Today -100: November 4, 1923: The Klan issue or anti-Klan issue will not be raised here

A Ku Klux Klan newspaper in the Southwest, Mayfield’s Weekly, announces opposition to the presidential candidacies of Sen. Oscar Underwood, Al Smith and, surprisingly, Henry Ford, who recently gave a special Lincoln to a Catholic Archbishop. They like William Gibbs McAdoo, though. 

In Morristown, New Jersey, black people accuse Republican candidates for county offices of being in sympathy with the Ku Klux Klan. Mayor Clyde Potts (which is as New-Jersey-mayor a name as it is possible to have) responds by threatening to have them arrested: “The Klan issue or anti-Klan issue will not be raised here... Anyone who attempts to incite race or religious feeling among us will be dealt with as a public enemy.”

A mixed-race or possibly Mexican man is lynched at Eufaula, Oklahoma.

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Today -100: November 3, 1923: Of sick days

New air speed record: 259 mph, by a US Navy plane.

“Rhineland Republic” separatists occupy the Aix-la-Chapelle Town Hall. Then Belgian troops kick them out of town (having to protect them from angry Aixlahoovians on the way out), evidently in response to pressure from Britain and the Netherlands, although it’s a little murky. France will not be pleased.

The 3 German Social Democratic members of  Stresemann’s cabinet withdraw. They’d given him an ultimatum regarding Saxony and Bavaria, and he literally faked illness to avoid answering them.

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Today -100: November 2, 1923: A dictatorship can last forever if properly managed

Headline of the Day -100:  

His lawyers’ request to ask each senator if he’s a member of the Ku Klux Klan is denied.

At the Imperial Conference in London, Indians complain about their unequal treatment in other British colonies. Canada says Indians have full legal rights there, er, except for British Columbia. South Africa’s Jan Smuts says if he gave rights to Indians he’d have to give them to blacks and then where would white rule be?

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“A dictatorship can last forever if properly managed,” Mussolini tells foreign reporters. He brags about how few strikes there are now.

Chicago may lose the Republican Convention unless it offers more reasonable hotel rates (those smoke-filled rooms don’t come cheap). Cleveland will get the convention.

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Today -100: November 1, 1923: Picky picky picky

Britain reminds France and Belgium that the “Rhineland Republic” would violate the Versailles Treaty, which sets Germany’s borders.

Thousands of men of the many right-wing groups in Bavaria – monarchists, Hitlerites, etc. – are massing on the Thuringian border.

The German occupying forces allow the Saxon State Assembly to meet and elect a new prime minister, Socialist Alfred Fellisch, to replace the one they deposed.

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Today -100: October 31, 1923: Of fords, saxons, and reparations

Henry Ford’s secretary writes to the Ford Presidential Club saying Ford won’t accept any nomination.

The German Socialists in the Reichstag seem to be wimping out on opposing Stresemann’s deposition of the Saxon government. 

The European countries and the US will participate in an inquiry by a commission of experts into how much reparations Germany can afford, subject only to the French conditions that it not change anything in any way. Britain evidently thinks that the results will be so clear that France will be forced to accept them by the power of reasonableness.

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Today -100: October 30, 1923: Of saxons, expulsions, and angorra

Former British Prime Minister Andrew Bonar Law dies.

The Rhenish Republic says it will pay its share of reparations and blames the Great War on those fucking Prussians.

German troops are sent in to depose Saxony’s government, arrest Prime Minister Erich Zeigner and other members of his cabinet, and occupy public buildings in Dresden. Federal Chancellor Gustav Stresemann appoints Carl Heinze to rule Saxony. The Saxon State Assembly is ordered suspended. Communist newspapers are suppressed.

Bavaria’s dictator Gustav von Kahr orders the expulsion of 200 Jewish families who are German but not Bavarian. Their houses will be seized, ostensibly for refugees from the Ruhr. Hitler’s newspaper is publishing names of Jews who have yet to be expelled.

Turkey is now officially a republic, and its capital will be moved from Constantinople to Ankara (Angora).

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Today -100: October 29, 1923: Our government will last because we recognize the influence of will power in history

Saxony’s cabinet refuses Chancellor Gustav Stresemann’s demand that it resign, saying only the Saxon Diet can dismiss it.

Italy celebrates one year of Fascist rule. Mussolini: “Our government will last because we recognize the influence of will power in history, because we wish it to last, because we are ready to do anything to make it last, because we will systematically rout all our enemies, because our government is not merely the triumph of one party, but is the resurrection of our race.”

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Today -100: October 28, 1923: Germany is kind of a mess right now

Britain will oppose any attempt to establish the Rhineland Republic in its occupation zone (Cologne etc). Reuters reports that the French will officially recognize the separatist movement as lawful.

German Chancellor Gustav Stresemann demands the resignation of Saxony’s government (does he have any authority to do that?) and a new cabinet with no Communists. And oh-so-politely requests that Bavaria’s government stop asserting control over federal troops. Saxony’s is an elected but left-wing government while Bavaria’s is far-right, run by a “dictator,” bellicose towards neighboring Saxony and contemptuous of the central German government. 

