Today -100: January 20, 1922: Courtroom drama

At Fatty Arbuckle’s second trial, the prosecution’s key witness recants her previous statement that Virginia Rappe said “He hurt me,” which she says she was coerced by the police into signing after she refused to sign one attesting that Rappe said “I’m dying, he killed me.”

By the way, I don’t think I’ve mentioned that one of Rappe’s pallbearers was Oliver Hardy.

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Today -100: January 19, 1922: They must be ruled

American writer Grace Thompson Seton speaks with former Austrian emperor Charles, who says that Hungary is not ready for a republic, and indeed no European country is except Switzerland. “Democracy? My people do not understand what it means. They think democracy means riding about in motor cars and doing no work and being fed without trouble and having plenty of money. The people do not understand that they need a strong hand to govern them. They must be ruled.”

Tsar Boris III of Bulgaria can’t afford to feed the two elephants and some buffalo in the royal menagerie and wants to sell them. The Cincinnati and Bronx zoos have expressed interest.

The New York movie censors demand changes, and yet more changes, in Erich von Stroheim’s Foolish Wives, and demand to see advertising copy in advance.

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Today -100: January 18, 1922: Of conferences, lynchings, and impecunious royals

Invitations to the Genoa Conference in May, which will discuss economic and financial issues and deal (again) with German reparations, have been sent to every nation in Europe, including pariahs Germany and Russia, but not to Turkey, which basically has two governments at this point. The US, Japan, and South American countries have also been invited.

A mob in Mayo, Florida lynch a black alleged murderer.

Members of the former ruling family of Austria-Hungary are all poor now. Relatively speaking, anyway. The reproduction of this article is rather poor, so for a minute I thought the former emperor and empress had been reduced to selling the family towels. Some of the Habsburgs have even been forced to... work, with “indifferent success” according to the headline, but details seem to have been edited out of the final article.

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Today -100: January 17, 1922: Of surrenders, embargoes, censorship, and extraditions

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Or, as Collins puts it, “The members of the Provisional Government received the surrender of Dublin Castle at 1:45 o’clock this afternoon, and it is now in the hands of the Irish nation.” The British burn a bunch of documents before departing, as is the custom.

China may be heading towards civil war, so the House of Representatives votes to give Harding and Secretary of State Hughes the power to stop arms shipments from the US to China.

In the last 5 months of 1921, the NY Motion Picture Commission licensed 1,330 movies, banned 5 and required cuts in 160. The commission wants new powers to ban “unpatriotic” films. It deplores that films “incorporate... in such a marked degree the vices of the human race, and also... depict violations of law in the commission of various crimes.” It wants the Legislature to give it power to ban films with actors whose fame derives from scandal or crime.

North Carolina wants the extradition from Canada of Matthew Bullock, a black man who allegedly led an attack on whites at a railroad station in which two white men were shot in a conflict over the quality of 10¢ of apples his brother had purchased. Since two men have already been lynched over this thing, including the brother, there is some controversy in Canada over whether extraditing Bullock would be a good idea.

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Today -100: January 16, 1922: Of last laughs

Sing Sing will show a movie as a special treat for two men before their executions in the electric chair. The movie: The Last Laugh. I think this is a Mutt & Jeff animated short.

The Knights of Columbus plans a $1 million fund, at the Pope’s request, to combat US Protestant missionary work in Italy. Evidently only the Methodists are currently trying to convert people in Rome.

Raymond Poincaré, speaking with Lloyd George before he’s technically even prime minister yet, asks for a more concrete military alliance to enforce the Versailles Treaty. LG says no.

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Today -100: January 15, 1922: Of American Puritanism, boat people, and provisional heads of provisional governments

Postmaster General Will Hays will resign to head the national association of motion picture producers and distributors.

German Rear Admiral Karl Hollweg denounces the Washington Conference’s submarine agreement as “a piece of English sentimentalism, cant and American Puritanism”.

The Armenian Catholic Patriarchate of Constantinople says all the Armenians want to leave Turkey, and could someone please send ships to transport 120,000 of them.

The Southern Irish Parliament chooses Michael Collins as head of the provisional government of the Irish Free State. The Republican members, including de Valera, stay away.

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Today -100: January 14, 1922: Long live the holy Gandhi

The arrival of the Prince of Wales in Madras is greeted by rioting, as was the custom. The rioters seem a little unclear on the concept of satyagraha, attacking a movie theater, for example, while shouting “Long live the holy Gandhi!” Muslims, presumably not followers of the holy Gandhi, also riot against the princely visit.

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Okay, this is about the Pacific naval treaty banning the building of new bases on the Philippines, Guam, Hong Kong, etc, and not, as I originally assumed, about preserving a building in which military personnel could get a drink. I was wondering why that required a treaty.

