Today -100: August 26, 1924: Poor young Jews

The deadline for Germany to ratify the Dawes Plan is Saturday. Chancellor Wilhelm Marx tells the Reichstag he will ratify it no matter what they do.

Day 3 of Clarence Darrows’s concluding speech pleading for mercy for “these two poor young Jews”.

Charles Dawes says he and Coolidge didn’t actually talk about the Klan.

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.

Today -100: August 25, 1924: Of zeppelins, the Klan in politics, and Mars

The ZR-3, an airship built for the US Navy by the Zeppelin company in Germany will soon fly to the US. Any stowaways will be thrown over the side, with a parachute. Over the Atlantic?

“Ma” Ferguson increases her lead. She says it’s the death knell of the Klan in Texas. And when governor, she’ll fire kluxers holding government jobs.

The Ku Klux Klan’s prominence as an issue in this election cycle continues to grow, given further impetus by the victory of Ma & other anti-Klan candidates in the Texas Dem. primaries. Coolidge has called Dawes in to meet in person in Vermont, and the speculation is that it’s to talk about the Klan. Ohio Democrats are divided over how to deal with the Klan issue in their state convention. Georgia’s former governor/US senator Thomas Hardwick, who is running to reclaim the Senate seat from William Harris, accuses him of being a kluxer, specifically a member of the super-secret adjunct called the Imperial Klan. Professional Klan lecturer Rev. Oscar Haywood says the Klan is actually politically neutral; he says he won’t say anything against Davis, who is a “splendid man” but “I am not going to vote for him.”

With the Earth and Mars at their closest (physically, I mean, not emotionally), astronomers and others have been turning their telescopes and radios to the red planet. They haven’t found signs of life – yet – but have confirmed that Mars has water and an atmosphere.

H. L. Mencken, in his Baltimore Evening Standard column, says Davis is a bystander in the presidential campaign: “The actual combatants are the Hon. Mr. La Follette and the Hon. Mr. Coolidge. Each of these great statesmen stands for something that is simple and obvious—something that anyone may understand. Dr. Coolidge is for the Haves and Dr. La Follette is for the Have Nots. But whom is Dr. Davis for? I’m sure I don’t know, and neither does anyone else. ... La Follette is belaboring Coolidge, and the friends of Coolidge are belaboring La Follette, but no one seems to think it worthwhile to belabor Davis. He is simply concealed in the crowd, like a bootlegger at a wedding.” Read the whole column.

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.

Today -100: August 24, 1924: Of domestic controversy or discord, women in the Reichstag, and let’s invade Denmark!

Miriam “Ma” Ferguson is well ahead, so far, as votes are counted in the Texas Democratic primary election for governor. She answers  the question of whether she’ll be the “dummy” for her husband, while rejecting the advice of those who want her to announce she won’t be listening to him at all. She says she will be “guided” by him on subjects he knows better, like fiscal affairs, taxes, prisons, etc., while using her own judgment on education, social affairs, women, children, etc. “By adopting this course I believe I will be able to render service to the people of Texas without creating any domestic controversy or discord.”

Gen. Charles Dawes, Republican vice-presidential nominee, gives a speech in Augusta, Maine in support of Republican candidate for governor Ralph Brewster. In it, Dawes denounces the Klan, which... is behind Brewster’s candidacy.

The German Reichstag has 29 women deputies out of the 472.

The Danish government plans to eliminate the army.

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.

Today -100: August 23, 1924: When the public thinks as one man it only thinks of killing someone

Clarence Darrow at the Leopold n’ Loeb trial: “For God’s sake, if the State in which I live is not kinder, more humane and considerate and intelligent than the mad act of these mad boys, then I am sorry to have lived so long.” “When the public thinks as one man it only thinks of killing someone.”

At a campaign rally in Seagirt, New Jersey, John W. Davis condemns the Ku Klux Klan by name and invites Coolidge to join him, thus removing the Klan issue from the presidential campaign. Which Coolidge declines to do. The Seagirt crowd is jubilant at the Klan diss, some shouting “Hang ‘em!” and “Throw them in the river!,” which seems to rather miss the point.

Imperial Wizard Hiram Evans says the Klan is neutral between Davis and Coolidge, but will fight against Bob La Follette.

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.

Today -100: August 22, 1924: No Ma for me

VP candidate Charles Dawes refuses to pose for newsreel cameras: “Hell, they’re not going to make a damned movie man out of me!”

Headline of the Day -100:  

The White House releases a letter Coolidge wrote to the president of the National Negro Business League in which he congratulates the “economic emancipation being splendidly wrought out by the colored people for themselves; so I believe their full political rights will be won through the inevitable logic of their position and rightfulness of their claims.” Which is a good way of saying he doesn’t actually intend to help in any way, they’re on their own.

The Klan’s inevitable riposte to Miriam Ferguson’s “Me for Ma” slogan is “No Ma for Me.”

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.

Today -100: August 21, 1924: Savages v. fiends

Sen. Nathanial Dial and his South Carolina Democratic Party primary opponent Insurance Commissioner John McMahan are both arrested at a campaign meeting at which the former swings a chair at the head of the latter, as was the custom, after MacMahan called him a “dirty liar.”

Charles Dawes made a particularly combative acceptance speech for his nomination for Republican candidate for vice president a couple of days ago, accusing Democrats of being hypocrites and demagogues and of denigrating the rule of law (i.e., Prohibition). There’s a lot of talk about the speech, which I skipped at the time but the thought of reading it now just makes me tired.

Assistant State’s Attorney Joseph Savage (!) sums up the case against Leopold + Loeb, calling them “fiends” and “dastardly cowards” (that’s the worst kind of cowards) who deserve hanging.

Two, possibly 3 are dead in violence in Weehawken, NJ among the chicken pullers. Whatever the hell those might be.

