Today -100: March 5, 1920: Of reservations and prohibitions

Senators trying to negotiate a compromise on Sen. Lodge’s reservations to Article X of the Peace Treaty send Sen. Carter Glass (until last month the Treasury Secretary) to the White House to ask Pres. Wilson for his views. He is turned away.

The House of Representatives rejects a motion to repeal the Volstead Act, 254-85 and a measure to kill the $4.5 million appropriation to enforce Prohibition.

The state of New Jersey files suit in the Supreme Court to have the 18th Amendment declared null and void. It argues that since Congress has no power under the Constitution to regulate morals, no Amendment can amend powers it does not have. NJ further argues that the Volstead Act to enforce this Amendment is void for that reason and for interfering with internal state matters, etc.

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Today -100: March 4, 1920: Of women’s suffrage, newspapers, and America’s Sweetheart

The West Virginia State Senate defeats ratification of the women’s suffrage Amendment, 15-13, after the House of Delegates votes 47-40 in favor.

There’s a bill in the Senate to remove foreign-language newspapers’ second-class mail privileges.

Mary Pickford divorces Owen Moore in Reno. She had to pay him off to the tune of $100,000.

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Today -100: March 3, 1920: Of shadows, false teeth, and simpletons

Headline of the Day -100: 

The proposed peace treaty will reduce Turkey’s population from 30 million to 6 million and practically eliminate its navy. The Allies might not be feeling too generous towards Turkey thanks to reports that it’s resumed massacring Armenians.

Schleswig-Holstein declares independence, which I’m pretty sure isn’t what was supposed to happen when the provinces separated from Prussia/Germany.

False teeth makers in NYC go on strike.

Headline of the Day -100:  

‘S a horse.

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Today -100: March 2, 1920: Of anti-saloonery, Jewish wine, palmers, and trusts

The West Virginia State Senate rejects the women’s suffrage Amendment, although it may be brought up again.

The New York State Assembly votes to investigate the political spending of the Anti-Saloon League.

British Prime Minister Lloyd George is asked in Parliament whether he’d appoint women as diplomats. No.

The government will allow Jewish families 15 gallons of wine per year for religious purposes.

Senators now all agree that the Peace Treaty can’t pass.

Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer announces he is running for president. He says the people of Georgia, where he is being put on the ballot, should have a chance to vote on the Wilson Administration’s policies. So he’s running as a Wilsonian, which everyone assumes means Wilson isn’t running for a 3rd time and D’s who’ve been holding back can now enter the race.

The Supreme Court rules that US Steel is not an illegal trust, even though it obviously is. The majority cite the disorderly effects that would arise from dissolving the company as a reason to ignore the law.

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Today -100: March 1, 1920: Everyone seems to be afraid of everyone

Secretary of the Interior Franklin Lane resigns because he is broke (and possibly for reasons of health). He writes to Wilson about the state of Washington DC: “it is poorly organized for the task that belongs to it. ... Everyone seems to be afraid of everyone. The self-protective sense is developed abnormally, the creative sense atrophies. ... there are too few in the Government whose business it is to plan. Every man is held to details, to the narrower view which comes too often to be the department view or some sort of parochial view.” He thinks helium will be very important in the future. He wants to stop the “drift to the cities,” in part by giving former soldiers farms; “The life of the great city is feverish and wars with that severity of spirit in which calm judgments are come at”.

A sheriff’s posse that invaded Mexico from Arizona looking for two Mexican bandits who killed a man and wounded his brother in Arivaca, AZ after robbing their store, returns after failing to find anyone.

Italy imposes an “iron blockade” of Fiume. Poet-Aviator Gabriele d’Annunzio orders Croats and other “foreigners” who are “pernicious by their presence for the proper defence of the city” deported. Also socialists.

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Today -100: February 29, 1920: Of treaties, women’s suffrage, arks, trapehooters, and anthills

Woodrow Wilson stomps on a move by some Democratic senators to accept the Lodge reservations to the peace treaty. He says if the reservations are attached, he will refuse to deposit the treaty. Can a president veto a ratified treaty? Or do amendments turn it into a different treaty?

Everyone in Ireland hates hates hates Lloyd George’s Home Rule Bill.

Oklahoma ratifies the women’s suffrage Amendment, following a squabble over whether there should be a referendum. 33 down, 3 to go.

The Japanese government, afraid the Diet will vote to expand the franchise, asks the emperor to dissolve it. He does so.

Pres. Wilson ignores demands from railroad and other unions that he veto the bill returning railroad lines to private ownership. They particularly object to a board to establish wages which would have representatives of the companies, the workers, and the general public. The unions think the latter will side with the owners; Wilson says people hostile to labor shouldn’t be appointed. That’s totally reassuring, I’m sure.

Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer says there will soon be more Soviet Arks carrying deportees to Russia. He alternates, in a speech to the Women’s Democratic Political League, between saying that there is absolutely no threat from Red Radicals, and that the situation is very serious indeed. He claims that thousands of propagandists had been sent to the US by the Soviets to teach the doctrine of the dictatorship of the proletariat “in a land that had no proletariat.” He insists that the bomb thrown at his house was not aimed at him, but was an attempt to destroy the US government, presumably because he thinks no one could possibly have anything against him personally.

Columbia University European history professor Charles Downer Hazen has a long book review of John Maynard Keynes’ The Economic Consequences of the Peace, which was published in December, but whose US edition is just out, I believe. The review is a bit of a hazen, calling it “a very angry book.”

Thanks to a misspelling in the NYT Index, I’ve just  spent way too much time trying to figure out what a trapehooter might be. Someone who hoots trapes, presumably.