Remember how the War Office decided to issue lists of World War I draft dodgers, many of whom turned out not actually to be draft dodgers? Well, the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court rules that newspapers that published those lists can be sued for libel, although the War Office cannot.

Indictments are issued for union officials in the Mingo, West Virginia strike, for treason, no less, for opposing the declaration of martial law and raising an army against the state of West VA.

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Today -100: January 13, 1922: Of complete vindications and exonerations, prime ministers, amnesties, and banning war

The Senate votes 46-41 to allow Truman Handy Newberry (R-Michigan) to keep his seat, despite his conviction for election irregularities, which was reversed by the Supreme Court only because primaries aren’t “real” elections. The Senate does deplore the excessive spending of $195,000 on the primary. Newberry calls this “complete vindication and exoneration” after 3 years and 4 months of persecution.

French Prime Minister Aristide Briand resigns. Raymond Poincaré agrees to form a cabinet. Briand had returned to Paris and defended his policies, such as the alliance with Britain, in the National Assembly, successfully it seems, so the reason for his resignation is rather unclear, something about having a majority but not a strong enough majority behind him.

King George proclaims an amnesty for Irish political prisoners. British “police auxiliaries” and Black and Tans will be leaving Ireland tomorrow.

The New York State League of Women Voters convention calls for war to be outlawed. Among those elected to the board of directors is Eleanor Roosevelt.

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Today -100: January 12, 1922: Of model communities, grand juries, reparations, and bachelor taxes

Henry Ford wants to develop a model community, or something, in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, in the form of a 75-mile long “city” composed of a bunch of towns (Ford believes small communities are better than cities). He’d lease the nitrate plant from the federal government and take over a dam started during the Great War but then pretty much abandoned.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals frees a convicted murderer because the grand jury that indicted him had two (gasp) women on it, so legal cooties or something.

Germany says it can only afford to pay 520 million gold francs in reparations this year.

Outgoing Virginia Gov. Westmoreland Davis, in his final message to the General Assembly, proposes an amendment to the state Constitution to require politicians to take an oath that they haven’t had a drink since Prohibition and won’t do so in the future. Presumably they can break any other law.

The Montana Supreme Court throws out the state’s tax on unmarried men aged 21+ and the poll tax on all men 21 to 60.

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Today -100: January 11, 1922: Of mutual defense, strikes, and naked ballet

Arthur Griffith is elected by the Dáil Éireann as its president, effectively president of Ireland, after a rather contentious session.

Italy is begging to be allowed into the mutual-defense treaty Britain and France are working on.

White South African gold miners go on strike against the mineowners employing too many black miners. In case I don’t get back to this, here’s a little hint: the big strikes in this period by white miners fail while strikes by black miners succeed, because guess who does the actual work.

Naked ballet dancer Celly de Rheydt (sometimes called Rheidt) and her co-dancers go on trial in Berlin for making photographs and a film of said naked dancing. The judge has the film (which I can’t find online) played in the closed court, “frequently stopping the reel for a closer examination”. He then demands a special live performance, just for him, in a theater. “American visitors who have since seen her modified ‘beauty dances’ say they never saw anything like them before. Among these American art experts were pillars of the community, mostly with wives and families across the Atlantic.”

Erich von Stroheim’s Foolish Wives, the first million-dollar movie, premieres. The studio cut about one-third of von S’s version, as was the custom, and are actually still cutting it day by day as it airs. The commentary track by  Richard Koszarski on the DVD/Blu-ray is quite good.

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Today -100: January 10, 1922: Of mutual defense and ignorant Irish people

Britain and France are working on a mutual-defense treaty. Britain’s dominions (Canada, Australia, etc) can join it or not as they prefer.

Éamon de Valera’s resignation takes effect, and then, I suspect rather to his surprise, a motion to re-elect him as president of the Dáil Éireann loses 60-58. Now he’s claiming he hadn’t approved the introduction of the motion to re-elect him, but, it is pointed out, he made four speeches to clarify that position. De Valera admits that the Irish people largely favor the treaty, but it’s only because they just don’t understand it yet.

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Today -100: January 9, 1922: Gloomy satisfaction is the most British satisfaction

The Morning Post (UK) on the divisions in Ireland over the Anglo-Irish Treaty: “The bewildered British public find a gloomy satisfaction in reflecting that perhaps the Irish will now be contented to shoot one another.”

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Arctic explorer Roald Amundsen arrives in the US, after being stuck in the polar ice for, what, 3 years? And he has “adopted” two Eskimo girls, as was the custom.

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Today -100: January 8, 1922: Go for him!

The Dáil Éireann ratifies the peace treaty by a vote of 64-57. De Valera insists that it doesn’t count because the republic was established by the Irish people and until they disestablish it, it goes on.

The US, Britain, France, Italy and Japan agree to ban the use of poison gas in warfare, and ask everyone else to join them. There are no sanctions for violating the agreement. Most countries think the Washington Conference has now accomplished everything it’s going to accomplish (sorry about that, China).

