Today -100: September 13, 1914: It’s just a flesh wound

War Headlines of the Day -100:

• “CORPSE EVERY SIX FEET.; Wounded Frenchman Tells of German Right Wing's Fearful Losses.”
• “PRIEST TAKES 26 CAPTIVES.; Austrian Slavs Won Over by His Eloquent Appeal.”  A Russian priest supposedly shames his fellow Slavs to surrender.
• “BRITISH COOLLY DRINK TEA ON BATTLEFIELD; Highlanders, Game Under Terrible Fire, Receive Candy for Good Marksmanship.”  Kill a Kraut, get a chocolate.  Literally.
• “German Called "Slightly Wounded" Had Lost Both Arms.”  The German government may be downplaying casualties a bit.
• “Prisoners Bother Russia.”  They have captured rather a lot of them and don’t know where to put them all.

Prof. Brander Matthews, a literature professor at Columbia, thinks the European war should be great for literature.  Although he predicts that it will take the form of drama rather than novels (the thought that it might be films doesn’t seem to have occurred to him).

South African PM Louis Botha says South Africa will back Britain in this war.  The whole Boer War thing is like totally forgotten.

Rumor of the Day -100: Two or even three of Kaiser Wilhelm’s sons are reported killed. I’m guessing we’re going to keep seeing these stories, so I’ll just do a major spoiler now and say that none of the princes were killed in action during World War I.  One did commit suicide soon after, though, and one became a Nazi.

Britain, France, Russia and Italy tell Turkey that it can’t unilaterally abrogate the treaties giving their citizens immunity from Turkish courts.  The US will say the same.

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Today -100: September 12, 1914: We must go forth unflinchingly to the end

Supposedly, Greece, Romania and Bulgaria have signed an agreement to fight Turkey if it enters the war.

Woodrow Wilson instructs William Jennings Bryan to tell the Turkish ambassador to stop talking about lynchings in the South.

Rumor of the Day -100: the Turkish crown prince and the war minister are said to have either gotten in a duel, in which the latter received a fatal bullet, or, less formally, the war minister got angry during a discussion of policy and took a couple of shots at the prince, who returned fire.

First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill gives a speech with the Churchillian line, “It is our life against Germany’s.  Upon that there must be no compromise or truce.  We must go forth unflinchingly to the end.”

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We will not get dragged into another ground war in Iraq

Last night, Obama gave a speech announcing our next war. Hurrah.

“We took out Osama bin Laden... and recently eliminated the top commander of its affiliate in Somalia.” Enough with the euphemisms for killing.

“Thanks to our military and counterterrorism professionals, America is safer.” Safer than what, he doesn’t say. Gaza?

“We can’t erase every trace of evil from the world.” We must invest in giant-eraser technology.

He does the “Holy Roman Empire” thing on the Islamic State. “ISIL is not ‘Islamic.’” I have a problem with non-Muslims declaring what is or is not Islamic: Your beliefs which I do not consider to be true are not the same as these other beliefs which I also do not consider to be true. If you don’t believe in fairies, you have no standing to tell someone they believe in the wrong type of fairies.

“No religion condones the killing of innocents.” Innocents no, heathens, heretics, apostates, followers of false gods, people who believe in the wrong type of fairies, and bystanders killed in “just” wars, yes. Also homosexuals. And witches.

“And ISIL is certainly not a state. It is recognized by no government, nor by the people it subjugates.” I wasn’t aware that the US had a problem with Middle Eastern regimes not recognized by the people they subjugate. Must be a new thing.

“Last month, I ordered our military to take targeted action against ISIL to stop its advances.” Targeted action = blowing shit up.

“we will conduct a systematic campaign of airstrikes”. As long as it’s systematic.

“we will not get dragged into another ground war in Iraq.” Obama - he kept us out of war.

“I have the authority to address the threat from ISIL...” He does not explain from what this authority magically derives. “...but I believe we are strongest as a nation when the President and Congress work together.” He uses the word “believe” because it’s purely theoretical at this point. “So I welcome congressional support for this effort in order to show the world that Americans are united in confronting this danger.” How can you welcome it when you haven’t asked for it, as specified in the Constitution?

“Now, it will take time to eradicate a cancer like ISIL.” Ah, dehumanizing the enemy, classic.

“taking out terrorists who threaten us”. There’s that euphemism again.

“America is better positioned today to seize the future than any other nation on Earth.” We’re invading the future now?

“Abroad, American leadership is the one constant in an uncertain world.” Like death and taxes, with both of which American leadership is intimately associated.

“It is America that has the capacity and the will to mobilize the world against terrorists.” Not condescending to the entire rest of the world at all.

“Tonight, I ask for your support in carrying that leadership forward.” Although, like the “support” of Congress, it’s basically irrelevant to what I’m going to do anyway. Which is why this was such a bland speech, not intended to rally the nation or win over sceptics.

Listeners to this speech will be left unenlightened about what Obama’s goals are, how they can be measured, how he intends to go about fulfilling them, how long it will take, and how much it will cost.

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Today -100: September 11, 1914: But is it good for the Jews?

German troops invade Nyassaland (then a British colony, now Malawi).

Japan denies being in negotiations with Britain to send troops to Europe.

The NYT complains about the senseless censorship by the warring countries of war news, such as the cutting of the names of places in which battles occur, despite the enemy presumably knowing that they were in a battle there.  Yet, they point out, that story yesterday about the Algerian soldier keeping a German head as a souvenir got through, giving support to German protests against the employment of colonial soldiers by France and Britain.  The NYT notes that this protest is just like the American colonists’ complaint in the Declaration of Independence about the British employment of “merciless Indian savages.”

The Women’s Freedom League (UK) points out, “One share of the arguments brought against the enfranchisement of women is to the effect that since women have no share in war they should not be given a voice in decisions of peace and war. After the sack of Louvain... can it be said any longer that women have no share in the horrors of war?”

Turkey abrogates the treaties dating back to 1056 exempting various foreigners from Turkish courts.

France says that Germany is making false claims about British and French troops using dum-dum bullets in order to justify doing so themselves.

The NYT is amused at the competing attempts of Russia and Austria, as well as France and Britain, to appeal to the Jewish residents of the regions of Russia in which the two armies are presently fighting.  The Times thinks that all the promises made will have to be kept, so this is a turning point for the better for the Jews.  Um, hurrah?

South African Prime Minister Louis Botha will not allow the union leaders he summarily deported to Britain some months ago to return.

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Today -100: September 10, 1914: My heart bleeds for Louvain

Kaiser Wilhelm, in a letter to Woodrow Wilson (leaked to a Danish newspaper; the text will leak a week later) which mostly consists of complaints about supposed British and French use of dum-dum bullets (which they deny, although some soldiers are probably making their own) – “I solemnly protest to you against the way in which this war is being waged by our opponents, whose methods are making it one of the most barbarous in history” – and the audacity of Belgium’s “bloodthirsty population” resisting German occupation, says he regrets the necessity for reprisals and “My heart bleeds for Louvain,” and hints that he’s willing to negotiate an end to the war.  Britain is saying that any peace would require compensation by Germany to Belgium.