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Today -100: October 27, 1923: Of republics

French and Belgian troops actively prevent authorities in the Rhine doing anything to stop separatists seizing buildings (and early in the occupation they disarmed the police). Coblenz is now the capital of the “Rhineland Republic,” its public buildings occupied by the separatists while the French enforced a curfew (and gun restrictions) on everyone else.

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Today -100: October 26, 1923: Of Fords

Henry Ford says he’s for Coolidge if he enforces prohibition.

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Today -100: October 25, 1923: Of palatinates and tasty evidence

Another day, another German separatist coup attempt. In this case a provisional government for a Palatinate Republic is set up, even as the Rhineland Republic effort is failing, mostly because no one in the Rhineland wants it.

Headline of the Day -100:  

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Today -100: October 24, 1923: Yeah, we all get older

The Oklahoma State Senate votes 36 to 1 to suspend Gov. Jack Walton pending impeachment.

Headline of the Day -100:  

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Today -100: October 23, 1923: Of separatists, oaths, and bears

Several more small Rhineland towns have been seized by separatists.

German army (Reichswehr) troops in Bavaria take an oath to Bavaria (rather than the Reich). Rumors say Bavaria will shortly attack Saxony.

The University of Bologna wants to give PM Mussolini an honorary degree as doctor of laws, but he insists he’ll sit the exam.

Headline of the Day -100:  

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Today -100: October 22, 1923: All resistance will be pitilessly suppressed

The ACLU protests Boston Mayor James Curley’s ban on Ku Klux Klan meetings.

An independent Rhineland Republic is declared in Aix-la-Chapelle after a coup. “All resistance will be pitilessly suppressed,” the proclamation says, but there isn’t any. This is the Belgian zone of occupation and Belgian soldiers are of course doing nothing.

Bavaria’s military dictator Gustav von Kahr justifies illegally overturning the federal government’s firing of Gen. Otto von Lossow as commander-in-chief of the Reichswehr (military) in Bavaria. Something about internationalism and Marxism, presumably including the federal government.  “Bavaria considers it her holy duty in this hour to be the stronghold of threatened Germandom.”

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Today -100: October 21, 1923: Of bread and hajjis

More bread riots in Berlin.

The 5th Baron Headley, a convert to Islam, returns from the Haaj, supposedly the first European Muslim ever to go on the Haaj.

Bavaria’s military dictator Gustav von Kahr, who does not have the power to do this, appoints Gen. Otto von Lossow as commander-in-chief of the Reichswehr (military) in the Bavarian region after federal Pres. Ebert had fired him. The worry is that Bavaria’s gonna invade Saxony.

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Today -100: October 20, 1923: Of the greatest issue in America today, reparations, and parade-stopping

A conference of all 52 state and territorial governors endorses Prohibition. Louisiana Gov. John Parker resigns in protest, saying “The Ku Klux Klan is the greatest issue in America today.”

German Chancellor Gustav Stresemann says Germany will stop paying reparations now that it has been shown from Poincaré’s refusal to negotiate that his real objective is the destruction of the German Reich. The London Times points out that France said it would negotiate only when passive resistance ended but it didn’t negotiate when passive resistance ended.

A plot by Romanian Fascists to assassinate government ministers is uncovered, leading to the resignation of the interior minister and others.

The Youngstown, Ohio chief of police says he will stop a planned KKK parade, shooting to kill if need be.

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Today -100: October 19, 1923: How is “diplomatic relations” even a thing here?

Bavaria and Saxony break diplomatic relations.

Pres. Coolidge joins the First Congregational Church in DC.

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Today -100: October 18, 1923: Of funereal foxtrots

The federal German government is, allegedly, preparing to militarily invade Saxony. Excuse me, “Soviet Saxony.” They would do this to prevent far-right Bavaria (excuse me, “Blue Bavaria”) invading Saxony. Excuse me, “Red Saxony.” Gen. Mueller demands the Saxon government repudiate a speech by Finance Minister Paul Böttcher (Communist) saying it might come down to a fight with counter-revolution. Mueller’s threat rather seems to make his point.

The Oklahoma House reverses itself, voting to investigate whether the Ku Klux Klan controls the Legislature and renders city and county governments impotent.

The Philippines Legislature calls for the recall of Gov. Gen. Leonard Wood.

Police in Udine, France, stop a jazz band playing at a funeral. It wasn’t the jazz they object to, per se, but the dancing (foxtrotting) that broke out.

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Today -100: October 17, 1923: A question of the very existence of the state

Henry Ford has no objection to the formation of Ford-for-president clubs in South Dakota.

In an interview with Italian Fascist newspaper Corriere Italiano, Hitler says the fundamental principle of the National Socialists is anti-Semitism: “the Jewish question in Germany is a question of the very existence of the State.”