There’s an article in the Sunday NYT Magazine about how Ernst Lubitsch directs mob scenes, for example telling a group of German extras presumably playing Egyptians in the forthcoming Pharaoh’s Wife, “The price of bread has gone up. Over there is a rich baker’s shop. Go, go for him!”

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Today -100: January 7, 1922: Of resignations, conferences, poison gas, and light bulbs

Éamon de Valera resigns as president, taking his cabinet along with him whether they like it or not. He intends to stand again on the principles of 1916 (i.e., the republic) and, if re-elected by the Dáil, to throw out the treaty and offer Britain one of his own. He has agreed to postpone his resignation becoming effective until the Treaty is voted on by the Dáil, as long as they do it quickly. He says he’s sick of politics and wants to go back to private life (Spoiler Alert: He won’t. I mean, he really really won’t), and complains that Finance Minister Michael Collins sent men to Cork to get the kidnapped London Times reporter released, when the minister of defence should have done that.

In March, there will be a conference of all European countries, including Germany and Russia, to discuss economic matters set conditions for the recognition of Russia, which naturally include “legal enforcement of the rights of private property” and payment of Tsarist debts.

At the Washington disarmament conference, the US proposes banning poison gas.

Congress is investigating whether General Electric is using its near-monopoly over light bulb sales to price-fix and drive competitors out of business.

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Today -100: January 6, 1922: Of kidnappings, commerce destroyers, pigeons, and normal marriages

London Times correspondent A.B. Kay, in Dublin covering the Dáil debate, is kidnapped by the IRA while eating lunch. He’s taken to Cork, where he reported last week that most people were in favor of the Treaty, evidently to find out whether he’d interviewed anyone from the army (I assume that means the Irish Republican Army). Michael Collins sends men to Cork to tell the local IRA to release Kay, which they do.

The US, Britain, Japan, France, and Italy agree not to use submarines as “commerce destroyers,” although they can still sink civilian commercial ships after searching them and putting their crew in a place of safety, but can’t sink them without warning. But the agreement faisl to define merchant ships, like whether an armed ship counts. And there’s no punishment for violations.

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Tell me more, front page of the NYT.

“powerful Bavarian circles controlling the bulk of Bavarian public opinion” are attempting to ensure that when, inevitably they think, Austria is absorbed into Germany, it won’t be as a separate state but will be amalgamated with Bavaria, countering the dominance of Prussia. They say Austrian Tylorians are especially eager to join Bavaria, since the both peoples play zithers, yodel, and wear those knee pants and the hats with the feathers.

Worst Episode of The Andy Griffith Show Ever:

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Today -100: January 5, 1922: By God, you are trying to prove me nutty!

NYC will install traffic lights controlled centrally by a “traffic dictator.” This will allow lights to be synchronized, easing traffic, and let the city fire thousands of traffic cops.

British theatrical censorship, of which Shaw wrote so often and so hilariously, shows signs of easing slightly: August Strindberg’s Advent will be allowed to depict Jesus. As played by a 14-year-old girl, because why not.

The Senate committee investigating Thomas Watson (D-Georgia)’s claims about executions of US soldiers without courts-martial during the war hears from ex-soldiers who say they witnessed these events. One of whom, asked if he has been ill since returning from France, yells “By God, you are trying to prove me nutty! You are a bunch of fanatics.”

There’s been a suggestion that the problem of the phone company charging for calls that were never made could be solved by putting pay phones into every home, but it turns out no one actually wants pay phones in their homes.

Ernest Vilgrain, the under-secretary of state for supply in the French Food Ministry 1917-20, is arrested for supposedly deliberately injuring himself in August 1914 to get out of the army. His story is that he was shot in the hand by a man in French uniform he recognized as the mayor of a village. Who had an alibi. And at some point all Vilgrain’s military records vanished. The doctor who examined him a couple of times to see if he was fit to return to duty says he complained both times of “doubtful symptoms” of appendicitis, but refused to have an operation. So he’s being charged with desertion in the face of the enemy and voluntary self-mutilation, which theoretically carry the death penalty. He will be acquitted.

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Today -100: January 4, 1922: Of body rubbers, the worst divorce, and causing tumults and public disorders

Rep. Thomas Blanton (D-Texas) introduces bills to tear out the Congressional Roman baths and fire the “body rubbers.” Also the House barber. And its restaurant.

The Nevada attorney general is still trying to overturn Mary Pickford’s March 1920 divorce, which he calls “the worst of its kind”.

The Italian government is considering charging Deputy Benito Mussolini with having, in 1919, “formed and armed a band for the purpose of committing crimes against persons, terrifying the public and causing tumults and public disorders.” It will have to get permission from the Chamber of Deputies to charge him. For balance, I guess, it will also try to prosecute a Communist deputy, Garosi, for writing negative things about the army.

