Today -100: August 8, 1921: Of klans and non-lynchings

The Ku Klux Klan denies allegations against it: “The knights of the Ku Klux Klan do not encourage or foster lawlessness, racial prejudice or religious intolerance and it [sic] is not designed to act in the capacity of a law enforcement or moral correction agency”. So that settles that.

Police arrive in the nick of time to stop a Detroit mob from lynching a black man, Sam Griggs. There was a fight over a seat at a baseball game, and a crowd chased Griggs’ cousin to his house. He shot into the crowd (he says he was fired on first), hitting two white 12-year-olds.

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Today -100: August 7, 1921: Of death cars

Latest super-unlikely rumor from Russia: Lenin is going on tour, visiting England later in the month, then maybe Scotland and Italy.

The British release all imprisoned members of the Dáil Éireann except for John J. McKeown, who was convicted of murder.

One thing the new law limiting immigration has (foreseeably) done, by instituting monthly quotas, is to set off a race at the start of each month between steamships coming from Europe, which don’t want to be forced to take excess immigrants back.

The Curse of the Hohenzollern Automobile: During the war, one of the princes ran over and killed a child. So he sold the car to a baron, who ran over and killed a man, so he sold it to a chauffeur, who you guessed it, so he sold it to a Cologne business man, who died in a crash. So there’s one car for sale, slightly blood-stained, no takers so far. The article doesn’t say what the model of the car is.

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Today -100: August 6, 1921: Blimp on a rampage!

A police magistrate in Vienna sentences Archduchess Elisabeth Marie to 10 days for refusing to surrender her four children to her estranged husband Prince Otto. She told a cop who tried to take the kids that she’d feed him to her dogs. Archduchesses gonna archduchess.

Not sure how its members were chosen, but the Famine Relief Committee formed in Moscow has only 11 Communists of 63 members. Naturally, ever-optimistic Russian exiles think the committee will somehow overthrow the Soviet government and take over.

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The deputy sheriff of Great Barrington, Massachusetts thinks he’s spotted fugitive Illinois Gov. Len Small in his town, acting suspiciously, over the last three weeks and asks if there’s a reward for his capture. Illinios replies that there isn’t any reward and Small hasn’t left Illinois, you ninny.

The Connecticut Supreme Court of Errors rules that aliens don’t have free speech, or at least not the right to advocate changing the form of government or indeed laws.

Spanish troops are doing very badly against a rebellion in Spanish Morocco.

The minor leagues ban the Black Sox players too.

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Today -100: August 5, 1921: Of exiles and Dáils

Switzerland orders former Austro-Hungarian emperor Charles to leave the country by the end of the month. He will either go to Spain, whose king has offered him the use of a castle, or attempt another coup back home. Bit of a coin toss really.

The Dáil Éireann is called for August 16, which means the British have to release 25 members.

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Today -100: August 4, 1921: Really quite a few usual suspects

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Judge Learned Hand in Federal District Court in the Southern District of New York decides a case brought by a couple of women who inherited from their German father during the war, who lost their American citizenship when they married Germans. They contend that property seized under the Alien Enemies Act should now be returned to them because Congress declared the war over and they are no longer alien enemies. Hand rules against them without directly addressing the war question. There’s nothing worse than an incomplete Hand job.

Sorry.

Comiskey and other leaders of baseball say they won’t allow the Black Sox players to return, despite their acquittals.

Two black men were in jail after allegedly killing a shopkeeper in Tobacco, Virginia. A mob breaks in and lynches one of them but for some reason leaves the other one alone.

Yugoslavia has now arrested more than 14,000 people for an attempted assassination in June of Prince Alexander.

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Today -100: August 3, 1921: Of tenors, black sox, trinkles, smugglers, and big-ass watermelons

Enrico Caruso dies.

The White Sox players who threw the 1919 World Series are all acquitted by a Chicago jury, perhaps because of the mysterious disappearance of the confessions of three of them.

Elbert Lee Trinkle wins the Democratic primary for governor of Virginia, which means he’ll be the next governor. Did I mention his name is “Elbert Lee Trinkle”? Governor Trinkle.

The feds seize a British-registered schooner they claim was smuggling rum, but they do so in international waters, 4 miles outside Atlantic City, where it’s perfectly legal to sell alcohol. They claim they can do that because they have evidence of a conspiracy. No one will be very convinced by this argument.

Someone’s sending Pres. Harding a 76-pound watermelon.

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Today -100: August 2, 1921: Oh Boy

Izvestia, the official newspaper of the Russian government, says 6 million starving peasants are marching on Moscow, whether looking for revolution or food or both is not clear. The NYT correspondent says “At a conservative estimate 20,000,000 people seem doomed to death,” maybe as many as 40 million. And “hordes of frenzied peasants attack trains.”

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The reporter can read the placards but is presumably afraid to actually talk with one of the participants because they’re scary (the parade is by Marcus Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association).

The Hardings get another dog. An English bulldog named “Oh Boy.” He is a super-pedigree, son of a $4,000 dog.

In other news, in 1921 there were dogs worth $4,000, which is the equivalent of some money, but a lot of it.

