Today -100: April 11, 1910: Of negro voting

Maryland Governor Austin Lane Crothers vetoes the Negro Disfranchisement Bill. However, he will allow a referendum creating a $500 property qualification for negroes.

Pope postponed punishing pedophile priest

NYT: “Bishop Cummins had first petitioned the doctrinal office to defrock Mr. Kiesle in 1981. He also wrote directly to Pope John Paul II. Cardinal Ratzinger requested more information, which officials in the Oakland Diocese supplied in February 1982. They did not hear back from Cardinal Ratzinger until 1985, when he sent the letter in Latin suggesting that his office needed more time to evaluate the case.”

What did they have to do that was more pressing than investigating a priest who tied up and sexually abused two boys? What was it they considered a better use of their time?

RIP

Polish President Lech Kaczynski has died in a plane crash. This blog expresses condolences to the surviving evil twin.

Today -100: April 10, 1910: Of Russian Jews, reincarnation, and bosh

The expulsion of Jews from parts of Russia is intensifying. And private schools are forbidden from taking a higher proportion of Jewish students than the quota enforced on the public schools.

The Theosophists have decided that William Sidis, the 11-year-old boy genius studying mathematics at Harvard, is the reincarnation of Euclid. Sidis responded, “What bosh!”

B&B

I’ve been totally stale and uninspired for days. It happens. Here’s something I wrote a couple of days ago and didn’t bother posting:

The British Conservative Party has lost the gay vote. Shadow Home Secretary Chris Grayling (and is there a more Tory name than Grayling?) (Yes, yes there is: Richard Grosvenor Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax, parliamentary candidate for South Dorset – the grandson, or something, of Admiral The Honourable Sir Reginald Aylmer Ranfurly Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax, owner of the best name in the history of the universe – who is calling himself plain old Richard Drax, which does make him sound like a Bond villain, but not like a complete tit) said that it’s okay for bed & breakfast owners to refuse to accommodate gay couples. Days later, David Cameron has yet to comment.

And then I had something about the danger to politicians daring to block gay men from their beloved B&B’s, but I don’t want to say something that could be misconstrued and endanger my chances of Obama naming me to replace John Paul Stevens.

Today -100: April 9, 1910: Of legislative orgies

The Speaker of the New Jersey House of Assembly denies that there was an orgy in the Assembly: “Not a single woman and no liquor of any kind were in these rooms at any time.” Instead, they were hard at work all night on the McCran Water Bill and the Railroad Valuation Bill. So that settles that.

Today -100: April 8, 1910: Of Republican discord

The news today is all about disharmony within the Republican Party.

The NYT thinks Secretary of State Philander Knox and Treasury Sec. Franklin MacVeagh are about to resign. The NYT is wrong; both served until the end of the Taft administration. But it analyzes the causes of their supposed respective discontents at length.

And the “story runs in Washington” that many Republicans would be perfectly happy to lose the House in November if the Republican “insurgents” were also hurt, since the R’s would still retain the presidency and the Senate and the D’s in the House would likely screw up and lose again in 1912. The NYT (which in 1910 was more than a little Republican-leaning) thinks this is wrong-headed, and that opposition to Taft’s unpopular Payne-Aldrich tariff might be a winner for the D’s, with discontent growing over high prices (a meat boycott in Harlem, for example, just turned violent, with women attacking butcher shops and pouring kerosene over meat purchased by women who violated the boycott).

The Indiana Republican Party’s convention refused to endorse the tariff, and Taft responded by canceling plans to visit Indianapolis.

And looming above all this: the imminent return from his year-long world shoot-em-up tour of the prodigal Rough Rider.

Today -100: April 7, 1910: Of dead animals, socialist utopias, and Jews

On his African trip, Teddy Roosevelt sent 11,397 specimens of slaughtered vertebrates to the Smithsonian. That’s 4,000 birds, 2,000 reptiles and batrachians, 500 fishies, and 4,897 mammals. That’s the difference between TR and Dick Cheney: Cheney never sent any lawyer specimens to the Smithsonian.

Milwaukee’s mayor-elect, the socialist Emil Seidel, says “There will be no Utopia, no millennium, none of the wild antics that our opponents have charged to us.” But he promises that the street cars will be cleaner.

At the B’nai B’rith’s annual banquet, President Taft said that he likes Jews “because they are essentially artistic, because they make excellent citizens, and are in favor of law and order.”

Old times, they... oh you know

Governor of Virginia Bob McDonnell declares April Confederate History Month. Some might find this offensive, but I’m fine with it: maybe they’ll finally get it through their thick skulls that they fucking lost.

His declaration states that the Confederacy leaders and military “fought for their homes and communities and Commonwealth...”, oh, and something else, what was that other thing they fought for again?


“...in a time very different than ours today.” Which is what McDonnell said about his own college thesis.

“WHEREAS, all Virginians can appreciate the fact that when ultimately overwhelmed by the insurmountable numbers and resources of the Union Army, the surviving, imprisoned and injured Confederate soldiers gave their word and allegiance to the United States of America, and returned to their homes and families to rebuild their communities in peace...”


The declaration contains not a single word about slaves.

Today -100: April 6, 1910: Of Milwaukee reds, Illinois wets, and Rome Methodists

Milwaukee elects not only a socialist as mayor, Emil Seidel, the first socialist mayor of a major American city, but also a socialist majority on the city council (21 Social Democrats, 10 Democrats, 4 Republicans, with an even larger majority on the Board of Supervisors).