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Today -100: January 3, 1922: Of non-republics, shaking hands, and things that are here to stay

The India Office denies that anyone has declared a republic.

The Hardings revive the custom of the White House New Year’s Reception, shaking hands with 6,500 visitors, which is how Covid started, probably. Wilson stopped the practice because ambassadors show up at these things and during the war that would have been just awkward: do you greet the French ambassador first or the German? Plus he didn’t like shaking hands with so many people.

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According to President Friedrich Ebert, and he should know.

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Today -100: January 2, 1922: Of new yearses, prescriptions, and registers

New York has a very New York New Years, with shootings, stabbings, assaults, robberies, false fire alarms, etc., but “A peculiar thing about the disorder was that many of its makers appeared not to have been drinking.” There are many drinkers, but they’re just having fun.

Chicago doctors issued 2,189,000 prescriptions for liquor in 1921.

Secretary of Labor James Davis wants the Bureau of Naturalization to register all aliens. Aliens should be assured that the purpose is not espionage, but to let the government follow the progress of Americanization, which isn’t creepy at all.

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Today -100: January 1, 1922: Happy 1922!

Sen. Boise Penrose, the Boss of Pennsylvania Republicans, who had a hell of a name, dies at 61.

Oskari Tokoi, the former prime minister of Finland who fled that country after the Whites won the civil war, is arrested in Massachusetts as an alien anarchist.

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Prof. Charles St John of the Mt. Wilson Observatory says there’s no life on Venus. But that’s just what an undercover spy from Venus would say, isn’t it?

The Tuskegee Institute reports there were 64 lynchings in the US in 1921. 59 of the victims were black.

Lenin is re-elected head of the Russian government by the All-Russian Soviet Congress. Unanimously.

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Today -100: December 31, 1921: But the Brits are too smart to fall into that trap, right?

The Indian National Congress fails to declare independence as some expected. It wants the blame for starting warfare to fall on the British.

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Today -100: December 30, 1921: To be fair, are we sure Gandhi couldn’t do those things?

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France’s refusal to go along with limits on submarines (indeed, France plans to triple its sub tonnage) was thoroughly predictable, but Britain in particular was sure it could be browbeaten into accepting limits for some reason. There’s some hope remaining that France will join an agreement not to use submarines against civilian commercial ships. France would also have blocked any attempt to limit land forces, so no one tried. So the only thing the Washington Conference has accomplished is to limit the number of capital ships, which is disappointing but not nothing. Anyway, everyone hates France now, as is the custom.

The embezzlement charges against Illinois Gov. Len Small are dropped, along with the charge of operating a confidence game, but the charge of conspiracy to defraud the state of $2m remains. The embezzlement charge is gone only because the foreman of the grand jury signed the indictment in the wrong place; the con game charge is quashed because a typist left out a word. Pretty sure some money changed hands to ensure those mistakes. Other charges were dropped because prosecutors failed to prove an element of the crime.

The Indian National Congress gives Gandhi sole executive authority. He says “If non-violence is given up India will never attain her liberty.” That’s about it for quotes from Gandhi in the NYT, but they do give plenty of space to the Westminster Gazette account of ignorant Indian villagers who believe Gandhi is magic and can stop bullets, heal illnesses, re-grow severed limbs, and cause cotton to grow on trees.

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Today -100: December 29, 1921: Prison and Presidents can’t scare me

A huge crowd welcomes Eugene Debs back to Terre Haute. Placards include “Everybody smiles now” and “Prison and Presidents can’t scare me.” He’s even greeted by the (Republican) mayor, who kisses him on the cheek.

His house is still around, by the way (4 bedrooms, 1 bath), but not currently for sale. Update after some more googling, during which I discover that residents of Terra Haute are called Terra Hautians, which seems a little fancy for Indiana: Oh, wait, it’s a museum now.

Russian Rumor of the Day -100:  Cannibalism. Lots of cannibalism. And infanticide. Lots of infanticide.

The Indian National Congress re-affirms the non-violent policy championed by Gandhi. Opponents had tried to get the call for “legitimate and peaceful means” changed to “possible and proper means.”

Four San Francisco-based federal prohibition agents have recently gotten sick from bad brandy, which they totally had to drink to check evidence.

A man in Ontario breaks 21 windows in order to get a nice warm jail cell for the winter. The magistrate sentences him to a nice warm jail cell for the next 40 winters.

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Today -100: December 28, 1921: Of air attacks, Chicago-style murders (deep-dish, I guess), and storm orphans

The British authorities in Egypt threaten that if nationalist crowds form in Suez, they will be attacked from the air, first with smoke bombs, then shells and machine guns.

The Irish Horse Breeders’ Association adopts a resolution in favor of ratification of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, so that should pretty much settle that.