Alliterative Headline of the Day -100:  

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Today -100: October 16, 1923: Of worthless marks and worthless masked legislators

Headline of the Day -100:  

The Oklahoma House of Reps refuses to investigate Gov. Jack Walton’s claim that a majority of its members are kluxers.

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Today -100: October 15, 1923: Of recalls

The Ku Klux Klan is supporting a recall petition for Oregon Gov. Walter Pierce (D), although they supported his election last year.

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Today -100: October 14, 1923: Of dictators and lynchings

Headline of the Day -100:  

Wish: granted.

That’s the Reichsermächtigungsgesetz, transferring powers to the government regardless of whether they violate the Constitution. 

A lynch mob shoots a black man in Virginia.

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Today -100: October 13, 1923: Of Fords and red saxonies

Henry Ford lets Nebraskaites put his name on the presidential primary ballot for the Neb. Progressive Party, possibly out of pique at losing his bid for the nitrate plant at Muscle Shoals. Does he actually want to run for president? His personal secretary says he doesn’t wish to say.

Saxony, or “Red Saxony” as it will evidently now be known, has a new Socialist-Communist Cabinet (the Communist part is new), which the federal government is not thrilled about. To be fair, they’re not happy about Bavaria’s far-right dictator Von Kahr either. Bavaria will stall and passively resist implementation in the state of federal measures under the emergency act.

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Today -100: October 12, 1923: Of special sessions, black shirts, and executioners

The Oklahoma Legislature meets in special session. It changes its mind and allows Gov. Walton’s message to be read (Walton stays away). The message calls for anti-Klan legislation to end the war between the invisible and all-too-visible governments. The Lege leaps into action and ignores his proposals, moving instead to appoint a committee of investigation and impeachment. Walton declares an end to martial law.

Switzerland bans black-colored shirts. Italian Fascists have been making themselves obnoxious lately.

Ahead of the Reichstag vote on giving dictatorial powers to the government (the Reichsermächtigungsgesetz), Chancellor Gustav Stresemann gets authorization from Pres. Ebert to dissolve the Reichstag if it fails to do his bidding.

Isidore Hespel used to be the official executioner in French Guiana, which used prisoners for the job; he was sent there for 2 murders during a robbery committed in France. Now he is to be executed for killing a fellow prisoner who berated him for all the, you know, executions. He wants to erect his own guillotine. Which he will be allowed to do.

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Today -100: October 11, 1923: Of masks, presidents, and vigilance

Oklahoma Gov. Jack Walton’s offer to resign if the Legislature passes his anti-Klan bill isn’t being rejected by legislators, it’s being ignored. And they won’t let him speak to tomorrow’s special session.

Oklahoma KKK Grand Dragon N. Clay Jewett claims to support the unmasking legislation.

Tsao Kun (aka Cao Kun) is sworn in as president of China, a position he bought fair and square (the post is elected by the eminently bribable Parliament). Sun Yat-Sen declares war.

A “vigilance committee” orders black people out of Stowe Township, Pennsylvania. The cops didn’t interfere as the vigilantes went vigilantly issuing threats from house to house, because there was no violence.

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Today -100: October 10, 1923: Of death sentences

Oklahoma Gov. Jack Walton makes a rather odd offer: if the Legislature passes his anti-Klan bill, which would ban masking and make secret societies’ membership lists public, he will resign, immediately. What makes it odd is that he’s been claiming for months that cops and judges throughout the state are klansmen or at least klan-adjacent and are failing to enforce laws against Klan crimes such as floggings. So adding new laws for them not to enforce would accomplish what, exactly?

Convicted murderer Felix Gueydan is guillotined in Aix-en-Provence. It would have happened 18 months ago but they, er, forgot about him. They might have continued to forget about him but he sent a letter asking what was up.

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Today -100: October 9, 1923: Of borers, boycotts, and emergency powers

Headline of the Day -100:  

The coalition that won the Philippines elections says the Legislature will refuse to pass anything recommended by Governor Leonard Wood.

The German Reichstag will consider a bill to give the government emergency powers to do almost anything by decree, including departing from constitution rights, but not, in a concession to the Socialists, to alter the 8-hour day.

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Today -100: October 8, 1923: Of special sessions, warding off attacks of robbers, sick mayors, and German confusion

Oklahoma legislators are saying that sure, they’ll consider Walton’s anti-Klan legislation in the special session but only after they impeach him.

Bavarian Dictator Gustav von Kahr says “Germany must regain sufficient strength to ward off the attacks of robbers,” meaning France. In his war against Socialists he’s swarming Munich with police acting in cooperation with Hitler’s storm troops.

NYC Mayor John Hylan has been sick since August. He may be allowed to leave his bed in a week but probably won’t be mayoring until January. Seems a long time for a major city not to have a working mayor.

Headline of the Day -100:  

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Today -100: October 7, 1923: 20% off beer!

