Today -100: November 7, 1918: The Kaiser should be sent to St. Helena

Germany’s armistice delegation arrives at the Allied lines.

Demonstrations are breaking out all over Germany calling for ending the war and/or ending the monarchy. There are posters in Berlin saying “The Kaiser should be sent to St. Helena” (you know, like Napoleon).

The Austrian archdukes are all fleeing to Switzerland. Empress Zita has rented a chateau on Lake Constance.

Italy is holding something like 1 million Austrian POWs. Some of that is because Austrian troops didn’t retreat after the armistice because nobody, um, told them about it.

Theodore Roosevelt says Republicans won both houses of Congress “on the unconditional surrender issue” and that “the entire pro-German and pacifist vote was behind the Wilson Democratic ticket”. He says the victory was more for “straight Americanism” than Republicanism, and many Democrats voted Republican for war reasons.

Czechoslovakian leaders declares a republic, from a safe distance in Switzerland. Karel Kramář, a former political prisoner, is named prime minister (the NYT says president, but that’s Tomáš Masaryk).

There’s also a new Yugoslav/Jugoslav republic, but it won’t be around long.

Commercial Product That Has No Effect on Spanish Flu Being Promoted As Having An Effect on Spanish Flu of the Day -100:

If you think I’ve posted this before, that was actually an ad from a different malted milk company. Drink both, just to be sure.

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Today -100: November 6, 1918: It seemed as natural as breathing

US elections were held yesterday. Republicans gain 25 House seats and 5 Senate seats, taking control of both houses.

In Wisconsin, Socialist candidate Victor Berger wins election to the House despite being under indictment under the Espionage Act, beating incumbent William H. Stafford (R). Berger will no doubt be welcomed into the House with open arms. Interestingly, the Wisconsin congressional delegation in the 66th Congress will be 10 Republicans, 0 Democrats, and 1 Socialist (or would be if they let Berger take his seat).

The one woman running for Congress, I believe, suffrage activist Anne Martin, running for the Senate in Nevada as an independent, gets 18% of the vote. Jeanette Rankin made that ill-fated attempt to move from the House to the Senate and lost her primary, so she’ll be out of the House, leaving no women in Congress.

In Michigan, Henry Ford loses the  Senate race to Republican Truman Handy Newberry, a former secretary of the Navy. He’ll be convicted in 1921 under the Federal Corrupt Practices Act for over-spending in this year’s primary and resign, although the Supreme Court will overturn his conviction because primaries aren’t elections.

Another interesting new senator: Medill McCormick (R-Illinois), coming over from the House. He will losing his re-election primary in 1924 and commit suicide as his term came to an end. His widow Ruth Hanna McCormick, daughter of Mark Hanna and a women’s suffrage activist, will be elected to Congress from Illinois in 1928. She will lose her re-election bid and marry Albert Simms of New Mexico, who also served one term in Congress at the same time as her and also lost his seat in 1930. Probably a better way to respond to losing an election than her first husband’s.

Referenda: Arizona criminalizes gambling and brothels and establishes the death penalty. Prohibition passes in Colorado, Florida, Wyoming, Nevada, Ohio, and Washington but fails in California, Minnesota, and Missouri. Nebraska restricts the franchise to full US citizens, as does South Dakota, in an amendment that also restricts it to people who have lived in the state for at least a year, but gives it to women. Oklahoma and Michigan also give women the vote, but Louisiana doesn’t, thanks to an overwhelming no vote in New Orleans. That makes 15 women’s suffrage states, with the right to vote for president in 6 more.

Two women are elected to the NY State Assembly, Ida Sammis (who, the story goes, used her official spittoon as a flower vase) and Mary Lilly. Women voted in New York for the first time. Mary Garrett Hay, president of the New York Equal Suffrage League, says after casting her first ever ballot, “It seemed as natural as breathing, and I felt as though I had always voted.”

Alfred E. Smith (D) defeats incumbent NY Gov. Charles Whitman.

The Allies agree to make peace based on Wilson’s 14 Points. So if you were wondering when they’d finally announce their peace aims, the answer is less than a week before the war ends.

French PM Georges Clemenceau warns that the war might not end as soon as people think. He says France could not have won without allies, singling out “Our ancestral enemies, the English, have become our indestructible friends.” Until Brexit anyway. Oh, and that time de Gaulle vetoed Britain joining the EEC.

Austrian Emperor Charles, the NYT says, refused to sign the armistice and turned over supreme command of the army to Field Marshal Arthur Arz von Straußenburg so he wouldn’t have to. In fact, Straußenburg wouldn’t do it either and refused the promotion, leaving the task to another field marshal. The State Council at Vienna issues an appeal to ethnic German soldiers to please stop just walking away from their posts.

Hungary will ask the Allies for a separate peace.

Russia would also like an armistice, but the Allies don’t recognize its Bolshevik government, so they’re ignoring its overtures.

The Poles take over Cracow. Polish troops are now fighting Ukrainians and Ruthenians.

Kaiser Wilhelm turns over 60 of his palaces – no, I don’t know how many palaces he has – to be hospitals and recreation homes for invalids.

German sailors mutiny at Kiel. They’ve been refusing orders (the Navy had an insane plan for a final battle at sea with the British) for a week or more, preventing ships from sailing. The mutiny expanded to soldiers in the area (soldiers sent to suppress the mutiny either joined it or were disarmed) and mutineers now control the town of Kiel. They’ve formed soldiers’ councils and are issuing demands (abolishing the salute, equal food between officers and men, abolition of the officers’ casinos, which was evidently a thing, recognition of the council, etc.). The German Revolution has begun.

