Today -100: February 24, 1924: Of resignations, assassination attempts, jubalands, naughty dances, and poles

Sen. William Borah (R-Idaho) tells the Senate that the resignation of Attorney General Harry Daugherty is necessary for the good of the country and of the Republican party. If Coolidge doesn’t act, he says, impeaching of the attorney general will be the only course. During the Senate discussion, no R. defended Dirty Harry.

Albanian Prime Minister Ahmet Zogu (the future King Zog) is shot twice by an anarchist student in the Assembly building, but not seriously.

Mussolini writes to the British Foreign Office demanding Britain hand over Jubaland (currently part of British Kenya). Jubaland was one of the bribes offered to Italy in 1915 to get it to join the Great War on the Allies’ side.

Interior Secretary Hubert Work responds to a petition from the San Ildefenso Pueblo of the Tawa tribe of New Mexico asking the government not to interfere with their ceremonial dances. Work says that “those who are the guardians of the Indians” don’t wish to ban dances “which are not degrading” or go against the law of nature or moral laws.

The Navy gives up on its plans to send a dirigible over the North Pole.

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Today -100: February 23, 1924: Of invasions, fanatics, and reichstags

The Yugoslav ambassador to France claims that Bulgaria is plotting an attack on eastern Serbia.

Indian troops shoot dead 14 Sikh “fanatics” in Nabba State.

German Chancellor Wilhelm Marx threatens the Reichstag: if it attempts to annul any martial-law decree, he will dissolve it.

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Today -100: February 22, 1924: Of compensation and oil

The Mixed Commission’s umpire in the cases arising from the 1915 sinking of the Lusitania awards $1 million to Americans, although human lives are only valued in pecuniary terms, so if a survivor was not financially dependent on a victim, they get nothing.

Sen. Burton Wheeler (D-Montana) accuses Attorney Gen. Harry Daugherty of having bought Sinclair oil stock. Dirty Harry is defiantly refusing to resign and claims the charges against him are just politics.

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Today -100: February 21, 1924: Of coxes, patriotic tragedy, and competing relics

James Cox, the Democrat candidate for president in 1920, announces that he’s running again.

The (German) National Association of Ex-Officers declares next week’s trial of Gen. Erich Ludendorff a “patriotic tragedy.”

Yesterday I told of the sale by auction of the coat Abraham Lincoln was supposedly shot in. It seems the Chicago Historical Society has, um, another coat Lincoln was shot in, owned by a different former White House doorkeeper, that they’ve been displaying for years.

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Today -100: February 20, 1924: A bigger fool than the people of the United States give him credit for being

A White House spokesmodel, annoyingly unnamed, says the American people can rest assured that most government work is done without wrongdoing, and they should just ignore all the rumors.

The clothes worn by Abraham Lincoln when he was assassinated sell at auction for $6,500. Mary Todd Lincoln had given them to a White House doorkeeper.

Sen. Burton Wheeler (D-Montana) denounces Attorney Gen. Harry Daugherty for protecting criminals, selling public offices, and says he may well have known about Teapot Dome. “If the attorney general has not actually got the money that has been collected in these various cases from one end of the country to the other, he is a bigger fool than the people of the United States give him credit for being.” Wheeler offers a resolution for an investigation of the AG. Since he wants a “real investigation,” he takes the unusual step of naming the senators he wants on the investigating committee, including, of course, himself.

The National Republican, the RNC organ, engaging in both-sidesism, says Democrats are trying to shield other Democrats who might be “smeared with petroleum.”

Louisiana Lt. Gov Hewitt Bouanchaud, who has been running for governor as an anti-Klan candidate, is given a big Fuqua You, as he is defeated by Henry Fuqua in the Democratic primary.

William Gibbs McAdoo would prefer not to do a grueling presidential campaign tour, so he’s applied for a permit to put up a radio broadcasting plant at his Los Angeles home capable of reaching the entire country.

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Today -100: February 19, 1924: Back to Honesty

Navy Secretary Edwin Denby resigns, effective next month, then issues a statement that the Teapot Dome etc leases were legal and in the best interests of the government. Coolidge accepts his resignation, telling him “You will go with the knowledge that your honesty and integrity have not been impugned.” Assistant Navy Sec. Teddy Roosevelt Jr. wasn’t told about this in advance. He goes to the White House to ask if Coolidge wants him to resign too. No. But he won’t be promoted to Secretary. And we hear he won’t be running for governor of NY.

William Gibbs McAdoo’s supporters tell him his connection with oil tycoon Edward Doheny, unrelated to Teapot Dome, isn’t enough to harm his shot at the presidency, so he announces that he will continue his campaign. He says he’ll drive corruption out of Washington; the supporters suggest the slogan “Back to Honesty.”

NY Gov. Alfred E. Smith, asked if he’s a candidate for president, says “I am a candidate for nothing.”

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The 2 senators from Louisiana (Democrats) objected to Cohen as “personally obnoxious” to them. Cohen was originally nominated by Harding but was blocked, then re-nominated by Coolidge.

Gustav von Kahr quits as dictator of Bavaria, along with Gen. Otto von Lossow, who was illegally named by Kahr as commander-in-chief of the Reichswehr in Bavaria back in October. Kahr says he’s resigning because he was totally undercut by the Interior Ministry allowing demonstrations, although his forthcoming appearance as a witness at the Beer Hall Putsch trial may also have something to do with it. Lossow’s resignation may be a response to the deal between Bavarian PM von Knilling & federal Chancellor Marx requiring members of the Reichswehr in Bavaria to redo the old oath to Germany instead of the oath he introduced in October to Kahr & himself.