The Chicago murder rate is up to almost one per day. And on Christmas the city set a record for the most hospitalizations due to alcohol poisoning. Deaths from alcohol are also way up.

Mexican Pres. Obregón denies spreading anti-US propaganda in Central America.

Premiering today: Orphans of the Storm. Gishes! All the Gishes! Will Lillian be guillotined during the French Revolution? Will Dorothy regain her eyesight?

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Today -100: December 27, 1921: I trust that the notoriety he has received may not be commercialized

Eugene Debs arrives in DC. After he talks with Attorney General Harry Daugherty (“I volunteered no advice to him and he asked none,” says Daugherty; “I trust that the notoriety he has received may not be commercialized”), he hops over to the White House and speaks with Pres. Harding for half an hour, about what we do not know. Debs says he’ll work for “the freedom of political prisoners and the cause of all prisoners,” although for how long depends “entirely on how long I will be out.”

There’s a lynching in Key West with some backstory we’re not getting: coffee shop owner Manuel Head is beaten by a group of masked men (Klan?); some time afterwards he shoots and kills a “prominent resident.” He holds off a mob until the authorities arrest him, only for deputies to lose him to another mob (lots of mobs in this story), who tie him to a telephone pole and shoot him to death.

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Today -100: December 26, 1921: A shallow, howling, whining minority has had its way

France will stop branding its conscripted Vietnamese soldiers, a practice supposedly resulting from the soldiers taking “advantage of their baffling similarity in appearance” to go AWOL.

A condition of Eugene Debs’s release is that he has to “confer” with Attorney General Daugherty, for some reason, so he’s taking the train to Washington (update: the warden gave him a railroad ticket to DC; he had been intending to go to his home. He exchanged the Pullman ticket for a day coach and donated the difference to Russian relief). He has no comment for the reporters waiting for him at the prison gates except that the 2,300 political prisoners still in prison should also be released.

The NYT seems a tad upset about Debs’ release. After all, “He sought to murder the State.” “A shallow, howling, whining minority has had its way.”

Knight Dunlap, professor of experimental psych at Johns Hopkins, “invents” the chronoscope, which can measure intelligence and tell if people are guilty of crimes.

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Today -100: December 25, 1921: Only mildly merry

There are nationalist uprisings in Egypt against British rule, the Egyptian government has resigned, revolutionary leader (and future prime minister) Zaghlûl Pasha has been forcibly deported, and the British are preparing to slaughter whoever they need to slaughter to restore “peace.” As was the custom.

Colombia ratifies the treaty with the US giving them $25m in compensation for the US stealing Panama.

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Because isn’t it always.

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Today -100: December 24, 1921: Of mock Santas, debses, and fermented wines

Pres. Harding commutes the sentences of 24 political prisoners, including Eugene Debs. He also pardons 5 soldiers who killed a former British officer in Germany. The pardon statement cites Debs’ age (66) and poor health and says he wasn’t as “rabid” in his expressions as some others, but probably got a harsh sentence because of his prominence. Some of the 24 are Wobblies who “have either expressed full penitence or are booked for deportation”. Many political prisoners remain in prison.

And Labor Secretary J.J. Davis orders the release of 1,100 immigrants being held for deportation at Ellis Island. However they’re only being released for 90 days, with no idea what happens to them after that. Half of them are Hungarian. Most or all were detained not for anything they’d done wrong but because their national quotas had been filled (the US is still blaming unscrupulous steamship companies).

Rumor of the Day -100:  Ex-kaiser Wilhelm, whose wife died in April, is going to marry the widow of an officer killed in the war. He won’t. I gather his courtiers are parading many possible brides in front of him.

Xmas-y Headline of the Day -100:  

Prohibition authorities are considering banning fermented wines from Christian and Jewish religious ceremonies, which they claim don’t require them, and substituting fruit juice or maybe a Snapple. This is mostly aimed at Jews, as there has been a bit of abuse of the regs allowing Jewish families 10 gallons of wine a year.

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Today -100: December 23, 1921: We do not care to assist in obtaining cheap notoriety for anybody

At the Washington Conference, Britain makes its case for banning submarines, saying 1) they’re ineffective as defensive weapons, 2) their chief value is against unarmed merchant ships, which is like totally inhumane. No one else agrees that subs have no legitimate uses, especially France.

The Theatre Owners’ Chamber of Commerce decides that none of the 600 movie theaters it controls will show “The Lonely Trail,” a movie actor Fred Beauvais wrote and stars in, because Beauvais was co-respondent in a divorce suit. Says the Chamber’s secretary, S.A. Morrass, “We do not care to assist in obtaining cheap notoriety for anybody.” Cheap notoriety is the worst kind.

Rep. James Aswell (D-Louisiana), last seen here 3 days ago defending lynching, demands that negroes be banned from the Congressional restaurant, after 4 are seen eating in the presence of their betters. The restaurant agrees to the ban.