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Today -100: August 1, 1921: Of pacifications, swords, pogroms, and missing stairs

The Italian government arranges for a “pact of pacification” – literally a treaty – between the Socialists and the Fascists. Mussolini will sign it, but his ability to rein in the various fascist “action squads” is questionable.

Police in Kobe, Japan have been attacking strikers with swords.

There are reports, or rumors, of pogroms in the Ukraine.

Anna Cohen bought a building in Brooklyn and gave notice of eviction to the tenants. They sued and won, so she removed the stairs into the building.

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Today -100: July 31, 1921: Of prisoners and flags

Russia agrees to Hoover’s demand that it release American prisoners as a precondition for food aid.

Newly appointed Governor of Puerto Rico Emmet Montgomery Reily is inaugurated. He says the only flag for which there is room in Puerto Rico is the US flag, although possession or display of the Puerto Rican flag will only be made literally illegal in 1948.

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Today -100: July 30, 1921: Of wholesale disregard of law, cops gone amuck, hitchy koo, and bathing Germans

The head of the American Legion warns/threatens Pres. Harding against pardoning Eugene Debs, which would “license a wholesale disregard of law.”

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Raymond Hitchcock the comedian, but wouldn’t it be funny if it were Alfred Hitchcock? Also, the play Hitchy Koo, not actual, you know, hitchy koo.

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A Catholic newspaper disagrees with the Socialist Vorwärts, which says “Honest freemen will laugh at sham modesty and bathe naked or not, as they please.” Because nothing says “freeman” like a naked German.

I don’t get it. The perfect refreshment after a hard day chasing chickens?

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Today -100: July 29, 1921: A noble example of common sense

The French government accuses Britain of an “unfriendly attitude” about Upper Silesia. France wants enough troops in place before the Supreme Council decides on the border between Poland and Germany, to suppress any (by which they mean German, they always mean German) resistance. Britain thinks if anyone will be kicking up a fuss, it’ll be the Poles. France has asked Germany for permission to send a division through Germany, but Germany pointed out that under the Treaty of Versailles such a demand can only be made by all 3 Allies. The NYT says that British officials think French politicians are “obsessed by considerations which are not concerned with the practical realities of the age, but look to the future period, however remote, when powerful Germany will seek revenge.”

In other news, Adolf Hitler is elected chairman of the Nazi Party.

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Today -100: July 28, 1921: “Ah knows ev’y inch o’ Vaginny” is also the name of a 1921 porno, probably

A German court overturns the House of Hohenzollern laws, under which kaisers dictated the lives of members of their family. In this case, Prince Eitel Friedrich, current legal head of the former royal family, tried to keep Princess Marie-Auguste away from her son, 4-year-old Prince Karl, whose father Prince Joachim committed suicide a year ago. When the court rejected his authority to do so, Eitel attacked Marie-Auguste as an unfit mother who had run away from the family, and not alone if you know what I mean, but she made an emotional plea and got her kid back.

Some time back Secretary of Labor James Davis took a cab after his train failed to get him where he needed to be for a meeting, only for the cab to get lost, or something, and Davis gave up on the whole thing, telling the cabbie to collect from the railroad company. When they didn’t cough up, the cabbie gave up... until he saw a newspaper story about the whole thing which put negro dialect – “Ah knows ev’y inch o’ Vaginny, but this yer car can’t make mo’n thuty” – into his mouth, which infuriated him because he is not a negro, and now he’s going after Davis for that fare.

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They obviously realize this is another bullshit rumor, but does it stop them from printing it? No it does not.

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Today -100: July 27, 1921: Our governors are not born kings

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Southern politicians and newspapers indignantly reject the idea that famine and pellagra are running rampant in the cotton zone, which has been hit badly by declining cotton prices. They reject any aid from the federal government. (It doesn’t help that medical science is unsure – when not outright wrong – about the cause and treatment of pellagra.)

Sangamon County, Illinois Judge Ernest Smith rules that the governor is not immune from arrest. “Our governors are not born kings. They were not born with halos around them.” This is true: in Illinois they are born with handcuffs around them; it saves time. Judge Smith scoffs at Gov. Len Small’s threat to call out the militia to prevent his arrest, saying the militia can only be called out to help enforce the law, not break it. Small immediately leaves town.

I cannot move on without disclosing that the governor’s lawyer is a Mr. Fink.

The lower house of the Georgia Legislature votes to tax all bachelors over the age of 30 $5 a year. An amendment to tax all couples married three years who have yet to produce offspring $500 fails.

The small Upper Austrian town of Eferding issues an edict that no Jew may stay in the town longer than 24 hours.

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Today -100: July 26, 1921: Fascists gonna fasch

Fascists invade Roccastrada, a village in Tuscany and search houses, executing a dozen men found with Communist Party membership cards and burning 17 houses.

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Today -100: July 25, 1921: I cannot have my people killed in this manner

Italian Prime Minister Ivanoe Bonomi gets his largest majority vote in parliament, supporting his determination to put down violence. The Fascists and Communists vote in favor of violence, I guess. The Fascists issue a manifesto claiming victory in Sarzana over the “Bolshevist illusion” but say “Now, more than ever, we must watch lest the hydra-headed beast we have crushed lift its head again.” Heads, surely.

