this State to prevent lynchings”.

The Ku Klux Klan contributes $25 to a small negro church, the Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, in Greenport, Long Island, which is building a new church.

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Today -100: December 8, 1923: Just OK

The Oklahoma Legislature passes the weak anti-Klan measure, banning mask-wearing in public but not requiring the publication of membership lists.

Berthold Brecht’s first play, Baal, premieres in Leipzig.

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Today -100: December 7, 1923: Down with imposition!

Calvin Coolidge gives his State of the Union (still not called that) Speech. “For us peace reigns everywhere.” How nice for us. He is against joining the League of Nations but for the World Court, with qualifications. He is for tax cuts (boy is he for tax cuts). He is against the bonus for veterans. He wants to build up the Coast Guard – with power boats! fun! – to fight booze smuggling. He won’t recognize Soviet Russia, but has nothing against US citizens doing business with it. He favors an anti-lynching law, though not at great length.

British elections: Stanley Baldwin’s Tories lose 80 seats in Parliament, bringing them to 258. Ramsay MacDonald’s Labour Party gains 49 seats, bringing them to 191, and David Lloyd George’s Liberals gain 43 seats, bringing them to 158. No one has close to a majority.

Frederick Pethick Lawrence, whose career in electoral politics was stalled by his pre-war involvement in the militant women’s suffrage movement and perhaps by his pacifism during the war, and will later be the last Secretary of State for India before it receives independence, enters Parliament at 51 after defeating Winston Churchill. During World War II Pethick Lawrence will be briefly Leader of the Opposition (the small part of the Labour Party that didn’t join the National Government), facing Churchill during prime minister’s questions.

Labour Party Secretary Arthur Henderson loses his seat (although two of his sons win seats), as does Sir Reginald “Blinker” Hall, who ran Naval Intelligence and the code-breaking Room 40 during the Great War.

Lady Astor retains her seat.

Secretary of Labour Sir Clement Anderson Montague-Barlow, which is not a very secretary-of-labour name, loses his Salford seat to, hm, Labour Party member Joseph Toole, which is a very labor-type name.

The Liberals’ position is weakened, despite its increase in MPs, by the loss of many of Lloyd George’s closest associates.

The number of women MPs increases from 3 to 8, including future first female Cabinet member Margaret Bondfield (Lab).

A revolution starts in Mexico, as was the custom. The cause is the attempt of Pres. Álvaro Obregón to impose Gen. Plutarco Calles as his replacement next year (Obregón is not allowed to run for re-election). It’s led by Finance Minister Adolfo de la Huerta. Motto: Down with imposition! It is expected that Obregón will declare himself dictator.

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Today -100: December 6, 1923: Of speakers and peace

Rep. Frederick Huntington Gillett  (R-Massachusetts) is re-elected Speaker of the House on the 9th ballot after a brief Progressive rebellion. This is the last time a speaker was not elected on the first ballot until Kevin McCarthy.

No Nobel Peace Prize will be awarded this year.

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Today -100: December 5, 1923: Of dictatorships

German Chancellor Wilhelm Marx calls for unity, saying Germany is “actually at the end of our economic and financial strength.” And by unity, he very much means the continuation of near-martial law and dictatorial powers. Socialists – well, some of them – are likely to agree to the continuance of these powers in the hands of the non-Marxist Marx, with the compromise of a toothless advisory committee, because they really don’t want to face a new election. 

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Today -100: December 4, 1923: Of remissions, fighting for number 2, and relics of early Victorianism

Pres. Coolidge remits the 60-day sentence of NYC Controller Charles L. Craig (D) for contempt of court for criticizing the actions of a judge in a traction case in 1921. The NYT front page has been filled with stories about this for months, which I have not read. The White House is pointing out that this is a “remission,” not a pardon, and thus not a vindication for Craig, who they were afraid was enjoying the prospect of martyrdom too much.

Winston Churchill (L-Until-It’s-No-Longer-Convenient) pleads with the voters to make the Liberal Until It’s No Longer Convenient Party the chief opposition party rather than Labour, to fight the Tories’ abandonment of free trade.

PM Stanley Baldwin says the Conservatives, not the Liberals, are the party of progress. “They don’t know it, but they are a relic of early Victorianism and are picking their way in patterns and crinoline overmildewed,” whatever that means.

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Today -100: December 3, 1923: Of pogroms and suicides

Pogroms in the Ukraine allegedly killed 200 Jews in the last month. The Red Army cavalry seems to be largely responsible.

Headline of the Day -100:  

French royalist (Action française) leader Léon Daudet is having his son Philippe’s body exhumed in order to prove that the 14-year-old was murdered by anarchists instead of committing suicide, or maybe that anarchists drove him to suicide. Daudet will pursue this for years, winding up sentenced to prison in 1927, escaping prison (from a 5 month sentence!) and going into exile until he’s pardoned in 1929.

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Today -100: December 2, 1923: Of vicious mules and Barrymores

The Oklahoma Supreme Court reverses the damages award of a lower court to a man bitten by an army mule he was trying to rescue from a train wreck. The Court says “the vicious tendencies of mules are open and notorious,” so the guy assumed the risks when he approached the mule.

Which Barrymore would you go to see on Broadway, John in Hamlet or Lionel in Laugh, Clown, Laugh?

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Today -100: December 1, 1923: Of excellent understandings and indicted guvs

The Italian Chamber of Deputies discusses the possibility of a commercial treaty with the Soviet Union, which would entail official recognition. Mussolini says “The understanding between Italy and Russia in excellent.”

Indiana Gov. Warren McCray is indicted 8 times, with 192 counts, including embezzlement, forgery, issuing fake checks and promissory notes, etc.  When a reporter read him the charges, he laughed and asked “Wasn’t arson included?” He definitely did some of that shit trying to prop up his farm, but mostly he failed to do the Klan’s bidding or take its bribes.

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