Today -100: November 3, 1912: Of a spirit of the courtesy and real democracy that you don’t often see in political meetings

Note: the NYT Index went down while I was doing the reading for this post and didn’t come back up for a couple of weeks (it’s still not fucking working right). I switched to ProQuest during that period, so there will be no links for the next 10 posts.

Theodore Roosevelt says that the presence of women in the election campaign has made a great difference. For example, at his speech in Madison Square Garden, there was no rowdyism or hooliganism, “and there seemed to be a spirit of the courtesy and real democracy that you don’t often see in political meetings.”

The pope refuses to endorse any of the US presidential candidates.

Russia expels the artist Leon Bakst (do you know his work? he made some interesting paintings) from St Petersburg, because he’s a Jew.

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

Today -100: November 2, 1912: Respect our authoritah!

The Bulgarian army is now within 25 miles of Constantinople.

The Italian Supreme Court refuses to allow the country’s only female lawyer to practice. Although she’s actually already won one court case.

Woodrow Wilson cancels the big Wilson parade scheduled for New York, out of respect for VP Sherman’s funeral.

Headline of the Day -100: “President Warns Against Free Sugar.” (That is, he opposes ending the tariff on imported sugar, which protects the domestic beet sugar industry.)

Foreign News Headline of the Day -100: “San Domingo Rebels Defy Our Authority.” If you’re wondering “And what ‘authority’ might that be?”, you must be some sort of Dominican rebel.

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

Today -100: November 1, 1912: The people are now looking forward to Bulgaria becoming a great power in the Balkans

Gone and already forgotten, the late Vice President Sherman doesn’t even rate a mention on today’s front page of the NYT, although “One Auto Rams Another” does.

The Bulgarian Army routs the Turks. Back home, “The people are now looking forward to Bulgaria becoming a great power in the Balkans, as Turkey formerly was.” Good luck with that.

A Russian aviator who volunteered for the Bulgarian air force (if there is such a thing), is shot down by the Turks, the first aviator ever killed by the enemy in a war.

Cuban elections. Both major parties are advising their voters to go to the polls armed.

Kaiser Wilhelm inspects a new synagogue in Berlin.

Woodrow Wilson speaks at Madison Square Garden, to even longer applause (63 minutes) than Theodore Roosevelt got the day before, and without benefit of bullet either. I’m sure it’s a lovely speech, but it’s a long speech, and I have no intention of reading it.

(Update: scandal scandal scandal! It seems that there were “cheer leaders” to keep the cheering going, with staggered rest breaks.)

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

Today -100: October 31, 1912: Of dead veeps, free postage, strange noises, hatpins, and drag-hunts

Vice President James Schoolcraft Sherman has died at 57. Sherman was the mayor of Utica, NY in his 20s, a Congressman for many years, and a very sick vice president for nearly four years.

Taft was at dinner when he heard the news, because of course he was.

Congress granted Frances Cleveland, Grover’s widow, free mail for life shortly after his death in 1908, along with Benjamin Harrison’s widow. It is thought her upcoming re-marriage will not affect that. Congress has several times considering granting pensions to the two former first ladies, but never has, although Garfield’s widow gets $5,000 a year and McKinley’s did until her death. But I’m sure Mrs. Cleveland and Mrs. Harrison are quite happy with their stamps.

Supposedly, the Ottoman Army executed 300 soldiers who fled the battle at Kirk-Kilesseh.

Theodore Roosevelt gives a speech at Madison Square Garden, very much against doctor’s advice. Well, he tried to give a speech, but first he had to wait for the crowd for 45 minutes: “They began with cheering, and from that they went on to inventing strange noises. When the possibilities of strange noises were exhausted they would go back to cheering, and after that they would go back again to strange noises, and so it went on until it seemed as if noisemaking possibilities had been tested to the limit.” Nothing increases your popularity like getting shot in the chest.

Anyway, then he gave his speech, which frankly does not read as the most exciting speech ever. And he was only able to make his usual wild arm gestures with his left arm.