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.

Today -100: August 20, 1924: Of racial censorship and sap buckets

NY Mayor John Hylan bans the participation of a mixed group of black & white children in Eugene O’Neill’s All God’s Chillun Got Wings.

Headline of the Day -100:  

Not a metaphor. Or a sex toy.

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.

Today -100: August 19, 1924: The big cucumber that will give us all the bellyache

The NAACP protests the exclusion by the National Woman’s Party of black speakers from the Inez Milholland memorial. “If capitulation to race prejudice is to be the price of election of women to office we sincerely hope that every one of your candidates will be defeated in the coming election.”

Former Texas Gov. Oscar Colquitt supports “Ma” Ferguson, arguing that it is a question of constitutional government or secret Klan government: “If the Klan gets into power it will be the big cucumber that will give us all the bellyache.” She’s even supported by the Republican candidate, Thomas Lee, who, as a Republican in Texas, has no chance in hell.

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.

Today -100: August 18, 1924: It was no place for colored people to speak

The National Woman’s Party holds a memorial for its old standard-bearer Inez Milholland (d. 1916) in Lewis, New York in conjunction with the NWP convention for organizing to elect women to Congress. Inez’s father John brought 3 black guests: Dr. Emmett Scott, the secretary/treasurer of Howard University; Lucy Slowe, a Howard professor; and Mrs. Addie Waites Hunton of the NAACP. He complains that they were very much not invited to speak. Alice Paul, VP of the NWP, says “This was arranged as a demonstration of women, and it was no place for colored people to speak. We had invited them to carry a wreath to the grave and their feelings were not hurt.” When alive, Inez (a NAACP member) intervened more than once to prevent the exclusion of black women from suffrage parades.

Marcus Garvey has bought a steamship to take negroes Back to Africa™, and charges his followers 50¢ to... look at it.

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.

Today -100: August 17, 1924: Me for Ma

Miriam Ferguson, described by the NYT as “a typical Texas woman,” is running for governor in the Democratic primary as the anti-Klan candidate, although I seem to remember her husband, impeached former governor James Ferguson, as pretty racist himself. Slogan: Me for Ma. Which sounds like baby talk. Her opponent, Judge Felix Robertson, is trying not to mention his Klan links and is even claiming to support Catholics, while focusing on Prohibition. In its desperation, the Klan, which used to oppose the “Jew, Jug and Jesuit,” has dropped the first and third J-word.

The Dawes Plan agreement is signed. France and Belgium will remove their troops from the Ruhr within a year.

Giacomo Matteotti’s body is found, more than 2 months after he disappeared. In a culvert, a few miles outside Rome.

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.

Today -100: August 16, 1924: Boom

The house of Magistrate Henry Tennyson of Slovan, Pennsylvania is dynamited in a huge explosion that takes out pretty much every window in town. The house is destroyed but the Tennyson family survives, somehow. The judge hears a lot of prohibition cases.

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.

Today -100: August 15, 1924: A government of common sense

Coolidge gives a boring acceptance speech. “The people,” he says, “want a government of common sense.” Has he MET the people?

The prosecution’s two alienists admit that they only spoke briefly to Leopold n’ Loeb, with lots of people around, before concluding they were sane.

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.

Today -100: August 14, 1924: Of married names and brain sand

The federal government rules that married women employees of the government aren’t allowed to use their maiden names.

At the Leopold n’ Loeb trial, State’s Attorney Robert Crowe puts a couple of alienists on the stand to assert that the boys are perfectly normal (“except so far as commission of a deliberate, cold-blooded murder indicates disordered mentality,” which seems like a big exception) and their endocrine systems are fine. In fact, you can’t rely on x-rays of the pineal gland, which contains “brain sand,” which is evidently a real thing.

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.

Today -100: August 13, 1924: Of bad motives and fat Germans

Coolidge declines to respond to John W. Davis’s acceptance speech, with its accusations of Republican corruption.

Henry Ford rather belatedly withdraws from the Michigan Republican primary for US senator. He says he doesn’t know the motive of the people who put his name forward, “but believe it cannot be a good one”.

Headline of the Day -100:  

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.

Today -100: August 12, 1924: Deeper and more widespread corruption than any that this generation of Americans has been called upon to witness

At the Leopold n’ Loeb trial, “More than five minutes was taken up in trying to ascertain the difference between a blush on Loeb’s cheek and a similar glow on that of Leopold.” “[State’s Attorney Robert Crowe] tried to force admission that cunning directed them and not emotion”.

Calvin Coolidge publicly responds to some dude who wrote asking him to step in to prevent the Republican Party running a black dentist, Charles Roberts, for Congress in New York’s 21st district. Cal says it’s a local matter but does give a pretty strong defense of equal rights. (Roberts will run as Republican candidate, and lose badly).

And in a letter to the Jewish Forum, Coolidges praises American Jews for assimilating so nicely.

John W. Davis is officially informed of his nomination for president (he’d probably already heard about it). He accepts. He accuses the Republican Party of “having exhibited deeper and more widespread corruption than any that this generation of Americans has been called upon to witness... I charge it with gross favoritism to the privileged, and with utter disregard of the unprivileged. I charge it with indifference to world peace, and with timidity in the conduct of our foreign affairs.”

Andrew Anderson, the Democratic nominee for governor of South Dakota, is gored to death by a bull, as is the custom in South Dakota, probably.

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.

Today -100: August 11, 1924: Of constitution days and fiorellos

It’s Constitution Day in Berlin, celebrating the 5th anniversary of the Weimar Constitution, and... no one shows up. Well, 5,000, but most of the major parties boycott it and many people fly monarchist flags in protest. Germany, it is said, is a republic without republicans. I’m sure that won’t be a problem.