One discovery from the war: dirigibles are a lot less useful than expected, and more vulnerable to artillery.

Headline of the Day -100 (L.A. Times):  “Please Don’t Fire, It’s Our Airship.”  The British Admiralty announces that one of its airships will be cruising over London and please don’t shoot at it.

The Seattle school board bans any mention of the war by teachers.  Similarly, California State Superintendent of Public Instruction Edward Hyatt issues an order to teachers not to discuss the war “until the war has closed, until man recovers his senses.”  “Is it not a worthy task, to keep the feet of a hundred million people in the path of honest industry and away from the gory fields of war?”

One of France’s Algerian soldiers brought back a trophy: a German’s head.  He is not happy that it was taken away from him.

A Butte, Montana barber who refused to cut the hair of a national guard private, for fear of offending his regular customers who don’t like the military occupation of Butte to break the miners’ strike.  Given martial law, the barber is tried by a major, who says he is guilty of insulting the governor, the uniform of the National Guard, the US Army, and the American flag, and sentences him to 60 days.

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Today -100: September 9, 1914: The foreign barbarian yoke is gone

Woodrow Wilson proclaims October 4 a day for Americans to pray for peace in Europe.

Austria, whose troops (with Germany’s) are in Russia’s Polish territories, issues a proclamation to the Jews there asking for their support, saying that Austria brings equal rights and religious freedom.  “The foreign barbarian yoke is gone.”

British Chancellor David Lloyd George plans to out-spend his way to victory: “The first hundred million our enemy can spend as well as we, but the last they cannot, thank God.”

Christabel Pankhurst gives a speech suggesting that militant women might be able to rouse spirit of militancy in men.  She says, “The defeat of our country and the victory of Germany would be a calamity from the women’s point of view.”  Christabel is in the process of adjusting her rhetoric: where before Asquith’s government represented the worst of masculine attitudes, now Germany does.  Speaking of Asquith, she says, “I agree with the Prime Minister thoroughly at this time, and I hope he will never disagree again with me.”

Inez Milholland, who has mostly retired from suffrage activism to pursue her legal career, is suing  the Sociological Research Film Corporation for payment of her legal fees for her defense of the film “The Inside of the White Slave Traffic.” They respond that she can’t collect legal fees because as a Swede she is ineligible to practice law in New York (they’re right that she lost her American citizenship when she married a foreigner, although he’s actually Dutch not Swedish).

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Today -100: September 8, 1914: Of vigorous shelling, deadly traps, and vulgar traps

It looks like the immediate threat of a German attack on Paris is over.

War Headlines of the Day -100:

•  “Paris Hears French Shell Germans Vigorously as They Retire.”
• “Austrian Army in Deadly Trap,”
• “Even Servian Women Fighting to Hold Bombarded Capital.”
• “Allies Forget the Japs in Peace Preliminary” (L.A. Times).  The allies didn’t ask Japan to join the agreement not to come to a separate peace with the Central Powers.

The Romanian people would really like to join the war on Russia’s side, but the king of Romania really wouldn’t like this.  Coincidentally, all of the king of Romania’s money is in German banks.

Pres. Wilson offers miners and mineowners in Colorado a plan to end the strike (and allow the removal of federal troops): a 3-year truce (he uses that word); striking miners to be re-employed; elected grievance committees, a majority of whose members must be married; no mine guards employed; no union recognition; no picketing or colonies for 3 years.

Fog of War (Rumors, Propaganda and Just Plain Bullshit) of the Day -100: The London Standard: “One [Belgian] officer took his solemn oath that he had seen an infant carried through the streets on a bayonet.”

Turkey is rejecting plans for American naval vessels to help get Red Cross aid to Christians in Turkey.  The Turkish ambassador to the US claims that Britain is talking about atrocity stories in a “vulgar trap” to somehow get the US involved in the World War (that only makes sense if Turkey joins the war, but everyone now assumes that that’s inevitable).  The ambassador says that yes, there have been massacres, but the Armenians and Maronites were massacred “not as Christians but as political agitators engaged in undermining the Ottoman state.”  Just like Russia kills Jews and France kills Algerians and England kills Indians and the US lynches blacks and waterboards Filipinos.

During the sacking of Louvain, a Swedish diplomat asked a German lieutenant if he could take a picture.  In a delightful misunderstanding, the lieut., not understanding that Mr. Pousette meant he wanted to take a photograph with his camera, pointed him to a mansion which he said had particularly good pictures and told him to help himself.

Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin D. Roosevelt, running for US Senate in NY as an anti-Tammany Democrat, thinks that Boss Murphy’s preferred candidate, Ambassador to Germany James Gerard, wouldn’t run if nominated, because ambassador to Germany is kind of an important job just at the moment.  “I am willing to concede the servility of some of the followers of Murphy, who run or withdraw from a ticket just as he decrees; I am not yet willing to believe that he can drag an ambassador away from important duties to make him the respectable figurehead for a bad ticket.”  Spoiler Alert: FDR is quite wrong about that.

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Today -100: September 7, 1914: Days big with destiny

The German army invites residents of Louvain, Belgium to return to what’s left of it.  They pinky-swear there will be no more burning and looting if the Belgians behave themselves.

Headline of the Day -100:  “Kaiser Calls out Old Men.”  Some of the Landsturm troops spotted in Belgium have white hair.

Woodrow Wilson won’t campaign for any Democratic candidates for Congress this year.  He strongly hints that he’ll just be sittin’ in Washington, waiting for the warring European countries to ask him to mediate their little differences and save the day.  “These are days big with destiny for the United States, as for the other nations of the world,” he writes to Rep. Frank Doremus.

British newspapers strongly suspect that the agreement between Britain, France and Russia not to come to a separate peace had secret provisions...

1/3 of Oxford undergrads have volunteered for the army.

The Russians capture a German zeppelin.

King Victor Emmanuel of Italy falls off his horse.

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Today -100: September 6, 1914: Russia was for the systematic oppression of the individual before it was against it

Germany captures the Rheims fortress.

France, Russia and Britain have signed an agreement not to make a separate peace and pledging to negotiate peace terms jointly.

Germany puts out an official statement on the destruction of Louvain.  It claims, again, falsely, that townies attacked German soldiers “after the Germans had been in pleasant relationship with the inhabitants of Louvain for more than twenty-four hours,” and further that those poor soldiers were “principally of middle-aged and peaceful men, themselves fathers of families.”

Congress is working on  replacing government revenues lost because of the drop in international trade.  They need to make up $100 million and they’re thinking it should mostly come from a tax on beer.