Gustav Stresemann has put together a new coalition, composed of the same 4 parties as the last one, and a cabinet with only the finance minister changed. No one’s happy about it. Communist deputies in the Reichstag call Stresemann “Stinne’s representative, office boy and stage scenery.” That’s industrialist Hugo Stinnes, head of the Deutsche Volkspartei (People’s Party, DVP), which is only part of the coalition because it has given up (for now) on the scheme for a dictatorship under Erich Ludendorff. Stinnes is also heavily funding the Nazis, so he personally hasn’t given up on the idea of Ludendorff dictatorship. Stresemann says martial law was necessitated solely by the Communists.

Bavarian dictator Gustav von Kahr orders the price of beer reduced by 20%. He may get around to doing the same for milk, but, you know, priorities.

Oklahoma Gov. Jack Walton has sort of reversed himself on the subject of special sessions of the Legislature, calling one for the 11th (6 days before the one called yesterday by legislators themselves to impeach him), which would have as its purpose “the enactment of a law to protect the people from masked and lawless marauders and secret organizations”. Its sole purpose. Not anything else. Definitely not impeaching him.

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Today -100: October 6, 1923: The time is not ripe yet

An Oklahoma state representative invokes the newly voted (but not certified) constitutional amendment to call a special session of the Lege for the 17th. There’s some precedent in OK for acting on initiatives before they’re certified, as in 1907 when the governor moved the capital from Guthrie to OK City on the very day of the vote on an initiative to do so.

Bavarian PM Eugen von Knilling says the only answer to the unsettled political situation in Berlin is either new elections or for the Reichstag to be dissolved and replaced by a dictator. Asked about putting Crown Prince Rupprecht on the Bavarian throne, he says “the time is not ripe yet.” He says Bavarians aren’t the separatists, the real separatists are those in Berlin who try to make Bavaria accept their Red government; Bavarians don’t like all those Marxists and Communists (Marxist is replacing Bolshevik as a term of abuse in Germany).

There’s been a kerfuffle in the art world the last few months about the legitimacy of works of art in various museums such as the Louvre. Now a Prof. John C. Van Dyke of Rutgers says there are only 35 real Rembrandts extant, including none of the “Rembrandts” in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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Today -100: October 5, 1923: Of pinchots, woods, and closed cars

Pennsylvania Gov. Gifford Pinchot (R), just finished negotiating a deal to end the coal strike and currently burnishing his Prohibitionist credentials by going to war with Philadelphia saloons, which are ignoring his order to close, may be running for president. Treasury Sec. Andrew Mellon has already been around trying to get him not to, as have other leaders of the Pennsylvania Republican Party.

Elections in the Philippines reject candidates seen as supporting Gov-Gen. Leonard Wood, but not by as large a percentage as was expected.

People increasingly prefer closed cars.

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Today -100: October 4, 1923: Stresemann does the hokey pokey

Oklahoma Gov. Jack Walton gets a temporary restraining order against the election being certified.

German Chancellor Gustav Stresemann resigns! President Friedrich Ebert asks... Gustav Stresemann... to form a new cabinet, which just seems lazy. The Social Democrats had voted to withdraw from the coalition, which was trying to abolish the 8-hour day.

German Socialists claim 100,000 monarchists participated in the attack on Küstrin’s fortresses.

The Daily Mail (London)’s Munich correspondent visits Hitler’s hq and “received a rather poor impression of the Bavarian Nationalist leader and his following.” Hitler is unsurprisingly opposed to the ending of passive resistance and says every factory and furnace in the Ruhr should have been destroyed.

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Today -100: October 3, 1923: The fight on Invisible Empire has just started in Oklahoma

With a quarter of ballots counted, the Oklahoma constitutional amendment allowing the Legislature to call itself into session is passing 4 to 1. Gov. Jack Walton issues a statement: “The fight on Invisible Empire has just started in Oklahoma. I am still Governor of the State.” Fact Check: correct. For now. In a couple of counties state police seize voting materials or prevent polling places opening, including Johnson County where voters instead vote by affidavit, mailing their ballots to the state election board.

Walton (and everyone) seem to miss the constitutional provision requiring a special election to have a 2/3 vote of the Legislature, which means this provision will be thrown out by the state Supreme Court, but not until 1930.

Russia gets a new triumvirate of Dzerzhinsky, Trotsky and Stalin (oh my!).

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Today -100: October 2, 1923: Elections a-comin’

Oklahoma Gov. Jack Walton offers a compromise, keeping his ban on elections Tuesday but holding them in 2 months. Counties are going ahead with preparations for the election anyway, ignoring Walton and his tame State Election Board and his attempt to dismiss county election boards defying him. A state district court enjoins Walton from interfering with elections officials and with the elections. The only direct interference by the governor’s forces today is an attempt by special police to prevent the distribution of ballot boxes in Tulsa; they are thrown out of the court house by 200 special deputies.