Rep. Fiorello La Guardia of New York, currently serving his first term in Congress, leaves the Republican Party, whose platform he dislikes, in favor of La Follette’s Progressives. He will be re-elected under his new banner, and then return to the Republican fold next in ‘26.

Non-silent Cal: Calvin Coolidge is filmed with sound (4 minutes).

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.

Today -100: August 10, 1924: Of glands

Dr. Harold S. Hulbert testifies at the Leopold n’ Loeb trial that Nathan Leopold Jr has irregularities in his pineal, pituitary, adrenal and thyroid glands. Shows x-rays and everything.

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.

Today -100: August 9, 1924: It cannot long survive

Robert La Follette says he is opposed to the Ku Klux Klan, but sounds annoyed that the issue is distracting from the big issue, which is the power of the private monopoly system over the US’s economic life. He says the Klan “cannot long survive” because of the “sound judgment and good sense of our people”.

The Connecticut state fire warden bans the burning of crosses without permission of a fire warden.

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.

Today -100: August 8, 1924: Of non-kluxers and moral violence

John W. Davis denies rumors that he was once a member of the Klan.

Mussolini makes his first speech since the disappearance of of Giacomo Matteotti two months ago, vowing to remain in office, “to which am bound not by caprice or by desire for power, but by a religious sense of duty.” Does he give the speech from a balcony? Of course he gives it from a balcony. He complains that “The Opposition is daily guilty of moral violence against Fascism by painting it as something which it absolutely is not.” Obviously moral violence is much worse than murdering an opposition leader and dumping his body in the woods.

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.

Today -100: August 7, 1924: Of treaties, fascist extremism, and ponzis

The Anglo-Soviet talks succeed after all. A commercial treaty and a general treaty will be signed.

At the Leopold n’ Loeb trial, one of the defense’s psychiatrist witnesses spills the beans on one of the great mysteries: it was Loeb who actually murdered Bobby Franks.

Bullshit Headline of the Day -100:   

Although the sub-hed is better:

The vague resolutions adopted by the National Council of Fascismo include “further development of the Fascist revolution” and “bringing about a loyal acceptance by the whole country of Fascismo and its revolutionary advent to power.” But Musso has retreated from an earlier draft calling for rewriting the Constitution and maybe further neutering Parliament, which would have pissed off Liberals, which is something he still cares about a little, especially in the context of the wobbliness of Fascist legitimacy after the murder of Giacomo Matteotti.

Charles Ponzi is released from federal prison after serving 3½ years (with time off for good behaviour), and is immediately arrested on Massachusetts state charges.

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.

Today -100: August 6, 1924: Sane as far as this court is concerned

Treaty negotiations between the Soviet Russian and British Labour governments break down after four months.

Leopold n’ Loeb judge John Caverly rules that they are “sane as far as this court is concerned,” refusing State’s Attorney Robert Crowe’s demands for a jury trial to address the issue. Crowe’s questioning of psychiatric witnesses has focused on 1) getting them to admit that The Boys are so smart they could be deceiving the alienists, and 2) trying to trick them into use the word insane which they keep telling him is a legal term, not a medical one (one shrink used the term psychosis and Crowne asked if that wasn’t the same  thing as insane. Or bughouse). The judge shuts down anything that approaches the subject of homosexuality, although it sounds like he may hear that stuff behind closed doors.

Turkey bans polygamy, except in “unusual cases.”

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.

Today -100: August 5, 1924: We have heard nothing from the Republican Party

Gov. Al Smith will not run for re-election, the NYT says (he will).

The National Woman’s Party will hold a “women for Congress” conference next week. VP Alice Paul says the NY Democratic Party has promised to cooperate with the NWP in nominating a woman in one (1) congressional district. “We have heard nothing from the Republican Party.”

A federal grand jury indicts Marcus Garvey for income tax fraud & perjury, and Liberia bans his followers entering the country. He’d planned to start a colony there in autumn.

The 1st Little Orphan Annie comic strip appears in the New York Daily News (my cursory search failed to find it).

Headline of the Day -100:  

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.

Today -100: August 4, 1924: Of anniversaries, vindications, sea writers, and bombs

A ceremony for the 10th anniversary of Germany sort of declaring war on France (no celebrations for sort of declaring war on Russia 2 days before?) is held outside the Reichstag building. Lots of talk about restoring Germany’s place in the world. Communists counter-demonstrate, interrupting the two-minute silence, and are attacked, as was the custom. One is killed. The police make sure no one gets near the French Embassy. A Jewish rabbi is prevented delivering a prayer, so the Jews of Berlin have to hold a separate ceremony.

Rep. John Langley is nominated for re-election in the Kentucky Republican primary, despite, or possibly because of, his conviction for conspiracy to violate the Volstead Act (he is out on appeal). He is campaigning for “vindication.”

A car bomb blows up the Proctorville, Ohio Municipal Building, nearly killing Mayor John Reckard. It is thought this is an act of revenge on him by moonshiners.

Joseph Conrad, “writer of the sea,” dies at 66. The fairly lengthy obit fails to mention Heart of Darkness.

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.

Today -100: August 3, 1924: Huck & Tom, Leopold and Loeb, compare and contrast

The London conference on the Dawes Plan invites Germany to send a delegation to discuss Germany’s future, which is an innovation, although I think all the decisions have already been made.

At the Leopold n’ Loeb trial, State’s Attorney Robert Crowe asks one of the alienists called by the defense if Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn exhibited criminalistic tendencies.

Former Austrian Empress Zita turns down an offer to become a movie actress, despite her current poverty.

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.

Today -100: August 2, 1924: Of the spirit of 1914, party fireworks, and elevated guns

Germany will be holding ceremonies and whatnot for the 10th anniversary of the start of the Great War (which they define as when Germany sort-of declared war on France rather than when it sort-of declared war on Russia two days before). Hindenburg writes, “May the spirit of 1914 again be the common property of all Germans.”