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Today -100: February 18, 1924: Of dry cases, fanatics, and Jewish problems

In the first 4 years of Prohibition, 115,000 criminal cases have been prosecuted at the federal level. 80% resulted in convictions. This is putting a strain on federal courts.

Rebels in the Philippines are fighting (i.e., being massacred), and this must be the 6th time they’ve been referred to in NYT headlines as “fanatics.”

Russia is considering establishing a Jewish autonomous state on the Crimean peninsula. This would solve the “Jewish problem,” a phrase used a couple of times in this short article but never defined.

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Today -100: February 17, 1924: Funny how you never see heterodyne and super-heterodyne in the same place

Headline of the Day -100:  

The Organization of Teachers of Colored Children of New Jersey complains that black teachers are paid $100 to $200 less per year than white ones in several NJ counties (no, it doesn’t say less than what figure).

Japan claims to have stopped a Russian-backed Communist plot to take over the government last June.

The American Engineering Standards Committee is trying to standardize the colors of traffic signs and signals. In Chicago, for instance, green means stop.

A bill is introduced in the NY Legislature to require licenses for people flying airplanes. Stunt flights over populated areas or too close to the ground would be banned, as would hunting from planes. Planes approaching each other would pass on the right, and lighter-than-air aircraft would have right of way over heavier-than-air ones. Marriages (and other contracts) entered into in aircraft would be legal, subject to the laws of the land underneath.

Headline of the Day -100:  

Bitten by a radioactive heterodyne?

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Today -100: February 16, 1924: Of shoot-outs, dirigibles, and radio wars

A prohibition agent gets in a shoot-out with bootleggers on Capitol Hill and accidentally shoots US Senator Frank Greene in the forehead.  Oops. The wound will leave Greene partially paralyzed.

Coolidge suspends plans to send a dirigible over the North Pole until Congress gives permission. Some congresscritters have been criticizing the expensive expedition.

Whenever “Deutschland Über Alles” is played on German radio stations, there’s mysterious interference coming from the direction of France.

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Today -100: February 15, 1924: Japanese then would come into possession of all our land

The Paris Excelsior claimed that France was making a deal to give the French West Indies (Guadeloupe, Martinique, etc) to the US in exchange for writing off the French war debt. The US would then pay the amount of the French debt to Britain to buy Jamaica off it. The British Foreign Office denies this.

Rep. John Raker (D-Cal.) rejects Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes’ call for the Japanese to be treated the same as other nationalities in the immigration bill, that is, being limited to 2% (or 3%, it’s still being worked out) of those in the US in 1890, rather than being banned outright. 2% would mean 246 Japanese immigrants per year, but evidently that’s too many. Raker warns it would be a slippery slope towards abrogating the Western states’ racist land laws: “Japanese then would come into possession of all our land.” The Immigration Committee’s minority report notes that Germans would be the most favorably treated using the 1890 census and the US’s allies during the Great War less favorably treated.

German dictator Gen. Hans von Seeckt gives permission to President Ebert to lift martial law at the end of the month.

Sen. Thomas Heflin (D-Alabama) says he is not a Ku Klux Klan member.

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Today -100: February 14, 1924: Of precipitate diplomatic relations

The latest Teapot Dome rumor is that oil tycoon Edward Doheny tried to hire Woodrow Wilson’s law partner but failed because the firm was dissolved.

The US no longer recognizes the Honduran government, which now has 3 people claiming to be president, none of them legitimately under the constitution.

Britain’s new Labour government ends the crusade against the Poplar (East London) local government paying more in unemployment benefits than the Tory national government thought it should.

In Parliament, Stanley Baldwin criticizes the “precipitate” establishment of diplomatic relations with Soviet Russia, a mere 6 years after the October Revolution.

And, hey, the NYT finally spells Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald’s name correctly.

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Today -100: February 13, 1924: Keep cool

The Senate Teapot Dome committee hears that the Albuquerque Journal was bought in 1922 to shut it up about Teapot Dome.

I believe I’m seeing the first appearance of the 1924 campaign slogan “Keep Cool and Keep Coolidge.” I mean, it’s no Make America Great Again, but...

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Today -100: February 12, 1924: Of exclusive executive functions, martial law, and sausages

The Senate votes 47-34 to ask Coolidge to fire Navy Sec. Edwin Denby. The yes votes includes 10 R’s, the no vote 1 D.

Coolidge responds, telling Congress to jump in a lake: “The dismissal of an officer of the Government... other than by impeachment, is exclusively an executive function. I regard this as a vital principle of our Government.”  He might do something when the special counsel reports but, he says, he won’t sacrifice any innocent man for his own welfare, or retain any unfit man for his own welfare.

The Illinois National Guard are coming to Williamson County with machine guns and everything. Glenn Young, the KKK-paid dry raider, resigns as police chief of Herrin after a day. The coroner’s inquest in the case of Constable Cagle is delayed by Young arresting the jury foreman.

Former Italian PM Vittorio Orlando will run as a Fascist after all.

A German critic complains about the habit of eating sausages at the opera. Almost as bad as Americans with their chewing gum, he says.

George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue premieres at New York’s Aeolian Concert Hall. No doubt with many in the audience chewing gum.