Herbert Hoover, who while Secretary of Commerce is also still head of the non-official American Relief Administration, tells Russia that sure he’ll help with their little mass starvation problem, but they have to release American prisoners first.

H. Wickham Steed, editor of the London Times, says King George had a lot to do with settling the Ireland question. For example, he asked Lloyd George, “Are you going to shoot all the people in Ireland,” to which LG replied, “No, your majesty.” The king responded that then there must be some agreement; “I cannot have my people killed in this manner.” This story will be denied by the king five days – suspiciously long, I say – from now. Steed says simply that some of it shouldn’t have been printed, without admitting making it all up. The Daily Mail, falsely reports that it was Northcliffe rather than Steed who gave this interviewed; the Mail is owned by Northcliffe.

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Today -100: July 24, 1921: Let me get at that dirty flag-hating —

At a Congressional committee investigating the escape of convicted draft evader Grover Cleveland Bergdoll and whether he’d bribed an Army major, Rep. Ben Johnson (D-Ky) pulls a gun and threatens to shoot a witness, Bergdoll’s brother, who accused Johnson of lying when he said that he was lying. Johnson is restrained by his wife and others. “Let me get at that dirty flag-hating —” Johnson bellowed.

The Yugoslav minister of interior is assassinated, and authorities round up 600 of the usual Communist suspects.

The Ku Klux Klan finally takes responsibility for two of the recent rash of tar-and-featherings, sending a manifesto to the two Beaumont, Texas newspapers. The NYT doesn’t recount their explanations for targeting these two men, one of them a doctor, the other a Marine Corps veteran, but it does reproduce their quotation from Josiah Gilbert Holland’s poem God Give Us Men.

A white man, Casey Jones, is lynched in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. He’d been convicted of murder and was sentenced to hang, but his case was under appeal. A mob had tried to lynch him the day after the murder but were thwarted by a preacher with a gun.

The Calcutta board of film censors complains that imported films mostly have all-white casts, and therefore feature white bad guys, drunks, etc., which “does not tend to uplift the prestige of the British race in India.”

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Today -100: July 23, 1921: Of Italian violence, spinsters, and Jewish cities

More Fascist-Communist-carabineer violence, in Sarzana, Italy. Something over 25 people are killed, but as some of the bodies were tossed into the sea, an accurate count is not possible.

The Sheppard Maternity Bill passes the House of Representatives 63-7. James Reed (D-Missouri)’s amendment to change the title of the bill to “A Bill to organize a board of spinsters to teach mothers how to raise babies” was rejected by voice vote.

Max Schallman, who may or not be a trade agent for Russia, as he claimed he was while negotiating contracts, especially for shoes, was just arrested in Chicago. He planned to build a city of 20,000 Jews near Niles, Michigan.

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Today -100: July 22, 1921: Of American bread, immunity, and klans

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As proof that half of Russians have “returned to the mental and physical level of the Middle Ages,” the NYT claims millions of Russian peasants are moving to Moscow where “American bread” is said to be being distributed, while other hordes are moving East to meet with a rumored new Tsar.

Illinois Gov. Len Small fails to show up in court to give bail, saying he’s immune from arrest because the state constitution makes the 3 branches of government equal, so for him to go on trial for his many crimes would be to subordinate the executive branch to the judicial. Two consecutive Illinois governors in the 1890s also refused to be arrested.

49 members of the Texas Legislature request a bill aimed at the Ku Klux Klan (presumably the disguised men in white behind recent tar-and-featherings. The NYT has reported several incidents without offering any hint about what the victims’ offenses may have been. It also it hasn’t specified their race, which means they’re white). The proposed bill would ban people in disguise punishing people against whom no legal complaint has been filed.

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Today -100: July 21, 1921: The most Illinois story ever

Massachusetts Attorney General J. Weston Allen rules that the 19th Amendment didn’t overturn the state’s ban on women holding office.

Illinois Gov. Lennington “Len” Small and Lt Gov. Fred Sterling are indicted on charges of embezzling public funds, conspiracy to defraud the state, and running a con game. Small is accused of defrauding the state of $2 million and embezzling $1.2 million (some of those acts in conjunction with Sterling and/or other officials). These alleged crimes occurred during the periods Small and Sterling were state treasurer. They used a bank which had actually gone out of existence years before to deposit the state’s daily balances, which were then used to buy short-term notes issued by two meat-packing companies, resulting in profits that Small and Sterling kept. Small says the attorney general only came after him because Small didn’t let him use public money for his political machine. Small’s enemies point out that if he committed crimes before the November 1920 election, he wasn’t qualified for office and hence isn’t actually governor. Anyway, Small will be acquitted after using the age-old defense tactic of giving most of the jury jobs with the state. Both Small and Sterling will be re-elected.

Members of a farmworkers union round up and expel 58 Japanese field workers in Turlock, California.