Headline of the Day -100:  

Britain has been complaining about US plans to elevate the guns on its battleships, which may or may not violate at least the spirit of arms limitation agreements. Retired Adm. William Rogers says Britain is just jealous.

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.

Today -100: August 1, 1924: The universe will crumble unless these boys hang

Clarence Darrow at the Leopold n’ Loeb trial: “The State’s Attorney’s office seems to feel the universe will crumble unless these boys hang.”

Turkey orders foreign Jews to leave the country.

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.

Today -100: July 31, 1924: No joy

Headline of the Day -100:  

Bavaria’s interior minister bans processions & other demonstrations on Constitution Day, August 10th, the anniversary of the adoption of the Weimar constitution. “The Bavarian Government respects the Constitution of the German Republic but derives no pleasure from it,” the proclamation says.

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.

Today -100: July 30, 1924: Cryin’ Loeb

In the Leopold n’ Loeb trial, State’s Attorney Robert Crowe reverses his plan to have his last witness be one of his assistants, to testify that Loeb was crying before he confessed. He’s afraid of triggering a requirement to have a jury called to assess their sanity. He will also object to the defense introducing alienists, threatening to blow up the boys’ guilty pleas if they’re brought in.

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.

Today -100: July 29, 1924: Of rebellions, witnesses, fruit packers, and radio

Brazilian government forces recapture São Paulo from the rebels, who mostly escape into the interior.

The Leopold n’ Loeb prosecutor puts on the stand Johnny Levison, a 9-year-old they had intended to be their victim but who took a different route home than usual on the day. He has a whale of a time.

Sacked California fruit packers attacked Japanese who replaced them in Mendocino County. Initial reports in Japan attributed the mob attack to the Ku Klux Klan, but the consul’s investigation doesn’t mention them.

Radio companies say they don’t want to broadcast more than an hour a day of political speeches, or more than 15 minutes per speech.

There are now 534 radio stations in the country, by the way.

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.

Today -100: July 28, 1924: Super-slow Sunday news day

550,000 people visit Coney Island on a single day, even though the water is quite cold.

Headline of the Day -100:  

The Loyal Order of Moose, not an actual moose.

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.

Today -100: July 27, 1924: Of diseased minds, reparations, and hylans

Clarence Darrow tells the Leopold n’ Loeb court that he won’t be arguing legal insanity but that “the boys” – he’s gonna be using that term repeatedly if unsubtly throughout the trial – “have diseased minds and... were not responsible for their acts.”

The US threatens to break off diplomatic relations with Persia unless it arrests those who killed Vice Consul Robert Imbrie and his plus-one, punishes cops and soldiers who were present and failed to intervene (or participated), pay for the warship sent to bring Imbrie’s body home, and attend the putting-the-corpse-on-the-warship ceremony.

NYC Mayor John Hylan says he might run for governor, if progressives want him to. It’s unclear if that means he’d run in the Democratic convention in September or would join La Follette’s Progressives. He’s in California, meeting with William Randolph Hearst, who does not get on with Al Smith or Tammany Hall and may have urged this move on Hylan.

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.

Today -100: July 26, 1924: Of refugees and kidnappppings

Greece tells 50,000 Armenian refugees that they need to go... somewhere. Somewhere else. The League of Nations is asking Russia to take them.

In the Leopold n’ Loeb trial, State’s Attorney Robert Crowe introduces into evidence a copy of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Kidnapped, purely because its title is spelled with that double P, just like in the ransom notes (“kidnaped” being more common at the time). The judge allows it. It’s going to be that kind of trial.

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.

Today -100: July 25, 1924: Not to either demagogue or crackpot

William Randolph Hearst publishes a signed letter in his newspapers calling for the Dems to replace Al Smith as their nominee for NY governor in November (also something about water power). Smith replies that he never reads any of Hearst’s papers, which he has banned from state offices, but says when the Democratic Party “needs advice it will go to Democrats for it, and not to either demagogue or crackpot.” In a very NYT move, the article helpfully defines “crackpot” for its readers, noting the word is not in the dictionary. The state Democratic Convention will be held in September and it’s not even clear yet whether Smith will run for re-election. DemoCon is expected to pass a strong anti-Klan plank.

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.

Today -100: July 24, 1924: We must be intelligent even in our intransigence

Clarence Darrow objects to the prosecution in the Leopold & Loeb trial introducing every detail of the murder of Bobby Franks, given that they are pleading guilty. He says the prosecutor’s address is “utterly incompetent [meaning irrelevant] and meant only to appeal to the passions of men.”

Mussolini pushes “reforms” through the Grand Council of the Fascismo, including the expulsion of “undesirables,” “good-for-nothings,” and “all those who love violence for violence’s sake,” as he refers to them. But who would that leave? He wants greater discipline in the party: “We must be intelligent even in our intransigence, for the Fascistization of Italy must surely come, but it must come gradually and cannot be forced.”

At the Olympics in Paris, Italian fencer Oreste Puliti is banned after trying to provoke a duel with the Hungarian fencing judge.

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.

Today -100: July 23, 1924: Of Ford v. the demon liquor, sieges, and thwarted lynchings

Henry Ford has notices posted in his plants that he will fire any employee with liquor on his breath or who keeps liquor in their home.

The Brazilian army is still bombarding São Paulo after more than a week.

Illinois Gov. Len Small sends the state militia to Mounds City to stop a lynching of two black prisoners held in the jail for killing a, I’m just gonna guess here, white woman.

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.