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Today -100: November 5, 1918: Get ahead of Hungary

The Allies have agreed on the terms which will be presented to Germany.

Friedrich Adler, who assassinated Austrian Prime Minister Count Karl von Stürgkh a little over two years ago, is released from prison. His father Victor just became foreign minister last week (and will drop dead next week).

Germany complains about Allied air raids on towns in the Rhine, saying that Germany has been restricting its bombing raids to purely military targets since Oct. 1 and expected the same courtesy. The US says this is the first it’s heard of any change in German policy.

Hungary will hold a referendum in a month on whether to be a monarchy or a republic. Women will have the vote for that. Carrie Chapman Catt writes to the 4 states holding women’s suffrage referenda today, telling them to “get ahead of Hungary”.

The British Parliament passes the Second Reading of the bill allowing women to be elected to Parliament. Admiral of the Fleet Sir Hedworth Meux MP, says it’s a bad idea because the chamber is simply too crowded. Further,

Perhaps he will explain what class of women he wants. He certainly does not want the noblest class of women, the women who are producing children. It is just as well to speak plainly in these matters. We want as many children in this country as we can get. Why was Belgium destroyed? Why was Serbia overrun? Because there were not enough men to resist the invaders. ...

Admiral Sir Hedworth Meux MP, it should be noted, is married but has no children. He continues,

If there are to be women in this House, I hope to see the really nice ones, women around whom we shall see Members swarming like bees, women something of the noble character of the charming heroines of whom we read, like Rosalind, Imogene, or Portia.

There’s some discussion about letting women into the House of Lords too, but nah, maybe in 40 years or so.

Yesterday -100 poet-soldier Wilfred Owen was killed in action, at 25.

Dulce et Decorum est

     Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
     Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
     Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs,
     And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
     Men marched asleep.  Many had lost their boots,
     But limped on, blood-shod.  All went lame, all blind;
     Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
     Of gas-shells dropping softly behind.

     Gas!  GAS!  Quick, boys!—An ecstasy of fumbling
     Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time,
     But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
     And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime.—
     Dim through the misty panes and thick green light,
     As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.

     In all my dreams before my helpless sight
     He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

     If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace
     Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
     And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
     His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin,
     If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
     Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs
     Bitter as the cud
     Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,—
     My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
     To children ardent for some desperate glory,
     The old Lie:  Dulce et decorum est
     Pro patria mori.

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Today -100: November 4, 1918: Lot of new countries all of a sudden

Austria-Hungary signs a truce with Italy. It’s a pretty abject surrender. Imagine having to surrender to... Italy.

Kaiser Wilhelm writes to Chancellor Prince Max accepting all the reforms that the Reichstag passed, including the loss of most of his power. Not a word about abdication, though he is said to be sending an awful lot of his possessions to Switzerland. Austrian Emperor Charles also plans to go to Switzerland. I picture them moving in together and hijinks ensuing:

“In November 1918, Charles I was asked to remove himself from his place of residence; that request came from his nation. Deep down, he knew she was right, but he also knew that some day he would return to her. With nowhere else to go...”

Obviously Charles is Felix and Wilhelm is Oscar.

I need a nap, because I can’t decide who’s Murray the Cop.

Emperor Charles releases all members of the Hungarian government from their oath of fealty to him, and Count Mihály Károlyi proclaims Hungary a republic. The republic’s first act is to order Hungarian troops to lay down their arms.

A Gen. Ikestranek attempts to overthrow the Czech National Council, but his (Hungarian) troops refuse to follow his orders.

Serbs recapture Belgrade. Most of the country is now Teuton-free.

Al Smith responds to NY Gov. Charles Whitman’s challenge to name the Whitman appointees he’s been saying he’d fire if elected governor: the Public Service Commission, the superintendent of highways, the conservation commissioner, the superintendent of public works....

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Today -100: November 3, 1918: Of ruling peasants, abdications, indorsed women, subway wrecks, and insurance

Headline / Fake News of the Day -100:

Boris III has not in fact abdicated and peasants do not in fact rule Bulgaria. The NYT also thinks that Aleksandar Stamboliyski, a political prisoner until last month, is now prime minister. Wait a year.

There’s a lot of talk about Kaiser Wilhelm abdicating: some say he’s already decided to do it but is waiting for a good time to announce it, some that he’s stubbornly holding on for dear life, or he’ll abdicate in favor of his kid, or there’ll be a republic, etc etc. The Bavarian prime minister announces that if Willy does abdicate, the Bavarian royal family intends to claim the imperial throne (actually, Ludwig III will be out on his ass before the week is out, even before Wilhelm).

The New York gubernatorial race looks like being a squeaker. Both sides believe the women, voting in a state election for the first time, will swing it, but neither side has any uncertainty about which way.

Headline of the Day -100:  

Roosevelt endorses Sadie Kost to represent the Bronx in Congress. She will lose. Badly.

Supposedly, Norwegian life insurance companies were recently asked to underwrite a large policy on Austrian Emperor Charles, but they refused.

William Howard Taft, Master Prognosticator, says Germany will surrender within 6 months.

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Today -100: November 2, 1918: But without the Hapsburgs!

A subway train heading for Coney Island jumps the track and crashes into a concrete partition, killing 93 or more people. The executives of the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company are ordered arrested. They had put an inexperienced man at the controls during a motormen strike after just 2 hours of training (also he was pulling a double shift and his kid had just died of Spanish Flu) and he took a curve way too fast. It didn’t help that the cars were old wooden ones. The driver and the execs will be tried for manslaughter, but acquitted.  (There’s an article, with pictures, in today’s paper. You know, today today).