Headline of the Day -100: 

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Today -100: February 28, 1920: People who don’t want women in public life are too late

The US position is to completely ignore Soviet Russia’s latest peace feelers. The State Dept won’t even release it to the public, because it’s all propaganda, man. Russia is requesting that other nations just stop trying to overthrow its Bolshevik government militarily, and it will even pay 60% of the foreign debt run up the tsars (this is aimed at France, which is strongly against recognition and holds most of that debt).

French railway workers striking for state ownership of the railroads are conscripted into the army.

The British Labour Party offers a bill to amend the Representation of the People Act of 1918 to give the vote to women at the same age as for men (at 21 instead of 30). Nancy Astor supports the bill, not for the sake of the women, she says, but for the sake of the country. “People who don’t want women in public life are too late,” she adds, no doubt pointing at herself and winking.

British Prime Minister Lloyd George publishes his Irish Home Rule Bill. There would be two anemic parliaments for the North and South, which would each name half the members of a Council for Ireland, which might turn into a real all-Ireland parliament, unless it were somehow obstructed by Ulster, which has, to reiterate, half its members. It’s hard to believe this is a serious proposal that LG or anyone thinks is workable.

The House Naval Committee is investigating the presence of under-age boys in the Navy. The commandant of the Marine Corps tells the committee that a battleship captain complained that half his crew were “worthless boys under 17 years old.”

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Today -100: February 27, 1920: Washington called us off

Woodrow Wilson’s letter to the British and French prime ministers repeats his threat to withdraw the peace treaty with Germany and the defensive treaty with France from Senate consideration if they try to impose an Adriatic settlement on Yugoslavia, especially if they invoke the secret 1915 treaty with Italy. He will give up his idea of a free Fiume, but only if Italy and Yugoslavia agree. He opposes compensating either country with territory from Albania. The whole correspondence with the Europeans is released, which the US had been pushing for.

Maj. A.V. Dalrymple, Supervisor of Prohibition Enforcement for the Central Division, retreats from Iron County, Michigan, with only a few smashed wine barrels and no prisoners to his credit. “Washington called us off,” Dalrymple says. Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer issues a warning to dry agents, in general terms but obviously aimed at Dalrymple, not to arrest anyone or seize evidence without warrants.

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Today -100: February 26, 1920: Of present political affiliations, the draft, by-elections, opium, shackles, and glue

Woodrow Wilson nominates Bainbridge Colby as secretary of state, which official Washington finds just as unfathomable as his firing of Robert Lansing, because, despite Bainbridge Colby having a very secretary-of-stateish name, he has no diplomatic experience. Also, he’s been a Republican, a Bull Mooser, and an Independent; “He declined to answer a question as to his present political affiliations.” Democratic senators especially are grumbling at the appointment.

Heavyweight boxing champion Jack Dempsey and his manager will be indicted for draft-dodging. He got out of the draft by saying he had dependents; the government says he didn’t, since he wasn’t paying alimony to his ex-wife.

Former British Prime Minister H.H. Asquith, who lost his parliamentary seat in the 1918 general election, wins a by-election in Paisley, Scotland.

The Chinese authorities seize and burn a shipment of opium worth $150,000. It came from the US which, unlike Britain, has not banned the opium traffic to China.

Sen. Warren G. Harding (R-Ohio) says it is time to “unshackle” US industry from wartime regulations.

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari premieres in Berlin.

Headline of the Day -100: 

Ben and Jerry’s worst flavor ever.

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Today -100: February 25, 1920: He kept his American head

The Maryland Legislature, following up on its, ahem, dickishness in rejecting women’s suffrage, votes to send a delegation to Virginia to urge its legislature to do the same.

The Allies decide to resume economic relations with Russia, but without recognizing its government until “the Bolshevik horrors have come to an end.” They will get the League of Nations to send a commission to investigate whether this has happened.  Also, they will no longer advise states bordering on Russia (Poland etc) to continue to make war on Russia, “which may be injurious to their own interests.”

Maj. Dalrymple, Supervisor of Prohibition Enforcement for the Central Division, arrives in Iron County, Michigan intending to arrest State Attorney Martin McDonough and various police officials for obstructing prohibition agents. McDonough, naturally, swears out his own warrant for the major, for malicious libel.

First Sentence of the Day -100: “The cut of General Pershing’s coat and trousers was debated today in the House.” Evidently it’s too European. Rep. Otis Wingo (D-Ark) points out that “He kept his American head, but I, too, noticed that his tail was very English.” Worst mythological creature ever.

In other news, there was a member of Congress named Otis Wingo. After he died in 1930, his seat was won by his widow, Effiegene Wingo. Sound like characters in a W.C. Fields movie.

Interestingly, Otis died exactly two weeks before the 1930 election, so the ballot included elections for both the remainder of his term (until March 1931) and the next term, 1931-3. Effigene won both.

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Today -100: February 24, 1920: Me no drink, me no fight the United States

The “rum rebellion” (wine, but the press is going with the alliteration; there are also lots of references to the Whisky Rebellion) in Iron County, Michigan subsides in the face of the threat of military action. Many in the county are moving their booze to hiding places in the hills, though some are simply pouring out barrels of wine. “Me no drink, me no fight the United States,” one veteran of the 32nd Division and Italian stereotype says.

Britain will end conscription at the end of the month, retaining a 220,000-strong volunteer army (not counting the army in India). War Secretary Winston Churchill notes that Britain tried to get other nations to agree to end conscription generally, but with no takers, including the US.

France will retain an army of 1 million, which they figure they need in part because they can’t depend on the US.

The German Workers’ Party changes its name. It is now the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei aka the NSDAP aka the Nazi Party.

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Today -100: February 23, 1920: Hummmmmm

Anti-Semites, including soldiers, attack a meeting in Berlin, beating up the speaker Hellmut von Gerlach (not a Jew, but a pacifist).