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Today -100: February 11, 1924: All for a purpose

Attorney Gen. Harry Daugherty writes to Rep. George Graham saying he wasn’t involved in Teapot Dome (I think that’s true; there are just too few hours in a day for him to have been involved in every corrupt action of the Harding administration). He blames attacks on himself for his action or inaction on Teapot Dome and on war-fraud cases on “innocent but used, and ignorant but ill-disposed persons [which] generally have back of them the hand of those who expect to profit by inspiring lack of confidence, procuring newspaper attacks, insinuations, abuse and falsification – all for a purpose.”  Whatever that means.

Mussolini has been trying to recruit prominent members of non-Fascist parties to run under the Fascist umbrella in the next parliamentary elections in parts of the country like the south where Fascism is weak. They’re negotiating with former prime minister Orlando now, although he and others might join as members of their parties, in effect in coalition with the Fascist Party, rather than as individuals, as The Duck would prefer.

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Today -100: February 10, 1924: Of bribes, shootouts, and court uniforms

The Senate Teapot Dome committee questions Frederick Bonfils, publisher of the Denver Post, about whether the Post’s sudden dropping of its articles on the scandal in 1922 had anything to do with being bribed by Harry Sinclair. He is amazingly unprepared with an explanation for why Sinclair paid him $250,000. The money just appeared in his bank account and he just went with it, seems to be his explanation.

The participation of the KKK in liquor raids in Williamson County, Illinois, led inevitably to a wild shootout between cops and kluxers and an anti-Klan group called the Brothers of the Flaming Circle (the London Times says Knights of the Flaming Circle), with a (Klan-friendly) constable killed. Now 11 men, including Herrin Mayor C.E. Anderson and Sheriff George Galligan, are arrested (the London Times says the mayor and police chief are arrested by the sheriff). Martial law is declared. Glenn Young, the KKK-paid dry raider, claims that he is police chief now. Unclear for now whether anybody else says that.

Incoming British Labour Party Cabinet ministers have to fork out £200, which is the equivalent of some money, for gold-laced uniforms in which to appear at Court. That they’re willing to put up with this nonsense is seen as a reassuring sign that they aren’t a serious threat to the British way of life.

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Today -100: February 9, 1924: Brace up

The Senate expands its investigations of oil deals to include Colombia and Hawaii.

Medical and scientific observers at the Nevada gas-chamber execution insist it was swift and painless, “although the condemned man’s head continued to move up and down for six minutes,” which the doctors insist was probably post-mortem. Gee Jon was crying as they strapped him in, so the captain told him, “Brace up!”

Texas introduces death by electric chair, executing five (checks notes) black men. As is the custom.

There’s been an ongoing hissy fit by the American Legion and others over the German Embassy’s failure to lower their flags to half-staff for Woodrow Wilson, which might have a little something to do with, you know, the war.

The Prince of Wales falls off a horse, as was the custom. Breaks his royal collarbone.

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Today -100: February 8, 1924: Of falling and gas

The Senate Teapot Dome committee decides not to call former Interior Sec. Albert Fall as a witness, since they don’t want to give him immunity that would affect any future prosecution.

William Gibbs McAdoo says attempts to link him with Teapot Dome are “unfair and libelous,” but he’s stopped doing legal work for Doheny anyway.

Tomorrow Nevada will perform the first execution by gas (prussic acid) in the US on Gee Jon, a Chinese man, for a tong gang slaying. 2 cats are executed in the chamber to test it. 4 guards resign.

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Today -100: February 7, 1924: Thrilled and less-thrilled crowds

Headline of the Day -100:  

Gabriellino D'Annunzio, a director and son of aviator-poet Gabriele D'Annunzio, is being hunted by the authorities, along with the Princess Galles, on a charge of manslaughter after a lion that was supposed to be pretending to eat Christians in D’Annunzio’s Quo Vadis chowed down for realsies on an extra instead. D’Annunzio did not have a valid lion license.

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Today -100: February 6, 1924: Radio Dead

Mexican federal troops capture Vera Cruz from the Huertista rebels.

Woodrow Wilson’s funeral service will be broadcast throughout the country by radio.

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Today -100: February 5, 1924: Of funerals, Labour lords, and married students

Woodrow Wilson’s funeral will not be a state funeral, because he liked to think of himself as a humble man of the people, which he wasn’t, and he asked for a private funeral. Coolidge & Taft (the only living ex-president) get to go (Taft will be too ill to attend). He’ll be buried at the Chapel of Peter & Paul in D.C., still the only president buried in Washington. Former First Lady Edith Wilson will live another 38 years. Coolidge planned to close government offices on the day of the funeral, but there’s an 1893 law banning that for former officials. (A workaround will be found, Coolidge directing that no work is required in government depts after 12:30 pm that day).

Wilson had planned to present the Democratic Convention with the gift of his declaration of the principles the party ought to follow.

Austria recognizes the Soviet Union and Italy will soon. It just took the British Labour win to open the floodgates.

The British release Gandhi from prison, less than 2 years into his 6-year sentence for sedition, on health grounds.

Three members of the Labour government are elevated to the House of Lords, the first Labourites to be so.... honored? This is down to a law that there has to be at least one Cabinet member and one under-secretary in the Lords. They are Sydney Olivier, Secretary of State for India, Brig. Gen. C.B. Thomson, Secretary of State for Air, and Sydney Arnold, colonial under-sec.

Less than a month after returning to Greece to save it from civil war, Eleftherios Venizelos resigns as prime minister, along with his Cabinet, because he’s too sick to continue.

Outgoing Honduran president López Gutiérrez has decided not to go out (his term expired last week but Congress deadlocked in choosing a successor) and to name himself dictator, as is the custom. Gen. Tuburcio Carias rebels and names himself president, as is the custom. The US has informed Gutiérrez that it won’t accept his continuing in office.