Bosnia-Herzegovina quits Austria-Hungary and joins Serbia. Good luck with that, guys.

The first thing independent Czechoslovakia does is stop the export of food and coal to Germany and Austria.

In Vienna, one of the 3 presidents of the Provisional National Assembly for What’s Left of Austria After Everyone Else Has Fucked Off, Dr. Franz Dinghofer, tells a meeting that the national government will take over the administration tomorrow. “But without the Hapsburgs!” the crowd replies.

The 3 co-presidents, by the way, are Dinghofer, Seitz and Fink, which sounds like the characters in a Marx Brothers movie.

István Tisza, Hungary’s prime minister at the start of the war but not since June 1917, is assassinated by soldiers (or just men in military disguise?). In his villa, not while he was out walking as the NYT says.

NY Republicans complain about a fake pro-Gov.-Whitman-reelection postcard sent to women voters:

Former President Taft complains about Pres. Wilson calling for Democrats to be elected to Congress, which he says is “a demand for power during the next two years equal to that of the Hohenzollerns”. So he calls for Republicans to be elected to Congress “so that President Wilson would be held to an unconditional surrender by Germany and not be allowed to make a peace by negotiation.”

The Spectator (London) suggests that Germany’s colonies be handed over to the US. Imperialism loves company.

No he doesn’t. 

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Today -100: November 1, 1918: Just in time for Thanksgiving

Turkey surrenders. In order to communicate that news to the British, they freed Maj. General Charles Townshend, who’s been held prisoner since the siege of Kut 2½ years ago, and sent him off as emissary. Rather than celebrating the surrender (I should remind you that the US and Turkey were never at war), the NYT gets snotty (as was the custom) about it, saying that abandoning its ally Germany “was to be expected from the known character of the Ottoman Empire”.

Yekaterina Breshkovskaya, the “Little Grandmother (Babushka) of the Russian Revolution,” is reported to have been executed for opposing the Bolsheviks (after spending 44 years in prison, with the occasional escape, for opposing the tsars). Nope. She will die in 1934 at 90.

Headline of the Day -100:

The Austrian governor flees back to Vienna.

Austria tells Italy that it’s willing to remove its troops from that country, but Italy says no, we’d rather drive you out, but thanks.

The NYT is a little unsure about this, but the Croatian parliament has also declared independence while announcing its intention to join the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs, if only because their name is already in it. That state, which will be very short-lived, consists of the Slavic areas of Austria-Hungary. It will soon be absorbed, along with Montenegro, into the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, which will eventually be called Yugoslavia, although its people are already being called Jugoslavs. I hope that’s clear, because Yugoslav history will never get any clearer. Hell, I can’t decide whether to spell it with the Y or the J, both of which were in use.

Ostend, Belgium celebrates its liberation by flying thousands of Belgian flags, many of which were bought just last week from a German peddler.

NYC Health Commissioner Royal Copeland, ever the optimist, says the Spanish Flu epidemic is now in the “mopping-up stage,” which is kind of gross. His main concern now: all the new orphans (the Spanish Flu hit adults harder than children).

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Today -100: October 31, 1918: The moment does not seem to have come yet

Kaiser Wilhelm tells some Reichstag deputies that he would totally abdicate if the interests of Germany require it, but that hasn’t happened yet.

Supposedly, the Russian government is planning to massacre the entire bourgeois and intellectual classes on November 10. Something to look forward to.

Last week Russian Foreign Minister Georgy Chicherin wrote a note to Woodrow Wilson, pointing out that Wilson’s armistice pre-conditions for Germany included withdrawing from occupied countries. Chicherin says Russia would like an armistice with the US too, please, and when will the US withdraw its troops from Archangel, Murman and Siberia?

Assistant Navy Secretary Franklin D. Roosevelt supposedly plans to resign his post and join the Navy as an ordinary seaman.

The separatist Czech National Committee takes over governmental functions in Prague.

Roger Baldwin, former director of the National Civil Liberties Bureau (which will become the ACLU, of which he will be director) is convicted of refusing to submit to conscription, even to a medical exam, and sentenced to 1 year in prison.

The US War Dept contracts for anti-vermin underwear for soldiers.

Painter (and pornographer, according to the Austrian legal system) Egon Schiele dies at 28 of the Spanish Flu, 3 days after his pregnant wife.

More on Schiele here.

There’s also a recent movie, Egon Schiele: Death and the Maiden, named after this painting,

but the only English-language review linked to by IMDB is on a white-nationalist site. I’ve seen an older film, Egon Schiele: Excess and Punishment, but so long ago that I can’t remember if it was any good.

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Today -100: October 30, 1918: Of Fiume, South Slavs, armistices, and influenza

Count Mihály Károlyi has formed a breakaway Hungarian government, after failing to get Emperor Charles on board. His program: withdrawing Hungarian troops from the war, elections by universal male and female suffrage, the recognition of independent states for Poland, Czechoslovakia, Ukraine, Yugoslavia, and German Austria. Hungary is hoping that by speeding up Austria’s surrender it will earn enough brownie points that it will be given the city of Fiume, without which it will be land-locked, but which Italy and proto-Yugoslavia also really want.

King Nikola I of Montenegro, who has been ruling the country since 1860, before it was even a country, says it must now be part of Yugoslavia, which he thinks should be a federation, presumably so he can continue being king after the merger. Which he won’t.

Austria sends a note to the US saying, hey remember how we surrendered, or tried to, so where’s the armistice already?