In Iron County, Michigan, a mining area with a lot of wine-loving Italians, cops and sheriffs supported by the county’s state attorney, Martin McDonough, clashed with federal dry officers and took back wine they’d seized without a warrant, and then threatened to arrest them for... transporting liquor. So Major A.V. Dalrymple, Supervisor of Prohibition Enforcement for the Central Division, declares the county to be in revolt against Prohibition and asks permission to lead a military force to crush the rebellion. Attorney General Palmer grants it. Dalrumple promises to “make things hum.”

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Today -100: February 22, 1920: Of gum, regents, and rabies

Italy is trying to dodge blame for the Allied ultimatum to Yugoslavia, saying that Prime Minister Francesco Nitti signed it without knowing what was in it, specifically League of Nation supervision over Fiume, because... it was in English and he can’t read English.

Some Spanish doctors think the Spanish Flu came from badly manufactured chewing gum.

Adm. Miklós Horthy is named Regent of Hungary by the Hungarian Assembly. Horthy says he plans to hand power over to Charles Habsburg whenever he becomes king, which will be over our dead bodies, say the Allies. Horthy was in charge of the Austro-Hungarian Navy at the end of the war and led the coup against Béla Kun last year.

Police in Alabama shoot dead a black man who had rabies. As you do.

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Today -100: February 21, 1920: Of eclairs, explorers, and archangels

Headline of the Day -100: 

I had a dream once in which I was attacked by an eclair. Sooooo chocolate.

Robert Peary, the explorer who in 1909 was the first to reach the North Pole, or so he claimed, dies at 63.

The Soviets capture Archangel.

After a cop is killed in Dublin, a raid is carried out, with tanks and everything, and a curfew is ordered.

A naturalized Italian-American in Indiana, Frank Pedroni, got into an argument with a man who, in the course of a heated discussion of Austro-Italian disagreements, said “To hell with the United States.” So Pedroni shot him dead. He is acquitted of murder, the jury taking two minutes.

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Today -100: February 20, 1920: Of suffrage, royalties, and executions

New Mexico ratifies the women’s suffrage Amendment. 32 down, 4 to go.

The Authors’ League decides that royalties (up to $5,000) should count as dividends and are therefore not subject to income tax. Good luck convincing the IRS.

Illinois state officials step in to block Cook County Sheriff Charles Peters forcing prisoners to watch an execution for the third time.

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Today -100: February 19, 1920: Of incapacity, the attitude of women voters, and women’s suffrage

In 1920, the US Constitution remains unclear about the process for declaring a president incapable of performing his duties, which should have been rectified after James Garfield took 79 days to die after being shot (the 25th Amendment, ratified in 1967, allows an incapacitated president to be removed by the veep +a majority of the Cabinet). Two measures are introduced in the House, one for a Constitutional amendment authorizing the Supreme Court to check up on the president’s health, the other doing the same without writing it into the Constitution. Neither measure actually mentions Mr. Wilson by name.

Mary Kilbreth, president of the National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage, writes to Carrie Chapman Catt, president of “the alleged League of Women Voters” as Kilbreth puts it (the National American Woman’s Suffrage Association became the League of Women Voters last week), suggesting that since the wives of both James Wadsworth and the likely challenger for his Senate seat, former Secretary of State Robert Lansing, were prominent anti-suffragists, Catt should run for the seat “to leave no doubt of the attitude of women voters toward a woman candidate”.

The Mississippi State Senate rejects the women’s suffrage Amendment. The House has already done so.

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Today -100: February 18, 1920: Not in politics

The Allies decide that the Dardenelles and Bosporus will be removed from Turkish control and internationalized under the League of Nations. They will graciously allow Turkey to keep its capital city Constantinople, but may take it away if massacres of Armenians continue.

Headline of the Day -100: 

He has a name, you know.

Poet-Aviator Gabriele D’Annunzio says annexation of Fiume by Italy is now impossible.

Both houses of the Maryland Legislature reject the women’s suffrage Amendment, 18-9 in the Senate, 64-36 in the House of Delegates. The argument being made by the Antis is a States’ Rights one, because of course it is. They contend that such an amendment isn’t even valid, since it “would wholly or partially destroy the State, by taking away from the States... one of their functions essential to their separate independent existence as States.” Also, the legislators say, the Maryland Constitution limits suffrage to men, so voting to ratify would itself violate the state Constitution. 

Sen. Warren G. Harding’s friends in the Ohio Legislature pass a bill to change the rules for primaries, allowing him not to have to declare for reelection to the Senate until after he knows if he has the presidential nomination. But Gov. James Cox (D), who has some presidential ambitions himself, vetoes it.

The French Senate begins the treason trial of former prime minister Joseph Caillaux for “plotting against the external security of the State by manoeuvres, machinations and intelligence with the enemy” during the war.

Russian White Supreme Commander Anton Denikin gives up his dictatorial powers under pressure from The Cossacks, who think pretending to be a democracy will stop all their military reversals, or something.

Headline of the Day -100:  

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Today -100: February 17, 1920: Of good faith and disapproval

The Allies give up their demand that Germany extradite the 890 alleged war criminals, accepting Germany’s proposal that it try them itself, at Leipzig. The Allies say they won’t interfere in the trials but will reserve the right to “decide by the results as to the good faith of Germany, the recognition by her of the crimes she has committed, and her sincere desire to associate herself with their punishment.” The frustration that Germany continues to refuse to accept the entire blame for everything since 1914 is palpable.

The Allies also demand, again, that the Netherlands turn over the former kaiser Wilhelm, complaining that the Neth. “does not appear to consider that it shares with other civilized nations the duty of securing the punishment of crimes against justice and the principles of humanity... The Allies cannot conceal their surprise at finding in the Dutch reply no single word of disapproval of the crimes committed by the Emperor” etc.