Syracuse University expels a sophomore, Herbert Porter, for breaking the rule against students marrying.

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Today -100: February 4, 1924: He kept us out of war until he didn’t

Thomas Woodrow Wilson is dead. The 28th president of the United States was 67.

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Today -100: February 3, 1924: Of dying presidents and new prime ministers, non-testimony, duels, and cabbies v. goats

Woodrow Wilson is still dying.

Alexei Rykov is named Prime Minister of Russia and of the Soviet Union, replacing Lenin.

Russia arrests an American (?) who took film footage of Lenin’s funeral, which foreigners were banned from doing.

Former Interior Secretary Albert Fall takes the Fifth before the Senate Teapot Dome committee. He also claims there were various irregularities in the setting up of the committee that make it null and void.

The Navy’s chief engineer, Rear Admiral Robison, defends the Navy’s contract with Doheny to construct fuel tanks at Pearl Harbor, saying Japan might try to invade the Pacific Coast, possibly acting in concert with Britain (less of a worry now that the British-Japanese naval alliance has expired).

Hungarian Prime Minister István Bethlen will fight a duel with Dep. Stephan Rakovsky over statements the latter made in the National Assembly. We’re not informed what those statements are.

In other dueling news, in Italy Prince Mario Colonna and the editor of the Tribuna fight quite a bloody one over an article attacking an organization of economic theorists headed by the prince.

Paris cab-drivers are complaining about the herds of goats that roam the city in summer, supplying milk to children.

Ernst Lubitsch’s film The Marriage Circle premieres. Lots of amusing little touches. Adolphe Menjou shaves.

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Today -100: February 2, 1924: I am ready

Woodrow Wilson is dying.

He says, “I am ready. I am a broken piece of machinery.”

Britain recognizes the Soviet Union, without conditions.

Since the US plans to send a dirigible to the Arctic to claim any previously undiscovered land for the US, Canada will send a steamer to claim it for Canada.

William Gibbs McAdoo would really prefer not to be dragged into the whole Teapot Dome thing – his law firm was employed by Edward Doheny in his dealings with Mexico but not with anything Teapot-adjacent.

The NYT says of the Teapot Dome hearings, “The Republicans seem to be possessed with a panic fear, the Democrats intoxicated with partisan zeal.” Everyone should just slow down, the editorial suggests.

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Today -100: February 1, 1924: Cancel culture

The Senate passes, 90-0, the resolution calling on Coolidge to cancel the Teapot Dome & Elk Hills oil leases.

A fight breaks out in the Japanese Diet over an attempt to derail a train carrying 3 opposition leaders. The prime minister threatens to call new elections.

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Today -100: January 31, 1924: Indisposed

Headline of the Day -100:  

Speaking of indisposed, the Senate Teapot Dome committee appoints 3 doctors to see if former Interior Sec. Albert Fall really is too sick to testify (his own doctors testified today, behind closed doors).

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Today -100: January 30, 1924: No colonies, no remedies

Eleftherios Venizelos has another heart attack while debating opposition leader Alexandros Papanastasiou in the Greek National Assembly about unbanning royalist newspapers.

Navy Sec Edwin Denby says he won’t resign, even if the Robinson resolution calling for him to do so passes. He defends the legality of the Teapot Dome leases.

Responding to resolutions in the Senate calling for his removal from office, Attorney Gen. Harry Daugherty says “I am not worried about the situation in Washington.” He says he doesn’t feel a need to respond to the attacks against him, and that’s why he’s in Florida instead of Washington. Sure it is.

Pres. Coolidge regrets that Americans are so pessimistic.

A German professor has supposedly found a cure for African sleeping sickness. The German Colonial Society wants to leverage that to demand the return of its pre-war colonies. “No colonies, no remedies,” says the head of the Bremen branch, Edouard Achelis.

Is this the most cynical approach to sleeping sickness? Well, the real cure these days is Eflornithine. The pharmaceutical company that owns the patent stopped manufacturing it in the mid-1990s because the disease affected poor sub-Saharan Africans and was therefore not very profitable. Fortunately, after a few years they resumed production when they discovered that Eflornithine also treats unwanted facial hair in rich white women, and that’s a population Big Pharma knows how to market to.

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Today -100: January 29, 1924: Of special counsels, noisy but negligible minorities, and have you driven a Ford lately, comrade?

The Senate passes a resolution calling on Coolidge to fire Navy Sec. Edwin Denby and any other Navy personnel who did bad shit in the Teapot Dome & Elk Hills leases. (I just had to correct a typo “Teapot Dom.” “Teapot Dom & Elk Hills” sounds like a middling porno. Just saying.)

The House gives Coolidge up to $100,000 for the special counsel he was forced to promise to appoint to look into Teapot Dome / Elk Hills. Dems complain that Coolidge claimed there were D’s as well as R’s involved in the scandal. Many of the attacks in the debate focus on Attorney Gen. Harry Daugherty. House minority (D) leader Finis Garrett notes that Coolidge’s decision to appoint a special counsel, “admit[s] before the world that he cannot risk his own attorney general to protect the interest of the government, and at the same time that attorney general remains in the Cabinet.” Assistant Secretary of the Navy Teddy Roosevelt Jr. is also being called on to resign by congresscritters of both parties.

The NYT reports, from unnamed sources, that Teapot Dome has not proved profitable for Harry Sinclair’s Mammoth Oil and he might be willing to give up the lease if he was compensated for his investment so far (he expected to make $100 million).

