Today -100: January 6, 1914: Of profit-sharing, dueling immigrants, and whiskers

Henry Ford implements a profit-sharing plan. He will also switch to 24-hour production, three 8-hour shifts instead of two 9-hour ones. And there’ll be a minimum wage of $5 a day for even the lowliest of his workers. (Update: not true. The lowliest of his workers are the women, who will get a lower minimum unless they have large families financially dependent on them.)

US Immigration authorities clarify that they will not exclude all people who have engaged in duels: there will be exceptions for ambassadors, government ministers and their attachés.

Kaiser Wilhelm strips the Crown Prince of his military authority because he sent a telegram congratulating the commander of the regiment that implemented the “sabre dictatorship” in Zabern, Alsace for his “firm stand.”

At the University of Oregon, female students “adopted a series of resolutions against whiskers and since then have discriminated in social affairs against students wearing hirsute adornments”. In retaliation, all the male seniors have signed a pledge not to shave for the rest of the semester. That’ll show ‘em.

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Today -100: January 5, 1914: Of stabilizers and mothers Jones

Orville Wright says that air travel will soon be as safe as any other mode of travel, what with his new automatic stabilizer, which will prevent stalling.

Mother Jones is deported from Ludlow, Colorado, where she’d gone to buck up striking miners. She promises to return to Colorado “as soon as it becomes part of the United States.”

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Today -100: January 4, 1914: Of bankers, martial law, suicide clubs, and gay Italian cars

An international (New York, Paris, London) consortium of bankers has loaned money to Mexico to prevent it defaulting on its bonds, but what will it do if, as seems inevitable, Mexico defaults in the future? Since the 1910 and 1913 loans were secured by 62% and 38% of Mexican customs duties respectively, the bankers seem to think it would be incumbent on their nations to land troops to collect those duties. The French government, at least, seems to feel no such obligation to the bankers.

A court in Oregon enjoins the militia from holding the town of Copperfield under martial law (imposed by the prohibitionist governor to enforce the closing of saloons). The sheriff forms a volunteer posse to resist martial law.

The British Tory press has taken to referring to those Liberals who oppose increasing spending to build new battleships the “Suicide Club.”

The other big issue in British newspapers lately, evidently, is a spat over Christian missionary work in Kenya. Worried about the inroads Islam is making against Christianity, the Anglican bishops of Mombassa and Uganda held a meeting of missionaries. Since it included Baptists, Methodists and the like, the Bishop of Zanzibar is accusing them of heresy. This is the sort of thing that kept the letter columns of The Times of London filled.

Headline of the Day -100: “Italy Likes Gay Cars.”

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Today -100: January 3, 1914: Of human sacrifices, martial law, and taxing royalty

A Mexican rebel offensive at Ojinaga fails.

Headline of the Day -100: “Human Sacrifice to Czar.” The czar just took a train from Moscow to Tsarkoe Selo (near St Petersburg), so soldiers were posted every few yards along the entire 400-mile route during a raging storm. Four soldiers were hit by trains in three separate incidents because the couldn’t see that they were standing on tracks because of the snow.

Headline of the Day -100 #2: “Girl Puts Town under Martial Law.” Oregon Gov. Oswald West’s secretary, Miss Fern Hobbs, declares martial law in Copperfield in order to shut its saloons after the mayor and city council refused her demand that they resign (the governor wants the officials who own saloons removed from office).

Germany will implement new taxes on the wealthy to support an increased army. The NYT’s figures are all round numbers in US dollars, which seems a bit suspect, but it says the taxes will raise $250 million, of which $1 million will be paid by the royal family, the first time they have been subject to taxation.

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Today -100: January 2, 1914: Of tangos and radium

Headline of the Day -100: “Catholic Church Fighting the Tango.” Dance-off!

Dr. Carl Alsberg, chief chemist for the Department of Agriculture, warns against “fake radium cancer cures” offered by quacks.

Julius Rosenwald, president of Sears Roebuck, announces a semi-philanthropic scheme to open banks to lend small sums to working-class people so they aren’t driven to use loan sharks. Near as I can tell, nothing came of this.

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Today -100: January 1, 1914: Of eugenic marriages, divorces, colonies, and battleships

At the end of 1913, Wisconsin marriage license clerks were swamped by couples trying to beat the start of the new eugenic marriage law and avoid having to get medical approval (which may prove difficult to get since doctors are refusing to perform the exams for $3, the max the law allows them to charge, and other doctors point out that it is impossible for them to certify that people are VD-free).

And a new law in Nevada dissolves the divorce colony at Reno by requiring a one-year residence in the state before a divorce can be granted.

Bernard Shaw has a (possibly facetious, you can never be quite sure with GBS) plan to ensure peace in Europe: Britain should “politely announc[e] that war between France and Germany would be so inconvenient to England that England is prepared to pledge herself to defend either country if it is attacked by the other. If we are asked how we are to decide which is the real aggressor, we can reply that we shall take our choice, or even, when the problem is insoluble, toss up for it”.

Mexico extends the bank holiday another 15 days.