Herbert Hoover’s name will be on the Republican primary ballot for the presidency in Indiana. So I guess he’s... a Republican now?

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Today -100: February 16, 1920: In control

Headline of the Day -100: 

Yeah, no.

One of the ways in which he attempts to demonstrate his return to “control” is by warning the Allied governments that he doesn’t like their agreement for settling the territorial dispute between Italy and Yugoslavia, especially the fact that they didn’t consult the US. He really did think the entire world should just sit on its hands for however many months he recuperated from the stroke they didn’t know he had. He threatens to withdraw from European affairs if they continue threatening Yugoslavia, or at least if they continue doing it without him (tomorrow this will be corrected by the White House: he was only threatening not to participate in the gifting of Fiume to Italy, not in all European affairs).

European newspapers question whether Wilson is really in a position to make this sort of threat, given that 1) he can’t get the peace treaty ratified, and 2) he’ll probably be replaced by a Republican a year from now.

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Today -100: February 15, 1920: The mental expert that was employed at the White House was discharged too soon

The NYT points out that Wilson’s complaint that Lansing informally calling together the Cabinet was unconstitutional is wrong since the Constitution doesn’t actually mention the Cabinet.

Republican congresscritters say that Pres. Wilson’s letters to Secretary of State Robert Lansing suggest that he is still not fit, physically or mentally, to resume presidenting, Sen. George Norris, R-Nev: “the mental expert that was employed at the White House was discharged too soon.” (It’s funny because it’s true). Rep. Martin Madden (R-Ill.): “The president admits that he was not able to function and therefore no one else must.” (It’s funny because it’s an accurate account of Wilson’s position). Democrats are grimly refusing to comment.

Lenin supposedly predicts that the recent peace agreement with Estonia will be revisited, and Russia will grab back parts of the country inhabited by ethnic Russians, when Estonia has finished passing through its “Kerensky period” into Soviet rule.

NYC Health Commissioner Royal Copeland (he’s a homeopathist, you know) says the influenza epidemic is almost over.

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Today -100: February 14, 1920: Of resignations, executions, sugar, and booze cruises

Secretary of State Robert Lansing resigns after the Oval Office releases a letter from Pres. Wilson accusing him of usurping presidential authority by calling informal sessions of the Cabinet while Wilson was indisposed. Lansing responded that everyone was denied communication with Wilson for months, so what was he supposed to do? Wilson responded nothing, he was supposed to do nothing, and just wait for months and months. He says that Lansing has been increasingly reluctant to accept Wilson (or whomever)’s guidance and direction (in other words, Lansing has been insufficiently supportive of the League of Nations project). Lansing responds that Wilson has been ignoring his views for over a year (he was snubbed and sidelined at the Paris negotiations) and he would have resigned then except it would have looked bad abroad. And then came “your serious illness, during which I have never seen you,” so again he didn’t feel he could resign. He says he’s leaving office now “with a sense of profound relief.”

White military leader Adm. Alexander Kolchak and White PM Viktor Pepelyayev were executed in Irtusk on the 7th. The West is trying to figure out how they fell into Bolshevik hands. They were sold out, of course, as was the custom.

Switzerland joins the League of Nations. It will be allowed to retain its neutrality and abstain from any League-ordered military actions, although it will have to join economic sanctions. Everyone denies this could be a precedent for the US; Switzerland is a special case.

British Chancellor of the Exchequer Austen Chamberlain blames the high cost of sugar on Americans, who’ve been ingesting tons of the stuff since prohibition came in. He thinks moderate drinkers like himself, who get their sugar from alcohol, are good citizens.

The Mauretania arrives from New York; despite setting sail with a record amount of booze on board, passengers drank not so moderately from the minute it hit the three-mile zone until it reached Southampton, drinking the ship entirely dry. The Cunard line assures thirsty passengers that they will be increasing storage room for future voyages.

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Today -100: February 13, 1920: Of citizens of the Internationale, suffrage, generals, and referenda

The NY State Assembly is still considering the expulsion of those 5 elected Socialist members. State Attorney General Charles Newton signs a brief that they “come here under the false pretense of being loyal to their Government, when in fact they are really citizens of the Internationale, and desire above all things the destruction of this Government.”

Arizona ratifies the women’s suffrage Amendment. 31 down, 5 to go. It was unanimous. In the Virginia House of Delegates, however, it is defeated 62-22; it had already been defeated 24-10 in the state Senate. This has been the pattern: near unanimity when the vote is in favor, large No majorities when the vote is against.

Poet-Aviator-Kidnapper Gabriele D’Annunzio releases Gen. Nigra, who his forces grabbed up a couple of weeks ago.

The first referendum has been held in Schleswig. They’re doing it by zones. The north zone voted 3:1 to join Denmark. Germans living in the province now have 2 years to decide whether to become Danes or keep their German citizenship, in which case they will have to leave within a year.

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Today -100: February 12, 1920: Because nothing says criminal anarchy like “business manager”

Benjamin Gitlow, a former one-term Socialist member of the NY State Assembly, is convicted of “criminal anarchy,” for his role as business manager of The Revolutionary Age, and sentenced to 5 to 10 years.

Idaho ratifies the women’s suffrage Amendment. 30 down, 6 to go.

Headline of the Day -100: 

Everyone’s a critic.