Mussolini rejects the idea of an alliance during the next parliamentary election with any other parties, which he calls “a noisy but negligible minority.”

Mayor Daniel Hart of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, not only says he supports the American Legion for breaking up a Communist meeting yesterday, but in future the city will only license meetings approved by the Legion.

Ford has a deal to export automobiles to Russia, probably ones manufactured in its Danish branch.

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Today -100: January 28, 1924: Of cold funerals, reeds, and Fiume

Walter Duranty of the NYT reports that Lenin’s funeral is really cold, so cold, did I mention how cold it was?

Sen. James Reed of Missouri announces his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for president.

American Legion members break up a Communist meeting in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania in honor of Lenin. They force Communists to salute the flag. On their way to the meeting they ran across Mayor Daniel Hart, who said he’d send the cops to assist them.

Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini and Yugoslav Prime Minister Nikola Pašić sign the treaty annexing Fiume to Italy. And there’s a mutual defense provision.

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Today -100: January 27, 1924: Shall the United States have corrupt government or clean government?

Pres. Coolidge issues a statement saying he has the Justice Dept observing the Senate Teapot Dome inquiry, and will prosecute anyone who needs prosecutin’ and cancel any contracts “illegally transferred or leased.”

Cordell Hull, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, says the Teapot Dome scandal is “the greatest political scandal of this or any other generation.” He says the 1924 election will be partly fought on the issue should the US have corrupt government or clean government. He points out that when Coolidge was VP he sat in the Cabinet (the first to do so) when the oil leases were discussed, and never said a word about Teapot Dome or any of the other Harding Administration scandals until yesterday, when he said he was reluctant to believe anyone involved had criminal intent.

Japan’s Prince Regent Hirohito gets married. Mrs Prince Regent and him inform the imperial spirits that they are doing so. 122 imperial spirits, evidently.

Headline of the Day -100:  

The 1919 treaty disarmed Bulgaria, so they are unable to fight the wolves, who were not disarmed by the treaty.

The US Bureau of Biological Survey reports that wolves are being hunted to extermination in the West. Also prairie dogs. It’s bragging about this.

Former president Balthazar Brum of Uruguay fights a duel with current Minister of War Rivera over the latter’s intention to introduce conscription. Neither is hit.

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Today -100: January 26, 1924: Of loans (or “loans”)

Harry Sinclair’s personal attorney tells the Senate Teapot Dome hearings that last year Sinclair loaned (or “loaned”) $25,000 in Liberty bonds to then-interior secretary Albert Fall to buy some ranches in New Mexico. That’s in addition to the $100,000 loan (or “loan”) we already knew about. Rep. John Morehead (D-Neb.) introduces a resolution for the cancellation of the Teapot Dome lease on the ground that it was corruptly obtained. Which it was.

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Today -100: January 25, 1924: Poodles defended

Oil tycoon Edward Doheny admits to the Senate Teapot Dome inquiry that he loaned $100,000 to Interior Secretary Albert Fall in 1921, shortly before Fall granted him the lease on the Navy’s oil reserves in California. He says it was just a coincidence and Fall was an old friend. The money was of course delivered in cash, brought by Doheny’s son.

The Labour government will restore diplomatic relations with Russia, and has already chosen an ambassador.

Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald warns India not to try anything, in case you were wondering if a Labour government would defend imperialism.

Petrograd is changing its name to Leningrad.

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Italians are often afflicted by throat affection.

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Today -100: January 24, 1924: Evolution!

The North Carolina Board of Education votes to ban the teaching of evolution.

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Today -100: January 23, 1924: Lenin RIP

Vladimir Lenin dies.

The NYT’s  Walter Duranty predicts that Stalin and Trotsky will “bury the hatchet over his grave.”

Headline of the Day -100:  

Ramsay MacDonald becomes the first Labour prime minister of Britain.

Harry Sinclair, to whom journalists caught up in Plymouth on his way to Le Havre, denies bribing then-Interior Secretary Albert Fall for the Teapot Dome lease: “The entire situation is a political move and a case of American politics.”

Japanese Foreign Minister Matsui Keishiro tells the Diet that the treatment of Japanese on the Pacific Coast of the US is “regrettable.”

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Today -100: January 22, 1924: Six or eight cows

The Senate Teapot Dome inquiry heats up, with Archie Roosevelt, son of Pres. TR, testifying. Archie was a vice president with a Sinclair Oil subsidiary; he resigned yesterday to save his reputation from the Teapot Dome scandal. He doesn’t seem to have been involved in it but at the time of the sale of the Naval reserves he was at Sinclair Oil and his brother TR Jr. was assistant secretary of the Navy, which just looks bad. He testifies that Harry Sinclair paid $68,000 to the foreman of then-interior secretary Albert Fall’s New Mexico ranch. He also reports that Sinclair has skedaddled for Europe to avoid having to testify (Sinclair had him buy the ticket and keep his name off the passenger list). Archie cites Sinclair’s secretary G.D. Wahlberg as his source on the payment, but Wahlberg testifies he knows nothing about it. He says Sinclair did give Fall “six or eight cows” and Roosevelt must have misheard that as “$68,000.” Edward Doheny, at first thought to have also fled to Europe, actually went to New Orleans, but definitely not to consult with Sinclair, perish the thought. He also has the nerve to say that if the Mexican rebels continue interfering with his oil interests in Tampico, he’ll demand the US government do something about it (and indeed Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes threatens consequences if Tampico port is mined).