Baron Korff – the name of a baddy in a cheap spy film if ever I heard one – the Russian vice consul in NY, has an op-ed in the Sunday NYT saying that the Allied cause is about fighting German militarism, “accompanied by systematic oppression of the individual residing in German territory.”  That’s a Russian official denouncing the oppression of the individual, which wow.  He claims there was a secret plot, in which the late Archduke Franz Ferdinand was a prime mover, for Germany to annex the Germanic provinces of the Austrian Empire, which would become an exclusively Slavic nation and annex Serbia.

Headline of the Day -100:  “Christabel Emerges.”  The NYT welcomes the return of Miss Pankhurst to England, now that she’ll be agitating for the war, which is much more useful than agitating for the vote: “Christabel has at last found a mission worthy of her powers of reasoning and persuasion.”

The Russian military will allow Jews to be officers for the first time.

The mayor of Barwick, Georgia institutes a $25 fine for anyone found talking about the war.

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Today -100: September 5, 1914: Who wants me?

The British Home Office urges that neither work nor relief be given to young single men.

1st appearance of the iconic Kitchener  poster (the model for those Uncle Sam Wants You posters).  Notice how his mustache follows you wherever you go.

Cardinal Mercier, the archbishop of Malines (Mechelen), Belgium, can’t return home from Rome after the conclave that chose the new pope, because the Austrian ambassador to Rome refuses to grant him safe passage unless he denies reports of German atrocities in Belgium.

Switzerland is relaxing and standing down its militia.  Given how badly Germany bogged down in Belgium while violating its neutrality, the Swiss do not think it will now do the same to Switzerland’s.

A NYT editorial attributes the rise of Democratic prospects in November, when until recently a Republican landslide had been expected (in these days before polling, it’s unclear how the NYT is judging electoral prospects), entirely to the European war making petty criticisms of Wilson look petty and putting jingoistic criticisms of Wilson’s relatively cautious approach in Mexico into a new perspective.

Headline of the Day -100:  “MACHINE GUNS IN ACTION.; British Soldiers Tell of the Terrific Execution They Do.”  Terrific.

Although Venustiano Carranza has been calling himself the Provisional President of Mexico for a year, he has now stopped calling himself that, because under the constitution a provisional president can’t run for election as Fully Fledged 100% We Really Mean It President.  The NYT asks, if Carranza isn’t president, who is?  “It is not customary for Mexico to be without a President. She frequently has two at a time.”  And will again.  Soon.

Headline of the Day -100:  “American Spunk Needed.”  The NYT thinks Americans have enough of the stuff to replace various chemical products which had been imported from Germany.

On the remains of the destroyed German cruiser Magdeburg, Russians find cats-o’-nine-tails in officers’ cabins, “and all bore signs of hard usage.”

The good news for Parisians is that the government is providing free trains for them to flee the city.

Supposedly, prayers for the success of Germany and Austria have been ordered said in every mosque in Turkey, which is believed to be the first time Muslims have ever prayed for Christians, or something.

In Britain, the Union of Democratic Control issues a circular letter calling for the end of secret diplomacy, for peace negotiations after the war to reflect the views of people rather than governments (the “Democratic Control” in their name), etc.  This was intended to be low-profile; the letter even says, “When the time is ripe for it, but not before the country is secure from danger, meetings will be organised and speakers provided”.  Ironically, attacks on it by MPs and the Morning Post as a German conspiracy forced the group to go public to explain itself.

Headline of the Day -100 (L.A. Times):  “Antwerp Sees Zeppelin.”

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Today -100: September 4, 1914: Of snow and boots, mobilization, exiles, outgoing princes and incoming popes

Fog of War (Rumors, Propaganda and Just Plain Bullshit) of the Day -100: Lady Churchill (Winston’s mother) says that Prince Friedrich Wilhem of Lippe, a general in the German army, committed suicide in shame after his regiment fired on other German troops, mistaking them for Belgians.  In fact, he was killed in battle in the ordinary manner.

Snow of War -100: 72,000 Russian soldiers have supposedly arrived in Scotland on their way to the Western Front (still with snow on their boots, as some very credulous but persistent rumors will have it).

Turkey is mobilizing its army and is expected to declare war on Russia at some point.  Kurds and Christians (Armenians) are resisting being drafted.

The British have captured the German governor of German Samoa and sent him into exile on Fiji, which must totally suck.

Christabel Pankhurst returns to Britain from her long Paris exile.

The (American) National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage will devote itself entirely to supporting the work of the Red Cross in Europe.  The Antis hope the suffragists will join them in a “truce.”

Prince William of Wied, whose venerable line has ruled Albania for lo these many weeks, flees to Italy, never to return.

The Archbishop of Bologna, Della Chiesa, is elected pope.  Benedict XV.

Mexico: Federal Gen. Higinio Aguilar calls on all former soldiers of the former Federal army to help him overthrow Carranza.

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Today -100: September 3, 1914: Teach them how to shoot, and do it quickly

Fog of War (Rumors, Propaganda and Just Plain Bullshit) of the Day -100: The LA Times reports that Turkey has declared war on the Allies.  Although quoting “authentic word” “on the highest authority,” the LA Times is in fact wrong.

Supposedly, a shell almost killed Albert, King of the Belgians, blowing the rear wheel off his car.

Headline of the Day -100:  “Sioux Had Narrow Escape; Indians from Circus Saw Austrians Kill Many Supposed Spies.”  And saw 300 Serbs summarily executed for allegedly poisoning wells.

A British soldiers tells the London Standard, “The Germans are such sticklers for rules that I have seen their artillery keep firing away at a position of ours after it had been occupied by their own men”.  Never attribute to human error what can be attributed to a national stereotype.

An American newspaper, The Independent, interviews Count Johann von Bernstorff, the German ambassador to the US and Mexico.  It’s hard to say which of his lies is my favorite: Serbia rejected the “most important” of Austria’s demands, that it officially condemn Pan-Slavic propaganda and the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand to the officers of the Serb army; when Austria declared war on Serbia it promised Russia to maintain Serbia’s territorial integrity; France would have invaded Germany through Belgium if Germany hadn’t preemptively invaded Belgium first; the priests of Louvain distributed weapons to civilians who attacked German soldiers and “mutilated and treated [them] with acts of bestial cruelty,” etc.  Bernstorff condemns the use by France and Britain of African and Asiatic troops.

The French government is transferred to Bordeaux, but it does “recommend calmness and resolution” to the people of Paris, you know, the ones who aren’t fleeing to the south.

With Russian troops in East Prussia, the German papers are full of fake atrocity stories of their own: rapes, bayoneting children, etc.  As well as the ludicrous stories of Belgian women and children attacking poor defenseless German soldiers.