In Sydney, Australia, 60 women go to jail to protest “iniquitous and unnecessary legislation” against hatpins that stick out too far. They threaten a hunger strike if there are more arrests.

Politically Correct Headline of the Day -100: “Big Negroes in Ring.”

German Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm is injured when he falls off his horse during a drag-hunt. Which probably isn’t what it sounds like.

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

Unringing the bell

Richard Mourdock, Republican candidate for the US Senate for Indiana, says he can’t “unring the bell” of his comments about rape pregnancies being the will of God.

Yeah, imagine if something awful happened, leaving you stuck with a lasting reminder of it, and you can’t get rid of it.

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

Today -100: October 30, 1912: Of widows, fiendish acts, and nighty night, Mr. Vice President

Grover Cleveland’s widow Frances (he married her when he was 49 and in the White House and she was 21 and he’d known her since she was an infant and it was not at all creepy) is to remarry, to an archeology and art history professor at Wells College, a mere year or two her senior.

An unnamed member of the Bulgarian Red Cross accuses the Turks of fiendish acts and indescribable atrocities. Some Bulgarian soldiers had their necks bitten through; others were impaled. According to some random Bulgarian dude.

His family and friends are glad that Vice President Sherman was able to get some sleep last night.

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

Today -100: October 29, 1912: Of leaps in the dark

President Taft says the issue in this election is “On the one hand prosperity and real progress; on the other a leap in the dark.” And any attempt by Democrats to implement the tariff reform they’re promising (a tariff “for revenue only,” i.e., not to protect American industries) would plunge the country into depression, which he claims is what happened in 1893. Interestingly, his statement mentions the American right to vote – except Republicans in California and Kansas, and black people in the South. Not that he has any plans to do anything about the latter, of course, but I’m surprised to see him even mention it.

The governor of Kansas, progressive Republican Walter Stubbs, responds that Taft hasn’t bothered to keep up with Kansas, and that both Taft and Roosevelt electors will in fact be on the ballot in Kansas.

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

Today -100: October 28, 1912: Of allots, uskubs, and tsarevitches

The Bull Moose Party is not doing well at establishing itself everywhere, perhaps not surprising given that it’s only about four months old. In Washington state, judges in several counties have ordered that the party not be on the ballot. “In Mason County... Judge Sheek... decided that two men meeting on street corners and nominating themselves to office did not constitute a convention.”

Wilson, in a speech: “We do not want a big brother government... I do not want a government that will take care of me. I want a government that will make other men take their hands off so that I can take care of myself.”

Serbs are parading in Belgrade to celebrate the capture of Uskub, which can only mean that they have some idea where that is.

The NYT is now saying that Tsarevitch Alexei of Russia was shot by a revolutionist. Or he slipped in the bath.

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

Today -100: October 27, 1912: Of peas, mystery victories, groins, poor aristocrats, and silent congresscritters

With Taft not appearing on the California ballot, Tafties in the state are organizing in support of Woodrow Wilson.

Headline of the Day -100: “HIT TAFT WITH A PEA.; Police Are Looking for a Boy Who Endangered the President's Eye.”

Turkey (which has lost Uskub to the Serbs) makes an official announcement that it has won a major military victory, but won’t say when or where, so it might have been in 1453.

The University of California (meaning Berkeley; there are no other campuses) has expanded rapidly recently, to 7,263 students, making it the second largest university in the country, after Columbia.

NYC Detective Dennis Killane is shot in the groin. There’s nothing special about the story, except... the NYT used the word groin. Also highwayman. Det. Killane was shot, in the groin, by a highwayman. That’s an odd combination of a word I didn’t think would be fit for print in 1912 and a word more fitted for the 18th century.

Oh, after being shot, in the groin, Det. Killane felled the highwayman with his blackjack, before collapsing on top of him.