The Dáil Éireann debates some more about the treaty before adjourning until 1922. What strikes me is that the debate is entirely about whether Ireland is getting powers demanded by the oath to the republic that so many took and what powers the king can exercise and so forth, and barely a word, at least in the NYT accounts, about Ulster and the division of Ireland.

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Today -100: December 22, 1921: Of candles, armies, raids, and dimes

The Hardings planned to put lighted candles in the White House’s windows for Xmas, but the general agent of the Underwriters’ Laboratories telegrammed that that would be fraught with danger, so they gave up the idea.

The new Lord Chamberlain, the Duke of Atholl, is the only person in Britain allowed to keep his own private army. This is still true in 2021, although the last couple of dukes have actually been South African. Queen Victoria gave the dukedom this right for some reason.

The Dry Police raid a hotel where a dinner is being given to Massachusetts Gov. Channing Cox to informally announce his candidacy for governor (not re-election, NYT, he’s governor now because Calvin Coolidge left the office), even though the federal prohibition director for New England, who is at the dinner, had authorized the liquor to be transported for the “personal use” of someone who claimed to live in a room in the hotel, a room which guests of the dinner kept slipping up to for some reason. The raid seems to be part of a power struggle within the prohibition office.

A local reporter briefly interviews John D. Rockefeller at a railway station in Savannah, Georgia. At the end, Rockefeller asks him if he’s married, because he wants to give him something to remember him by, then gifts him with six shiny new dimes, one for the reporter, one for his wife, and one each for his parents and parents-in-law.

Hatred, coming in 1922!

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Today -100: December 21, 1921: Speaking of insular

Pres. Harding evidently doesn’t know what his negotiators are up to, saying that the Four Power treaty (US, Britain, France, Japan) guaranteeing everyone’s ownership of colonies (“insular possessions and insular dominions”) in the Pacific does not also apply to the islands of Japan proper. He subsequently learns that his negotiators did agree to that interpretation, and says he’s okay with it.

Or maybe there wasn’t a revolution in Portugal.

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Today -100: December 20, 1921: I broke my oath of allegiance to the republic because I believed it to be the lesser evil

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Someone sent an anonymous note, so lots of people gathered to see the possible explosion, because they hadn’t invented Netflix yet. This comes just after the arrest in Warsaw of a suspect in the September 1920 Wall Street bombing (who didn’t do it).

There’s a revolution in Portugal, as was the custom.

The Dáil finally debates the Anglo-Irish Treaty not behind closed doors. Arthur Griffith defends the treaty as “good enough.” Éamon de Valera accuses him and Collins of “subverting the republic.” Erskine Childers points out that the Irish Constitution would depend on an act of the British Parliament and that the king could veto Irish legislation. Robert Barton says he and Gavan Duffy, members of the delegation, only signed because Lloyd George threatened war unless every member signed and recommended passage by the Dáil; “I broke my oath of allegiance to the republic because I believed it to be the lesser evil.” Michael Collins denies having been bluffed into signing by the British.

Southern Democratic congresscritters filibuster a rule to limit debate on the anti-lynching bill. They claim the bill violates states’ police powers and would actually increase lynching and assault. James Aswell (D-Louisiana) says “The bill will protect the assaulters of women from the mob. ... It will encourage the criminal by making him think the danger of speedy death is removed.” More than one speaker uses the phrase “black beasts.”

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Today -100: December 19, 1921: I’m just gonna leave this one right here

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Today -100: December 18, 1921: Of pugsleys, kings, certain amendments, freer and more indulgent conduct, and a bigamy fat joke that’s just sitting there

Alliterative high school student Pearl Pugsley of Knobel, Arkansas sues the school board over its ban on cosmetics.

The Albanian commissioner to the US denies having asked Jerome Napoleon Bonaparte to become king of Albania.

The Dáil Éireann is debating the Anglo-Irish treaty behind closed doors. So we hear that Éamon de Valera has “suggested certain amendments” without hearing what they are.

NY Archbishop Patrick Hayes, the guy who sicced the cops on Margaret Sanger last month, issues a Christmas pastoral to be read at all 300 Catholic churches in New York denouncing birth control and “the freer and more indulgent conduct, more particularly amongst the younger members of the female sex.” Particularly. Pagan philosophy blah blah Herod blah blah unclean abomination blah blah. He also doesn’t like divorce, and says women should measure their lives by the number of their offspring, not the number of husbands.

A long letter to the NYT from Eugene O’Neill responds to complaints about the happy ending of Anna Christie. But are there really ever endings? he asks.

A possible explanation for why Bambina Maude Delmont, who swore out the initial complaint against Fatty Arbuckle, wasn’t a witness at his trial: she has now plead guilty on a charge of bigamy, and received a year’s probation.