800 German royalists of the “Black Reichswehr” paramilitary group attack the Küstrin Fortress in eastern Germany in some sort of half-assed attempt at a putsch begun out of anger at the end of passive resistance in the Ruhr (and maybe to let Black Reichswehr chief Bruno Buchrucker escape an arrest warrant out for him). The Küstrin Putsch is a pathetic affair which does not last long. The government somehow blames Communists as well as monarchists.

Frederick Stock, director of the Chicago Symphony, returns from visiting Europe, predicting another European war because new European music is hysterical, new dances display weird frenzy, women’s clothing is brightly colored and sexalicious, which all shows that Europeans are fidgety, restless and frenzied. You heard it here first.

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Today -100: October 1, 1923: There may be bloodshed, but there will be no election

French PM Raymond Poincaré does not care for the tone of Germany’s proclamation ending passive resistance, he does not care for it AT ALL: “The surly proclamation of an inevitable truce is nothing; it is the execution which is everything.”

Oklahoma Gov. Jack Walton orders the indefinite postponement of tomorrow’s election, which he does not have the authority to do. He says there wasn’t 5-day’s notice of the inclusion on the ballot of the constitutional amendment allowing the Legislature to call itself into session, but that’s not actually a requirement and the OK Supreme Court said last Friday that the election is legal. To prevent the vote – “There may be bloodshed, but there will be no election” – Walton orders the mobilization of the National Guard plus 75,000 volunteers plus 22,000 secret service, which seems like a lot of secret service for a state with a little over 2 million people. Walton says he has been very patient but “one more crack and I am going to put this state under martial law that will be martial law. I will make them go to bed at 6 o’clock”.

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Today -100: September 30, 1923: If the Nazis complain about being cancelled, I may fwow up

Otto Gessler, who German Pres. Ebert put in charge of martial law, suppresses the Nazi newspaper Völkischer Beobachter, which is owned by Hitler personally, until further notice, after it quotes Bavarian dictator Gustav von Kahr saying that he would allow the proclamation of a Bavarian monarchy soon (Prince Rupprecht has been very visible in Munich lately, reviewing parades of veterans and the like). Von Kahr refuses to confirm or deny the quote. The federal government first tried to get von Kahr to suppress the paper, but he refused.

An ad for Ben Hecht’s book The Florentine Dagger calls it “A mystery story that does not insult the intelligence.”

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Today -100: September 29, 1923: Of ballots, facists, and little boys at Columbia

The Oklahoma Supreme Court hears arguments about whether a ballot initiative can be tacked onto next Tuesday’s election alongside the less exciting constitutional amendments already on the ballot. This one would give the Legislature permission to call itself into session without being called by the governor, in order to investigate officials  (i.e., impeach Gov. Walton) but not pass legislation.

Bulgaria crushes the Communist uprising, or whatever it was.

The NYT finally, I mean FINALLY, gets caught by the common student spelling error:

Headline of the Day -100:  

In case you were wondering what the correct clothes for little boys were.

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Today -100: September 28, 1923: Of Oklahoma coups and Hitler coups, reparations, refugees, and ethnic cleansing in North Carolina

67 members of the Oklahoma House of Reps apply for an injunction against the National Guard preventing it meeting.

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Pfew. Bavaria’s Minister President Eugen von Knilling assures German PM Gustav Stresemann that the declaration of martial law & the appointment of Gustav von Kahr as dictator of Bavaria didn’t mean any rejection of the federal state. Von Kahr bans all 14 scheduled Nazi beer hall meetings in Munich.

Brilliant Prediction of the Day -100:  

With von Kahr’s dictatorship, “Any prospect of Hitler playing a leading part in Bavarian politics appears to have vanished”.

Italy gives Corfu back to Greece after the Council of Ambassadors (over Britain’s objections) awards it that 50 million lire from Greece (the exact sum Italy demanded) for no very good reason. I don’t believe the Council has any intention of forcing Italy to pay reparations to Greece for those refugee children it slaughtered.

Romania is pushing Jewish refugees from Russia and the Ukraine over the Dneister into Russia.

A white mob in Spruce Pine, North Carolina rounds up all the black men working on a road construction project and deports them after some black guy attacks an old white woman. 

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Today -100: September 27, 1923: For millions of Germans the idea of individual liberty no longer exists

Germany formally and bitterly proclaims the end of passive resistance: “the Ruhr and Rhineland have endured most grievous oppression. ... For millions of Germans the idea of individual liberty no longer exists.”

Slightly undercutting the “individual liberty” message, Pres. Friedrich Ebert declares martial law and suspends some provisions of the Constitution, including freedom of press and assembly.

Bavaria also declares a state of emergency ahead of a planned “general review” of Nazis on Friday. Former Bavarian PM Gustav von Kahr is appointed “general commissioner of state” with power to declare martial law if needed. In the meantime, Kahr suspends freedom of speech, press, assembly, mail secrecy, habeas corpus, etc etc etc. Hitler, perhaps pissed that someone got to be dictator before him, “orders” Nazi members of non-Nazi paramilitary groups to quit them and join Nazi stormtroop groups.

