Today -100: March 18, 1920: Kapp doffed

Wolfgang Kapp and Walther von Lüttwitz resign or give up or retire or whatever you do when you leave an office you claimed to have taken over. He says the government has agreed to his demands, so his mission is fulfilled and the threat from “the annihilating dangers of Bolshevism” (a national uprising is rumored) requires national unity. And then he flees Berlin. The leaders of the general strike also declare victory and call for the strike to end.

There was (supposedly) a Spartacist uprising in Westphalia, a Soviet republic declared in Frankfort, and increasingly bloody clashes between Kapp’s soldiers and crowds in Berlin, Leipzig, Essen and elsewhere. I guess these are those annihilating dangers of Bolshevism.

The Allies (France, Britain, Italy) occupy Constantinople, meeting relatively little resistance (a few killed when they took over the Ministry of War). Various military commanders and a prince and others are arrested.

Pres. Wilson allows photographs and moving pictures to be taken of him for the first time in six months, as he drives past reporters.

What To Watch: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, starring John Barrymore, premieres.

This is the first of three film adaptations of the Robert Louis Stevenson story opening this year, including The Head of Janus, a lost film by F.W. Murnau (Nosferatu), starring Conrad Veidt.

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Today -100: March 17, 1920: Of leaves, grave concerns, putsches, and blizzards

Gen. Leonard Wood gets a two-month leave of absence from the Army so he can campaign for president.

Republican senators come up with a compromise reservation to the Peace Treaty: if the “freedom and peace of Europe” is again threatened, “the United States will regard such a situation with grave concern, and will consider what, if any, action it will take”. Not sure you really need a formal treaty to promise to regard a situation with grave concern. Oh, and St Patrick’s Day is coming up, so there WILL be talk in the Senate about recognizing the Irish Republic. And maybe Korea. And Egypt.

The Kapp regime is reportedly bombarding Kiel, where there has been fighting. The Imperial Finance Minister, following Pres. Ebert’s orders, refuses to pay the troops acting for Kapp. The general strike is spreading. Lüttwitz, Kapp’s defense minister, threatens to execute anyone fomenting the strike. Hindenburg (finally) announces that he has nothing to do with the putsch. Pres. Ebert denies that he is negotiating with Kapp.

Hiram Johnson wins the North Dakota Republican primary, which takes place in a blizzard, as is the custom. He was the only candidate on the ballot.

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Today -100: March 16, 1920: Of reservations, developments, secretaries of states, and dry killings

The Senate votes in favor of Lodge’s reservation to Article X of the Peace Treaty, specifying that the US military can only be used to defend other countries if Congress votes for it. The vote is 56-26, 14 D’s voting with all the R’s for the reservation, going against Pres. Wilson’s position. The treaty is thus, again, dead. Which also means that the US will not be participating in negotiating Turkey’s peace treaty.

British Prime Minister David Lloyd George tells Parliament that he will “await developments” in Germany. Those developments suggest the Kapp Putsch regime is spreading, with copycat military coups in many towns.

There are rumors that the competing Ebert and Kapp regimes are negotiating. Or at least that Kapp has offered to let Ebert remain in office, with a cabinet of technocrats, until new elections are called in the very near future. Water has been restored in Berlin, but not electricity, gas, or newspapers.

The second Schleswig plebiscite is held, in zone 2, which includes the port of Flensburg.  Zone 2 decides to stay attached to Germany.

The Senate has sat on Wilson’s nomination of Bainbridge Colby to be secretary of state, and the term of the acting secretary has just expired, so there is no longer anyone at the head in State. This means, among other things, that there’s no one authorized to receive a ratified 19th Amendment. Also, new passports can’t be issued. And at the time secretary of state was next in succession to the presidency after Veep Whatsisname.