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Today -100: February 11, 1920: We failed to restore Russia to sanity by force

One of Woodrow Wilson’s doctors, urologist Hugh Young of Johns Hopkins, is interviewed by the Boston Sun. “From the very beginning the medical men associated with the case have never had anything to conceal,” he lies. All Wilson’s organs are now functioning normally, he lies. Wilson’s brain works even better than before his illness, he lies. The only reason Wilson hasn’t been seen outside more is that the weather’s been bad, he lies. Wilson is bright and tranquil and serene, he lies. Still, he uses the term “cerebral thrombosis,” which is the first official admission that Wilson had a stroke.

British Prime Minister David Lloyd George tells Parliament that Russia must be “restored” under an anti-Bolshevik government. Admitting that military intervention and propping up various White armies has failed (I don’t know if the West knows yet that Adm. Kolchak has been executed), he still intends to win through economic something or other. Trading with Russia but not recognizing its government.  “We failed to restore Russia to sanity by force. I believe we can save her by trade. Commerce has a sobering influence.”

French PM Alexandre Millerand informs Germany that because of its non-compliance with the peace treaty, the occupation of the Rhineland will now be indefinite. This is a power move against Lloyd George’s recent dominance of Allied policy and his lack of interest in pressing too hard for the extradition of German “war criminals” (the former crown prince offers to stand trial in place of the other 889, “if the allied and associated powers want a victim”). In fact, Millerand  made this announcement without consulting with LG or Italy’s PM Nitti.

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Today -100: February 10, 1920: Of lynchings, military training, doctrines, freak pitching, and monkey glands

On the streets of Lexington, the Kentucky National Guard fights a mob determined to lynch a black man, Will Lockett, who was being tried for killing a 10-year-old white girl. The Guards shoot into the mob, including with machine guns, killing at least 5 and wounding 17+. Lockett is then sentenced to die by the electric chair (he was arrested, “confessed,” indicted, tried and sentenced in 6 days). Meanwhile, members of the mob attack hardware stores and pawnshops and seize all the guns they can find. There are rumors that 1,500 “mountaineers” will descend on the city. Martial law is declared.

Woodrow Wilson (or whomever) writes to warn the House Democratic caucus against making a decision on compulsory military training, thereby making it a party issue. Also, he supports “moderate training projects” for their “great disciplinary and other advantages” for young men. The caucus ignores him and votes to oppose universal training.

Another revolt against Japanese colonial rule in Korea. Insurgents, supposedly armed by Russia, attack Japanese army outposts.

Germany is drawing up its own list of Allied soldiers and officials responsible for war crimes, because two can play at that game.

Secretary of State Robert Lansing refuses El Salvador’s request that the US explain the Monroe Doctrine before it signs the Versailles Treaty, which mentions the doctrine.

The US refuses to recognize the independence of Lithuania, preferring a united Russia.

New Jersey ratifies the federal women’s suffrage Amendment after a Democratic filibuster in support of a referendum. 29 down, 7 to go.

The people in charge of baseball ban “freak pitching,” which includes the spitball, although each team can designate two spitballers for the next season only. There are other rule changes, but I lost interest. I feel tricked into momentarily caring about sports by the phrase “freak pitching.” Are there any other phrases in today -100’s sports section that could do that? Yes, yes there are:

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Today -100: February 9, 1920: Of hoovers and fugitives

Herbert Hoover says he’s not seeking the presidency. Which is not the same thing as saying he wouldn’t accept the nomination. He’s also not saying whether he’s a D or an R, saying he wants to see what the parties stand for first. He does say he’d support whichever party favored the League of Nations.

Some of the Germans deemed war criminals by the Allies are slipping into Switzerland to avoid possible extradition. There’s no Swiss law against fugitives entering the country.

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Today -100: February 8, 1920: Of reservations, doctrines, suffrage, piracy, and breakers of marriage

Sen. George Hitchcock (D-Neb.) shares with the Senate a letter Pres. Wilson wrote him a couple of weeks ago accepting Hitchcock’s proposed compromise reservations to the League of Nations.

Since the US got a mention of the Monroe Doctrine included in the League of Nations Covenant, some Latin American countries are putting off joining the League until the US explains exactly what the Monroe Doctrine entails.

Nevada ratifies the women’s suffrage Amendment. 28 down, 8 to go.

D’Annunzio’s men capture a destroyer and a food train.

Soviet Russia now has an official “Breaker of Marriages” to grant divorces, and he’s breaking hundreds of marriages a week. “All that appears to be required is the signature of the person desiring freedom from matrimony,” the scandalized NYT reports from its fainting couch.

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Today -100: February 7, 1920: Of johnsons and wood, campaigns, cooperatives, and suffrage

The US State Department claims that Russia is planning a campaign against India, using Turkestan as a base. Actually, reading on, it sounds like they just mean a propaganda campaign. Big deal.

Not sure what the thinking is here, but the Russian Soviet government takes control of cooperatives, just as the West was prepared to resume economic relations with Russia as long as it was with the cooperatives and not the government.

The Virginia State Senate rejects the women’s suffrage Amendment, 24-10.

Dirty Headline of the Day -100: 

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Today -100: February 6, 1920: Of impossible demands

The German government says the Allied demand for 890 alleged war criminals is “impossible.” Chancellor Gustav Bauer says, yeah we did sign that treaty that required the extradition, but we didn’t think you meant it.

The Allies supposedly accept that war crimes trials will never happen, but wants Germany to accept the list and the theoretical guilt of the 890 and the Allies’ theoretical right to put them on trial. Of course France will insist on continuing to occupy the Rhine until the extraditions it knows will never happen happen.

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Today -100: February 5, 1920: Of plebiscites, submarines, extraditions, and rockets

Schleswig-Holstein will shortly hold its plebiscite on what country to be a part of. Non-residents (i.e. Germans and Danes) have been banned from participating in electioneering.

Three of Poet-Aviator-Pirate Gabriele D’Annunzio’s men are caught trying to steal an Italian submarine.