Oklahoma Gov. J.C. Walton’s troops disperse legislators attempting to hold their special session of the Legislature.

Walton extends super-duper martial law to another county, but won’t say which one.

Charlie Chaplin says in future he will switch from slapstick to whimsical humor.

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Today -100: September 26, 1923: Of national guards, putsches, and flapjacks

Oklahoma Gov. J.C. Walton says 35,000 Oklahoovians have answered his call to join the National Guard to prevent the Legislature from meeting. Which seems like over-kill until you realize the Legislature has 50,000 members, probably.

A putsch is supposedly scheduled for Sunday in the Rhine which will establish an independent state, with, naturally, a dictator.

More news about the Prince of Wales’s eating habits on his visit to Canada: flapjacks, he likes flapjacks.

Charlie Chaplin’s A Woman of Paris starring Edna Purviance premieres in Hollywood. It’s a drama. My review: Go back to comedy, funny man.

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Today -100: September 25, 1923: Of shooting to kill and passive resistance

Oklahoma Gov. J.C. Walton orders the adjutant general in charge of the National Guard to “use all force of arms necessary” to keep the Legislature from meeting Wednesday. “The troops will be ordered to shoot to kill,” he tells reporters. He also orders all Oklahoovian men aged 21 to 45 to grab their firearms and hold themselves ready to follow the governor’s orders. 

German Chancellor Gustav Stresemann abandons passive resistance in the Ruhr following a conference of reps from the Ruhr & Rhineland. He tells them, “In the course of battle it sometimes becomes necessary to surrender or evacuate a fortress because it requires too many men, too much food and too much ammunition.” 8 quadrillion paper marks a week, he tells them is the cost of funding the resistance, which is the equivalent of some money. The reps agree to the capitulation but don’t want to put it into writing, because the French would just fucking love that, wouldn’t they?

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Today -100: September 24, 1923: The peasants are revolting!

Oklahoma Gov. J.C. Walton’s anti-Klan efforts, presumably the military part of them, are bankrupting the state. He is using “deficiency warrants,” whatever those are, which banks are being warned may not be covered.

100,000 peasants march on Sofia to overthrow the Bulgarian government. That’s a lot of peasants.

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Today -100: September 23, 1923: Of aggregations of dragons, zeps, initiations, and horse-snogging

Oklahoma Gov. J.C. Walton threatens to close the state fair and put Oklahoma County under super-duper martial law unless state legislators – “the lawless element” – “that aggregation of dragons” – give up their plan to hold an extraordinary session. “The only thing that surprises me is that they have not convened their Legislature at night in the whipping pasture, where, in full regalia of masks and robes, in the presence of dragons, cyclops, goblins and wizards, they could impeache [sic] me in the sanctity of nature’s temple that has so often resounded with the cries of agony of tortured victims.”

Bulgaria declares martial law to fight Red Revolution. 

The Navy’s ZR-1 zeppelin drops a wreath on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

A Klan claim to have held an initiation ceremony in the White House dining room is denied.

Headline of the Day -100:  

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Today -100: September 22, 1923: Of governors and unlawful Klan assemblies

Pres. Coolidge will call the governors together next month to talk Prohibition enforcement, among other things. Sounds like a party.

Oklahoma Gov. J.C. Walton says the meeting of the lower house of the Legislature called by 75 members would be an “unlawful Klan assembly.” He says 68 members of the House are kluxers.

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Today -100: September 21, 1923: Of corn on the cob, the true Prussian faith, ethnic cleansing, and very special sessions

Visiting Canada (a hastily scheduled trip so he would be out of the country while his former mistress was being tried for murdering her husband), the Prince of Wales eats corn on the cob for the first time in his life. His reaction is unrecorded.

Marshal Paul von Hindenburg calls on Bavaria not to secede but to “preserve the true Prussian faith.” Has no one told him that Bavarians are not Prussians?

Mayor Joseph Cauffiel of Johnstown, Pennsylvania  orders all Mexicans and negroes who have lived in the town less than 7 years to leave the town after one drunk black guy kills 3 cops. Gov. Gifford Pinchot vaguely promises Mexico to intervene after it complained (if he also promises black people anything, it is not mentioned). The mayor now denies that it was a formal order, although it sure as shit sounds like one.

69 members of the Oklahoma Legislature (so far) sign a call to convene the House, whether Gov. J.C. Walton (or Speaker of the House Murray Gibbons) likes it or not. So the Lege will probably depose Gibbons before moving on to impeach Walton. Among the 25 charges: he opposes the death penalty, abused his pardon & parole powers, appointed convicts as peace officers, directed certain classes to shoot & kill others, promising them immediate pardons, imposed martial law without cause, is establishing a dictatorship, etc.

Walton says if necessary he will “arm every man in this state who is opposed to the Invisible Empire.”

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Today -100: September 20, 1923: You ain’t seen nothing yet?

Al Jolson is suggested as a Republican candidate for town constable in Scarsdale. Why?