Quote of the Day -100: British Secretary of War Lord Kitchener: “Never mind whether they know anything about drill.  It doesn’t matter if they don’t know their right foot from their left. Teach them how to shoot, and do it quickly.”

Serbia is going to invade Austria while it’s otherwise occupied fighting Russian troops.

Despite the rebel victory in Mexico, the US is still occupying Vera Cruz, and says it will continue to do so until after general elections are held and the US recognizes a new Mexican government.

The Senate votes 46-16 for the Federal Trade Commission Bill, which will, among other things, ban interlocking boards of directors for competing companies, ban anti-competitive holding companies, etc.

Butte is under martial law, and the Montana National Guard are arresting leaders of the Mine Workers’ Union, but they cannot locate its president, “Muckie” McDonald.

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Today -100: September 2, 1914: Who’s for the front?

The tsar changes St. Petersburg’s name to Petrograd, which sounds less, you know, German.

Headline of the Day -100:  “Kaiser Prepares Turkey for War.”  The Turkish army is supposedly being mobilized, with German officers integrated into it.  This is taken as proof that Turkey will soon enter the war on the German side, although German officers seconded to the Turkish army is nothing new.

It is suggested that if Turkey enters the war and stirs up the Muslims of India, Britain’s ally Japan might send troops to India.

The French introduce a delightful innovation: “steel arrows” dropped from airplanes onto the enemy.

Russia will allow Jewish doctors and students to take Red Cross courses, which they previously were not.

The four richest men in Belgium guarantee the $40 million “war tax” imposed by Germany on Brussels, so the city isn’t destroyed.

Headline of the Day -100:  “French Aviator Cheers Brussels.”  He drops pamphlets saying “Deliverance Soon.”  The Belgians love that movie; “Squea’ lakh ah piggeh!” they shout along with the movie in their delightful Belgian accents.

George Bernard Shaw says that Britain, France and Germany are jointly “committing a crime against civilisation for the benefit of Russia,” “half-civilized Eastern legions to whom we have taught the art of killing by machinery.”  He calls the war an “insane cause,” which we have to fight with all our might.  Whatever, dude.

Sir Edward Carson offers the use of the Ulster Volunteers – you know, the group formed to violently resist the British Army if Home Rule was implemented – for use in the war.

The NYT gleefully insists that “Senator La Follette and his doctrines received a smashing blow today in the [Wisconsin] State primaries”.  Actually, it sounds more like too many of his supporters entered the gubernatorial primary, dividing the vote and allowing old-line Republican Emanuel Philipp – a railroad tycoon, no less – to win the primary.

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Today -100: September 1, 1914: There are two sides to the atrocity question

Belgium is sending a commission to the United States to tell the American people all about German atrocities, real and imagined.  Which now include taking Belgians as slaves to harvest crops in Germany (that one is real).

Headline of the Day -100:  “Germans Singing As Ship Went Down.”  The cruiser Ariadne, sunk by the British off Heligoland.  They were singing “The Flag and Germany Above All,” which is perhaps a poor choice under the circumstances.  Perhaps it was intended ironically.

Fog of War (Rumors, Propaganda and Just Plain Bullshit) of the Day -100: The LAT reports that Galician prisoners of war say that Austria announced that it has annexed Serbia.

Montana Gov. Sam Stewart calls on the federal government to send troops to the mine-strike districts.  Miners are threatening to burn Butte if the state militia comes and have blown up the employment office of one of Anaconda’s mines.  The guardsmen are only waiting for their Gatling guns to arrive, so this should end well.

British Prime Minister Asquith complains in the House of Commons about a Sunday Times dispatch from Amiens which was pessimistic about the Allies’ chances.  He says this story is a “regrettable exception to the patriotic reticence which the press as a whole has shown up to the present”.  Only the British could coin a phrase like “patriotic reticence.”

Germany will now allow citizens of countries with which it’s at war to leave Germany, if it’s reciprocal.  Which means it will hold on to Russian males of military age, as Russia is holding on to Germans.

The Berlin Social Democratic Party newspaper Vorwärts says that the stories in more militaristic newspapers about alleged atrocities inflicted on poor German invading troops by mean French and Belgian civilians, which are being used as an excuse for reprisals, may not be entirely accurate (indeed, they are not).  It points out that under Prussian law, it is legal for Prussians to resist invading armies by sniping and other such means, so it’s hypocritical to complain when others do the same.

The German ambassador to the US, Count von Bernstorff, says “there are two sides to the ‘atrocity’ question” in Louvain, equating supposed attacks by Louvainhoovians on German troops (which didn’t happen) with the German massacre and burning and looting of the town.  He says it’s just like the atrocities Belgians committed in the Congo. Or something.  I’m not sure exactly what his point is.  A reporter points out that the Mexicans sniped at US marines in Vera Cruz without their town being burned down; Bernstorff says Louvain is entirely different from Vera Cruz because “Germany is fighting for her very existence”.  He justifies the air attack on Paris (one bomb dropped, didn’t go off), saying if art works in the Louvre or wherever are damaged, it’s the fault of the French for turning Paris into a fortress.

Republicans on the House Insular Affairs Committee say that further consideration of Wilson’s measure to give slightly greater autonomy to the Philippines would drag the US into the European war, because it would lead nations such as Germany and Japan to believe the US would not go to war to defend Philippines, Guam, Hawaii & Samoa.

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Today -100: August 31, 1914: You can do nothing but surrender

Headline of the Day -100 (Daily Mail):  “Women’s War: White Feathers for ‘Slackers.’”  Retired Royal Navy Admiral Charles Penrose Fitzgerald deputizes thirty women to hand out white feathers to men found “idling and loafing,” i.e., not in uniform.

Well, here’s a term you don’t want to see.  In an otherwise false story from a German source about how Louvain’s dastardly civilians attacked perfectly innocent German soldiers, it is mentioned that the town’s men were taken to a “concentration camp.”

The Russians have supposedly captured Königsberg in East Prussia (which today is called Woody Allen Kaliningrad, Russia).

The complete loss of three Russian army corps at the Battle of Tannenberg goes completely unreported in French and British newspapers.

Serbia accuses Austria of committing atrocities during its retreat.

German Samoa surrenders to New Zealand forces.

The German press is confident that German troops will be in Paris by Wednesday (two days from now).  A German plane drops some bombs on Paris, most of which did not go off, and leaflets saying “The German Army is at the gates of Paris; you can do nothing but surrender.”

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No decent country

John Kerry op-ed on ISIS:  “no decent country can support the horrors perpetrated by ISIS, and no civilized country should shirk its responsibility to help stamp out this disease.”

Did the State Dept committee that ghosted this see nothing wrong with defining entire nations as decent – or not – or as civilized – or not?