Stewart McMullin, the federal prohibition agent being held for shooting a cabby during an arrest, refuses to tell prosecutors whether or not he’s the same person as a former prison inmate. In fact, his real name is John Conway, maybe... well it’s certainly one of the names he’s used. He has served time for armed robbery, forgery, and didn’t serve time for involuntary manslaughter (at 14!) (he beat in some guy’s skull with a rock and got a $50 fine). He was recruited by the feds while still in Dannemora because of his helpfulness as a jail-house stool pigeon. Later this year he’ll be acquitted for the murder by a jury that evidently ignored all the evidence, although he is then immediately arrested for breaking parole in Indiana. Not sure what happened to him after that.

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Today -100: March 15, 1920: We do not want revolution, but a reconstruction

The Kapp coup regime has gotten no further in consolidating power. Right-wing political leaders are not rallying to it, so its power-base is almost entirely military and para-military. The Kappists, if I may, are stressing that they are not reactionaries looking to restore the monarchy. According to one of their leaflets, “We do not want revolution, but a reconstruction.” Kapp tells foreign reporters the republic is not being overturned and there’ll be new Reichstag elections... some time. The water supply to Berlin has been shut off. All the cafes are closed. Most state governments are opposed to the putsch, though August Winnig, Social Democratic governor of East Prussia, recognizes the Kapp regime.

Gen. Baron Walther von Lüttwitz, Kapp’s defense minister, says he took part in the putsch to protect all of Europe from Bolshevism. “Prussia must take a hand in it.”

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Today -100: March 14, 1920: Not a hand must move

Wolfgang Kapp (not von Kapp, NYT) declares himself chancellor of Germany and Gen. Baron Walther von Lüttwitz Defense Minister and dissolves the Reichstag as troops join his coup attempt and enter Berlin.

The Kapp regime announces that “The overthrow of the Government must not be taken as reactionary. On the contrary, it is a progressive measure of patriotic Germans of all parties, with a view to re-establishing law, order, discipline and honest government in Germany.” So that’s okay then. Kapp tells the foreign press that his coup is not monarchist (he knows that nothing will bring foreign military intervention faster than trying to put a Hollenzollern back on a restored throne) and that Germany will enforce the peace treaty... well, the “just” provisions of the peace treaty.

Various German state governments denounce the putsch, which for now seems to be confined to Berlin. President Friedrich Ebert and various cabinet members flee Berlin (some have been arrested), going to Dresden or somewhere. Ebert and the Social Democratic Party call for a general strike. The Social Democratic Party says “We did not make the revolution in order to recognize again today the bloody government of mercenaries [meaning the Freikorps].” “Paralyze all economic life. Not a hand must move. No proletariat shall help the military dictatorship.”

I would imagine the designation of these events as the “Kapp Putsch” was retrospective, but a word about that word: the German “putsch,” meaning roughly the same thing as coup d’etat, with an emphasis on suddenness, entered the English language with the Kapp Putsch. The German word originated in Swiss German, entering German German through reports of Swiss uprisings in the 1830s.

Woodrow Wilson sends the Allies a plan to resume trade with Russia without recognizing its government.

William Jennings Bryan says he’d accept the nomination for president if it was demanded of him, although he doesn’t think that will happen. He does want to go to the Convention as a delegate, to oppose “the reactionaries and friends of the saloon.”

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Today -100: March 13, 1920: Of kapps, coercing Turks, bachelor taxes, dry killings, and thrilling jewel robberies

German War Minister Gustav Noske orders the arrests of Capt. Waldemar Pabst (whose name the NYT has wrong) and bureaucrat Wolfgang Kapp of the Deutsche Vaterlandspartei for attempting a reactionary putsch, using the arrest order for Prince Joachim Albrecht for getting into a fight with French officers at the Hotel Adlon as a pretext. Well, it’s more about orders to demobilize the Freikorps, but close enough.

With the Allies thinking about how to force Turkey to stop killing Armenians (or Christians, as the AP chooses to identify them), US Sen. Lawrence Sherman (R-Illinois) introduces a resolution to end Turkish rule “over Christians everywhere”) and prevent the Young Turks returning to power, Greece generously

Gen. Álvaro Obregón, running for president in Mexico, offers a campaign promise not to start a revolution if he loses.