Today -100: July 22, 1924: Of killers, serial killers, killer mobs, and Russian divorces

Leopold n’ Loeb plead guilty to killing Bobby Franks, on the theory that they’d be better off having their fates determined by a judge who might be convinced by evidence of insanity than by one of those notoriously blood-thirsty Chicago juries. Their lawyer Clarence Darrow says no one thinks they should be released but rather they should be permanently isolated from society. He’ll now be in the tricky position of having to convince a judge not to execute them because of insanity after they have pleaded guilty, which insane people aren’t allowed to do.

Hanover serial killer Fritz Haarmann is charged with 17 murders. Haarmann is called “strangely psychotic” by government criminologist Dr. (ahem) Kopp. In addition to “M,” which was partly inspired by Haarmann, there’s a movie, Der Totmacher, that consists solely of the psychiatric interrogations, although not by Dr. (ahem) Kopp. It’s... intense (By sheer coincidence I just watched that movie about Haarmann, the Vampire of Hanover, right after an episode of the Spanish sci-fi show The Ministry of Time which was about a Spanish serial killer called the Vampire of Barcelona).

Persia apologizes for the killing by a Tehran mob of US vice consul Robert Imbrie, but it seems that police and soldiers were part of that mob, as shown by a sabre cut on his head.

Soviet Russia introduces the 5-minute, $1.50 divorce (if uncontested). Grounds for divorce include desertion, religious superstition, and differing political views. No one can get divorced and remarried more than 3 times a year, so pace yourself, guys.

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.

Today -100: July 21, 1924: They will plan to whoop things up

German republicans (but predominantly Social Democrats) form The Reichsbanner, an organization with a paramilitary wing to fight monarchism.

This will be the first election in the US in which radio plays a significant part, and there are many theories about how that will work. La Follette, for example, says it will stop reactionary newspapers lying about speeches radio listeners will have heard themselves. The NYT thinks radio won’t be that important because that’s not what people want from the radio and they’ll just switch off when speeches by people from parties other than own come on. Public meetings will still be the preferred venue because they provide the collective fervor of an audience, the spectacle of banners and bands, etc: “The political generals do not want the voters to keep cool and be too critical. They will plan to whoop things up, and it cannot be done to any great extent by broadcasting speeches.”

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.

Today -100: July 20, 1924: But not a Wall Street Democrat

The Allies’ conference on the Dawes Plan agrees to let France retain its right of independent action, for example to keep invading the Ruhr or wherever it wants to do to Germany whenever it wants.

The Catholic Church in France will refuse sacraments to women showing cleavage. Or elbows.

H. Grindell Matthews says he’s going blind due to his experiments with his Diabolical Ray, which is not a euphemism and that’s not what he calls his penis and please stop calling it a death ray, he says (well, he says some of that). He seems hurt by all the criticism of his fraud, but he can’t spill the details by applying for a patent. He promises that some day he’ll release the information that will convince electrical experts that he has “discovered a new force.” He says it could stun entire armies or cities. Gosh.

Burton Wheeler agrees to be La Follette’s running mate, saying “I am a Democrat, but not a Wall Street Democrat.”

The Bavarian state legislature hears a motion to prevent Jews holding government posts, buying land, teaching high school, or changing their names to disguise their Jewishness. It would expel any Jews who moved to Bavaria since 1914 and confiscate their property.

Australia tells Britain that it doesn’t want its citizens being given British knighthoods & suchlike. Canada did this 5 years ago.

A black man accused of attempting to assault a white woman is lynched in Scooba, Mississippi.

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.

Today -100: July 19, 1924: Purely ephemeral

The US vice consul in Tehran, Major Robert Imbrie, is beaten to death by a mob enraged at his taking photos of a sacred well where a miracle had supposedly taken place (a blind man’s sight restored) and women are present. Or maybe the Persians thought he was Bahai. Or that he’d poisoned the well. Or the mob was provoked by the government so they would kill a foreigner and give it an excuse to crack down. Or something. Imbrie’s diplomatic career included arriving in Russia just in time for the Bolshevik revolution, fleeing a death sentence the next year, and having a price put on his head in Turkey.

The Progressives name Democratic Sen. Burton K. Wheeler of Montana as Fightin’ Bob La Follette’s running mate, although Wheeler hasn’t said whether he’ll accept. Since Wheeler is mostly known for running the Teapot Dome investigation, it’s clear the campaign intends to run on the issue of Republican corruption.

William Butler, chair of the Republican National Committee, says Teapot Dome “is not much of an issue. It is purely ephemeral.”

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.

Today -100: July 18, 1924: But she does it unwittingly

Pres. Coolidge will not go on the stump, but will campaign entirely over the radio.

The British House of Lords discusses admitting women peeresses. Lord Banbury of Southam reminds the Lords: “You must remember that men and women are different, and you cannot prevent a woman in the House of Commons exercising the privilege of her sex which she has been accustomed to exercise. You cannot treat her as an equal. I do not for a moment say that she, by malice prepense, exercises that fascination which a woman exercises over man, but she does it unwittingly.” Women won’t be allowed to exercise that fascination in the Lords until 1958.

Pope Pius will offer a medal to whichever Catholic Women’s Diocesan Club comes up with the best modest fashion for women’s clothing.

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.

Today -100: July 17, 1924: De Valera & Einstein, together again

Éamon de Valera is out of prison. He spent the last year studying math, especially Einsteinian theory.

Klan-backed Judson Transue is elected mayor of Flint, Michigan.

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.

Today -100: July 16, 1924: Exhibit A

The Irish Free State will free Éamon de Valera and other political prisoners.

The US embassy in Brazil overrules its consul in Santo’s call for warships to be sent. The Brazilian government is arresting army officers it thinks might be sympathetic to the rebellion.

At the murder trial in Mays Landing, New Jersey, of Pearl Willard and her boarder, former NYPD cop John Gilles, for the killing of her 5-month-old daughter, the actual for-fuck’s-sake corpse is brought into the courtroom for the jury and everybody to see, ostensibly for identification purposes since Mrs Willard denies that was her child. No one can remember this happening before.