Disappointing Cut-Off NYT Index Entry of the Day -100: “23,000 MARCH FOR RIGHT OF BOYCOTT; Labor Organizations Parade and Hold Three Meetings Against Injun...” The march, in NYC, was against injunctions, not Injuns. At the Cooper Union meeting following the parade, some guy tried to get three cheers for Teddy Roosevelt but was shouted down. Evidently Samuel Gompers often used puns in his speeches, but “Those who make iron – and steal for a living” didn’t go over well.

Crown Princess Cecilie of Germany (wife of the kaiser’s son) will hold a charity tea for the poor and needy. Well, poor and needy members of the aristocracy.

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

Today -100: October 26, 1912: Of Balkan wars, tsarevitches, and libel

A lot of unverified claims continue to be made about the Balkan War, with a lot of exotic-sounding place-names. Kirk-Kilisseh, for example, may or not have been captured by Bulgaria, and there was a fight between Serb and Turkish troops at Kumanova, and Turkish troops may now be retreating towards Uskub (Skopje). At any rate, the Bulgarians (or possibly Bulgars – the NYT goes back and forth in its usage) almost certainly have been bombarding Adrianople.

Am I the only one who was thinking that Kirk-Kilisseh sounds like the last name of the children if Captain Kirk and that green-skinned alien got married?

Greece names a governor-general for Crete, despite the Great Powers having told Greece quite firmly that it was not going to be allowed to annex it.

8-year-old Tsarevitch Alexei of Russia is sick, and the court won’t tell the Russian people with what. So rumors are going around that it was actually an anarchist assassination attempt. On board the royal yacht. Whose commander, Rear Admiral Chagin, committed suicide out of shame (Chagin is definitely dead). Whereas of course Alexei has hemophilia.

(Update from tomorrow -100’s paper: evidently he climbed on a cupboard and fell off. Or it’s something else.)

Theodore Roosevelt is suing the publisher of a Michigan newspaper, The Iron Ore, for saying in the October 12 issue that “Roosevelt lies and curses in a most disgusting way. He gets drunk, too, and that not infrequently, and all his intimates know about it.”

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

Today -100: October 25, 1912: Of pandering and painting

President Taft tells the Maine Teachers’ Association that teachers should get pensions.

The White House’s exterior is washed for the first time since the Cleveland administration. God knows how long since it’s been painted.

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

Who would Jesus rape?

Do you suppose that when people like Republican senatorial candidate for Indiana Richard Mourdock think about rapes that result in pregnancy (“something that God intended to happen”), they have one of these images in their head,

only with, you know, rape instead of baseball?

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

Today -100: October 24, 1912: Of nephews, and worships and kisses

Rebel General Félix Díaz, nephew of the former president-for-life of Mexico, is captured by government troops. He was depending on rather more of the Vera Cruz troops coming over to his side than actually did.

NYT Index Typo of the Day -100: “Turkish Battleship to Refit to Meet Greek Worships.”

Headline of the Day -100 (LA Times): “Girl Kisses Gov. Wilson and Calls It Politics.”

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

Today -100: October 23, 1912: Of gambling, order, millet & red pepper, and moosettes

Wilson’s running mate, Gov. Marshall of Indiana, sends the state National Guard, with fixed bayonets, to occupy the Mineral Springs race track to prevent gambling.

US forces will “keep order” during the Nicaraguan elections.

The Daily Telegraph (UK) claims that the Sultan of Turkey, before the First Balkan War began, sent a sack of millet to the king of Bulgaria, with a note that there are as many Turkish soldiers as grains of millet; “Now if you wish, declare war.” King Ferdinand responded with a bag of red pepper, with a note saying that Bulgarians are not numerous, but like the pepper they will fuck your shit up.

I paraphrase.

Word of the Day -100: “Moosette,” a new coinage, near as I can tell, which the NYT is so happy with it uses twice today.

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

The Last Presidential Debate: We can’t kill our way out of this mess

Transcript.

(Note written half-way through: I’m tempted to remove all indicators of who said what and let you guess, maybe have a quiz, watch the hilarity ensue.)