Elsewhere, terrible Labour Party leader Ed Miliband calls for a “mandatory programme of deradicalisation” for British Muslims who might be planning to go to Syria or Iraq to jihad up the place.  I guess you can’t put them in prison for something they might do, but evidently you can forcibly “re-educate” them.

[Paragraph about the John McCain and Lindsey Graham op-ed in the NYT deleted, because why bother?  You’re welcome.]

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Today -100: August 30, 1914: Of forts, bestial atrocities, twilight sleep, nostalgia, and electric chairs

The House votes to create a Federal bureau of war risk marine insurance, with a $5,000,000 fund to cover the risk to shipping from the war.

The military governor of Paris orders residents within the line of fire of the city’s forts to abandon their homes, which will be destroyed to create a line of fire.

The Germans are threatening to seize works of art unless Brussels pays the $40 million indemnity.

Germany justifies the burning of Louvain by claiming that civilians were sniping at German soldiers with guns handed out by magistrates and priests, and that they committed “bestial atrocities against the wounded.”  Bestial atrocities are the worst kind.

It won’t make the papers, but Russian Gen. Alexander Samsonov, after his invasion of East Prussia ends in a spectacular defeat in which almost his entire army is encircled by Germans and captured or killed in the Battle of Tannenberg – more than 100,000 men – shoots himself in the head.

Fog of War (Rumors, Propaganda and Just Plain Bullshit) of the Day -100: Supposedly the 135th German Infantry pretended to surrender, but when French soldiers approached, attacked them with machine guns they’d hidden.  Naturally, so the story goes, the French charged them with, um, bayonets and wiped them out, because they’re just that good.

The Jewish Maternity Hospital of New York City has been experimenting with a method of painless childbirth called twilight sleep, which involves drugs.  Lots and lots of drugs.  Including morphine.  Actually, it may not so much eliminate pain as eliminate any memory of it.

A jailer in Paris, Kentucky shoots into a mob attempting to storm the jail and lynch a negro prisoner, killing one of the mob.

The National American Woman’s Suffrage Association (NAWSA) names a “blacklist” of 9 senators and 9 congresscritters who are the greatest obstacles to women’s suffrage.  Along with the usual suspects (Elihu Root, Henry Cabot Lodge) are future vice president John Nance Garner and Thomas Gore.

Attorney General James McReynolds is confirmed as Supreme Court justice, 44-6.

Headline of the Day -100:  “Asks Leave for Nostalgia.”  Congress has been having trouble maintaining a quorum and has resorted to sending out the gendarmes to drag members to the chamber and threatening to dock the pay of any member absent without permission.  Now Rep. Michael Burke, the first-term Democrat from Wisconsin, is asking for permission to go home to Beaver Dam because of illness: homesickness, or nostalgia as he calls it.

New York has fired Edwin Davis (wrongly called Charles Davis by the NYT), the executioner employed for 240 executions since NY introduced the electric chair in 1890 (Davis holds one of the patents), because he wouldn’t reduce his $250 fee (each – no discount for multiple fryings).  Yonkers politician Thomas Mannion will do it for $150.

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Imagine that

Hillary Clinton, a little late to the Ferguson party:

Imagine what he with would feel and what we would do if white drivers were three times as likely to be searched by police during a traffic stop as black drivers. Instead of the other way around; if white offenders received prison sentences 10 percent longer than black offenders for the same crimes; if a third of all white men, just look at this room and take one-third, went to prison during their lifetime. Imagine that.

Imagine if politicians could feel empathy for black people without first having to translate their experience into Caucasian.  Imagine that.

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Today -100: August 29, 1914: Poor Louvain

Austria declares war on Belgium.

I feel like I should put those announcements in a special font or something.

Germany and Austria offer peace terms: Britain shall respect Germany’s commerce and its right to colonies; France to pay an indemnity; Poland recreated as a buffer state; Serbia to cease its pan-Slavic propaganda; Germany will recognize Britain’s naval supremacy.

France says Germans shot three Red Cross nurses.

The British win a naval battle off Heligoland in the North Sea.

The Germans burn and sack Louvain, Belgium, claiming that civilians “perfidiously attacked German troops.” It was actually a friendly fire incident, but the Germans have worked themselves up into a panicky indignant froth – yes, I said panicky indignant froth – about civilian resistance, which basically doesn’t exist and anyway Louvainihoovians were all made to turn in their guns before the Germans marched in. The Germans burn various medieval churches and the medieval university library (and it was a very good library with lots of irreplaceable medieval manuscripts and suchlike).  Also, and this news isn’t out yet, the burgomaster and other officials, including the entire Louvain police force and the university rector, are executed, as well as hundreds of civilians.  This incident – the cultural vandalism perhaps more than cruelty to civilians as a matter of military policy – will be used as the prime example of German assholery in Allied propaganda for some time and it has the virtue of all being true, unlike so many of the atrocity stories.  It had an effect on public opinion in neutral countries like Italy and the US.

Since Brussels has failed to pay the Germans the $40 million they demanded, they demand $2 million from the local scion of the Rothschild family and $6 million from Ernst Solvay, the chemicals magnate.

Germany defends the bombardment of Antwerp from zeppelins, citing the city’s status as a fortified city.  They say if Belgium didn’t want its women and children blown up it should have removed them from fortresses liable to attack.  They say the royal palace was fair game because the king is commander in chief of the Belgian army.

Germany orders all Belgian males aged 17 to 42 in the Liège region to go to Germany to bring in the harvest.  Many are instead fleeing to the Netherlands.

France’s Gen. Alexandre Persin, who evacuated his troops from Lille instead of defending it, is transferred in disgrace.

German troops attack the Belgian Congo.

Britain will use Indian troops, Kitchener says.  The Secretary of State for India, Lord Crewe, says that he doesn’t see a problem removing all those troops from India, because of the “enthusiasm” the Indians have shown for this war.

Sexy, Sexy Headline of the Day -100:  “RESISTED CZAR'S ADVANCE.; Germans Fought Desperately Till They Were Outmanoeuvred.”

German Uhlans (cavalry) take 130 francs from the town cash box of Alost, Belgium, leaving an IOU and 1½ francs as a tip for the police.

But you know who is worst affected by the war?  Washington D.C. hostesses, who when making out their invitation lists have to keep track of which foreign ambassadors and diplomatic staff are not allowed to speak with which other diplomats.

Rudyard Kipling is briefly detained as a suspected German spy while taking one of his constitutionals along the seaside near his home on the south coast of England.

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Today -100: August 28, 1914: Of bombs & birthdays, titles, royal orphans, zeppelin plots, and getting the shaft

King George of England writes to Albert, King of the Belgians: “I am shocked to hear of the dangers you have run from the throwing of bombs.  I hope that the Queen and the children have not suffered.”  Well, they have had to cancel the usual public celebrations of Queen Wilhelmina’s birthday this week and ban street music, so suffer she most certain has.