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.

Today -100: July 15, 1924: Very normal

Very Normal Headline of the Day -100:  

 

Fritz Haarmann, the serial killer known as the Butcher of Hanover, had an accomplice (lover, I think) in the used-clothing business, Hans Grans, which is a fun name, I guess. Grans was in it for the used clothes (best not to think about Haarmann being a literal butcher, who illicitly sold mystery ground “beef”).

NY General Sessions Judge George Washington Olvany is the new head of Tammany Hall.

The Brazilian army is shelling São Paulo, which is still occupied by rebel troops.

H.L. Mencken, in the Baltimore Evening Sun: “There is something about a national convention that makes it as fascinating as a revival or a hanging. It is vulgar, it is ugly, it is stupid, it is tedious, it is hard upon both the higher cerebral centers and the gluteus maximus, and yet it is somehow charming. One sits through long sessions wishing heartily that all the delegates and alternates were dead and in hell—and then suddenly there comes a show so gaudy and hilarious, so melodramatic and obscene, so unimaginably exhilarating and preposterous that one lives a gorgeous year in an hour.”

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.

Today -100: July 14, 1924: How many statues were ever erected in the US for black World War I soldiers?

France opens a monument in Rheims to its black colonial (mostly Senegalese) troops.

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.

Today -100: July 13, 1924: Honorable & reasonable

Egyptian Premier Saad Zaghloul is wounded in an assassination attempt. The would-be-assassin, a student, says Zaghloul had called the British Parliament honorable and reasonable.

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.

Today -100: July 12, 1924: Mr. Gracious

William Gibbs McAdoo is backed into a corner and finally endorses John W. Davis, at Will Rogers’ Follies of all places. He’s in the audience and Rogers points him out, so he’s forced to stand up and say “now that the convention is over we must all get together and make sure that we elect a Democrat.” Still can’t bring himself to utter Davis’s name. The next day he does meet Davis, but he won’t say what they talked about or whether he’ll support the Davis-Bryan ticket; he says he’ll answer that before he sails for Europe tomorrow – if he has time.

Fritz Haarmann, the Hanover serial killer, says he deserves to be executed. He can’t remember the names of all his victims: “You see, they came so fast that I really did not have a good chance to get well acquainted with them” before chopping them to bits and dumping the bits into the river.

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.

Today -100: July 11, 1924: Maybe it’s just the friends you meet along the way

John W. Davis says he first met his running mate, Gov. Charles Bryan, at this convention, and hasn’t spoken to him since the nomination.

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.

Today -100: July 10, 1924: Future trivia quiz answer nominated for president!

On the 103rd ballot, the Democrat National Convention selects former ambassador to Britain John W. Davis as its presidential candidate after William Gibbs McAdoo and Gov. Alfred E. Smith withdraw.

Davis, from West Virginia, is the first presidential candidate from the South since the Civil War. He is Presbyterian. His campaign supposedly cost just $5,000.

Davis is informed of his nomination by his wife, who heard it on the radio while he was out having a smoke.

The withdrawal of Smith & McAdoo should have been an emotional high point, the NYT says, but “McAdoo withdrew so reluctantly and ambiguously and hedged his renunciation with so many ‘ifs’ and ‘buts’ and ‘ands’ that the emotional value of that turning point was dissipated.”

Smith volunteers to campaign for Davis, and McAdoo... is going to Europe on vacation for two months. He sends a one-sentence telegram to Davis and... that’s it. He refuses to talk to reporters. Smith is just happy that he was able to block McAdoo.

Incidentally, everyone in the Convention seems to love Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Smith’s campaign manager.

The Democratic National Convention chooses as Davis’s running mate Gov. Charles W. Bryan of Nebraska (the brother of William Jennings Bryan, who’s been fighting the Davis candidacy tooth and nail) with little fuss and only one ballot at 2:30 in the morning, after a brief boom for Sen. Thomas Walsh (Montana), who led the Teapot Dome investigation. Walsh declined to accept what he basically called a demotion.

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.

Today -100: July 9, 1924: 88 to 100

Al Smith & William Gibbs McAdoo meet secretly at the Ritz-Carlton. Smith hectors his rival to withdraw, at least we assume that since neither man will reveal what they said to each other.

During the Convention’s evening session, Al Smith’s campaign manager Franklin Delano Roosevelt announces that Smith will drop out if McAdoo does. Hours later, McAdoo releases his delegates, but that is not quite the same as withdrawing. In the meantime, the McAdooites make an intensive effort to regain the lead, which they do in the 94th ballot, helped by Sen. Samuel Ralston withdrawing from the race, er, again. Many of the remaining 15 candidates are jockeying to become the compromise candidate should Smith & McAdoo both withdraw. Ralston had been a favorite comp-can.

In the 100th ballot, the last of the day, McAdoo, whose support has been bouncing up and down all day, drops to 190 (he started the day at 315 and went as high as 421), putting him at 3rd place behind John W. Davis at 203, with Smith at 351½.

After that ballot, William Jennings Bryan attempts to speak, but is jeered down.

Incidentally, FDR “was escorted to the rostrum”. That story doesn’t mention why he might need assistance. I was pondering how the NYT keeps alluding unnecessarily to his disability like that, in a way which will pass right over the heads of readers who don’t know about it, before I saw another story that does mention his crutches.

The Socialist Party condemns –  by name – the Ku Klux Klan and “every other effort to divide the workers on racial or religious lines, and to effect political purposes by secret or terroristic methods.”

Calvin Coolidge’s father heard of the death of his grandson on the radio (he has a radio but not a phone).

Germans are super-pissed that Friedrich “Fritz” Haarmann, the serial killer known as the Butcher of Hanover, among other sobriquets, wasn’t caught long ago. And he certainly should have been. So far he’s confessed to butchering 14 boys. There were more.