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Today -100: December 17, 1921: Of ratios, crowns, twangs, fake gold, peelers, and old old old lawsuits

France wants more warships than the 5:5:3:3:3 ratio would give it, 3.5 say. It doesn’t have nearly that many ships now, and isn’t in financial shape to build them, but it might be able to in the future and it doesn’t want a lower limit than Japan has (it might also be using this as leverage for it to keep submarines, which it considers the little guy’s weapon of defense; Britain wants to ban submarines altogether). Also, it has all these colonies all over the world and needs a bunch of ships to keep them in line. Italy of course wants whatever France gets. And Britain says if France and Italy get more ships, it wants more ships.

Albania tentatively offers Jerome Napoleon Bonaparte, great-grand-nephew of Napoleon I, who lives in New York, the Albanian crown. He’s unsure whether he wants it, because Albania is kind of a mess.

VP Coolidge has an operation on his nose to relieve his breathing, and it has removed his Yankee “twang.”

The Houses of Commons and Lords easily approve the Anglo-Irish treaty.

Prof. Irving Fisher of Yale, an economist, thinks Germany might pay off reparations by having its chemists make artificial gold out of baser metals. So.... alchemy?

19 Klansmen, some of them prominent Austin, Texas businessmen, are arrested for murder of one Peeler Clayton, stockman. It’s unclear what they had against Ol’ Peeler.

The court of Nancy, France, settles a lawsuit between the towns of Charcillat and Meussia over ownership of a wood, dividing it between them. The lawsuit began in 1230.

Composer Camille Saint-Saëns, dies at 86.

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Today -100: December 16, 1921: Of treaties, chains of circumstance that spell ruin, and prohibition

Éamon de Valera wants the treaty to go to a referendum, which treaty supporters do not want.

Rep. John Elston (R-California) commits suicide, drowning himself in the Potomac. He left a note saying “I am in a chain of circumstances that spell ruin, although my offense was innocently made in the beginning.” Don’t know what that all means, although his friends will claim it really read “although my offer was unconditionally made” and that his suicide was because of depression after failing to get Congress to authorize a naval base for Alameda.

Chicago Police Chief Charles Fitzmorris orders the police to enforce Prohibition, you know, really enforce it this time.

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Today -100: December 15, 1921: Of treaties, ratios, and lynching trees

Éamon de Valera explains that the Irish negotiators of the treaty failed to submit it to the Dáil before signing it, as their instructions required. I’m still not hearing his specific objections to the treaty.

René Maran, from French Martinique, wins the Prix Goncourt for his novel Batouala, set in French Equatorial Africa. Maran is the first black person to win the award. Its criticism of French colonialism will lead to it being banned, as was the custom. And the NYT spells his name wrong, as was the custom.

Japan accepts the 5:5:3 naval ratio, after some fiddling to allow it to keep the destroyer Matsu, which the Japanese are very fond of for some reason.

Tarrant County, Texas orders the “lynching tree” near the county jail in Forth Worth cut down following two lynchings in the last year in which people were hanged from it.

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Today -100: December 14, 1921: Of bad government, wildcats, juries, and censuses

Former Boston Mayor James Curley is elected mayor again, defeating the “good government” candidate. Curley is the corrupt government candidate.

A white man who attacked an 8-year-old girl is lynched in Waco, Texas.

Marshal Foch really is taking that wildcat he was given by the Montana branch of the American Legion back to France with him. Her name is Theodora, which is a delightful name for a wildcat.

The Iowa Supreme Court upholds women’s right to serve on juries. (The one-sentence story doesn’t make clear if that means they’ll be obligated to serve on the same terms as men. In New York, for instance, women could volunteer but could not be forced onto juries until the 1970s, which explains Twelve Angry Men.)

Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover approves the idea of a new census in 1925, saying 1920’s census reflected an “abnormal” population shift into cities, affecting reapportionment, which he claims is now reversing itself. Don’t know how a new census would change that. Also, the census didn’t affect reapportionment because there hasn’t been a reapportionment, and won’t be.

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Today -100: December 13, 1921: Of borahs, ratios, and citizenship

Sen. William Borah (R-Idaho) starts a debate in the Senate over the not-yet-signed Four Power treaty on the Pacific, claiming that even though it doesn’t require the four imperial powers to come to each other’s aid militarily in case of aggression, the US would be bound “morally” to do so, and that’s not okay with him. Borah will also oppose the naval reduction treaty if it doesn’t ban submarines and poison gas.

The Washington Conference adds France and Italy to the naval limitation thingy. So the ratio is now 5:5:3:3:3.

Despite mass arrests of anyone who might mar the Prince of Wales’s tour of India, almost everyone (natives anyway) boycotts his parade/procession/whatever in Allahabad.

Pres. Harding refuses to see the delegation which came from Porto Rico to demand the recall of Gov. E. Mont Reily.