The British Foreign Office denies that the UK and Germany have come to a deal on dividing up Portugal’s colonies (and Portugal denies that they’re for sale).

British Chancellor of the Exchequer David Lloyd George “opens a peace campaign.” Actually, he’s pushing back against the demands of Winston Churchill (the First Lord of the Admiralty) for more expensive battleships, pointing out that 1) Britain and Germany are so friendly these days that there’s little chance of war, 2) European powers are focusing on enlarging their armies, so Germany won’t be challenging British naval supremacy any time soon.

Have a peaceful and prosperous and peaceful 1914, everyone!

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Today -100: December 31, 1913: Of divvying up Africa, saloons, starving artists, and monas lisa

Germany and Britain are working out a political agreement “which, optimists believe, will go far toward eradicating the danger of war between the two empires.” Phew. Among other things, they have agreed on dividing up Portugal’s southern African colonies (Germany gets Angola, Britain gets Mozambique), at least in commercial terms.

Headline of the Day -100: “WOMAN TO CLOSE SALOONS.; Gov. West Sends His Secretary, Male Officials Having Failed.” Oregon Gov. Oswald West wants the saloons and gambling houses of the mining town Copperfield shut down.

Futurist artist Wenceslas Pelzynnski, in what I can only assume is a delightful meta-commentary on the future of art, starves to death in a Paris garret.

The Mona Lisa is back in France, and all is right with the world.

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Today -100: December 30, 1913: Of expeditions and tax resistance

Sir Ernest Shackleton plans another polar expedition. He plans to cross the entire continent of Antarctica, 1,700+ miles. This will involve ships at either end, so he won’t have to make a round trip. He plans to use a sledge with an airplane engine to run a propeller.

Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, president of the National American Woman’s Suffrage Association, says that her appeal to women to refuse to pay taxes until they have the vote does not constitute “militancy.” Rather, it is passive resistance. It is the recent establishment of a federal income tax that makes this form of protest possible.

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Today -100: December 29, 1913: Of borders, treason, moral turpitude, and corset raids

Serbia has reportedly invaded Albania, capturing four villages the Powers decided should be part of Albania.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire will begin a treason trial of no fewer than 94 Ruthenians charged with spying for Russia, although they actually seem to just be converts to the Eastern Orthodox church who have been trying to convert Catholics.

Hungarian banker Emil Zerkowitz, arriving in the US, is detained and ordered deported for moral turpitude for having fought a duel in Budapest, although it was one of those duels in which both parties fired in the air. Zerkowitz pointed out to the immigration authorities that it is not illegal to duel in Hungary. (Two days later, the LAT reports that he is admitted to the US, on bond to leave within a month.)

Headline of the Day -100: “Corset Raids by Police.” Mannequins in corsets in shop windows in Berlin.

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Today -100: December 28, 1913: Also not fond of dogs

US Rear Admiral Cowles receives several Constitutionalists on the USS Pittsburgh, anchored at San Blas. The Huertaists are pissed.

The Mormons decide to flee Mexico, abandoning their polygamist colonies’ properties.

Charles H. Moyer, President of the Western Federation of Miners, who was organizing the copper strike in Calumet, Michigan, is beaten, shot in the back (superficially), and forcibly put on a train for Chicago, along with the union’s auditor. The sheriff claims to know nothing about it, although the two armed men who accompanied Moyer and the other guy claimed to be deputies. This was two hours after Moyer proposed by letter to the owners that the strike be submitted to arbitration by a board picked by Pres. Wilson and the governor of Michigan. There has also been friction because the union prohibited members affected by the fatal stampede at the Italian Hall from accepting money from the public relief fund; the union will look after its own, it says. Moyer also claimed that the man who shouted Fire was from the Citizens’ Alliance.

Headline of the Day -100 (LA Times): “King George [of Britain] Dreads Fire. Lives in Constant Fear That One of Royal Palaces Will Be Burned. Is Also Not Fond of Dogs.”

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Today -100: December 27, 1913: Of firing squads, radium, duels, presidents & fires, and interrupted speeches

Pancho Villa issues an edict that all Federal soldiers are to be executed by firing squad as soon as captured – especially Gen. Orozco.

Rep. Robert Bremner (D-NJ) undergoes an experimental treatment. $100,000 worth of radium is (temporarily) embedded in his shoulder, where he has a cancerous growth. Which sounds painful, so they’re giving him cocaine for the pain, as was the custom. Spoiler alert: well, you can guess how this one turned out, can’t you?

I’ve reported on duels in France and Germany, but not many fatalities, because the rules of dueling, even where firearms rather than swords were involved, were designed to produce non-lethal results. Then there are Solomon Jackson and Tate Souders, two idiots in Kentucky, who shot at each other with guns in their right hands while clasping each other by the left hand. Both died.

Headline of the Day -100: “President Saves Cottage From Fire.” On vacation in Mississippi, he spots a judge’s house ablaze, has his cars stop and his chauffeurs and secret service agents put it out. Very Cory Booker of him (except for the part where his employees did all the work).