NYC Health Commissioner Royal Copeland has toured NY’s east side and is totally optimistic, as always, about the Spanish Flu, despite the 4,073 new cases reported yesterday (plus 702 of pneumonia), and the 775 deaths and the fact that his son now has it. He blames that on his 8-year-old son’s school having closed, because kids are so much safer at school.

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Today -100: October 29, 1918: The same war as ever

Austria replies to Wilson’s Oct. 19 note, accepting all his terms.

Hindenburg tells soldiers that there isn’t an armistice yet, so they have to keep doing the war thing. “The war is still on – the same war as ever.”

Kaiser Wilhelm, fighting against pressures on him to abdicate (or be put on trial, as a member of the Reichstag suggested today), supposedly said that he’d be willing to be a mere hereditary president, like the king of England.

Austrian Prime Minister Baron Max Hussarek von Heinlein resigns, and is replaced by Prof. Heinrich Lammasch. His experience as an international arbitrator should serve him well in running what the Viennese press is calling a “liquidation ministry.”

Theodore Roosevelt is given part of the seat from the airplane in which his son Quentin was killed, because who wouldn’t want a “memento” of that.

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Today -100: October 28, 1918: U.S. stands for Unconditional Surrender as well as for the United States and Uncle Sam

Will Hays, chairman of the RNC, says Woodrow Wilson is calling for the election to Congress of members of his own party because R’s “are for peace through, not without, victory; because  they do not believe lasting peace can be obtained through negotiation; because they consider that U.S. stands for Unconditional Surrender as well as for the United States and Uncle Sam. The Democratic Congress does not. Mr. Wilson does not.”

Gen. Allenby et al capture Aleppo. Or really, the Turks abandon it.

Erich Ludendorff resigns as Germany’s “army dictator.” Hindenburg also resigns, but the kaiser refuses to accept that one. The public is not told of H’s resignation, so this is generally being interpreted as meaning that Hindenburg wants peace negotiations and Ludendorff doesn’t.

Commercial Product That Has No Effect on Spanish Flu Being Promoted As Having An Effect on Spanish Flu of the Day -100:

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Today -100: October 27, 1918: Of toys, tiny admirals, and charming educations

Ah, now I understand how it is that German toys are arriving in the US. They were purchased before the US declared war, and have just arrived, without warning, from the Netherlands. The US wholesalers say they won’t accept them, even though they paid for them.

Commercial Service That Has No Effect on Spanish Flu Being Promoted As Having An Effect on Spanish Flu of the Day -100:

So many telephone company operators are out with the flu that they’re having to ask callers if their call is really necessary.

Obit of the Day -100: “Admiral Dot,” famous midget, who dies on the same day as his daughter, both from Spanish Flu.

Displayed as a child by P.T. Barnum, he toured with various circuses for 25 years before opening up a hotel for circus folk in White Plains, New York.

Evidently I missed the death of diplomat Henry Adams in March. His autobiography, The Education of Henry Adams, is published. The NYT declares it “charming.” It will win the Pulitzer.

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Today -100: October 26, 1918: This is not the president’s personal war

Woodrow Wilson asks the American public to elect a Democratic Congress, complaining that R’s have “unquestionably been pro-war, but they have been anti-administration” and have tried to take the choice of policy and conduct of the war away from him. He says that this is “no time either for divided counsel or for divided leadership.” Also, foreigners might not understand it if R’s won back either House. Republicans feel this is a betrayal of Wilson’s previous assertion that “politics is adjourned.” Congressional Republicans issue a statement: “This is not the president’s personal war” and the Republican Party “demands its rightful share.” Theodore Roosevelt says Wilson’s appeal shows “that he is a partisan leader first and President of all the people second.” William Howard Taft says “The unified leadership he asks is autocratic power”. Indeed, he, says, Wilson wants a Democratic Senate because they’ll go along with whatever he wants without asking to be consulted. Taft ain’t wrong. NJ Gov. Walter Edge tells the president “you cannot use a war for political profiteering.”

Karl Liebknecht, just out of prison, appears with a few thousand of his closest friends outside the Reichstag to demand that Kaiser Wilhelm be ousted and a republic declared. He is “applauded frantically” and “compelled to enter a carriage filled with flowers”. The time of the people has arrived, he says.

Austrian Foreign Minister Baron Burián resigns. He is replaced by Count Gyula Andrássy, a Hungarian. The Hungarian cabinet also resigns. A provisional government is set up in Prague. Ruthenians proclaim an independent Ukrainian state in the Ruthenian parts of Austria-Hungary.

In the German Reichstag, Polish deputies demand independence, an ethnic Dane deputy demands a referendum in Schleswig on whether it should be German or Danish, and a deputy from Alsace-Lorraine says autonomy for the province doesn’t cut it, it must be either independent or re-join France.

Philadelphia allows churches, synagogues and schools to reopen, over the objections of the health commissioner, but not saloons or theaters. NY Health Commissioner Royal S. Copeland asks the NY Public Library to stop circulating books. The reading rooms are still open, so I’m not quite sure what he thinks is the relationship between books and the spread of Spanish Flu. NYC Mayor John Hylan asks the street-cleaning department to send men to cemeteries to help bury the bodies.

The convention of the New York City Federation of Women’s Clubs’ focuses on the big dangers: German toys are being imported. Mary Lilly, running for the State Assembly (she will win) suggests doing the Boston Tea Party thing with them.

5 “anarchists and avowed followers of Lenine and Trotzky” are sentenced to 15 or 20 years for publishing pamphlets (one turned state’s evidence and got 3 years). They are Russian nationals, so may be deported in, you know, 15 or 20 years.