In Illinois, 28 towns voted for prohibition, 26 (mostly larger towns and cities) voted wet, several of which had gone dry two years before.

The American Methodist College in Rome issued a nyah nyah statement about Roosevelt’s spat with the pope, applauding Italians who had converted from Catholicism and saying that for the Methodists “To be anathematized by the Roman hierarchy is to be named a friend.” In response, TR canceled the reception he had planned at the American embassy, just in case some of the Methodists showed up.

Today -100: April 5, 1910: Of booze, the bull moose & the pope, and the sabbath

36 Michigan counties voted on prohibition, and 19 went dry. Of the 10 counties that went dry 2 years ago, 2 voted to let the saloons reopen.

Multiple stories in today’s paper giving the opinions of pretty much everyone on the planet of Roosevelt’s little scheduling problem with the pope.

President Taft visiting Worcester, Mass. on Sunday, pissing off a lot of church folk because he participated in a parade and a meeting – on the sabbath. Rev. Edward Eells noted that Roosevelt once gave up a bear hunt that fell on the sabbath.

Petty gossip

At Easter mass, Cardinal Angelo Sodano preached (if “fuck you” can be considered preaching), “Holy Father, the people of God are with you, and do not let themselves be impressed by the gossip of the moment, by the challenges that sometimes strike at the community of believers.”

Gossip.

(Update: Reuters gives the line as “petty gossip of the moment”.)

Today -100: April 4, 1910: Of disfranchisement, the bull moose & the pope, trolley lynchings, and pecan-headed parsons

The Maryland Legislature votes to disfranchise blacks in state and municipal elections, using the extremely dubious claim that the 15th Amendment, which Maryland never ratified, doesn’t apply to those elections. The national Democratic Party is worried that this will hurt them in November, possibly threatening their chances of taking back the House of Representatives, which depend in part on winning over some black voters in several states. The article mentions in passing that the minority (Democratic) leader in the Senate, Sen. Hernando De Soto Money of Mississippi (a former Confederate soldier), believes that the 14th and 15th Amendments weren’t constitutionally ratified.

You’ll remember that two months and 100 years ago, the pope canceled a meeting with former Vice President Fairbanks because Fairbanks was also going to speak in the American Methodist Church in Rome. Now, Teddy Roosevelt is visiting Rome, and received a preemptive warning from the Vatican that the same thing would happen if he dared speak to the Methodists (which he actually had no plans to do). TR replied that he refused to “submit to any conditions which in any way limit my freedom of conduct,” and so the pope won’t see him. TR explained in a letter to The Outlook that he thought most Americans, Catholic as well as Protestant, “will feel that I acted in the only way possible for an American to act”.

Yet another Philadelphia trolley runs over yet another child, 3-year-old John Traconnelli, and an “enraged crowd of foreigners” (i.e., Italians) set about lynching the conductor and motorman, but were thwarted by their being armed, and the police showing up.

Epithet of the Day -100: Rev. John Wesley Hill, doing the Glenn Beck thing 100 years early, attacks what he sees as socialism in churches. But the important thing is the epithet: “pecan-headed little parsons.”

Because if you’re going to have trauma, it should at least not be banal

The regional governor-elect of Veneto, Italy, Luca Zaia of the Northern League, said he will (illegally) prevent the administering of RU-486 because “It banalizes the trauma of abortion”. I’m sure Italian women will thank him for saving them from banality.

Today -100: April 3, 1910: Of premature burial and the red threat in Milwaukee

An article in the NYT Sunday magazine section reports a Lancet study which says that almost no one is ever buried alive.

The NYT has been warning that Milwaukee might just elect a socialist mayor, Victor Berger, Tuesday (spoiler alert: it will). The elections have been enlivened by the R’s and D’s bringing up an old quote of his: “Let every Socialist have a good rifle and the necessary rounds of ammunition in his home and be prepared to back up his ballot with his bullets if necessary.”

Blessed are the cheesemakers

Israel bombs Gaza, destroys a cheese factory.

Today -100: April 2, 1910: Of race

Jack Johnson, the world heavyweight champion boxer, is the subject of a short article in today -100’s NYTwhich is unique in not mentioning that he is a negro, although it might be taken as implied by the story. He was in court in Chicago on a speeding charge and not only insisted on a jury trial, but that at least two jurors be black.

Let’s make fun of a state where no one reads this blog anyway

The ACLU turned down a $20,000 donation from the American Humanist Association to fund a prom for that lesbian in Mississippi, because “the majority of Mississippians tremble in terror at the word ‘atheist.’”

CONTEST: What other words make the majority of Mississippians tremble in terror?

Today -100: April 1, 1910: Of death from above, helpful imperialists, suffrage, and street cars

The French Minister of War, Gen. Jean Jules Brun, denies that Germany is far ahead of France in aeronautics, plans to ask Parliament for $4 million to catch up. He’s also trying to figure out which is better, dirigibles or airplanes.

Liberia, experiencing some unrest, has received a friendly offer from the German cruiser Sperber to send in some troops to, you know, help out. Liberia not only said no, but ordered the Sperber to leave its waters or “take the consequences.” The Sperber left.

The Massachusetts House of Reps voted against women’s suffrage 47-148, with five pairs.

A St. Louis municipal court rules on one of the burning issues of everyday life: “Title to a seat in a street car rests in the man who gets it first in preference to the man who sees it first.”

Does the Catholic Church recruit exclusively from silent movie villains?

London Times: “German Bishop Accused of Beating Orphaned Girls.”

How long before we hear about an archbishop who used to tie helpless maidens to railroad tracks?