The questions start with fucking Benghazi, which is so inconsequential in the context of, you know, the world, and global foreign policy, that I am so fucking sick of hearing about this shiny-object issue.

R: an attack in Benghazi by “terrorists of some kind”

R on the Middle East: “we can’t kill our way out of this mess.” We’d have to change the national slogan from “Killing Our Way Out of This Mess Since 1776.”

I had to look back at the transcript to figure out what “this mess” meant. It’s evidently his term for the entire Middle East.

R: My strategy is to “go after the bad guys” (He’s totally into the bad boys) “to interrupt them...” Well, he’s good at that. “... to kill them.” In other words, to kill our way out of this mess.

He also wants to “get the Muslim world to be able to reject extremism on its own.” Just like he did the Republican Party.

O: “And the 1980s are now calling to ask for their foreign policy back because, you know, the Cold War’s been over for 20 years.” How are the 1980s calling us, anyway? It would be extremely weird if the 1980s were tweeting at us.

Hey, Barack, 2007 called, it wants its sitcom meme back.

BUT IT SURE IS FUN: R: “attacking me is not an agenda.”

O: “I am confident that Assad’s days are numbered.” So he’s not immortal? Good to know.

R: “Syria’s an opportunity for us.” Yeah, that’s how Syrians want to hear we think about them.

Oh, it gets better. He talks about organizing the “responsible” parties in Syria. And then arming them. They can call themselves the “Armed and Responsible Party.” And he wants a “council.”

Both of them say we need to coordinate our Syria policy with Israel, which a) paints the Syrian opposition as puppets of Israel, b) suggests that it’s legitimate for Israel (as well as the US) to intervene to shape Syria’s future government. What “responsible” Syrians could work with people who think that?

O says we went into Libya and “immediately stop[ped] the massacre there”. Is that how he remembers it?

O: “Moammar Gadhafi had more American blood on his hands than any individual other than Osama bin Laden.” Unless you count George Bush.

R has mentioned “responsible” parties in Syria like thirty times now. No one is asking him to define his terms.

R: “But unfortunately, in nowhere in the world is America’s influence greater today than it was four years ago.” Because nothing said American influence like the reaction of world leaders when they heard that George Bush was on the phone.

I thought this was supposed to be the foreign policy debate, but evidently they’ve gotten bored with the rest of the world.

O: “Now, keep in mind that our military spending has gone up every single year that I’ve been in office. We spend more on our military than the next 10 countries combined -- China, Russia, France, the United -- United Kingdom, you name it, next 10.” And this was a good idea because...?

Romney says our navy is smaller than at any time since 1917. Wasn’t it 1916 in the last debate? Is this a Lusitania thing? Oh, and the air force is “older and smaller” than it was in 1947.

O notes that we also have fewer horses and bayonets. Instantly wins that exchange.

O adds that it’s “not a game of Battleship where we’re counting ships.” Navy Secretary... who the fuck is the navy secretary?... Ray Mabus... must be feeling very dejected right about now. Dude lives for a good game of Battleship.

O brags about “crippling” Iran’s economy.

R is against not only a nuclear Iran but also a “nuclear-capable Iran,” which is a term that means pretty much whatever we want it to mean, justifying attacking them whenever we feel like attacking them.

R also appreciates “crippling” sanctions. Because you can’t have enough cripples.

R would “indict” Ahmadinejad for genocide incitation. Did you know the president of the United States could indict the president of Iran? It’s right there in the Constitution, probably. Indeed, did you know that you can indict people for genocide who have committed no genocide? Me neither.

O: “You know, there have been times, Governor, frankly, during the course of this campaign, where it sounded like you thought that you’d do the some things we did, but you’d say them louder and somehow that that would make a difference.” Also, more dickishly.

Apology tour! Drink!!

R: my crippling sanctions will be more crippling than his crippling sanctions.

R on the apology tour: “You said that on occasion America had dictated to other nations. Mr. President, America has not dictated to other nations. We have freed other nations from dictators.” And from democracies. And from many of their citizens being alive. Because we’re all about the freeing.