Two stories today toooootally accurately depict the position of women in Russia:

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Today -100: October 25, 1918: Let us dictate peace by the hammering guns and not chat about peace to the accompaniment of the clicking of typewriters

Karl Liebknecht, German leftie extraordinaire, is released from prison, 2½ years after the Reichstag deputy was illegally sentenced by a military court.

Theodore Roosevelt appeals to the Senate (in telegrams to Sens. Henry Cabot Lodge, Hiram Johnson, and Miles Poindexter) to interfere with Woodrow Wilson’s foreign policy and “take affirmative action against a negotiated peace with Germany and in favor of a peace based on the unconditional surrender of German.” “Let us dictate peace by the hammering guns and not chat about peace to the accompaniment of the clicking of typewriters.” He also calls on the Senate to repudiate the 14 Points, calling them “thoroughly mischievous.” He says a peace based on them would not be the unconditional surrender of Germany but a conditional surrender of the United States. He calls again for the US to declare war on Turkey.

Commercial Product That Has No Effect on Spanish Flu Being Promoted As Having An Effect on Spanish Flu of the Day -100:

Henry Mapp, head of the Salvation Army in Russia, claims that British Secretary of State for War Lord Kitchener’s death when his ship was sunk in 1916 was the fault of Czarina Alexandra, who sent a cable to Germany informing them of his plans. Nonsense.

Germany says it will return all the art it stole in France. It only stole them to save them from being blown up, it says, you’re welcome.

The British Parliament passes (274-25) a resolution introduced by Herbert Samuel in favor of women being eligible for election to the House of Commons. Samuel says women MPs would be especially helpful dealing with issues like health, education, child welfare, you know, girl stuff. This will shortly be enacted, and women will be eligible on the same terms as men, i.e., at 21, even though women can’t actually vote in elections until 30. The Daily Chronicle wonders whether the House of Lords will follow suit. Um, yeah, in 40 years or so.

Sure, why not: 

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Today -100: October 24, 1918: One word

Headline of the Day -100:

Pres. Wilson’s latest note to Germany says that if it doesn’t overthrow the Hohenzollerns and if the US “must deal with the military masters and the monarchical autocrats of Germany now, it must demand, not peace negotiations but surrender.” The terms of armistice, he says, will be determined by the Allied military commanders, and will be such as to ensure that Germany’s ability to fight is eliminated – a de facto surrender rather than an armistice. Really, I don’t know why anyone’s still using the word armistice.

The Belgian government in exile says that after it’s freed, Belgium, contrary to what the Germans have been saying, will not revert to the pre-war state of neutrality guaranteed by the Great Powers (including Prussia/Germany, whose violation of that guarantee, that “scrap of paper,” helped blow this thing up into a world war).

British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour says Germany should not get its colonies back, so that the communications of the British Empire remain secure. Also, the colonies could be used for piracy. Balfour says this position is not selfish and imperialistic but involves the interests of the world almost as much as those of the British empire.

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Today -100: October 23, 1918: A byword and a hissing

Belgium again says that its peace terms are only restoration of its sovereignty and massive indemnities. Oh, and getting its colonies back. Sovereignty is not for the likes of the Congolese.

New York Gov. Charles Whitman begins his re-election campaign, saying the only issue is whether Tammany Hall, in the person of Alfred E. Smith, will take over the whole state and return to the times when Tammany “made the State of New York a byword and a hissing.” He welcomes the new women voters, who will make everything “infinitely better, purer, and cleaner and on an infinitely higher plane” (Spoiler Alert: they won’t).

Theodore Roosevelt says Henry Ford’s “obnoxious type of pacifism” makes him unfit to be elected to the Senate from Michigan, but “If there should be at any time in the future a Hindoo Senate...”

Companies like US Steel are inoculating their workers against the Spanish Flu with a vaccine that’s probably about as useful as this:

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Today -100: October 22, 1918: Of the honor of the German people, royal cash, and Ruthenians

Germany replies to Wilson. It wants to discuss the details of German withdrawal from occupied territory. “It trusts that the President of the United States will approve of no demand which would be irreconcilable with the honor of the German people and with opening a way to a peace of justice.” It “protests against the reproach of illegal and inhumane actions” by Germany; destroying towns you’re evacuating “will always be necessary” and u-boats certainly don’t shoot at lifeboats from ships they’ve sunk. It will, however, graciously order u-boats to stop sinking passenger ships (but doesn’t guarantee that all u-boats will actually receive that order). It says that the changes Wilson requires in Germany’s constitution to destroy arbitrary power have now been more or less made (removing the kaiser’s sole power to declare war, cabinets made responsible to the Reichstag rather than the kaiser, etc) and that should be good enough. It does not say anything about Alsace-Lorraine.

Members of Congress interviewed by the NYT find the German reply “cunningly devised,” “shifty,” “equivocal” and “subtle” – perhaps the first instance in history something German has been described as subtle.

The royal families of Germany and Austria are said to be moving an awful lot of cash to Swiss bank accounts under fake names, despite the really bad current exchange rate.

The American National Council of Uhro-Rusins asks Pres. Wilson to detach Ruthenian regions from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, maybe attaching them to some other Slavic country, they’re not picky.

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Today -100: October 21, 1918: Of campaigns, pepto-mangan, and tramp-soldiers

Alfred E. Smith begins campaigning for governor of New York, because 16 days of campaigning is plenty. He favors permitting municipal control of utilities and establishing minimum wages for women and child workers. He sports a letter of support from Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin Roosevelt.