The French Parliament is working on a tax bill which will include a 10% tax on the incomes of bachelors. They’re really serious about having enough cannon fodder for the next war.

Stewart McMullin, the Internal Revenue prohibition enforcer who shot cabby Henry Carlton in the first enforcement death of the Prohibition era, will be prosecuted. Witnesses refute his story that he acted in self-defense, say that Carlton had in fact surrendered and that the dry agents failed to identify themselves, so Carlton probably thought he was being ripped off. Which may well have been what was actually going on. Also, the knife McMullin claimed Carlton brandished cannot be found.  Carlton was shot in the back of the head at close range, as was the custom.

Headline of the Day -100:  

Sadly, no Alexander Woollcott review.

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Today -100: March 12, 1920: But it’s a dry killing

Headline of the Day -100: 

A Manhattan cabby/bootlegger, Henry Carlton, is shot dead by Internal Revenue prohibition enforcer Stewart McMullin during a sting operation. Carlton pulled a knife when the narcs tried to arrest him.

Or did he?

Syria (which was rather larger than the present country) declares independence, with Faisal as king.

El Salvador accepts the invitation to join the League of Nations.

Evangelist Billy Sunday is not only willing to run for president as a Republican, but names his potential Cabinet.

The Boston Symphony threatens to replace striking musicians. It may even hire women for the first time.

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Today -100: March 11, 1920: Now commences war

Poet-Aviator Gabriele D’Annunzio is irate that Italy is blocking entry to children being sent from starving Fiume. He threatens to use a warship to land them at Venice. He compares this to Italy’s sheltering starving children from Vienna. “I will not tolerate this infamy. I am preparing the roughest-edged tool to brand it. ... Yes, now commences war.”

The Ulster Unionists decide to accept Lloyd George’s Home Rule Bill. They still don’t like Ireland having any form of self-government, but will accept separate treatment for “Ulster,” even if it’s just 6 rather than 9 counties.

Norway and Denmark agree to join the League of Nations after getting assurances that they won’t be required to maintain a standing army ready to join in possible League military actions. Switzerland, Sweden and the Netherlands will also join.

West Virginia State Senator Bloch arrives at Charleston from his winter home in Pasadena (no word on whether he accepted the plane booked to get him part of the way) in time to vote for the federal women’s suffrage Amendment. Also, an Anti senator who no longer lives in the state is unseated, so ratification passes. 34 down, 2 to go.

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Today -100: March 10, 1920: Of independent progressives, retiring from public life, and #NegotiationFail

Gen. Leonard Wood wins the New Hampshire Republican primary. Herbert Hoover seems to have won the Democrat primary. Hoover writes to some California Republicans who want him to run as an R, saying he is an “independent progressive,” equally opposed to the reactionary wing of the R’s and the radical wing of the D’s. Also, too, he’s not running for office. But... he seems to leave open the possibility of being drafted into office, which the NYT will characterize as “Mr. Hoover will accept a nomination, but he will not lift a hand to get one.”

The Duchess County, NY Democratic Committee endorses Assistant Navy Secretary Franklin D. Roosevelt for US Senate. FDR is not actually running for Senate, and says he wants to retire from public life.

Negotiations between Italy and Yugoslavia fail. Yugoslavia is now demanding that if Italy gets part of Albania, Valona (or Vlorë, as the Albanians call it), it wants Scutari (or Shkodër, as the Albanians call it). No one seems to be asking Albanians what they think. No one ever does.

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Today -100: March 9, 1920: Does any one really want to see the old game played again?

The West Virginia State Senate is evenly divided on the federal women’s suffrage Amendment, which the lower house has already passed. The suffrage side are trying to get Sen. Bloch (this article has his first name as William, a later one says Jesse) back from California, hiring a plane to take him the Chicago-to-Cincinnati leg of the trip. Assuming they can get him on a plane.