Headline of the Day -100:  

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.

Today -100: July 8, 1924: 78 to 87

Calvin Coolidge Jr. dies. From a blister. Seven doctors were working on him, one of whom was knocked unconscious for a bit after an oxygen tank exploded.

At the Democratic National Convention, there’s finally some movement. Over the day’s 10 ballots, McAdoo’s support drops from 511 to 333½, losing Nevada, Missouri, Iowa and Kansas, while Al Smith, whose support remains steadily in the 360s, surpasses McAdoo for the first time on the 86th ballot and ends the day at 361½. John W. Davis starts the day at 73½ and ends at 66½. I think some of the drop in McAdoo votes can be attributed to resentment of his resistance to any proposal to break the stalemate. Delegates just want to go home.

By the way, James Cox and  Sen. Samuel Ralston, who withdrew 3 days ago, are back in the race.

The Socialist Party throws its weight behind Robert La Follette and won’t run its own candidate.

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.

Today -100: July 7, 1924: With every drop of blood in my body, I am with you to the end in this thing

Calvin Coolidge Jr., world’s most middle-aged 16-year-old,

is not doing well at all.

An attempted coup by junior army officers in Brazil captures São Paulo.

A proposal to release DNC delegates from their instructions & pledges is supported by all the presidential candidates except McAdoo, who vetoes it and instead suggests abolishing the unit rule (states vote as a bloc), nominating by a simple majority, and dropping the bottom candidate after each ballot. His opponents all reject those ideas.

McAdoo tells supporters at the Hotel Commodore, “With every drop of blood in my body, I am with you to the end in this thing.”

Headline of the Day -100 (and so many other days, really):  

Not meaning a presidential candidate, but someone who could knock heads together, like Boss Murphy of Tammany Hall, except he died a couple of months ago.

Thomas Hardwick, former governor & US senator from Georgia, says the reason he is running for Senate again is that a delegation from the Klan (which orchestrated his defeat for reelection as governor in 1922) intimidated state Supreme Court Chief Justice Richard Russell into not running himself. Harkwick calls incumbent Sen. William Harris a messenger-boy for the Klan.

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.

Today -100: July 6, 1924: 71 to 77

Over the course of the 7 ballots held at the Democratic National Convention yesterday (Saturday), William Gibbs McAdoo drops from 528 to 513 and Al Smith’s support increases from 333 to 367. A proposal by Sen. Tom Taggart of Indiana that a conference of reps from the 16 candidates meet and try to work something out is accepted. Seeing that holding ballot after ballot after ballot isn’t doing anything, many delegates, “hollow-eyed and weary,” are yearning for “strong men” to take control of the selection process.

The Conference for Progressive Political Action endorses Robert La Follette for president but leaves it up to its National Committee to select a running mate.

Calvin Coolidge Jr. is operated on to drain... you know, let’s just skip the details, they’re icky.

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.

Today -100: July 5, 1924: 62 to 70

The Democratic National Convention holds ballots 62 to 70. William Gibbs McAdoo’s support grows from 469 to 528½, Al Smith barely moves from 338½ to 334½. The delegates are “unhappy, confused and disposed to be morose”.

Al Smith’s people propose that all the presidential candidates be allowed to address the Convention. McAdoo’s people, fearing the spectators’ home-town bias for their governor, oppose this idea, and while the proposal is changed to exclude the audience and have the speeches in executive session, it gets a majority but not the necessary 2/3. A second motion to allow just Smith to speak – as the governor of the state hosting the Convention, certainly not as a candidate, perish the thought – is likewise defeated, even though William Jennings Bryan was allowed to speak earlier for some reason. This so pisses off the Smithafarians that later McAdoo in a letter asks the Convention to let Smith speak, but it is ruled out of order. The Smithistas are thinking about hiring Carnegie Hall so he can make a speech to which delegates could come.

McAdoo sends Bernard Baruch & Thomas Chadbourne to Al Smith to politely request that he quit. He does not.

However, two of the dark horses do withdraw: James Cox, the Dem. nominee in 1920, and  Sen. Samuel Ralston, who seems to have never wanted his name entered in the first place. He cites the attribution by many of a connection between himself and the Klan, which he says doesn’t exist, as a reason to withdraw in order to facilitate a “harmonious solution”.

On the 68th ballot, Will Rogers gets a vote from Arizona.

The Fourth is also Pres. Coolidge’s 52nd birthday, but the Coolidges don’t do birthdays, so no cake. Also, Calvin Coolidge Jr. is unwell. The 16-year-old got a blister on his foot playing tennis without socks and now has blood poisoning.

The Ku Klux Klan holds a Fourth of July “Tri-State Klorero” with 20,000 attendees in Long Branch, New Jersey, mostly to demonstrate against Al Smith – a speaker says there will only ever be Protestant presidents & vice presidents. For a nickel, you can throw 3 baseballs at an effigy of Smith, if that’s your kink.

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.

Today -100: July 4, 1924: 43 to 61

No significant movement in Democratic Convention presidential ballots 43 through 61: McAdoo drops 20 votes, to 469. Smith gains 16, ending at 335. Various states changed their preferred candidate over the course of the day. No end in sight, delegates losing will to live and have run through their expense money and are getting eyestrain from the Garden’s arc lights. Sen. Samuel Ralston (Ind.) cracks 100 for the first time, displacing John W. Davis as #3, before sinking again in the night-time ballots to 37, like riding the world’s most boring rollercoaster.

The McAdoo camp insists the deadlock is the fault of the favorite sons, i.e. everyone who isn’t Smith or McAdoo, and they should all just pull out pronto. Others are suggesting it should be McAdoo who withdraws.