The British Parliament votes no confidence in the Baldwin government, 328-256. During the debate, Baldwin asks “Do my honorable friends look like a beaten army?” He complains about the lack of gratitude in politics.

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Today -100: January 21, 1924: Of blockades and lack of confidence

Winston Churchill still wants Parliament to delay voting no confidence in the Baldwin government, and then when it does to make that vote also repudiate “socialism.” Which, hey, just leaves the 3rd-place Liberal Party of which Churchill is still a member. Fancy that.

The US sends a cruiser to Tampico to threaten the Huertista rebels if they again attempt to enforce their blockade of the port.

Mexican soldiers travel through the US, from Naco, Arizona to El Paso, Texas. They are made to register with Immigration, which takes 4 hours to process the 1,500 soldiers.

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Today -100: January 20, 1924: Whether there is land there or not it should be the property of the United States

Secretary of the Navy Edwin Denby tells the House Naval Affairs Committee that the real purpose of sending the dirigible USS Shenandoah to the Arctic is to look for any previously undiscovered land and then annex the hell out of it. “This area is certain to be of high strategic value if we look forward to warfare and commerce in the future. Whether there is land there or not it should be the property of the United States.”

The Philippine Legislature adopts a budget, eliminating all funding for Gov.-Gen. Leonard Wood’s office and his yacht (they don’t like him very much).

The Communist Party conference in Moscow ends with unanimous approval of the Central Executive Committee’s policies and castigation of opponents as “factionaries.” Stalin counts the “six errors” of Trotsky.

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Today -100: January 19, 1924: Of faulty actresses and tankers

Mabel Normand is in a state of complete nervous collapse, please excuse her from attending the hearing in the case of her chauffeur shooting that guy. Edna Purviance does come, but claims she was in another room and can’t remember anything that happened that evening.

The Huertista rebels fire at a couple of American commercial ships, including a Sinclair Oil tanker, which were running their barricade at Tampico.

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Today -100: January 18, 1924: It would be a waste of time to indulge in the thankless task of slaying a suicide

The crew of the dirigible USS Shenandoah think that surviving that gale means it can totally fly to the Arctic (Spoiler Alert: the USS Shenandoah will never fly to the Arctic). 

Former British Prime Minister H.H. Asquith, somehow once again leader of the Liberal Party, will back a no-confidence motion against Stanley Baldwin’s Conservative government, ensuring that the next government will be Labour. He says the Tory government would be remembered for confusion, vacillation and impotence. You may insert your own joke here. He says, “It would be a waste of time to indulge in the thankless task of slaying a suicide.” Winston Churchill, still in the Liberal Party but not in Parliament, roars a protest against Asquith’s move.

The Obregón government in Mexico asks permission to move its troops through US territory to attack the Huertista rebels. This will also require permission from Texas (Arizona and New Mexico’s governors have already given theirs).

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Today -100: January 17, 1924: There is no such thing as liberty without observance of the law

At the White House, Pres. Coolidge declares to delegates of the Anti-Saloon League annual convention, “there is no such thing as liberty without observance of the law.”

The US Navy dirigible Shenandoah is torn from its mooring in Lakehurst, New Jersey and dragged 60 (other reports say 80) miles with its crew before they regain control. It was out of radio contact most of the time, so radio stations stopped regular broadcasting and asked listeners to look out for it and report in. Finally WOR Newark heard back from the Shen. It’s nose will require expensive repairs.

The House Immigration Committee approves a ban on Oriental immigrants, although immigration officers could allow in individual students, merchants, whatever.

Philadelphia Director of Safety Gen. Smedley Darlington Butler drafts Philly’s firemen into his war on “bandits,” giving them .45 revolvers so they can “pitch in.” He also wants 100 motorcycles because vroom vroom.

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Today -100: January 16, 1924: Vigorously resented

The Democrats choose New York City for their Convention. It came down to a bidding war, because the party still has a deficit from the 1920 election. $255,000, including broadcast rights and preparing Madison Square Garden.

Rebel Gen. Adolfo de la Huerta declares a blockade of the port of Tampico, and the US is not best pleased, calling it an unwarranted interference with ordinary commercial transactions and saying it would be “vigorously resented.” Vigorous resentment is the worst kind of resentment.

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Today -100: January 15, 1924: Of drivers’ licenses and the Klan issue in Louisiana

NY Gov. Al Smith points out to the Legislature that NY is behind other states in setting automobile regulations. He suggests a statewide system (not just in NYC) of drivers’ licenses (upstate Republicans have blocked this in the past), giving the state the power to revoke licenses and to collect accurate data on accidents.

The Louisiana primary vote is tomorrow, and candidates have been forced to declare themselves on the Ku Klux Klan. The 3 Democratic gubernatorial candidates, one of whom is Huey Long, all oppose the Klan, and Lt Gov Hewitt Bouanchaud says he will follow outgoing Gov. John Parker’s policy of not appointing any to office (Bouanchaud is Catholic). Long is also running against Standard Oil.

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Today -100: January 14, 1924: Of conventions, valets, states, and cynical allusions

The DNC is about to pick a site for the Convention, and William Gibbs McAdoo’s backers are fighting the choices of machine-ridden Chicago or New York, especially NY (NY Gov. Al Smith doesn’t feel like a major candidate, but maybe he does to McAdoo.) Maybe they should find someplace cooler in the summer, in case....

After church, Calvin & Grace Coolidge go to the negro section of Washington to visit dying Arthur Brooks (I almost typed Albert Brooks), White House valet since 1909.