O. says when he went to Israel, it wasn’t a fundraising tour. Another reasonably good response that he could have come up with a few months ago. And he went to the Holocaust museum, and totally bought a t-shirt in the gift shop, so don’t tell him he doesn’t love Israel.

R: “I look around the world, I don’t see our influence growing around the world. I see our influence receding”. For example, our influence around the world would be greater if our relations with Israel were better. Because Israel is the most beloved country in the world.

O says it was a good idea to kill bin Laden because he met some girl whose father was in the Twin Towers, and killing bin Laden brought closure to her. Obama is all about bringing closure to teenage girls.

That came out creepy in a way I didn’t intend.

Asked what he’d do if in 2014 Afghanistan weren’t ready to handle its own security, Romney totally rejects the premise. Unpossible! Asked what he’d do if Netanyahu called up and said his planes were on their way to bomb Iran, Romney totally rejects the premise. Unpossible!

O: “there’s no reason why Americans should die when Afghans are perfectly capable of defending their own country.” That probably sounded better in the original LBJ.

Actually, it didn’t.

R. looooves him some drones.

O. stopped China from flooding us with cheap tires. I’m pretty sure that was the plot of a Fu Manchu movie.

R: China has 20 million people coming out of the farms every year. And you thought they just grew rice.

R: we can be a partner with China. “Now, they look at us and say, is it a good idea to be with America?” It’s because we’re fat, isn’t it?

China counterfeited some valves! Nuke them!

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Let’s check the record.

MR. ROMNEY: That’s the height of silliness.

ROMNEY: “I’m still speaking.” Drink!

In the foreign policy debate, both closing statements were entirely about domestic issues.

Two references to George Bush in the entire debate, one by each candidate (fewer than the number of times Romney brought up Mali or used the phrase “spinning centrifuges”), and both of those references were on economic issues. American foreign policy began in 2009.

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

Today -100: October 22, 1912: Going to Oyster Bay with a bullet in his chest

Theodore Roosevelt is heading home for a rest. So that’s a Chicago-New York railroad trip for a man who was shot in the chest less than a week ago. The biggest difficulty is keeping him from making a speech to the crowds of people who show up at every stop.

Headline of the Day -100: “Taft Sees Himself Speak.” In a motion picture. The opening act before the flick was Boston Mayor John F. Fitzgerald (JFK’s grandfather) singing “Sweet Adeline.”

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

Today -100: October 21, 1912: Of hirams and impertinent interruptions

Hiram Johnson evidently didn’t know it, but the California Legislature passed a resolution allowing him to stay out of the state campaigning for the vice presidency for more than 60 days without losing his day job. Johnson & Roosevelt just had an argument about this in TR’s hospital room; Johnson was willing to give up his office to keep speechifyin’ but TR insisted that Johnson had a duty to the people of California.

The NYT says Maud Malone’s interruption of Woodrow Wilson’s speech yesterday was “not pertinent” because women’s suffrage is not an issue in this campaign, and was therefore “as impertinent as if she had asked the candidate his opinion of ‘The Affairs of Anatol’ or the latest precious novel of Mr. Wells.”

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

Today -100: October 20, 1912: Of traditional barbarities

Roosevelt exhausts himself by holding meetings about the campaign in his hospital room; his doctors tell him to knock it off. One problem is that his running mate Hiram Johnson has to leave the campaign trail in a few days, or he will lose the office of governor of California for being out of the state for 60 days in a row.

Woodrow Wilson gives a speech at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Feminist Maud Malone stands up in the audience and demands to know his views on women’s suffrage. He refuses to say, claiming it is a state and not a national issue; she refuses to take “I decline to answer” as an answer, and she is arrested. She will be convicted, but not fined, which would allow her to appeal and to call Wilson as a witness. The judges tell her that she had a right to ask a question but legally was required to sit down and shut up when Wilson refused to answer. They say she provoked the audience to disorderly acts by not sitting down. She responds, “There is no telling about these foolish men. They go around and around like windmills when a woman’s voice is heard in one of their meetings.”