New York Gov. Nathan Miller appoints the heads of the new film censorship commission.  Former lt. gov. George Cobb will be head, Joseph Levenson secretary, and a Mrs Eli Hosmer, noted Buffalo clubwoman, will be a commission member. Levenson says films should promote “Americanization” of immigrants to counter the “pernicious influence” of the foreign press, which is “socialistic, communistic and Bolshevistic.” Ic. The NYT notes that none of the 3 have any particular expertise in the movie industry and are basically political appointments (they’re all Republican, for a start).

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Today -100: July 20, 1921: Of highly improper and revolting methods, tear gas, and carrion crows

The Senate Naval Affairs Committee criticizes former Navy Secretary Josephus Daniels and, especially, former Assistant Secretary Franklin Delano Roosevelt for using sailors in undercover sting operations in Newport, Rhode Island, in which they fucked townie men. The NYT is a little shy about printing the details, but it wouldn’t have been hard to figure out what “performed upon them immoral acts” meant. FDR complains that he was never called to testify before the report was issued, despite promises. He denies that the undercover sailor-rentboys were under his direct supervision and claims it was quite late before he learned that they “used highly improper and revolting methods in getting evidence.” He says people are “tired of partisan discussion of dead history,” which was as lame an argument then as it is now.

The Philadelphia Police Dept tests tear gas out on 200 cops. Who volunteered, I hasten to add. In the test, the cops are instructed to attempt to arrest 6 men who have 150 tear-gas bombs; they fail to do so. The inventor of this particular gas, a Maj. Stephen Delanoy of the Army’s Chemical Warfare Division, tells them beforehand that it’s “absolutely not dangerous” but not to swallow too much. During the test, “a rotund policeman spectator unintentionally sat down on a loaded grenade that had slipped into the side lines. His weight exploded the missile” and sent him flying into a pond, more proof, if more proof were needed, that life in the 1920s was EXACTLY as it was portrayed in silent films.

Edmund Downey, editor of the Waterford (Ireland) News, is bound over, and may face a 6-month prison term for referring to Northern Ireland PM Sir James Craig’s return from London as “The Carrion Crow on the Wing.” The judge says the fact that he lifted that phrase from former Chief Irish Secretary Augustine Birrell is no excuse.

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Today -100: July 19, 1921: Of near misses and cheese fires

Irish President Éamon de Valera and Northern Irish PM Sir James Craig have separate meetings at 10 Downing Street with Lloyd George and are even in the building at the same time for seven full minutes, but don’t meet. Craig is going to leave London to make sure they don’t. He says Southern Ireland can come to whatever agreement it wants with London, it’s nuffing to do with us, mate. Craig rejects the idea of a unified Ireland, even with great autonomy (de Valera treating the six counties as a distinct political entity is already a considerable compromise). In 2021, we “celebrated” the centenary of the division of Ireland, but in 1921 they’re only just beginning to realize that that was what happened, that the two parts of Ireland will be governed as if they were separate entities.

I haven’t been reading the stories, but the trial of the “Black Sox” baseball players for throwing the 1919 World Series is going on.

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Today -100: July 18, 1921: Of letters, no demands but one, and non-helpful policies

The Harding administration hasn’t answered any mail from the League of Nations since taking office. Rude. Letters on opium suppression, sex trafficking, starving populations, all ignored. After a while, the League started sending them by registered mail.

The NYT says that (according to unconfirmed reports) Sinn Féin abandoning the demand for an Irish Republic is a “sign that Sinn Fein has come to a better and more sensible mind”. De Valera denies making any compromises: “I have made no demand but one – the only one I am entitled to make – that is that the self-determination of the Irish nation be recognized.”

A Senate sub-committee investigating charges by Admiral William Sims, who commanded US naval forces in Europe during the war, about mismanagement of the Navy during the war and lack of preparation between 1914 and 1917, divides on partisan lines, with Democrats siding with former Secretary Josephus Daniels and the Republican majority insisting that the US, rather than putting everything into winning the war, held back in case the Allies lost, implementing a “self-defensive, non-aggressive and non-helpful policy”.

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Today -100: July 17, 1921: The impulse of the moment

The German war crimes court in Leipzig convicts two U-boat lieutenants for firing on lifeboats and survivors after sinking a Canadian hospital ship, the Llandovery Castle, in 1918. They’re convicted for manslaughter rather than murder because they “acted on the impulse of the moment,” and are sentenced to 4 years, without hard labor. The actual commander of the boat, Helmut Patzig, fled Germany and is therefore not being tried.

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Today -100: July 16, 1921: Of bonuses and blackguards

The Senate accedes to Harding’s insistence that they delay passing a bonus for WW I veterans. Republican leaders say it will be reconsidered... just as soon as conditions permit. Porter McCumber (R-ND), who was in charge of the bill, says those conditions include, but are no doubt not limited to, the passage of tariff and tax legislation, and all the Allies paying off their war debts to the US. He then offers to go outside and fight James Reed (D-Missouri) after the latter, who didn’t even call him Mr McCucumber, which how could you resist, points out that the administration expects debt repayment to take at least five years. He adds that only blackguards offer to settle things “outside.” All this will be censored from the Congressional Record.