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I wonder what apologetic cannon fire sounds like.

The Irish Dáil re-elects William Cosgrave as president of the Executive Council.

Alabama restores whipping in its prisons.

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Today -100: September 19, 1923: Of strikes, whipples, lynchings, fairs, and temporary dictatorships

Thanks to the International Pressmen’s Union strike, today’s issue is a combined edition of 10 NY morning newspapers, and it’s 8 pages long. This will go on for some time, which certainly makes my job easier. The strike was called by the local union, but its parent union calls the strike illegal.

After the Japanese earthquake, the Japanese Navy ordered US destroyers arriving with medical supplies not to dock. The destroyer, um, USS Whipple ignored the order and docked anyway. It removed foreign refugees made homeless by the quake and subsequently evicted from the Imperial Hotel, which the Japanese military wanted as an hq.

A 20-year-old black man is lynched in Hattiesberg, Mississippi.

Oklahoma Gov. J.C. Walton unbans the state fair.

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Phew.

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Today -100: September 18, 1923: The need for speed

New aeroplane speed record: 259 mph, US Navy Lt. Lawson Sanderon in a Wright plane.

Big fire in Berkeley. A change in the wind prevents the University of California burning down, although half the professors lose their homes.

Gen. Primo Rivero Phoenix asks everyone to give him 90 days (of dictatorship) to fix all of Spain’s problems.

Italy names an Italian general as governor (pardon, “Civil Governor of Fiume for the Economic Organization of the City”) of Fiume, which is supposed to be a free state, not part of Italy. Italy claims this does not amount to annexation. Italy is still negotiating with Yugoslavia over the status of Fiume, which the Yugs may give up in exchange for other territory.

The Ku Klux Klan holds an initiation ceremony in the Georgia State House.

By the way, these stories come from a ghost edition of the NYT that was not distributed due to a strike. A few copies of the Sept. 18th issue were printed, “for the record,” a couple of weeks later.

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Today -100: September 17, 1923: Of martial law and coups

Oklahoma City is occupied by the National Guard, who set up machine guns around City Hall, the police station and courthouse. Meetings opposing martial law are banned. The grand jury investigating Gov. Walton is ordered not to meet.

Yugoslavia threatens Bulgaria with war. It claims Bulgaria plans to try to seize Macedonia.

Gen. Primo “Take Me to the Rivera” says that before he started his coup, he informed the Spanish ambassadors in London, Paris and Rome, relying on them not to give warning about his forthcoming treason and to destroy the proclamation if the coup failed. And they didn’t give warning. Anyway, Primo has fired all the governors, dissolved the Cortes, locked up “Reds,” you know, dictator shit.

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Today -100: September 16, 1923: Neither Klan nor king

Gov. Jack Walton puts the entire state of Oklahoma under martial law to fight the Klan, plus super-extra martial law in Oklahoma County and Creek County. He threatens to arrest members of the Legislature if they attempt to call a special session to impeach him. The Tulsa police chief and sheriff refuse Walton’s demand that they resign, as does Grand Cyclops Sampson – “If it means my death, so be it.” It seems odd to me that Walton considers the state’s cops and judges to be untrustworthy and Klan-ridden (with good reason), but has no trouble trusting the National Guard. And indeed there seems to be no sign of discontent or disobedience in the Guard.

An Oklahoma City newspaper which the NYT shamefully fails to name (the Daily Oklahoman, probably) says “The creed of the Klan is the creed of the mob. The creed of Walton is the creed of a dictator... The people of Oklahoma are law abiding. They want neither Klan nor king.”

Russia sends a relief ship to Japan with 69 medical personnel and medical supplies, but when it arrives in Yokohama the authorities discover that they will help only laborers (and may have come with a bunch of propaganda lit as well as bandages) and turn them away.

An Old Bailey jury acquits Frenchwoman Marguerite Alibert of fatally shooting her husband, the Egyptian “prince” (actually a couple of ranks below that) Ali Kamel Fahmy, in the Savoy Hotel in July. Her lawyer attacked the prince using the most racist tropes he could find, calling him a vicious brute (“monster of Eastern depravity and decadence” etc) who subjected her to anal intercourse. He also claims she thought the gun was no longer loaded after she fired a warning shot into the ceiling. There have also been suggestions that SOMEONE put their thumb on the scales of justice, given that Marguerite was a high-class prostitute back in the day, and the Prince of Wales (the future King Edward VIII) fell in love with her whilst on leave in Paris during the Great War and... wrote her letters. Which she kept... Certainly the prosecution went light on her: her past profession was never mentioned, some witnesses weren’t called, forensic evidence wasn’t entered. An Egyptian court will consider her guilty and refuse to give her her husband’s estate. Obviously Prince Eddie learned from his mistake and never got into trouble over a woman again. Marie died at 80 in Paris in 1971. She did not marry again. There’s a book about all this, Andrew Rose’s The Prince, the Princess and the Perfect Murder (2014),  which I have not read. And there’s a recent BBC Radio 4 program about all this, still available worldwide as of this writing. It’s a bit florid, and doesn’t mention the prince.