The NYC Health Dept will send out sanitary police to force landlords to turn on the heat to fight the Spanish Flu.  The dean of Fordham U. Medical School, Dr. Joseph Byrne, says that as far as disease goes, crowded subways are just like the Black Hole of Calcutta, and hospitals are pretty bad too. The best thing, he says, is to stay home and treat it with rest, alcohol, simple food, alcohol, mustard plasters, and alcohol.

Now Playing: Chaplin’s war comedy "Shoulder Arms," co-starring his brother Sydney.

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Today -100: October 20, 1918: We have done so much to bring about peace that we have finally made ourselves a laughing stock

NY Democratic gubernatorial candidate Alfred E. Smith claims that his campaign rallies are being banned by Republican local authorities upstate (in Syracuse and Hornell, for example) on spurious health grounds, justifying “suspicion that they want to prevent the spread of Democratic doctrine rather than the spread of Spanish influenza.” Gov. Charles Whitman pooh-poohs this, saying some of his meetings have been canceled as well.

Hungary’s former prime minister (1903-5, 1913-17), Count István Tisza, tells the Hungarian Parliament that it is no longer possible to win the war. Opposition leader Count Mihály Károlyi agrees, and blames Austrian leaders for starting the war in the first place. Current PM Sándor Wekerle rejects this, saying “We have done so much to bring about peace that we have finally made ourselves a laughing stock.”

Woodrow Wilson finally responds to Austria’s call (on the 7th) for an armistice and peace talks. That would be a no. He tells it that the proposed “autonomy” for the Czechs, Yugoslavs, Poles etc within a continuing Austro-Hungarian Empire simply isn’t good enough. Indeed, he recognizes the Czech government-in-exile as a belligerent against the A-H Empire and has decided that the Czech g-in-e has “the proper authority to direct the military and political affairs of the Czechoslovaks.” From whence this proper authority is derived, Wilson does not say. He says that the Czechoslovaks and Jugo-slavs shall be the proper judges of what actions “will satisfy their aspirations and their conception of their rights and destiny as members of the family of nations.” From the standpoint of 2018, it is clear that Wilson is redrawing the map of Europe on the basis of imagined communities of “Czechoslovak” and “Yugoslav” peoples, communities which no one today still imagines; the nation-states based on them proved to have no more natural a foundation than the multi-ethnic Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Wilson’s note only specifically mentions Czechs & Yugs, but Secretary of State Lansing reassures all the other oppressed nationalities in Austro-Hungary that he means them too.

NYC Health Commissioner (and homeopathist) Royal Copeland says the “crest of the wave” of the Spanish Flu will break on Thursday (the 24th). So that’s okay then. It has been made a misdemeanor to sneeze or cough without covering it. A Penn. State football game is called off after the State Board of Health threatens to arrest all the players if it goes ahead.

Headline of the Day -100: 

Now on the bookshelves: Booth Tarkington’s The Magnificent Ambersons. The NYT Sunday Book Review likes it, except for the ending.

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Today -100: October 19, 1918: Our victory does not spell revenge

Austro-Hungarian Emperor Charles issues an address on the federalization of the empire, which he calls “the reorganization of our country on a natural, and, therefore, solid basis,” “in conformity with the will of its people”. Not the Poles, though: Polish Austria will not be joining the “independent” Polish Puppet State.

Tomáš Masaryk, in Washington, declares independence for Czechoslovakia. The notional Czechoslovak National Council says Charles’ federalization is total bullshit under a Hapsburg dynasty “weighed down by a huge inheritance of error and crime”. It rejects the divine right of kings, which is something that still needs to be said in 1918, evidently (don’t tell Kaiser Wilhelm, it’ll just make him cross). Czechoslovakia will be a republic with free speech, separation of church and state, and women’s suffrage.

Headline of the Day -100:

Oh please, Clemenceau TOTALLY wants revenge. Prime Minister Georges “The Tiger” Clemenceau tells the Chamber of Deputies that “Our victory and the victory of our allies means the liberation of civilization and liberty of human conscience.”

Baltimore runs out of coffins, or at least nice ones, because of Spanish Flu mortality. The mayor calls on people to settle for cheap ones. The Chicago health commissioner advises that people salute each other rather than shake hands.

The ban on driving on Sundays has been lifted.

This ad suggests that everyone should buy more Liberty Bonds than they can actually afford. Just take out a loan. This full-page ad was taken out by... wait for it... 86 banks.

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Today -100: October 18, 1918: Of lesser wars, surly tones, Polish treason, and flu-doctoring

The war is over! The war is over! Oh, wait....

It’s weird that they’re casually throwing around war metaphors during an actual, you know, world war, right?

Berlin newspapers are more concerned about the “surly” tone of Wilson’s note than about its contents.

The Polish Regency Council tells the German governor-general of occupied Russian Poland, Hans Beseler, that they will take over all administrative functions, or else. Beseler agrees and it’s all published in the German press. It sounds like up to now German papers have been muttering about Polish “treason” without being allowed to say to what they’re referring. They’re also upbraiding the Poles for their ingratitude for being “freed” from Russia.

It is announced that the Austro-Hungarian Empire will be reorganized on a federal basis. Hungary, not impressed, declares independence. German papers are playing with the idea that after the A-H Empire breaks apart completely, the ethnic-German parts of Austria might join Germany.

NYC draft boards halt their conscripting activities to free up their doctors to fight the Spanish Flu.