No one ever says “blackguard” anymore. They don’t even know how to pronounce it.

The German Federal Council, in a tie vote, rejects the government’s proposal to allow women to serve as judges and jurors in accordance with the Weimar Constitution’s provision for equal rights and responsibilities. Voting no, Bavaria’s rep says “The admission of women would result in a softening of justice, which is most undesirable just at this time.”

“Citzens’ posses” in Aberdeen, South Dakota, in conjunction with the sheriff, round up and eject 130 supposed Wobblies. “Other towns in the vicinity were notified to keep the men moving.”

In his talks with Lloyd George, Éamon de Valera is reportedly insisting that while he’s willing to grant a Northern Irish assembly a great deal of autonomy, it must be subordinate to the all-Ireland parliament. That is, its powers must derive from Dublin, not London.

Lloyd George is mispronouncing de Valera’s name.

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Today -100: July 15, 1921: Of Jim Crow conventions and a president and a prime minister meet

The Virginia State Republican convention bars all but 3 black delegates. What happened was Republicans decided that the adherence of black people to their party was a major obstacle to its success in Virginia, so they held secret local conventions to name delegates. When black Republicans found out about them afterwards, they held their own meetings and elected alternative delegates, all of whom have now been told to fuck off.

Éamon de Valera and Lloyd George meet. For two hours. Nothing is revealed of what they discussed, but you will be shocked to hear that they drank some tea.

Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti are convicted of murder in Dedham, Massachusetts for killing a paymaster and a guard during a robbery a year ago. The judge had told the jury to ignore the fact that they’re Italians.

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Today -100: July 14, 1921: Of masses of anarchy and ruin, earls, and conspicuous straightforwardness and honesty

A Southern Methodist group demands a national Blue Law banning Sunday newspapers and closing movie theaters, businesses and trains on the sabbath. It warns about “a mass of anarchy and ruin” in 25 years if this isn’t done.

German Minister of Justice Eugen Schiffer responds to French attacks on the German war crimes court by bringing up the Dreyfus Affair.

The Earl of Bandon, abducted by the IRA 3 weeks ago, is released.

The London Times says neither Prime Minister Lloyd George nor Foreign Secretary Lord Curzon should go to the Washington disarmament conference, because the British Empire’s reps should have “conspicuous straightforwardness and honesty” and LG lacks these things. It’s funny cuz it’s true. It also attacks Curzon’s “pompous and pretentious manner and incapacity for business”. 10 Downing Street and the Foreign Office respond by banning all Northcliffe papers from receiving press releases and other official information.

Every invited nation except, so far, Japan, have responded positively to the call, and Belgium and the Netherlands are grumbling about not being invited, the latter pointing out that the conference is also supposed to deal with the Far East and they own rather a large chunk of that.

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Today -100: July 13, 1921: With every breath you take

Éamon de Valera arrives in London with his party, to a large greeting by presumably Irish people at Euston Station.

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Save the type on this one, NYT, you’ll be using it again.

The Prince of Wales has a cold.

Harding’s call for disarmament talks has elicited positive responses from most foreign governments (well, France says it won’t be cutting its army no matter what). He now offers a tentative date: November 11, Armistice Day, in D.C. He also plans to bring up his stupid idea of an “association of nations” to replace the League of Nations.  

France threatens to continue the occupation of the Rhine until the German war crimes court in Leipzig starts punishing the Germans France thinks it should be punishing.

A Dr. Maingot of Paris is pushing phrenoscopy, which is the science of deducing a person’s character by seeing how they breathe. Sez Maingot, “With his first breath the infant shows the traits that will mark him for life, and with his last breath man shows what sort of person he was in his life.”

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Today -100: July 12, 1921: And now I want an ice cream soda again

Éamon de Valera will meet Lloyd George Thursday, just the two of them.

Wisconsin is the first state to enact full legal equality for women. This includes sitting on juries, care & custody of children, holding office, property, and – the only specific rights mentioned in the article – the right to wear trousers and chew tobacco.

Daniel O’Callaghan, the Lord Mayor of Cork who arrived in the US as a stowaway 6 months ago, sneaks back into Ireland, evidently as a stowaway again, since US immigration officials have no record of him leaving the country.

The Bronx Confectioners’ Association caves and will reduce the price of ice cream sodas from 15 to 10¢ (plus the 1¢ war tax). Whether that will appease the children who have been marching for 5¢, we shall see.

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Today -100: July 11, 1921: Of bloody Sundays and ice cream sodas

15 people are killed in rioting in Belfast, which is how the Irish celebrate a cease-fire. Throughout Ireland there are many incidents of violence, arson, shooting cops, etc in advance of the truce coming into effect in a day that will be called “Bloody Sunday.” Not the first “Bloody Sunday” in Irish history, and not the last.

The NYT thinks Ivanoe Bonomi’s new coalition government in Italy won’t last very long.

Boys in the Bronx have been demonstrating for cheaper ice cream sodas.

Now I want an ice cream soda.

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Today -100: July 10, 1921: Under the flag of pure democracy at present are grouping all the counter-revolutionary elements

A truce is declared in Ireland between Sinn Féin and British government forces. British newspapers are sceptical about whether de Valera has enough control over the various IRA groups to make the truce effective.