German Chancellor Gustav Stresemann is asked how he’ll respond to the various revolution movements: “We will shoot first.”

Gen. Amazon Primo Rivera is sworn in as prime minister of Spain. The deposed justice minister is supposed to administer the oath, but he claims to be indisposed, so he’s dragged to the palace. Which seems an appropriate start for a dictatorship.

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Today -100: September 15, 1923: Salutary severity

Gen. Primo Rivera says King Alfonso XIII accepts his junta (“directorate”) and the imposition of martial law. Earlier in the day, the Cabinet met the king, who had been out of Madrid when the coup began, and told him that military officers participating in the coup should be suspended. Alf refuses, citing insufficient information. Prime Minister Prieto, the Marquis of Alhucemas, resigns on behalf of his cabinet. King Alf sends for Prime Rib (if I am translating correctly) to make him PM. Prime issues a manifesto saying there will be no military dictatorship. “Peace is our motto, but peace founded on dignity abroad and salutary severity at home.” He’s threatening to put Foreign Minister Santiago Alba on trial. Alba has fled the country.

Pres. Coolidge accepts Attorney Gen. Harry Daugherty’s ruling that the Navy can’t be used to enforce Prohibition, and he won’t ask for legislation to change that.

Coolidge says he won’t give any speeches – at all – until Congress re-convenes in December.

A military censor is placed in the Tulsa Tribune offices to prevent publication of anything negative about Gov. Walton or martial law (he’ll be removed again after a day).

Walton threatens to put Muskogee under martial law unless W. R. Sampson resigns as Grand Cyclops of the Klan, which seems a very odd thing for a governor to ask. Oklahoma City is next for martial law, Walton says.

W.C. Fields, breaking away from Ziegfield, is performing in the musical comedy Poppy as Prof. Eustace McGargle, with Madge Kennedy, who has top billing. He filmed it in 1936 and all I can remember of it is Fields’s enunciation of “Eustace McGargle.”

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Today -100: September 14, 1923: Of coups, crimes against the nation, and passive resistance

Italy agrees, under British pressure, to end its occupation of Corfu by the end of the month.

There’s a military coup underway in Spain, starting in Barcelona, led by Gen. Miguel Primo Rivera. King Alfonso XIII’s position on all this is unclear at present. Gen. Prime Riverfront Property (if I am translating correctly) says he is not imitating Mussolini but Gen. Juan Prim, who deposed Queen Isabella II in 1868 and was assassinated 2 years later. Odd role model.

Amidst continuing violence in Dresden & other parts of Germany, including “potato raids” by the hungry, it’s reported that Field Marshal Ludendorff was persuaded by the moderating force that is Adolf Hitler not to start a putsch against Berlin. Although elsewhere Hitler says anyone who pays taxes to the Weimar Republic “commits a crime against the nation.”

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Today -100: September 13, 1923: Nobody can doubt Italy’s faith

Mussolini says he’ll only end the occupation of Corfu when Greece has fulfilled the conditions to the letter: “That is quite the correct procedure. Nobody can doubt Italy’s faith.”

The Spanish Army threatens the government with a coup unless it orders a major offensive in Spanish Morocco. They’re also not too thrilled with recent activity by Catalan separatists.

Oklahoma Gov. J.C. Walton demands the resignations of the jury commission in Tulsa County and the firing of the sheriff and police chief before he ends martial law. In Tulsa, he tells a group of businessmen, “We have reached the point where the issue is the survival of invisible government or the permanency of our own visible government. I am going to clean that situation up if I have to stand out alone and let them shoot at me.” 

Greece demands that Albania arrest the assassins of Gen. Tellini et al, who were definitely Albanian. Albania says the assassins were actually Greeks, and if you can’t manage to capture them, we’ll happily cross into Greece to do it for you.

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Today -100: September 12, 1923: Of maneuvering, freeing the slaves, the revolutionary unemployed, zeppelins, and walking Lenins

Mussolini sends troops to the Yugoslav border, ostensibly for maneuvers, really to put pressure on the Yugs over Fiume (Poet-Aviator Gabriele d’Annunzio, who did so much in the past to stir up the Fiume issue, is busy these days writing an opera).

Italy says the native staff of its legation in Ethiopia should henceforth consider their slaves as servants. Doesn’t say whether the servants are free to go.

Dresden police shoot up a crowd of “revolutionary unemployed,” killing 5.

The Navy’s new ZR-1 zeppelin flies over New York City, like no one remembers that two years ago the ZR-2 exploded over Hull and only failed to kill lots more people than it did because the pilot flew it into the Humber River.

Russia denies that War Minister Leon Trotsky has been assassinated.

And says Lenin has recovered enough from his stroke that he can walk.

Syndicalists try to assassinate Portuguese Prime Minister António Maria da Silva.

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