The Allies hand the list of 890 alleged war criminals to the head of the German delegation, Baron Kurt von Lersner. Or try to, since Lersner immediately informs them that he has resigned and no other German official will help with the extraditions, so there. It’s unclear whether he’s acting on his own or under orders.

A Capt. Claude Collins of the New York City Air Police, which I don’t think is actually a thing, volunteers to be on the first manned rocket to Mars (the Robert Goddard rocket). He doesn’t want any pay, just life insurance.

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Today -100: February 4, 1920: Of narrow escapes, books of hate, flags, and cheek and jowl shuffles

Pres. Wilson has had a “narrow escape from influenza,” according to his doctor. The president’s health is said to be steadily improving. The president’s health is indeed always said to be steadily improving. For four months now. He should be able to leap tall buildings in a single bound at this point.

The list of alleged war criminals the Allies want Germany to hand over – deemed by the Germans that “book of hate” – now contains 890 names, including Hindenburg and Ludendorff, many generals, Adm. Von Tirpitz (for submarine warfare), former Chancellor Bethmann-Hollweg (for invading Belgium), three Hohenzollern princes and one Bavarian one, Baron Von der Lancken (for the execution of the nurse Edith Cavell), and a bunch of U-boat commanders. The only woman on the list is an attendant at an internment camp, Elsa Schneiner. The British put 97 names on the list, France 334, Italy 29, Belgium 334, Poland 51, Romania 41, and Yugoslavia 4. The US and Japan added none.

The NY Assembly, investigating (again) the patriotism of the 5 elected Socialist members it keeps excluding, hears the testimony of a 17-year-old girl that Assemblyman Charles Solomon once spat on the American flag.

Congressional Republicans remove mandatory military training for males from the military bill on grounds of cost.

An association of Pittsburgh dance hall owners will ask the city council to ban “jazz” dances, including the shimmy and the cheek and jowl shuffle.

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Today -100: February 3, 1920: Are ghosts kosher?

Germany asked that the Allies not demand that “war criminals” be handed over as specified in the Treaty of Versailles, as it might cause a counter-revolution to break out. The Allies tell them to suck it and hand over 780 men.

France is still executing wartime spies, in this case an Austrian who was in Paris during the war and reported to Germany where its long-range shells were hitting.

The French, as usual, are concerned about the country’s low birth rate and its effect on military readiness. There is now a “Supreme Council of Natality,” because of course there is.

Russia asks Poland if it would like to put an end to all the fussin’ and feudin’.

Estonia has made peace with Russia. Estonia is an independent country. For now.

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Charles Thomas, president of the Commonwealth Trust and Security Company of Chicago, is arrested for having a hip flask, but are the trousers he kept it in a “vehicle” under the dry law, and therefore subject to seizure and sale? Federal prohibition agents will argue before the US District Court that they are.

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Today -100: February 2, 1920: FDR does crimez

The Russian Soviet government gives permission for Russian cooperatives to trade with companies in foreign countries, evidently dropping its previous demand for an armistice before the resumption of commercial relations.

Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin D. Roosevelt tells a meeting that after the US entered the Great War, he did lots of totally illegal things to prepare the Navy, including spending $40 million for guns (presumably cannons on ships) that had not yet been authorized by Congress. That seems to be the only crime to which he specifically admits.

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Today -100: February 1, 1920: Of poles, arrests, and low bodies.

40,000 Poles have applied to leave the US, most stating as their reason, you guessed it, prohibition.

The British arrest dozens of Sinn Féin leaders, including the just-elected members of the Dublin council and Lord Mayor Tom Kelly, whose office makes him an ex officio captain in the British Army. And they’ve finally caught up with Michael Collins.

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“Low bodies” is a typo, tho’ a fun one; they meant low bodices. One anonymous French doctor says today’s fashions allow a salutary “double aeration of the skin”.

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Today -100: January 31, 1920: We will make you chew wood

The bipartisan Senate talks about the peace treaty collapse, with Henry Cabot Lodge refusing to contemplate any compromise on his reservations.

The forces of Gabriele D’Annunzio kidnap an Italian general who’s been critical of the Poet-Aviator.

The new Cork and Limerick Corporations (city councils) declare allegiance to the Irish Republic. And the council of Derry/Londonderry in Northern Ireland elects its first Nationalist and its first Catholic mayor, Hugh O’Doherty, as audience members taunt the Ulsterites, “Derry has surrendered. We will make you chew wood.” Jennie Wyse Power, a member of Dublin Corporation is disqualified by the town clerk for signing the roll in Gaelic.

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Today -100: January 30, 1920: What wine goes with pneumonia?

French spies have allegedly uncovered a Bolshevik plot for an uprising in India.

Russia, making an offer to Poland to discuss peace, accuses the agents of Churchill and Clemenceau of inciting a “senseless, criminal war against Soviet Russia” (it’s funny cuz it’s true).

The feds announce rules for the use of liquor for medicinal purposes (i.e. the spreading influenza outbreaks): doctors and pharmacists with permits may dispense no more than one pint per patient within ten days. There’s no set limit on wines.

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Today -100: January 29, 1920: Of signals from Mars, secret treaties, and referenda

Marconi is still investigating those mysterious signals or whatever that wirelesses are picking up. He says he can’t exclude them being extraterrestrial in origin.

The Allies gave Yugoslavia an ultimatum to accept their proposed revision of its borders with Italy (Fiume, Dalmatia, etc) or they will implement the Treaty of London with the bribes offered to Italy to enter the war in 1915. Yugoslavia says no, pointing out that it doesn’t even know what it’s being threatened with, since the treaty was a secret one and its terms have still never been officially published.