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Today -100: October 17, 1918: Hope for peace must be lowered a few pegs

German newspapers are rather disappointed with Woodrow Wilson. The Cologne Gazette says, “After President Wilson’s note, hope for peace must be lowered a few pegs.” The Cologne Volkszeitung says “The Germans must lower their hopes of a near peace of justice without humiliation.” The Pan-German Deutsche Zeitung is suppressed, evidently for declaring the note disgraceful and telling soldiers “You are unconquered by the enemy, but beaten by the crumbling home front.”

British troops occupy Tripoli and Homs.

Germany changes its constitution, stripping the kaiser of his power to declare war and make treaties, which will now require the consent of the Federal Council and the Reichstag.

Headline of the Day -100: 

The Allies have brought their fiercest weapons into play: geometric shapes.

Rumor of the Day: Lenin is shot, again.

Fog of War (Rumors, Propaganda, Fake News and Just Plain Bullshit) of the Day -100: Germany tells Turkey that its Black Sea Fleet will fire on Constantinople if Turkey shows any signs of leaving the war.

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Today -100: October 16, 1918: Oh no, he’s ghosted Austria!

Headline of the Day -100: 

Evidently Wilson’s non-response is part of a cunning plan to split Austria from Germany.

Denmark, which is not a combatant, would still like to get back Schleswig, lost to Prussia in the war of 1866, and is annoyed that it wasn’t even mentioned in Woodrow Wilson’s peace program.

The Bolshevik government orders 63 new statues for Moscow, including ones of Tolstoy, Bakunin, Dostoevsky, Pushkin, Marx, Engels, Bebel, Jaurès, Gracchus, Robespierre, Marat & Danton, Beethoven and Chopin.

The Bolsheviks tell Pope Benedict that they have no idea where the former Tsarina and her children are. The latest rumor is that they all died when a Red mob set their house on fire.

The most recent reported 24-hour period saw 4,925 new cases of Spanish Flu in New York City and 479 of pneumonia. Health Commissioner Royal Copeland is asking people with more than one servant to send one to the Health Dept to help out. He says their health will be protected, but then he said that about the city of fucking New York and look how that’s turning out. Gov. Charles Whitman and challenger Al Smith may cancel all their campaign speeches outside of NYC, most towns having closed their theatres and banned public meetings.

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Today -100: October 15, 1918: Never mind the peace rumors

Woodrow Wilson sends another note to Germany. Evidently this note is not a “reply” but a “decision.” He says the terms of armistice will be up to the various Allied generals (Foch, Pétain, Pershing, Haig etc., which leaves a lot of vetoes in the hands of people with no interest in an armistice), that an armistice must maintain the present Allied military supremacy, and Germany must first stop the “illegal and inhumane practices which they persist in,” like torpedoing passenger ships and destroying the French and Belgian towns they’re evacuating. Also, autocracy must end and Kaiser Wilhelm must abdicate. Well, he doesn’t explicitly state the last part, but it’s clear enough.

The Wolff News Agency of Berlin denies that Kaiser Bill intends to abdicate.

The new Turkish cabinet, under Ahmed Izzet Pasha (the NYT is a few weeks premature about it being Tevfik Pasha), informs Austria that it will be seeking a separate peace.

Because of the Spanish Flu epidemic, no new prisoners will be sent to Sing Sing.

This is from a full-page ad for Liberty Bonds:

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Today -100: October 14, 1918: We bow our still undefeated heads for righteousness' sake

German newspapers are claiming that Germany is not offering peace terms because it is actually losing the war, no no. Rather, its offer is “founded on a decision for a righteous peace... We bow our still undefeated heads for righteousness' sake.” (Berliner Zeitung am Mittag) The papers are particularly concerned that an armistice not permit Allied troops to enter Germany.

Theodore Roosevelt issues a statement from on high, regretting that Wilson has begun negotiations and hoping that they will be stopped at once and Germany told to surrender unconditionally without any talks because we “refuse to compound a felony by discussing terms with felons.” Also he wants the US to declare war on Turkey. Also the Senate should repudiate the 14 Points, which are “couched in such vague language that many of them may mean anything or nothing and have merely a rhetorical value, while others [like freedom of the sea and disarmament] are absolutely mischievous.”

Every US senator interviewed by the NYT thinks Germany is not “sincere” in its acceptance of the 14 Points. They support a “dictated” rather than a negotiated peace.

Finland asks Germany to remove its soldiers from Finnish soil, please and thank you.

The Grazer Tagespost (Austria) reports the death of a man who was sentenced to hang early in the war for “highly treasonable utterances” after his son was executed. His sentence was commuted to 15 years, but then he went insane, and has now died in an asylum at... wait for it... 106 years old. BELIEVE IT OR NOT!

Helen Keller appeals to people to buy bonds: “The air is tremulous with the soundless feet of the new day.”

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Today -100: October 13, 1918: Of imperial governments and mustard gas

The US hasn’t officially received the German reply to Wilson’s note yet, but based on what’s been heard about it via German wireless, politicians are saying that it only SEEMS to be complete acceptance of his terms.

It’s pointed out that the note refers to “the German Government” seven times, instead of the usual “Imperial German Government.” British newspapers are speculating about what this means.

Theodore Roosevelt, speaking at a Liberty Loan rally, says there should be no discussion of peace terms with the enemy, and that allowing Germany, Austria and Turkey into the League of Nations would be like letting all the burglars and gunmen into the NYPD.

Corp. Adolf Hitler is mustard-gassed, temporarily blinding him.

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Today -100: October 12, 1918: Brutes they were... brutes they remain

A u-boat torpedoes the US cargo ship Ticonderoga, killing 213, capturing 2. The ship had fallen behind its convoy. After a lengthy battle the ship was sinking and, as its crew tried to escape to lifeboats, a white flag (ok, blanket) was raised, but the dirty Germans continued to fire.