Mussolini’s Blackshirts will swear a new oath to the king, replacing their old oath to The Duck personally. And if... an oath... doesn’t remove the threat of dictatorial rule backed by a personal militia, I don’t know what would.

Giacomo Puccini is finishing up his opera Turandot, which he says will premiere not in Milan, where audiences hissed Madame Butterfly, but at the Met in New York next year. Actually, he’ll die before completing it.

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.

Today -100: July 3, 1924: 31 to 42

The British Cabinet decides against building a Channel tunnel.

The Conference for Progressive Political Action will open on the 4th in Cleveland and will create a 3rd party called the Progressive Party (which was the official name of Teddy Roosevelt’s Bull Moose Party), which will nominate Fightin’ Bob La Follette for president. Now we hear officially that he will (gasp) accept. The Progressives don’t have a consensus on Fightin’ Bob’s running mate, but Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis seems favored.

The Georgia Lege rejects the proposed constitutional amendment to regulate child labor by 170-3. “State’s rights,” you know. Viola Napier, one of the two women in the House, votes for it. The state senate will reject it unanimously tomorrow.

The Democratic Convention holds presidential ballots 31 through 42. Al Smith’s support remains quite steady, holding between 310 and 323 votes all day, ending at 318. McAdoo recovers, reaching 503. John W. Davis sinks back into double figures.

William Jennings Bryan, a member of the Florida delegation, gives a speech in which he names eight people he thinks would be acceptable presidents – including his brother. In other words, he thinks McAdoo no longer has a chance.

A recount is ordered in the close Maine Republican primary. State Sen. Ralph Brewster claims he really won. Brewster is the Klan candidate and ran on a platform of defunding sectarian schools. Spoiler Alert: he will be the next governor (and congresscritter and US senator after that).

Portugese Prime Minister Álvaro de Castro fights a duel (with swords) with Flight Captain Teófilo José Ribeiro. He wins.

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.

Today -100: July 2, 1924: 16 to 30

In presidential ballots 16 to 30 at the DNC, former ambassador to Britain John W. Davis picks up some votes as the difficulties faced by McAdoo & Al Smith in reaching 2/3 become increasingly clear. McAdoo loses support, including Missouri, starting the day at 478 votes and ending at 415½. Smith gains achingly slowly, from 305½ to 323½. Davis has 126½ at the 30th ballot. William Jennings Bryan is telling anyone who’ll listen that the party can’t nominate a Wall Street lawyer like Davis, who has worked for J.P. Morgan (could be worse lawyering; in his last case in 1954 Davis defended segregation in the South Carolina part of Brown v. Board of Education).

28 people are sentenced to 2 years for participating in the Lilly, Pennsylvania fight between Klansmen and townies last April.

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.

Today -100: July 1, 1924: Sitting pretty on top of the world

Coolidge wants to cut the budget by another $83 billion. “I am for economy. After that I am for more economy.”

The DC Federal Grand Jury indicts former interior secretary Albert Fall and oil tycoons Harry Sinclair, Edward Doheny & Edward Doheny Jr. for bribery (or receiving a bribe, in Fall’s case) and conspiracy to defraud the US in the Teapot Dome/Elk Hills oil leases.

The Democratic National Convention holds its first 15 ballots for president. McAdoo is ahead with 479 votes, but well shy of a majority, much less the 2/3 (732 votes) he needs. Al Smith, far behind with 305½, says he’s “sitting pretty on top of the world.” Kansas switches to McAdoo, New Jersey to Al Smith.

The NYT points out that William Jennings Bryan, while objecting to the introduction of a religious question into politics in his speech favoring not mentioning the Klan by name, has himself been trying to get state legislatures to ban the teaching of evolution.

The New York law requiring motorists and motorcyclists to have a driving license, following an examination, by October 1st, goes into effect. There will also be a minimum speed limit of 12 mph in cities other than NY, Rochester and Buffalo. Standards are set for headlamps, trucks have to have rear-view mirrors. It is illegal not to stop on a signal from someone driving a horse.

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.

Today -100: June 30, 1924: Of crooks and bootlegging scoundrels

William Gibbs McAdoo, speaking to supporters (not in the Convention), pledges to go after “the crooks and bootlegging scoundrels who are debauching the morals of American youth by encouraging them to defy the laws.”

Edward, Prince of Wales, turned 30 last week and the newspapers are again bitching that he isn’t married yet. There are rumors that he’s promised the royal family that he will think about it.

Calvin Coolidge Jr., 16, plays tennis without wearing socks, but it doesn’t make the newspaper. Yet.

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.

Today -100: June 29, 1924: Three words

The Democratic Convention spends the entire day talking about the Klan, finally deciding not to name it in the anti-Klan plank by a vote of 542-541. Now it just calls for “religious liberty” without specifying any particular threat to religious liberty. William Jennings Bryan, on behalf of the McAdooites, calls for the generic plank, saying it would avoid dissension among Christians, and anyway “The Klan will soon die.” “We can exterminate Ku Kluxism better by respecting their honesty and teaching them that they are wrong.” “[T]he Ku Klux Klan does not deserve the advertisement that you give them.” Of course the “advertisement” will consist more of this stupid debate over whether to include what WJB keeps referring to as “three words” or, even, “these three magic and mystic words” than the platform itself. He suggests a separate resolution condemning the Klan by name, which wouldn’t be included in the platform.

Sen. Robert Owen (Oklahoma), speaking for the non-specific version, says he isn’t afraid of any klansman living or dead (especially the dead ones), but won’t convict a million kluxers without trial. He says many joined the Klan to defend the Constitution & the law.

A plank for immediate entry into the League of Nations fails 742½ to 353½, in favor of one calling for a referendum which the government could ignore.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt “slowly wended his way, leaning heavily on crutches, down the main aisle”.

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.