Meanwhile, an Italian ship en route to Albania with stores for the Italian occupation soldiers there as well as pay for those soldiers of 2 million lire, which is roughly the equivalent of some money, sails instead to Fiume, where Poet-Aviator-Pirate Gabriele D’Annunzio seizes the cargo and the money.

Mississippi, like Virginia, will punt on the question of women’s suffrage, putting the federal Amendment up to a popular vote – in November. The South Carolina Legislature rejects it outright.

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Today -100: January 28, 1920: Of women’s suffrage and aliens

Wyoming ratifies the federal women’s suffrage Amendment. 27 down, 9 to go. Or possibly 26. Did I miss one?

Marconi wirelesses have been experiencing interference. Could they be signals from aliens? Sir Frank Dyson, the Astronomer Royal, thinks they might.

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Today -100: January 27, 1920: Of treaties, assassination attempts, Americanization, and anti-gas

Hungary will refuse to sign the peace treaty, which would limit its army to 35,000, which it says is too small.

German troops are occupying parts of Berlin to prevent a royalist outbreak on the ex-kaiser’s birthday. Finance Minister Matthias Erzberger is shot in the shoulder by a would-be assassin with a small-calibre gun (one bullet was deflected by a button). Erzberger was leaving court, where he is suing former Vice Chancellor Karl Helfferich for libel. Erzberger is a hate figure for the far right, due to his financial policy and his role in signing the peace agreement. A more competent assassin will find him in 1921.

The Senate votes an “Americanization” bill, providing $6,500,000 to teach English to aliens and illiterate Americans. States accepting the money would have to make it compulsory for people aged 16 to 21 to take 200 hours of instruction in English a year.

The French are working on measures to counteract poison gas attacks. “Naturally the French chemists are guarding closely the secret of this anti-gas.” They’re also working on developing shells to fire at enemy planes to poison the air around them.

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Today -100: January 26, 1920: It is always well for men to walk humbly

Massachusetts Gov. Calvin Coolidge says he’s not a candidate for president, without quite saying that he would object to someone nominating him at the Republican Convention. He says he doesn’t want anyone to be able to say that he used the office of governor to influence the selection of Massachusetts’s delegates. He says “The curse of the present is the almost universal grasping for power in high places and in low to the exclusion of the discharge of obligations. It is always well for men to walk humbly.”

The Soviets announce that they have captured not only Irkutsk, but Adm. Kolchak and his government as well. The latter is true, the former is not.

The French winners of Nobel prizes in economics and medicine decline to accept the award because the chemistry prize went to Fritz Haber for his work on nitrogen, um, something or other, which is important in producing fertilizer but which he also put to use during the war in developing chemical weapons. (Update: or possibly this story is complete horseshit - see comments).

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Today -100: January 25, 1920: Of medicinal whisky, destroying the state in open combat, and armistices

As influenza spreads in New York and elsewhere, Assistant Supervising Federal Prohibition Agent James Shevlin says that “most druggists have little desire to handle whisky because of the legal restrictions, but that an appeal was being made to them on the ground that they were in duty bound, as purveyors of medicine, to carry a stock of liquor.” (I asked my GP about this a couple of weeks ago. He seemed to think using whisky to treat flu and pneumonia is a bad idea.)

Secretary of Labor William Wilson decides that membership by aliens in the Communist Party is a sufficient ground, all by itself, for deportation, because the Party is “seeking to destroy the State in open combat.”

The Allies (not including the US) are trying to resume commercial relations with the Soviet Union without actually recognizing the Soviet Union by dealing directly with Russian cooperatives. But Russia says that unless there is a military armistice first, it will sink any ships arriving at Russian ports.

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Today -100: January 24, 1920: Of emigration, extradition, and ugly duchesses

Japan is prohibiting emigration to Mexico, because of an “understanding” with the US.

The Netherlands refuses to extradite former kaiser Wilhelm. In truth, the demand by the Allies’ Supreme Council was a bit bizarre, saying that, had Willy remained in Germany, the peace treaty would have required Germany to extradite him, so, um, Holland should. The Dutch point out that they aren’t a party to the Versailles treaty because they weren’t actually, you know, in the war, and that there’s no international court to try war crimes anyway.

Quentin Matsys’s 16th-century painting The Ugly Duchess sells at Christie’s for 880 guineas.

The painting is now (2020) in the National Gallery in London.

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Today -100: January 23, 1920: Root and branch

Herbert Hoover is seriously considering running for president without committing himself as to which party’s banner he’d run under. This would be accomplished by the formation of Hoover clubs, dominated if not entirely comprised of business men. He would then  publish a platform, and either party would be free to adopt both him and it.

The mayor of Camden, New Jersey appoints a black man, Dr. Clement Branch to the city’s Board of Education. Immediately, the president of the board and another long-time member resign, with more threatening to do so, although no one’s admitting that Branch’s appointment is the reason.

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Today -100: January 22, 1920: Of communist laborers, flu, women’s suffrage, and whipping

A Chicago grand jury indicts 39 Communist Labor Party leaders, including John Reed (who is in Russia) and William Bross Lloyd, for conspiracy to overthrow the government by force.

Influenza is rearing its head again and the main problem is the difficulty in getting whisky for, you know, medicinal purposes.

The lower house of the Mississippi Legislature rejects the federal women’s suffrage Amendment.

Atlanta City Council orders an end to the whipping of women prisoners at the city stockade.

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Today -100: January 21, 1920: Of weak, doubtful, second-class men, and open arms

The Allied Supreme Council breaks up without resolving the status of Fiume. It sounds to me like Yugoslavia conceded to Italy almost everything it demanded, but that’s still not good enough for Italy.

The NYT editorial page expresses confidence that the Republican party will choose Henry Cabot Lodge as its presidential candidate. “The Republican party is not going to foist upon the country any weak, doubtful, second-class man.” (They’re being sarcastic).