A Bulgarian attack on Ottoman forces is observed by King Ferdinand and “several princes.” It should be noted that Bulgaria, Greece, Montenegro, Serbia are all monarchies (and the Ottoman Empire is an empire, with a sultan and everything), and that a bunch of princes from several of the belligerents are at the front.

I’m avoiding talking about the details of battles because 1) probably no one cares, 2) it’s all rumors and lies and censorship at this point. I do like an LA Times sub-headline: “Turks Engage in Traditional Barbarities.” Massacred three Serbian villages, allegedly.

The Idaho Supreme Court rules that the state doesn’t recognize any such entity as the Progressive Party, so its electors can’t appear on the ballot. And a Nebraska district court allows the Republican state committee to choose Tafty electors, overturning the results of the April primary, which chose Theodores.

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

Today -100: October 19, 1912: Our love of peace is now exhausted

The NYT blames the new Women’s Social and Political Union militancy campaign on the “timidity” of the British government which failed to keep hunger-striking prisoners in prison.

Greece claims that Turkey has dispatched doctors with typhus and cholera microbes to the border, to engage in biological warfare.

The notes by Greece, Bulgaria and Serbia declaring war, virtually identical, claim that it’s necessitated by the anarchy in Turkey (and nothing calms anarchy like a four-front war), by Turkey’s refusal to implement reforms promised 30 years ago at the Congress of Berlin (whose provisions were pretty much all broken – Bulgaria shouldn’t even be a country now), and say that they really didn’t want to go to war but were forced to (they totally wanted to go to war).

King Ferdinand of Bulgaria issues a proclamation. Evidently, “this is a war for human rights” (of the poor persecuted Christians in the Ottoman Empire). “Our love of peace is now exhausted.”

Black heavy-weight champ Jack Johnson is arrested for “abduction” of a 19-year-old white woman, Lucille Cameron, on a complaint sworn out by her mother, who later said that she’d rather see her daughter live the rest of her life in an insane asylum than “see her the plaything of a nigger.” In December 1912 he married her, and in 1913 was convicted on Mann Act charges, after a first trial collapsed. He skipped the country for seven years, came back and did some time.

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

I hope you make it very clear

So I first saw a general mention that Mittens had told some business dudes to tell their employees to vote for him, and made a mental note of what I wanted to write about that, but it was premised on a mistake on my part. That mistake: underestimating Romney’s dickishness. Odd that I should still be making that mistake at this stage, but some things are just too big to wrap your head entirely around, and Romney’s dickishness is one of them.

I was going to say that it just showed Twitt’s inability to understand the true relationship between Americans and their bosses that he thought that employees so respected their bosses and were so eager for instruction from their social superiors etc etc.

But in fact, once I saw his actual words, I realized that he understood perfectly that the employer-employee relationship is based on economic and extra-economic coercion: “I hope you make it very clear to your employees what you believe is in the best interest of your enterprise and therefore their job and their future in the upcoming elections.” No, there is no part of the dynamic he recommends here that involves respect in either direction. The employer just makes it “very clear” what he expects his workers to do, if they want to keep their job and their future, and the employees don’t have to respect their boss, they just have to eat his shit; in this case, the shit happens to be man-sized and Mormon.

There’s another problematic word in that sentence I’d like to highlight: “in the best interest of your enterprise and THEREFORE their job”. There’s no therefore about it. Romney likes to describe his economic policies as being about jobs jobs jobs, but they are actually about expanding corporate profits. As the history of American capitalism and Bain Capital show, if a corporation can increase their profits by employing more people, they’ll do it, but if it can do so through mechanization or off-shoring, they’ll do that.

In the writing of this post, I spent several seconds carefully deliberating between the words “dickishness” and “prickishness.” When you have a blog, these are the kinds of decisions you have to make every single day.

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