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The first in the delightful “Ambassador Child” series of children’s books.

Headline of the Day -100:  

At the Third International congress, Lenin says Russia is using the temporary breathing spell in the onslaught of the capitalist countries against it to rebuild and to prepare a revolution against them. While the struggle is going on, democracy and liberty are out of the question in Russia because “under the flag of pure democracy at present are grouping all the counter-revolutionary elements.”

The German Leipzig war crimes court acquits two generals of allowing – or encouraging – a typhoid epidemic in a POW camp.

The British will abolish the penal colony in the Andaman Islands. Now where will prisoners and guards swear secret pacts about treasure?

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Today -100: July 9, 1921: Peace?

Congress declared peace last week, but “nobody in authority in Washington seems to know whether we are actually at peace or not.” The resolution may have been enough by itself, or there may need to be some sort of proclamation, especially if the US is to retain the “rights” it acquired by the term of the armistice. It’s also unclear if laws passed for the duration of the war are still in effect. “Meanwhile the country may be engaged in a state of war with Germany without anybody knowing how to end it.” Treaties with Germany and Austria would definitely do it, but Harding shows no sign of making a move in that direction.

France withdraws its delegation from the Leipzig war crimes court, calling it a travesty of a mockery of a sham of a mockery of a travesty of two mockeries of a sham. This also means French complaining witnesses won’t appear.

Former kaiser Wilhelm refuses to pay taxes in the Netherlands, claiming he didn’t come to the country willingly and is being held as a virtual prisoner, so he doesn’t have to pay taxes.

The Tuskegee Institute reports that there were 36 lynchings in the United States in the first six months of 1921, up from 12 in the same period in 1920. 2 of the lynchees were white, 34 black. Mississippi and Georgia had the most lynchings.

Éamon de Valera finally responds to Lloyd George’s invitation to London, asking “on what basis such a conference as that proposed can reasonably hope to achieve the object desired, huh, huh?” I may have added the huhs. Lloyd George agrees to a suspension of hostilities in Ireland from Monday.

More proof that life in the 1920s was EXACTLY as it was portrayed in silent films:  

Congress moves quickly to enact the dying wish of Rep. Edward Taylor of Colorado to rename the Grand River the Colorado River. A rather uninteresting dying wish, if you ask me, but then Taylor won’t actually die until 1941.

Jack Dempsey says he won’t box Jack Johnson (just out of prison) or any other negro.

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Today -100: July 8, 1921: Too many du Ponts

The US sends the warship Cleveland to Tampico, Mexico to protect American interests (i.e., property, especially oil) against anticipated labor disturbances but also possibly as a subtle way of registering displeasure over the recent increase in taxes on oil exports.

Albert Einstein, back home from his trip to America, says the “excessive enthusiasm” for him there is because the American people are “colossally bored” because there is intellectual poverty outside of New York, Boston and Chicago. Oh, and also women run the US.

The German war crimes court in Leipzig acquits Lt-Gen. Karl Stenger of ordering the killing of French POWs in 1914 (he actually didn’t issue any such order), while a major was convicted and given a light sentence for carrying out the order, if order there was. The French are pissed.

Sen. Josiah Wolcott (D) of Delaware resigns to become chancellor of Delaware (their name for attorney general). In other words, Gov. William Denney got him to give up his seat so he could appoint a Republican to replace him, T. Coleman du Pont, from the always contentious Delaware family (NYT: “There are too many du Ponts for so small a state.”)

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Today -100: July 7, 1921: Of virtual defeats, soluble problems, and Trotsky in chains

The Senate is debating a Bonus Bill for veterans, giving them $1 a day for each day of service, $1.25 for each day overseas. That money would be paid in installments starting in 1922, the 2nd installment coming conveniently right before the Congressional elections. Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon denounces the idea, saying it would “virtually defeat the Administration’s program of economy and retrenchment,” hamper re-financing the national debt, create inflation, and somehow, the veterans would lose more from it than they would gain. There’s a lot of bullshit from senators about how the soldiers didn’t fight for money (especially the 25¢ a day 

difference between service in the US and service in the trenches). Mellon refers to “a sacrifice that can never be measured in terms of money.” Well not with that attitude, mister.

Right next to that story on the front page of the NYT is this one:

South African Prime Minister Jan Smuts says that Ireland is totally “soluble,” and he knows this because “If ever this problem of the subjection of one people to another presented a hopeless view it was in South Africa” but “we solved the problem, and today South Africa is one of the happiest countries in the Empire.” Of course, the people who were under subjection in that formulation were the Boers; the majority black population of his country literally don’t enter into his thinking. One of the happiest countries in-fucking-deed.

Latest completely unconfirmed rumor about Russia that the NYT nevertheless publishes: Lenin has imprisoned Trotsky.

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Today -100: July 6, 1921: Of dominions

Various discussions have been going on in advance of the conference in London. De Valera and other Sinn Féin leaders met with Southern Irish Unionists, the Ulster ones having refused an invitation. Now South African PM Jan Smuts is in Dublin, presumably to play up the Dominion option to Sinn Féiners because hey it’s working out so well in South Africa.