Pres. Wilson (or whoever) writes to Sen. Hitchcock, rejecting any and all reservations to the Peace Treaty – “I hear of reservationists and mild reservationists, but I cannot understand the difference between a nullifier and a mild nullifier.” He declares Article X (mutual self-defense and renunciation of war) “the essence of Americanism.” “The reservation proposed would perpetuate the old order. Does any one really want to see the old game played again?”

The Supreme Court rules that stock dividends are capital, not income, and therefore not subject to the income tax. The stock market tanks on the news after Dow-Jones and other news agencies initially report the exact opposite.

Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg announces that he is running for president of Germany. His supporters are claiming his is a non-partisan candidacy and are trying to convince voters that he would uphold the Republic (naturally he privately got permission to run from former kaiser Wilhelm).

Wilhelm’s cousin, Prince Joachim Albrecht, has taken to going around Berlin restaurants and paying the orchestra to strike up Deutschland Uber Alles. After doing so at the Hotel Adlon, he led an attack on two out-of-uniform French officers who failed to stand. When German patrons tried to stop him, telling him to at least remember that Germany lost the war, he insisted, “No! We won it.” His arrest has been ordered by the minister of defense.

Headline of the Day -100: 

“Her inhabitants do not promenade or saunter; they walk straight ahead with preoccupied, downward gaze and with definite if unhasty footsteps.”

Cardinal O’Connell, Archbishop of Boston, attacks “false feminism”: “The women are becoming masculine, if you please, and the men are becoming effeminate. This is disorder.”

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Today -100: March 8, 1920: Of home rules, you sunk my battleship, train robberies, and love

Sir Edward Carson, Ulster Unionist leader and treasonist, urges acceptance of Lloyd George’s Home Rule Bill, because it’s better than the alternative of the 1914 Home Rule Act coming into effect.

Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels and the Senate Navy Sub-Committee are squabbling over whether awards should be given to officers whose ships were sunk.

The Allies are planning, or at least threatening, to occupy Constantinople to pressure Turkey to stop killing Armenians. They may also make the peace treaty terms harsher.

A band of Hungarians attempt to kidnap former dictator Béla Kun from his hospital bed in Austria. A watchman they bribed finks them out to the cops.

Pancho Villa is being blamed, maybe even correctly, for leading the robbery of a train in which 33 people (19 soldiers, 10 bandits, 4 civilians) are killed and others held for ransom.

Headline of the Day -100: 

Whereupon the Young Men's Bible Class to which John D. Jr. addressed these words beat him to death, I assume.

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Today -100: March 7, 1920: Of hoovers, borders, Magyars, overstuffed chickens, and America’s Sweetheart

Herbert Hoover informs California Democrats that he is not a candidate for president, and please don’t put his name on the ballot.

Poland says it will only negotiate with Russia on the basis of the 1772 borders. Poland’s army is currently occupying parts of Russia well beyond the borders drawn by the Peace Conference along more or less ethnographic lines (that is, the Polish state should contain Poles and not too many Russians). The Allies tell Poland to knock it off.

The Czech Ministry of Education bans the word “Hungary.” It should henceforth be known as Magyar or Magyar Land (the case being that the old multi-ethnic Hungary is gone, replaced by a smaller mono-ethnic state).

Headline of the Day -100:

Also sand, wheat, and gravel. Legally they’re only allowed one ounce.

Hollywood Headline of the Day -100:

Well, not this month week anyway.

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Today -100: March 6, 1920: I didn’t know Prussia had a pre-nup

The German Reichstag is considering reimbursing the Hohenzollerns for their nationalized property. The Socialists think they should only be compensated for what they brought into Brandenburg-Prussia in 1415.

Chief Secretary for Ireland Ian Macpherson defends government repression in Ireland, saying Sinn Féin has at least 200,000 men prepared to commit murder at any time.

NYC Assistant District Attorney James Smith claims to have a list of 500 apartments in Manhattan used by women for immoral purposes. Mayor Hylan asks for a copy of the list for, ah, reasons.

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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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