Russia has evidently decided to accept all 249 deported radicals. As Maxim Gorky’s wife tells them, “Russia opens her arms to all who are politically persecuted.” Um, yeah, that’s totally what Russia does (I’m being sarcastic).

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Today -100: January 20, 1920: Of international duties, exiles, and the more extreme types of foolishness

The Allies send the Netherlands a note demanding she “fulfill her international duty” and hand over the former kaiser.

The “undesirable aliens” deported from the US arrive, finally, in Russia, crossing over the frozen Systerbak River from Finland. They are met by a military band and welcoming crowds. Emma Goldman says “This is the greatest moment of my life. After 35 years of absence I am returning to Russia with a feeling of awe. I am glad to leave America, but I love the American people and expect to return there some day.” She won’t.

Nicholas Murray Butler, president of Columbia University, suggests that since there is “no human cure for some of the more extreme types of foolishness,” radicals should be rounded up and exiled to some island in the Philippines.

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Today -100: January 19, 1920: Of deserters and Gaelic

The Paris police plan to round up 1,000 US Army deserters they claim are living in Paris, many of them broke and engaging in crimes. The flics will arrest anyone in uniform without the proper papers. Wait, in all their criming they haven’t stolen some new clothes?

Sinn Féin win a majority of seats on the Dublin municipal council. They even win a few seats in Belfast. One of the new councilors, Michael Carolan, who fought in the Easter Rising, gives a speech thanking his voters... in Gaelic. In Belfast. Love it.

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Today -100: January 18, 1920: Of the most Bolshevist act in New York, arks, and Fenian councillors

The New York Bar Association condemns the Assembly’s refusal to seat those 5 Socialist members. Former governor and former US Supreme Court chief justice Charles Evans Hughes says that the Assembly, “in the name of hatred of Bolshevism commit the most Bolshevist act ever performed in this state by depriving a part of the population of the right to be represented by their duly elected representatives.”

The “Soviet Ark” drops its deported radicals off in Finland, from whence they will be taken to the Russian border by train. The Finns have informed the Soviets of this plan and requested that Soviet troops stop shooting when the train arrives, but they have received no reply. Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman say they will not stay in Russia, but return to the US to save it.

The French National Assembly elects Paul Deschanel president of the Republic. His term in office will be most notable for his descent into eccentricity/insanity.

Sinn Féin does quite well in Irish municipal elections. There aren’t that many women candidates, but those are mostly SF, including Hannah Sheehy-Skeffington, woman suffragist leader and widow of Francis S-S, summarily executed for no very good reason during the Easter Rising.

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Today -100: January 17, 1920: Of prohibition, leagues of nations, dumping grounds for agitators, rejected tigers, and brown October ale

Prohibition is now in effect.

So is the League of Nations, although it’s mostly just sitting around, waiting for the US to show up. There’s an empty chair and everything.

The “Red Ark” containing Emma Goldman and 248 other deported aliens still hasn’t reached Russia. The ship broke down and needed several days to repair, and now Finland and Soviet Russia are negotiating. The Soviets seem reluctant to “be used as a dumping ground for agitators from America.” Finland may take custody of them and trade them to Russia for Finnish prisoners.

French Premier Georges Clemenceau drops out of the French presidential race after his caucus rejects him in favor of Paul Deschanel, with whom he once fought a duel. Clemenceau says he didn’t really want to be president anyway and only ran because his friends wanted him to.

The Allies will resume trading relations with Bolshevik Russia. This comes out of the blue and the reasons are obscure. The speculation is that Lloyd George has realized that the White forces are doomed, which they totally are. “The only official explanation of the move is that it is intended to reach the Russian peasants and thus weaken the Soviet Government. Some statesmen say that this reasoning is not clear to them.” The US was never part of the blockade of Russia.

Reginald De Koven, American composer of songs such as “Oh, Promise Me,” and light operas, most famously Robin Hood (1890), dies at a dance held in celebration of his recently opened Rip Van Winkle. Here’s a song, such as it is, from Robin Hood, praising a substance no longer legal in the United States.

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Today -100: January 16, 1920: Of swarms, free cities, and Reds

Secretary of War Newton Baker tells Congress that Poland needs a large loan to enable it to withstand the onslaught of Soviet Russia. Loans should also be made to Armenia and Austria, he says. Gen. Bliss agrees with a suggestion by Rep. John Nance Garner that the Bolsheviks could “swarm over Europe.”

Italy agrees to give up its claim over Fiume, leaving it a “free city,” with its port and railroads controlled by the League of Nations and with its “Italian character” to be recognized, whatever that means. France and Britain are putting pressure on Yugoslavia to accept the deal.

A federal judge orders the release of 9 of the “Reds” being held for deporation on Ellis Island. 65 more will be bailed. The position of the Immigration Commission is that the burden is on the aliens to prove that they should not be deported.

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Today -100: January 15, 1920: Of citizens

The House passes a bill giving Native Americans US citizenship, although it sounds like it’s really more about breaking up tribal property.

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Today -100: January 14, 1920: Gloom

Oregon ratifies the women’s suffrage Amendment. 25 down, 11 to go. The measure is proposed by Sylvia Thompson, the only current woman member of the Legislature (and third ever woman member).

Protesters outside the Reichstag in Berlin, objecting to a bill setting up factory workers’ councils which they say are not good enough, allegedly attack soldiers, who respond with machine gun fire, as was the custom.

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Last month driver’s licenses were introduced in Ireland, intended to curb Sinn Féin drive-by shootings. So in Sligo, a bunch of cars and trucks which belong to people who complied with that law – “driven under British permit” as the notices attached to them describe them – are sabotaged.

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