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Today -100: July 5, 1921: Wine was served

An anti-Prohibition parade marches up 5th Avenue in New York, yes, on the Fourth of July. 20,000 marchers, the NYT says, which is smaller than was expected; the Anti-Saloon League did its own count, and says 14,922. Mayor Hylan watched the parade while having an ice cream soda. Banners included the slogans “Prohibition took sunshine from our homes and put moonshine in,” “We are citizens, not inmates. Which are you?”, “Russia went dry in 1919; went mad in 1921. How rational do you feel yourself?”, “Only a mother could love a prohibitionist’s face,” “Tyranny in the name of righteousness is the basest of all tyranny,” “Greenwich Village wants drinks,” “The rich have it. Why not the poor?” One marcher carries a reproduction of da Vinci’s The Last Supper with the caption “Wine was served.” 

Later in the day, 5th Ave sees another parade, sponsored by the American Association for the Recognition of the Irish Republic. Hylan observes that one too.

Ivanoe Bonomi forms a government in Italy.

Italian Fascists respond to the killing of one of their members by Communists in Grosseto, Tuscany with a military-type attack on the town, killing 16.

Headline of the Day -100:  

Headline of the Day -100:  

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Today -100: July 4, 1921: Here’s Johnny

Headline of the Day -100:  

Happy 4th!

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Today -100: July 3, 1921: Peace, ain’t it grand

Between rounds of golf, Harding signs the Congressional joint declaration ending the war with Germany and Austria. He accidentally dripped some ink on it, which is probably one of those metaphor things.

Dempsey wins, which is enough about that.

Wait, no it isn’t. Some people from the International Reform Bureau, whatever that is, attend the match in order to attempt to get the winner arrested for assault and battery. However the cops won’t do it without a warrant, even though the chief of police personally witnessed the assault, and they can’t find a judge to issue one.

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Today -100: July 2, 1921: I know the people do not want me to go

The Senate passes the resolution declaring the Great War over, 38-19. Some Democrats complain that this means the US will have to give back all the German property it seized during the war.

The lawyers for Sacco and Vanzetti, on trial for murder, insist that all evidence that they have a reputation for being peaceful and law-abiding be stricken from the record. The jury is told to disregard anything they’ve heard along those lines (a couple of cops from Vanzetti’s town and a couple of Sacco’s former employers so testified).

Attorney General Harry Daugherty says he won’t attend the Dempsey-Carpentier fight because he “had too much respect for the opinion of people who disapprove of prize fights and of whom I must be a sort of unofficial representative.” Gov. Wilson Sproul of Pennsylvania also won’t be there, saying he’s never been to a prizefight and wouldn’t know what was going on and “I know the people do not want me to go.” J.P. Morgan says he won’t go because he disapproves, not because of the boxing, but for some other reason he doesn’t care to disclose (he’s commenting because he was accidentally included on a list of attendees).

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Today -100: July 1, 1921: Chuckles the Judge

Headline of the Day -100:  

In the morning, Pres. Harding nominates former Pres. William Howard Taft to be chief justice of the Supreme Court, and the Senate confirms him by the afternoon, with 4 no votes (William Borah, Hiram Johnson, Robert La Follette, all Republicans, and George Watson, D of Georgia). Borah says Taft hasn’t practiced law in 30 years and at 63 is just 7 years from the legal age of incompetence. Harding didn’t even inform Taft before sending the nomination to the Senate, but Taft’s been panting for a seat on the Court for...  decades, really and everyone pretty much knew he was getting it.

The British release Sinn Féin Vice President Arthur Griffith and other SF MPs from prison so they can take part in the London conference (although de Valera has yet to accept).

The NYT requests people not call their offices for updates during the Dempsey-Carpentier fight.

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Getting new blog posts by email

Google is killing that Feedburner function sometime in July, because reasons. I've added a new get-posts-by-email thing in the column to the right, from something called follow.it. If you want to continue/start getting posts in your inbox, enter your email address there.

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Today -100: June 30, 1921: We need to know the whereabouts of these people

Northern Ireland Prime Minister Sir James Craig rejects Éamon de Valera’s request for a meeting (which de V initially sent to a different Unionist politician named Sir James Craig).

The Dáil Éireann authorizes reprisals against British reprisals. A house for a house.

The House of Representatives votes 330-4 for the Borah Amendment in favor of calling naval limitation negotiations with Britain and Japan.

Winston Churchill’s mother Jennie, aka Lady Randolph Churchill, dies. The story is on page 12, which is odd since her leg being amputated was front-page news earlier this month.

The Cuban Senate votes against women’s suffrage. 

US Secretary of Labor James Davis wants to track immigrants, “not to regulate him, but to help him, to teach him, and encourage him. We need to know the whereabouts of these people, if it is only to protect them from the insidious poison of Red propaganda.”

A Lake County, Illinois jury takes 20 hours to convict a hotel owner of violating Prohibition law, because that’s how long it took for them to consume the evidence, 3 quarts of whiskey and 1 of port.