British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour says Germany changing its constitution is not enough, there has to be “a change of hearts whereby that Government is to be directed and animated.” He doesn’t explain how this change is heart is to be verified. And war certainly hasn’t improved the Germans: “Brutes they were when they began the war. As far as I can judge, brutes they remain at the present moment.”

NYC Health Commissioner Royal Copeland says there are 4,293 new cases of Spanish Flu and 394 new cases of pneumonia and there STILL is no cause for undue alarm. The Red Cross plans to go house to house looking for women willing to act as nurses, for money.

Austro-Hungarian Emperor Charles issues a manifesto for the unification of Croatia, Slavonica, Bosnia, Herzegovina, and Dalmatia into one state. Too little, too late.

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Today -100: October 11, 1918: Of kaisers and nurses

Rumor of the Day -100: Kaiser Wilhelm has abdicated!

NYC Health Commissioner Royal Copeland suggests drafting nurses. Actually, on re-reading, it says “eligible women be drafted to serve as nurses,” which is not the same thing.

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Today -100: October 10, 1918: Of notes, peace traps, provisional governments, and Spanish Flu at the movies

Headline of the Day -100: 

His birthday’s in a couple of weeks (happy 60th! and last! spoiler alert!) and he just hates having to write thank you notes. Hates it I tell you.

Actually, TR is annoyed with Woodrow Wilson for writing that note to German Chancellor Prince Max and more annoyed that there might be further exchanges, rather than just fighting until Germany is totally beaten.

Fortunately for him, 

Ousted Russian prime minister Kerensky is in London trying to get Britain to recognize the new “Russia Provisional Government.”

The National Association of Motion Picture Industries decides to discontinue all new releases of movies until after the Spanish Flu epidemic abates. Which makes sense since theaters are closed in many parts of the country. That’s still not the case in New York City, but cops will be stationed in cinemas to make sure the windows are kept open.

Mexico closes its border with the US (or at least with Texas) to prevent the Spanish Flu entering the country. Too little, too late.

I was going to make a joke about onions replacing popcorn in movie theaters, then asked myself when popcorn was actually first eaten at the movies. Evidently the 1930s.

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Today -100: October 9, 1918: He deems the answer to these questions vital from every point of view

Woodrow Wilson sends a reply to German Chancellor Prince Max. Oops, sorry, “It is not a reply, it is an inquiry,” says Secretary of State Robert Lansing. Specifically, Max is asked if Germany accepts the 14 Points (as opposed to negotiating over them) and whether he speaks “merely for the constituted authorities of the empire who so far have conducted the war.” As opposed to who?

The NYT doubts the sincerity of German moves towards peace and democracy, moves which the Stuttgarter Neues Tageblatt says were authorized by the Military High Command. Is the NYT (and indeed Woodrow Wilson) expecting an election in Germany before it’s allowed to ask for peace?

Kaiser Wilhelm a couple of weeks ago told German soldiers in Alsace that “we” would defend with the last drop of “our” blood Alsace-Lorraine, “which belong to us and which the Almighty has intrusted to us to administer as his stewards, and we shall keep them for the benefit of their inhabitants and the glory of God. ... Our enemies cannot and will not succeed. We are under Divine protection.”

Headline of the Day -100: 

Turkey may or may not also be asking for peace, but part of Turkey, the province of Smyrna, definitely is, sending emissaries to Athens with some sort of offer.

The NYT is disappointed that NY women aren’t registering to vote in large numbers. On the first day of registration, 31,000 men registered in Manhattan and only 10,000 women, with similar numbers in the other boroughs. The Times admits it was opposed to women’s suffrage, but now it is a duty to vote: “The women who refuse to vote should recognize that by staying at home they actually increase the vote of the unintelligent or the vicious... Every woman who has the public welfare at heart should vote, whether it is distasteful to her or not, and every man should urge this as a positive duty upon the women he can influence.” Trust the NYT to end an editorial about women voters with a call to the mighty power of mansplaining.

This is a recording made on this day and released as a gramophone record before the end of the war of the Royal Garrison Artillery firing gas shells near Lille. Not all that exciting, but it is the only known sound recording of World War I. Recording engineer Will Gaisberg dragged his equipment to the front and breathed in some of the poison gas himself, which may have contributed to his death next month from Spanish Flu.

 

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Today -100: October 8, 1918: RUSH RUSH RUSH RUSH

France captures Beirut.

“Black Jack” Pershing cables the War Department: “RUSH RUSH RUSH RUSH.”

2 hours of speeches about the war in the US Senate. No one wants anything other than unconditional surrender. By the other side, I mean. Porter McCumber (R-ND), for example, proposes a resolution that there be no armistice until the Central Powers... no, wait, just Germany, huh... disband its army and hand over its arms and navy, pay massive indemnities, etc etc.

Also: there was a US senator named “Porter McCumber.”

The Whites form a Russian Provisional Government at a self-styled National Convention at Ufa. It claims to be the “sole possessor of supreme power over the whole territory of Russia.” It is devoted to overthrowing the Bolsheviks, getting back all Russia’s breakaway regions/countries, and rejoining the war.

The latest (false) rumor: Field Marshal von Hindenburg resigns after a fight with Kaiser Wilhelm over the necessity of a retreat.

The NY Sanitary Police are fighting the Spanish Flu by arresting dozens for spitting. The spitters are being fined $1 to $20 (or jail if they can’t pay). The magistrate says starting tomorrow it’ll be 5 days in jail without the option of a fine.

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