Kaiser Wilhelm renounces his British titles (field marshal in the British army, admiral in the Royal Navy).

The “royal orphans,” the children of the late Archduke Franz Ferdinand and Sophie, have been sent to Switzerland for the remainder of the war.  After the war they were barred from their ancestral home on their mother’s side, now Czechoslovakia, and their lands confiscated (their descendants are still trying to get their castle back), so they went to Vienna.  The two brothers were put in Dachau after Anschluss, but both survived.  Duke Maximilian was elected mayor of Artstetten after World War II.

The Yorkville (NY) Record prints a letter that explains that the Germans once kidnapped King George of Great Britain with a zeppelin and released him only after a, how you say, king’s ransom was paid – you didn’t hear about it because the British government covered it up out of embarrassment – and can do so again ANY TIME THEY WANT.

The Bull Moose party’s NY state committee decisively rejects impeached former governor William Sulzer’s application to be their gubernatorial candidate (although they can’t stop him running in their primary).  The committee selects a slate of candidates for the upcoming NY constitution convention that includes one negro, James C. Thomas, Jr., and one woman, Katherine Davis, the commissioner of corrections.

Woodrow Wilson vetoes his first bill, one to reinstate a captain in the army medical corps who was honorably discharged.

17 British suffragettes are arrested attempting to see the home secretary to talk about forcible feeding.

The new French cabinet, full of heavy-hitters including no less than three former prime ministers, orders Paris readied for a possible siege.

Unlikely Headline of the Day -100:  “Man Who Fell 24 Stories Still Alive.”  John Bosci fell down an elevator shaft in the Park Row Building, which was the world’s tallest building until 1908 and therefore a prestigious location from which to fall a great distance, as the anarchist Andrea Salsedo must have thought when the police shoved him out one of the building’s windows in 1920.

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Today -100: August 27, 1914: Of wars, petticoats, zeppelins and depraved minds, togos, and dead princes

Austria declares war on Japan.  I think it’s a Secret Santa thing.  I don’t believe there were ever any Austro-Japanese battles.

Prime Minister Asquith says he doesn’t intend to introduce conscription.  Others are trying to shame men into joining up in the time-honored manner: an ad in today’s London Times reads “Wanted, petticoats for all able-bodied youth in this country who have not yet joined the navy or army.”

Belgium says German zeppelin attacks on Antwerp are a violation of international law, an attack on civilians.  One part of the Fourth Convention of the Hague specifically bans dropping bombs from balloons, but Germany and Austria refused to ratify that part.  The NYT thinks the German military authorities are too civilized to have ordered such a thing, so the zep’s crew must have been “inspired by a depraved mind”.

German Togoland surrenders to Britain and France, which can now argue between themselves over who will get to keep it and whether they’ll change its name to something less amusing.

German newspapers are complaining about the (fictitious) treatment of Germans in other countries.  For example, a Hamburg paper says German patients were thrown out of hospitals in London.  German papers also complain that some German women met trains carrying French POWs and gave them cigarettes and chocolates.  A poem in the official Lokal-Anzeiger says, poetically, “Give me a whip for those women without breeding and honor!”

Prince Friedrich of Lippe – which is an actual German state, used to be one of those dozens and dozens of tiny German countries – is machine-gunned in Belgium, as was the custom.

Prince Georges de Ligne, a Belgian prince, is also killed. It’s getting all Game of Thrones out there.

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Today -100: August 26, 1914: What is the distant thundering that I hear?

British War Secretary Lord Kitchener says that wine and spirits sent to the troops will not be forwarded to them (soldiers are not expected to be teetotal – that’s just crazy talk – and there will be an official ration of rum, though not as generous as the half liter of wine per day that French soldiers will be issued).

Britain, with 2,000 casualties in Belgium, the greatest loss in a single battle since the Crimean War, is beginning to plan for a longer war than expected, perhaps even as long as three years.  The newspapers are discussing conscription.  Secretary of War Kitchener wants 100,000 men just for starters.  The current term of enlistment for British soldiers is for the duration of the war or three years, whichever comes first.

French troops entering the Lost Province of Lorraine were greeted by the local officials – who then pointed out their position to the Germans.  “A local schoolmaster corrected the range of the German guns by moving the hands of the church clock.”

France has retreated from Alsace.

Kaiser Wilhelm has awarded two of his sons the Iron Cross for bravery.

From Punch (click for bigger).  Caption reads: The Coming of the Cossacks.  Wilhelm II: “What is the distant thundering that I hear? Doubtless the plaudits of my people!”

Turkey bought two cruisers from Germany, which are still crewed by Germans, despite objections from Britain, France and Russia.  Turkey seems to be inching towards entering the war, which would probably bring in Italy, Greece and Bulgaria against it.

Italy says Austrian troops are massing on its border.

Germany keeps imposing new (illegal by international law) levies on Belgium.

Fog of War? The NYT, evidently under the impression it’s mentioned this before, talks about stories of a Belgian soldier, Lt. Henkhart, driving around Antwerp in an armored car all by himself shooting Germans.  They have no idea if it’s true.

Some Japanese sailors are petitioning to be sent to the front against Germany, signing the petition with their own blood, as was the custom.

Woodrow Wilson declares more American neutrality, this time in the war between Germany and Japan.  This is the 9th sub-war he’s had to declare neutrality in, if you’re keeping track at home.

But US “neutrality” evidently doesn’t require arms manufacturers not to sell to combatant nations, which is a funny definition of neutrality.  The German-American Alliance protests the sale by Colt of guns to Canada.

A court martial acquits the 22 Colorado National Guardsmen for their role in the Ludlow massacre (specifically, they were charged with murder, manslaughter, arson and larceny).

This blog’s frenemy, Gov. Coleman Blease of South Carolina, loses his bid for a US Senate seat to incumbent Ellison “Cotton Ed” (he  aims to keep the negro down and cotton prices up) Smith.

Blease will win that Senate seat in a decade.

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Today -100: August 25, 1914: Of censorship, European time, the kaiser of Europe, punitive expeditions, and cocks

The US, still deciding how much censorship to impose on wireless stations, discovers that the Germans have been evading it through relay ships in the Atlantic.  The US has now shut down a German wireless station operating without a license on Long Island.

Germany plans to establish its own government in Belgium, and to impose the use of European time rather than Greenwich Mean Time.

The German ambassador to Italy has been trying to get Italian newspapers to support Italy joining the war on the Central Powers’ side, but has found no takers, even after offering to give Italy Algeria as well as Tunisia.

German soldiers wrote “Wilhelm II, Kaiser of Europe” on the walls of houses they burned in Liège.

Fog of War (Rumors, Propaganda and Just Plain Bullshit) of the Day -100?: German soldiers are said to have burned down the Belgian village of Hussigny and carried off its male population after civilians fired on German troops.