In 1918 Congress extended to Asians the practice of granting citizenship to members of the military. Now, the Harding Administration, looking for a test case, cancels the citizenship of a Japanese Coast Guard steward who has served for 8 years.

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Today -100: December 12, 1921: Of disarmed nations, lynchings, and male and female degenerates

Headline of the Day -100:  

Yay! Germany will never be a military threat again!

G.A. Rau, the Columbia student reported missing after he went to a KKK meeting, turns up, claiming that four men in masks tied him to a tree and whipped him. He displays some torn clothing but not the actual alleged injuries.

Prof. Lawrence Morris of the Allegheny Vocational School for veterans is found dead, shot in the chest with, mysteriously, a filled-in application form for the KKK in his pocket.

A black strikebreaker in the San Antonio stockyards who shot two striking picketers last week and was then beaten up by strikers, is seized by a mob from the hospital and lynched.

The new Archbishop of Baltimore, Michael Curley, has some shit to say (at a confirmation, no less) about birth control, and while Catholic officials a hundred years later still oppose birth control, do they call its advocates “male and female degenerates who would fly in the face of God the Creator and make life one great sin and orgy of passion”?

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Today -100: December 11, 1921: Communism’s loss...

The League of Nations mints its own coin. Just one of them, a gold franc, the monetary unit on which the League’s budget is based. So a totally notional non-currency currency, but for some reason they needed one (1) real-world coin. It’s worth about 2¢ US.

G.A. Rau, a Columbia U. student, went to a KKK meeting in Brooklyn intending to denounce Imperial Kleagle E.Y. Clarke, to his face, and then... vanished. Police thinks it’s a publicity stunt, but he is reported as a missing person by his Delta Phi frat brother Chester A. Arthur III, who is also a Klansman and, yes, grandson of the president. Over his life, Chester 3 (he called himself Gavin) founded a commune, prospected for gold, hawked newspapers, taught at San Quentin, and was an astrologist, a sexologist, an astrological sexologist, and a gay rights activist (he was bi, married 3 times).

In addition to the 4-power treaty on the Pacific coming out of the Washington Conference and the 5-power naval limitation treaty, there will be a 9-power treaty dealing with China, respecting its territorial integrity and neutrality.

Anatole France isn’t a Communist anymore.

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Today -100: December 10, 1921: I don’t want to become bald like most Canadian statesmen

Britain releases some of its IRA internees. As a trainload of them reach Thurles station, some bombs are thrown, injuring 3 of the internees and some people on the platform. This may have been intended as a greeting, gone a bit wrong.

The committee investigating American history textbooks for the NYC Board of Education finds that they’re prejudiced in favor of the British point of view. A member of a local school board complains that her son was taught that John Hancock was a smuggler (John Hancock was totally a smuggler).

During the Senate investigation of charges made by Thomas Watson (D-Georgia) that there were dozens of executions of US soldiers without courts-martial during the Great War, Watson complains, loudly, that Gen. George Cocheu was looking at him funny. He calls the general a “lantern-jawed dog” and a “bull-jawed brute” and threatens to slap him.

Canadian MPs normally wear hats in Parliament, doffing them when rising to address the chair. The newly elected first woman MP, Agnes Macphail (whose name the NYT still hasn’t figured out how to spell), for whom that would be a more difficult procedure, says she’ll simply do without a hat. “I don’t want to become bald like most Canadian statesmen.”

Headline of the Day -100:  

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Today -100: December 9, 1921: Dead again

The guy who commanded the U-boat that sank the Lusitania is reported to have been killed by the crew of a Paraguayan warship he was in command of, mutinying because of his Prussian ways. This is nonsense: Walter Schwieger was killed in action in 1917.

Éamon de Valera comes out against the Anglo-Irish treaty, along with 2 other Cabinet members (that’s 3 out of 7). He does not explain his problems with the treaty.

The US, Britain, France and Japan form a compact not to attack each other’s colonies in the Pacific, and to mediate before going to war. This will officially end the Anglo-Japanese alliance that made the US so nervous. And the agreement not to attack without warning will reassure Japan, allowing it to assent to the 10:10:6 naval ratio with Britain and the US, which are stubbornly refusing Japan’s proposed 10:10:7.

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Today -100: December 8, 1921: Of strikes, coups, and sheep glands

There’s a strike at Chicago meat-packing houses against a 10% wage reduction, and rioting of supposedly 100,000 people. The “women folk” of the strikers place themselves between the strikers and the mounted police. They use pepper against the cops and their horses, and children scatter tacks ahead of the motorcycle cops. Cops shoot into the crowd, as was the custom. A black scab is thrown into the grossly named sewage stream Bubbly Creek and paving blocks are thrown at him until he drowns.

There’s a military coup in Guatemala. The deposed president, Carlos Herrera, himself in power as the result of a 1920 coup, completely voluntarily (while imprisoned) surrenders his powers to a 3-general junta.

Medical Science of the Day -100:

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