A delegation of representatives of the 3 leading Puerto Rican political parties, appointed by the Legislature, is coming to the US (that’s how the NYT phrases it), along with (US-appointed) Gov. Horace Towner. Those parties have all dropped demands for independence, but they want statehood, not territorial status, and they want it as soon as possible. The NYT opposes statehood because the majority of Puerto Ricans are illiterate.

Students from 16 Eastern universities gather at the U of Penn to discuss getting rid of drinkers and bootleggers at their universities. One step: “ask the Faculties to avoid cynical allusions to the matter.”

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Today -100: January 13, 1924: In which is revealed what were the best contracts the United States government ever made

The British railway engineers & firemen union says it will order a strike, but won’t say when. Which is embarrassing for the Labour Party’s plans to form a government. 

NYC Police Commissioner Richard Enright is charging 13 of the 22 inspectors, as well as a bunch of deputy inspectors and captains, with failure to enforce Prohibition.

Former Interior Secretary Albert Fall says the Teapot Dome and Elk Hills deals were “the best contracts the United States government ever made,” and he’d love to tell the Senate Committee all about it... health permitting. Which it didn’t yesterday when he was supposed to appear. He’s currently hiding out in Palm Beach, although he denies that he’s hiding out.

At the Communist Party conference in Moscow, acting PM Lev Kamenev attacks War Minister Leon Trotsky, after which a censure resolution is adopted. Evidently Trotsky is supporting economic positions contrary to those of the Central Committee. Trotsky is not present, being ill. Lenin is not present, being dying.

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Today -100: January 12, 1924: The King’s Peach

The British Cabinet decides that the King’s Speech can’t be broadcast on radio, since it’s a political speech (written by the party currently in power), and those are banned from the airwaves.

Eleftherios Venizelos gives in, oh so reluctantly, and will form a Greek government after all, after the Liberals prove too divided to form one.

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Today -100: January 11, 1924: Oops

A British battleship bumps a British submarine, accidentally – or so they’d have us believe – sending all 43 submariners to the bottom of Portland Bill, which is a body of water rather than a hipster coffee shop. Elsewhere in the exercise, two other subs have a fender-bender.

The West Virginia Democrats endorse former ambassador to Britain John W. Davis for president. Let the Johnmentum begin!

A state constitutional amendment is proposed in the NY Assembly to increase the gubernatorial term from two years to four. Another suggestion is to allow women to serve on juries. Not require them to, mind you; that didn’t happen until the mid-70s (which explains “Twelve Angry Men”).

The state of Illinois steps in to stop dry raids in Williamson County conducted by the Ku Klux Klan. They’ve also been beating & robbing Italians, as was the custom.

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Today -100: January 10, 1924: Of assassinations and censorship

Franz Josef Heinz, the self-proclaimed president of the “Autonomous Government of the Palatinate,” is assassinated, alongside a couple of bysitters, in the Wittelsbacherhof Hotel restaurant in Speyer by members of the Viking League paramilitary group, who presumably would prefer the Palatinate remain in Germany.

Ohio bans Mabel Normand and Edna Purviance films. Ditto Michigan for Normand.

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Today -100: January 9, 1924: Um, sure

Coolidge wants the tax-reduction bill passed before the veterans’ bonus bill. Also, he opposes the Democrats’ alternative tax bill, which he says favors the rich by taxing them the most when they have the power to pass on those taxes to consumers.

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Today -100: January 8, 1924: Go out and get some

Coolidge puts an embargo on arms sales to the Huertaista rebels in Mexico.

Headline of the Day -100:  

This is the sort of authoritarianism you can expect when you put a US Marine general on a leave of absence, one Smedley Darlington Butler, in charge of a city’s cops (and firemen and elevator inspectors). Gen. Butler says “I have a free hand and will not be interfered with by the politicians.” He tells 2,000 cops at the Metropolitan Opera House, “I don’t believe there’s a single bandit notch on a policeman’s gun in this city. Go out and get some.” Spoken like a veteran of many imperial wars treating the mean streets of Philly like the Philippines.

Elsewhere in law enforcement, Birmingham, Alabama police have gotten 5 black men to confess to 8 axe murders through the use of “‘truth serum,’” the NYT’s quote marks presumably indicating they were falsely told they had been injected with truth serum.

The New York State Moving Picture Commission declines to ban the films of Mabel Normand or Edna Purviance as many other locales are doing because the infatuated chauffeur of the former shot a guy in the presence of the latter.

Michigan Agricultural College (Go Aggies!) is planning to broadcast a sort of running account of a basketball game on the radio. This will be a first.

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Today -100: January 7, 1924: Of peace plans, bombs, and munitions

Edward Bok, former editor of the Ladies’ Home Journal, sponsored a $100,000 prize for the “best practicable plan for U.S. cooperation in world peace.” Of the 22,165 submissions, he chose:  join the World Court, cooperate with the League of Nations, which has to change the provisions of its Covenant (“substitute moral force and public opinion for military and economic force...”)... I’m gonna stop there, since this is just the Republican position from when they were torpedoing Wilson’s attempt to join the League. This is... nothing... justifying my ignoring all the stories about this contest until now.

Someone throws bombs at the Japanese Imperial Palace. The police leap into action and suppress a newspaper that reports the incident, which seems to have been more in the nature of a demonstration than an actual attack intended to hurt anyone. A Korean is arrested, as was the custom.

The State Dept warns against US arms dealers selling to the Mexican rebels, but it’s not a formal ban, at least not yet.

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Today -100: January 6, 1924: Hail King Harry!