Fog of War (Rumors, Propaganda and Just Plain Bullshit) of the Day -100: Austrian Emperor Franz Josef is dying (LA Times headline: Death of Franz Josef A Question of Hours)(the LA Times uses that German spelling, while the NYT calls him Francis Joseph, by the way).

Austria has down-graded its war with Serbia from a war to a “punitive expedition,” because it has to go fight the Russians now.  Or to put it another way, the much smaller Serb Army handed them their asses.

Austria agrees to dismantle its sole cruiser in Chinese waters so that Japan doesn’t declare war on it too.

Name of the Day -100: Augustus C. Cock, whose name appears in the obituaries.

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Today -100: August 24, 1914: Of literal pieces, dum-dums, and ex-kings

Japan declares war on Germany.

The NYT says that three regiments of the Austrian Army were “literally cut to pieces at the confluence of the Rivers Drina and Save.”  I guess literally in this case does mean literally.

Cardinal Agliardi wants the war suspended while a new pope is elected.

The Swedish parliament’s lower house rejects women’s suffrage.

France files a complaint with the signatories of the Hague Conventions against Germany’s use of dum-dum bullets (designed to expand inside the body), which were banned as inhumane in 1899.

Prince William of Albania has fled the country after a rather short reign.  (Actually this report seems to be premature by a week or so).  The European powers which put him on the throne and kept him there for lo these many weeks are presently engaged elsewhere.

Having read, and published, the reports of both the British and German government on Who Started The War Certainly Not Us, the NYT concludes “that this is a war brought on not by peoples, not in the interests of peoples, but by dynasties for their own interests.”

New York suffragists believe that they could receive the vote – although only for the office of president – through a simple law rather than an amendment to the state constitution following a referendum, because the US constitution leaves the manner in which members of the Electoral College are selected up to the state legislatures.

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Today -100: August 23, 1914: Of false fleets, coal, and gay flags

Some Americans are volunteering for the French military, including aviator William Thaw, who’s bringing his plane with him.

Several of the warring countries have published Blue Books or White Papers or Yellow Books purporting to show that they’re not responsible for starting the war.  The NYT reproduces the British one.

Fog of War (Rumors, Propaganda and Just Plain Bullshit) of the Day -100: the Austrian fleet supposedly fought for six hours against an enemy fleet that wasn’t actually there.

The deadline for Japan’s ultimatum to Germany to give up Kiautschou is reached, unanswered.  Japanese newspapers are now suggesting that Japan’s promise to restore the territory to China eventually was contingent on Germany handing it over to Japan peacefully, so it doesn’t count.

The US Senate passes a bill for the government to purchase up to 15 million ounces of silver to keep up the price, which is under threat by the war.

The Germans shoot the burgomaster of Aerschot (Aarschot), Belgium, plus his son and his brother and 153 more.

The British protest to the United States about a ship which left San Francisco carrying coal they believe is intended for German warships.  International law is a bit complicated about neutral countries refueling combatant ships: German ships in the Pacific can only legally take on just enough coal to get them to the nearest German port, which would be in Samoa, and not do it again for three months.

The Austrian army is defeated by a much smaller Serb force.

Headline of the Day -100:  “Antwerp Gay With Flags.”

Heartwarming Story of the Day -100: the life of a French soldier in Lorraine (from where the French army has been forced to retreat, by the way) is saved when a bullet is deflected by a bust of Kaiser Wilhelm he’d looted from a school.

The New York Bull Moose party decides that the State Committee meeting will be open to anyone to speak, in a not terribly subtle attempt to get the meeting to stampede Theodore Roosevelt into running for governor, because no matter how many times he says he won’t run, no one really believes him.

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Today -100: August 22, 1914: Of indemnities, peace, linoleum, splashes, and chaunceys

Germany imposes a war levy of $40 million on Brussels and $10 million on Liège, in violation of the rules of war as codified by the Hague Conference of 1899.  Bakers in Brussels will be required to supply the Germany Army with bread, at local prices. Various other goods, including cars and horses, are being “bought” at fixed prices by the Germans. Prominent Brusselèèrs have been taken hostage against the good behaviour of the populace.

Headline of the Day -100:  “Peace in Santo Domingo.”  The first sentence elaborates: “Peace plans, supported by the guns of American warships and a regiment of marines, have been agreed upon by the warring factions in Santo Domingo.”  Because nothing says peace like American warships and marines.

Japan’s ultimatum to Germany over Kiautschou (which has expired, unanswered) is freaking out some Americans.  Sen. Jacob Gallinger (R-NH) offers a resolution supporting the territorial integrity of China, which is evidently threatened when Japan holds a piece of it but not when Germany does.  Gallinger thinks Japan intends to seize every Pacific island between Japan and San Francisco.  The US has told Japan that it “understands” that Japan will confine any military actions to Kiautschou and if it plans to go beyond that at any point it needs to consult with the US first.

The war has struck home for Americans: it may affect linoleum manufacturing, which depends on imports of burlap from Scotland, where all the workers are now off at war, and those plants are in turn dependent on jute from India, which was transported on German ships before the war.

Orville Wright, flying a hydroplane with an army lieutenant as passenger, splashes down unexpectedly in the Miami River (Ohio), and they have to swim ashore.

Theodore Roosevelt takes back his endorsement of the alliterative Harvey Hinman for governor of New York.  Hinman will be the Republican candidate, but now the Progressive Party has to find its own candidate.  One possibility is Chauncey J. Hamlin.  I don’t know who Chauncey J. Hamlin is, but he is our Name of the Day -100.  Chauncey J. Hamlin.

Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan says of the Constitutionalist victory in Mexico, “Watchful waiting wins in Mexico.”

This is a genuine advertisement at the bottom of the NYT’s front page:

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Today -100: August 21, 1914: Of triumphal entries, bayonet teeth, unimportant occupations, neutrality, and black popes

Venustiano Carranza enters Mexico City in triumph, occupies the National Palace, does the balcony thing, etc.

William Randolph Hearst is in negotiations with Tammany Hall to be the Democratic candidate for US senator from New York.

The Germans are said to be using bayonets with teeth on ‘em, the better to tear your skin.  On the other hand, Prussian bullets are extremely pointy and so are more likely to pass through bodies cleanly and not need to be extracted.

Belgian troops are retreating before the massive German influx.  The British embassy in the US claims that because the government had already left Brussels and the city was undefended, its occupation by the Germans “is not of great importance.”  The Brusselèèrs might disagree.

Fog(gy Demographics) of War of the Day -100: The German government is evidently circulating the claim that there are 33 million people of German descent in the US, so it will never go to war against Germany.

China, believing for some reason that if Japan gets hold of the German colony of Kiautschou, it might decide to keep it rather than handing it back to China like it says it will do – eventually – suggests that Kiautschou go instead to the United States, which would give it to China.