No, I’m not going to read the op-ed about how vivisection is “vindicated.”

I thought we’d heard the opinion of every person on earth about the Dempsey-Carpentier match, but... George Bernard Shaw thinks Carpentier will win.

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Today -100: June 29, 1921: Ultra-modern, to say the least

Éamon de Valera resonds to Lloyd George’s call to confer in London, saying he will need to consult with... “the political minority” or Ireland, i.e., the Unionists. He also says no lasting peace can be achieved if LG insists on dividing Ireland and rejecting “the principle of national self-determination.” De Valera also writes to Northern Ireland Prime Minister Sir James Craig and other Unionist leaders proposing talks with them.

West Virginia Gov. Ephraim Morgan orders the sheriff of Mingo County to draft 130 men (or accept volunteers) for 60 days to fight the miners. WV has no National Guard.

An address to the National Social Conference describes how a man was once cured of hysterical blindness by the Industrial Commission of New York by letting him remain with the woman he was living with in bigamy after leaving his “unkind” wife. A delegate to the conference says of the address, “It was ultra-modern, to say the least.” The person who gave the address was Frances Perkins.

Sports Headline of the Day -100:  

The NYT won’t shut up about the upcoming Dempsey-Carpentier fight, and evidently neither will professors at the Sorbonne.

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Today -100: June 28, 1921: Of beer and low confidence

The House of Representatives votes 250-93 to ban doctors prescribing beer and to restrict prescriptions for liquor to one pint every 10 days.

Giovanni Giolitti resigns as Italian prime minister after receiving only a marginal vote of confidence (234-200) on his foreign policy.

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Today -100: June 27, 1921: War in three years

Éamon de Valera has received the invitation from Lloyd George, although it appeared in the newspapers before the letter reached him. I’m just curious what address they mailed it to. De Valera will consult with the Dáil Éireann before deciding whether accept, possibly with conditions, and definitely with some associates, preferably ones the British will have to release from prison to attend. Ulster PM Sir James Craig is also mulling it over, and may insist on his own pre-conditions, like no consideration of an Irish republic.

The Upper Silesia crisis has been declared over, with both German and Polish forces agreeing to withdraw.

At the annual convention of Spiritualists at the Waldorf-Astoria, clairvoyant John Slater calls for an amendment to the Constitution to protect mediums from prosecution (in 1930 Slater will win in court after a clergyman has him charged for making predictions, which was illegal under Michigan law). He complains that rich Spiritualists don’t donate much to the cause, because Spiritualism “takes away the fear of Hell and they are no longer afraid to die rich.”

Trotsky supposedly told the 3rd congress of the Communist International that the US and Britain would be in a naval war by 1924.

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Today -100: June 26, 1921: Every imaginable sacrifice

The (presumably all-white) grand jury investigating the Tulsa race war indicts the chief of police, John Gustafson, and some other cops. Not actually for the race war, but for failure to enforce prohibition and firearm laws and to suppress vice, and something about stolen cars. Other than that, the grand jury report blames black people for the race war, I mean it puts ALL of the blame on them, because of course it fucking does. See, it started because blacks showed up armed at the court house to prevent a lynching, but, see, all those white people milling around the court house didn’t intend anything of the kind, they were just there for, I don’t know, cotton candy or something. The grand jury finds the underlying cause to be the spread of “racial equality” doctrine among blacks.

Georgia Gov. Hugh Dorsey, on his last day in office, says there have been 58 lynchings during his 4 years in office and in most cases there was no effort to bring members of the lynch mob to justice. He has suggestions about reforms that could deal with this, including a state-level constabulary and grand jury. Incoming governor Thomas Hardwick’s inaugural message responds to that and to the recent federal investigations of peonage in Georgia, saying the white farmer “has made every imaginable sacrifice to help the negro,” presumably not counting the white farmer who murdered all those black people on his plantation. Hardwick says “the indictment of the whole State and all of its people for mistreating the black race is an unspeakable slander upon our State and her people”.

Greece declines the Allies’ offer to mediate an end to their war with Turkish nationalists.

British Prime Minister David Lloyd George asks Éamon de Valera to come to London, with a plus one, for a conference with the British government and Northern Irish Prime Minister Sir James Craig “to explore to the utmost the possibility of a settlement.” Under the threat of martial law being declared and a major increase in military occupation on... wait for it.... July the 12th.

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Today -100: June 25, 1921: Live and never die

De Valera really was arrested and released, as confirmed by Sinn Féin. 

D.D. Murphy, leader of the black cult Live and Never Die, is shot dead by the Atlantic City police after a shoot-out.

A train containing some of King George’s escort for the opening of the Ulster Parliament earlier this week, the Tenth Hussars, is derailed by an IRA mine, killing 3 soldiers and a guard. 2 IRA are shot dead as are a bunch of injured horses.

In the Italian parliament, new deputy Benito Mussolini talks about annexing the Italian-speaking parts of Switzerland.

Assholes of the Day -100:  Whoever keep breaking into Helen Keller and Annie Sullivan’s house in Forest Hills and stealing stuff.

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