Eleftherios Venizelos, returning to Greece from exile, is elected president of the National Assembly almost unanimously and celebrates by having a heart attack. Before this, Venizelos said he intended to remain in office only until the possibility of a civil war passes.

Mexican rebel general Adolfo de la Huerta orders rifles & machine guns & ammo for both in New Orleans to test the US government’s claim when it sold arms to the Mexican government that there is no embargo on arms sales to Mexico.

The NYT says the British public is “resigned” to the possibility of a Labour government and thinks it might not even be a calamity. The possibilities of a fusion Tory-Liberal cabinet, or the king simply putting Asquith in office, are fading. Those “resigned” Britishers are reassuring themselves that Labour can’t do anything especially radical with a minority in Parliament and zero members in the House of Lords.

Albania keeps offering its crown to foreign princes & dukes, and keeps being turned down. Now they’re trying American oil guy Harry Sinclair, who just a few days ago testified very much against his will at the Senate Teapot Dome hearings. His connection with Albania is that he breeds horses there.

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Today -100: January 5, 1924: Of arms sales and censorship

The US sells 5,000 rifles, 5 million rounds of ammunition, and 8 aeroplanes to Mexico to use in crushing the rebellion. Coolidge is ignoring Congress to make the sale, like a common Joe Biden.

As New Hampshire bans Mabel Normand’s movies, and Ohio and Kansas look to follow, Mabel appeals to Americans’ sense of fair play. Good luck with that.

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Today -100: January 4, 1924: Chin out

40 or so people die in a starch explosion at the Corn Products Company in Pekin, Illinois.

There have been disturbances at the vault in Marion where Warren G. Harding’s body is entombed, possibly aimed more at the guards than Harding, possibly by children: bugles blown, stones thrown at the guard houses, etc. So Lt. Harriman, in command of the guard, sends for riot guards and says he’ll shoot at future people causing disturbances.

Rep. William Upshaw (D-KKKGeorgia) demands that Pres. Coolidge “begin a righteous crusade by breaking every jug and bottle in official Washington and by using the Executive guillotine on the neck of every drinking official including army, navy and Cabinet officers.” In other words, that Cal fire every government official who engages in “drinking devilment.” Upshaw also wants to deport aliens who break Prohibition (we’ve been hearing that idea frequently of late). And a lot more ideas along those lines.

Mabel Normand has an appendectomy in the same hospital in which Courtland Dines is staying after being shot by Normand’s chauffeur. Memphis censors say her films will be banned in the city forever. They haven’t decided about Edna Purviance yet. Kansas Attorney General Charles Griffith will ask the censor board to ban films featuring both women. Will Hays is rushing to California to look into the affair, “and I have my chin out,” whatever that means.

John D. Rockefeller, 84, likes to play golf, and to be praised for how he plays golf. He keeps dimes in his pocket to hand out to anyone who applauds one of his shots.

For weeks before he was exiled, King George of Greece wouldn’t have his hair cut because he was afraid Greek barbers would do a Sweeney Todd on him, I guess. The first thing he did when he arrived in Bucharest was to get a haircut.

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Today -100: January 3, 1924: Of scofflaws, pernicious non-Communist influences, and worried mustaches

A banker in Quincy, Massachusetts who glories in the name Delcevare King, is sponsoring a contest with a $200 prize to come up with an epithet for people who drink in violation of Prohibition laws which will be so harsh, so cutting that it will “stab awake the conscience of the drinker,” like “scab” or “slacker.” Entries received so far include bootocrat, boozshevik, law-jacker, sliquor and wetocrat. The winner, which will be announced in a couple of weeks: “scofflaw,” a new coinage sent in separately by two people. The obituary of Mr King in the ‘60s says the term was mostly used at that time for parking and other automobile-related offenses. How is it used today?

Russia extends its ban on religious schools to all private schools in order to combat “pernicious non-Communist influences.” It also bans corporal punishment in all schools.

Greece’s coup regime turns power back to the National Assembly, calling for a republic. Still, “No Parliament ever exhibited more worried mustaches.”

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Today -100: January 2, 1924: Of referenda, actresses & shootings, orderly procedures, hand-shaking, and corsets

Former Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos suggests a referendum to decide whether Greece will become a republic, or, if it stays a monarchy, whether a different ruling family shall reign.

Denver oil man Courtland Dines is shot by actress Mabel Normand’s chauffeur (with her gun) because, he says, Dines was bothering Normand. Edna Purviance, Charlie Chaplin’s leading lady, also witnesses the shooting. The story implies that there was drinking involved. Dines was in a dressing gown, more proof that silent movies were documentaries.

Although there’s a movement in Congress to express opposition to arming the Obregón regime in Mexico, Coolidge intends to go right ahead regardless under authority the administration claims he has, “in the interest of orderly procedure,” whatever that means. These opponents have coined “the Harding doctrine,” for a policy of not selling arms to foreigners (Harding refused to allow an earlier proposed arms sale to Mexico).

Mussolini’s dictatorial powers expire.

 

President Coolidge and First Lady Grace hold the traditional New Year’s Day reception and both shake hands with 3,891 people.

King Albert of Belgium says his country’s financial future depends on 1) reparations from Germany, 2) exploiting the Belgian Congo.

Maternity corset, for fuck’s sake.

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Today -100: January 1, 1924: Of arms and ashes

There’s a movement in the Senate to stop the proposed arms sales to the Mexican government for use against rebels. Some senators think it would break international law.

A thief is caught stealing the ashes of some saint in Avezzano, Italy. The crowd beat him up and set him on fire, as was the custom.

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