Germans from German East Africa (aka Tanganyika, now Tanzania) raid British Kenya and steal some cattle.

The US issues another neutrality proclamation, this one for the war between Germany and Belgium.  A reminder that this is still officially a bunch of separate wars.  Austria, for instance, hasn’t declared war on Belgium yet, but will in a day or two.

Fog of War (Rumors, Propaganda and Just Plain Bullshit) of the Day -100: Germany supposedly shot a blind Alsatian bishop as a spy.

Unlikely Headline of the Day -100: “Death of Pope May Aid Peace.”

The Vatican is asking the warring European countries whether they will allow the cardinals to go to Rome to elect a new pope.  Presumably they will, but will be less accommodating to the guys who need to come to Rome to elect a new head of the Jesuits (who is called a Black Pope)(whoops, Wikipedia says that term is derogatory) to replace the one who died at the same time as Pope Pius.  That election may need to await the end of the war. (Spoiler Alert: it won’t.)

IWWer Becky Edelson is released from prison on a bond collected by her friends who were afraid she’ would fast to death.  Supposedly she has hunger-struck for 37 days and not been forcibly fed.

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Today -100: August 20, 1914: We are getting the best of it

Pope Piux X has died. Supposedly the 79-year-old pope died from heartbreak over his lack of ability to prevent the slaughter of the Great War.

Fog of War (Rumors, Propaganda and Just Plain Bullshit) of the Day, Atrocities Division: Italians say they were forced out of Germany at gunpoint, starved along the way, and shot when they shouted “Viva Italia!” on being told they were finally being permitted to leave Germany.  German newspapers say that German women were dragged naked by their hair in Antwerp and elsewhere in Belgium and German children were thrown out of windows.  And the (London) Daily Mail repeats a Russian report that Czech and Polish troops in the Austrian army rebelled, shot down their officers, and held Prague for like a day before the Austrians retook the city and slaughtered and pillaged and raped and blah blah blahed.

Fog of War?  Germany purportedly tried to bribe Greece into entering the war on its side by offering it Serbian Macedonia and the Aegean Islands (which Greece already occupied in the last Balkan War, or maybe the one before that).  Greece rejected the offer after hearing that Germany was also offering the Aegean Islands (and Salonika) to Turkey if it joined them.

A French aviator drops leaflets on besieged Liège reading “Keep up your courage, people of Liège.  We are getting the best of it.”

A battle between Mexican horse thieves and Arizona sheriff’s deputies in Devil’s Canyon resulted in the deaths of two of the former and one of the latter.  Later in the day an ambush by the Mexicans resulted in one bandit being killed.  Then, a fight with a posse killed two on each side.  White residents of Ray then invaded the Mexican side of town, killing 7 more and driving the rest into the hills.  Whites are now looking for more Mexicans to kill, as is the custom.

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Today -100: August 19, 1914: Be neutral in fact as well as in name

Woodrow Wilson chooses Attorney General James McReynolds for the empty seat on the Supreme Court.  Mostly so he doesn’t have to deal with the thoroughly unpleasant McReynolds in Cabinet anymore.  There really doesn’t seem to have been any more thought behind it than that.  Wilson chose a lot more carefully for the next vacancy, appointing Louis Brandeis in 1916, which made for some awkwardness because McReynolds was a HUUUUGE anti-Semite.  Wouldn’t even talk to Jews, including fellow justices, or listen when a woman lawyer was speaking.

Woodrow Wilson addresses the nation, asking Americans to censor themselves in the name of neutrality:

The effect of the war upon the United States will depend upon what American citizens say and do. Every man who really loves America will act and speak in the true spirit of neutrality, which is the spirit of impartiality and fairness and friendliness to all concerned. The spirit of the nation in this critical matter will be determined largely by what individuals and society and those gathered in public meetings do and say, upon what newspapers and magazines contain, upon what ministers utter in their pulpits, and men proclaim as their opinions upon the street.
   
The people of the United States are drawn from many nations, and chiefly from the nations now at war. It is natural and inevitable that there should be the utmost variety of sympathy and desire among them with regard to the issues and circumstances of the conflict. Some will wish one nation, others another, to succeed in the momentous struggle. It will be easy to excite passion and difficult to allay it. Those responsible for exciting it will assume a heavy responsibility, responsibility for no less a thing than that the people of the United States, whose love of their country and whose loyalty to its government should unite them as Americans all, bound in honor and affection to think first of her and her interests, may be divided in camps of hostile opinion, hot against each other, involved in the war itself in impulse and opinion if not in action.
   
Such divisions amongst us would be fatal to our peace of mind and might seriously stand in the way of the proper performance of our duty as the one great nation at peace, the one people holding itself ready to play a part of impartial mediation and speak the counsels of peace and accommodation, not as a partisan, but as a friend. 

I venture, therefore, my fellow countrymen, to speak a solemn word of warning to you against that deepest, most subtle, most essential breach of neutrality which may spring out of partisanship, out of passionately taking sides. The United States must be neutral in fact, as well as in name, during these days that are to try men's souls. We must be impartial in thought, as well as action, must put a curb upon our sentiments, as well as upon every transaction that might be construed as a preference of one party to the struggle before another.

Wilson signs an amendment to the Panama Canal Act to give foreign-built ships US registry.  This will allow German ships which were caught on the wrong side of the Atlantic when the war started to be sold to Americans without being sunk by the British (who insist that the sales of the ships be permanent and not a ruse to avoid being sunk).

Evidently a couple of weeks ago Wilson rejected calls from President Carbajal (and even from a majority of his own cabinet) to send troops to Mexican City to “preserve order” during the Constitutionalist takeover.

The first British forces arrive in France. Field Marshal Kitchener warns the troops, “you may find temptation both in wine and women. You must entirely resist both temptations, and, while treating all women with perfect courtesy, you should avoid any intimacy.”

Headline of the Day -100 (LA Times):  “Swordsmen on Aircraft.”
According to the LAT (and it’s smudged, so I may have the spellings wrong), “Georges Breitmayer and Rouselei Lorcieres, two of the most celebrated swordsmen in France, have enlisted to work machine guns aboard air craft.”

Fog of War (Rumors, Propaganda and Just Plain Bullshit) of the Day -100: the German crown prince is reported wounded.

Fog of War: German troops reportedly burned the town of Bruzweiler and blew up its factories because a German patrol was fired on.  I can’t find evidence that this town ever actually existed.

Fog of War: The London Daily Mail claims that the German General Staff has warned against the “lunatic frenzy” in which automobiles suspected of carrying spies are attacked in Germany, resulting in the recent deaths of 2 officers, 3 chauffeurs, some soldiers, 2 civilians and an Austrian countess.

A letter to the NYT says that panhandlers are pretending to be stranded European army reservists asking for a loan for passage to go home and fight.

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