In 1894 “Coxey’s Army” of unemployed people marched on Washington from all over the country, but Jacob Coxey was arrested before he could finish his speech. Now his son-in-law, who was his lieutenant in the unemployed movement, finishes his speech on the “right to work” on the steps of the Capitol. He couldn’t get a permit, so he just said it quickly.

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Today -100: December 26, 1913: Of libraries

A letter to the NYT explains that the reason Montreal has no public library is that the Catholic Church blocked it, forcing the city to turn down Carnegie money. The students of Laval University (a public, not church uni) are prohibited from using any library other than that of the university.

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Today -100: December 25, 1913: His Santa Claus is dead

Headline of the Day -100: “CALLOUS AT GUILLOTINE.; Man Executed at Dunkirk Smokes a Cigar Before He Dies.” The priest tried to stop him making a pre-execution speech (France had public executions until the 1930s), but he insisted that he’d speak if he wanted to. Which he did. And what he wanted to say was: “You Dunkirk people are a lot of cowards!”

Frank Brown, the former governor of Maryland, says the automobile is responsible for the decline of agriculture, with all the joy riding and whatnot.

Festive Headline of the Day -100: “Xmas-Tree Panic Costs 80 Lives.” Including 56 children, trampled when some drunk shouted Fire in a crowded Italian Hall in Calumet, Michigan, in which children of striking copper miners were being given Christmas treats.

No, wait, new Festive Headline of the Day -100, on the front page of the NYT: “SANTA DIES ON XMAS TRIP.” And here’s the first sentence: “Little crippled Wilbur Harris, 8 years old, is to have a merry Christmas, but his Santa Claus is dead.” A philanthropist with tuberculosis went to deliver gifts to a poor family after hearing that the mother told Little Crippled Wilbur that there is no Santa Claus for poor children, but his car couldn’t make it past the snow drifts two blocks away from the poor section of town and he dropped dead walking through the snow with, you know, TB.

Secretary of State Bryan’s latest arbitration treaty has been negotiated with Denmark, and it doesn’t even exclude “questions of national honor” from arbitration.

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Today -100: December 24, 1913: Of currency, bridge-blowing, and secret rooms

The Currency Bill is passed and signed. Yay for the Federal Reserve!

Federal troops in Mexico have adopted tactics previously only used by the rebels, blowing up railroad bridges and telegraph wires, to cut off communications between Pancho Villa in Chihuahua and the rest of the rebels.

Lawyer Melvin Couch, the former district attorney of Sullivan County, NY drops dead at 65 in his office in Monticello, NY. Who else was found in his office? His mistress of 15 years, Adelaide Brance, who had been secretly living in a secret room built into his inner office, never or rarely going out, for three years, except in a desperate search for a doctor when Couch collapsed; as luck wouldn’t have it, the nearest doctor turned out to be Couch’s wife’s brother. Couch also ate and slept in his office, having told his wife that his rheumatism made it impossible for him to climb the hill to their home every day. So he returned home only for Sunday dinners. Brance did all his office work, since he could hardly keep a clerk and secretary. For some reason, his funeral was more sparsely attended than a former DA’s would normally be. Which evidently made one of his friends, a retired jeweler he’d been to school with, so distraught that he committed suicide with a gun Couch gave him, souvenir of one of Couch’s biggest cases as DA, that of Jack Allen, the last man hanged in that county. In fact, the sheriff’s hands were shaking so much that Allen tied the rope himself, saying he wanted to be in Hell in time for supper. Brance was not allowed to go to the funeral, being held in the jail on robbery charges trumped up to hold her in case Couch turned out to have been murdered. Although Brance had almost nothing from Couch (a couple of mortgages worth $650) and he left no will, she will turn down offers of $1,000 for a two-week vaudeville engagement and $3,000 to appear in a film about the affair. The last trace I can find of her was being checked into a sanitarium in January.

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Today -100: December 23, 1913: Of holidays, negro supremacy, and splits

Huerta decrees a bank holiday until January 2, because everyone loves a long holiday. Banks won’t be obligated to pay off checks, letters of credit, etc. I assume this will just be putting off the inevitable national bankruptcy.

Sports Headline of the Day -100: “[The] Negro’s Supremacy in Ring Near End.”

There are rumors of strife among the Pankhursts. Sylvia Pankhurst (daughter of Emmeline, sister of Christabel) has been increasingly focused on working with the working class of the East End and on mass tactics, while E & C are focused on coercive individual acts of militancy. Questions of tactics have caused numerous splits in the militant end of the British women’s suffrage movement before, but the latest “split” is intra-familial (other sister Adela, a Sylvia ally, has already been packed off to exile in Australia).

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Today -100: December 22, 1913: Of munitions and volcanoes

Japan is making arms for the Huerta regime, but says it’s just business, not hostility towards the United States.

Mexican Constitutionalists say they’ll fire on any ships bringing in munitions.

500 people are killed by volcano eruptions on the island of Ambrin in the New Hebrides.

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Today -100: December 21, 1913: Of fagging princes, and advisers

Headline of the Day -100: “Prince Henry a ‘Fag.’ No Special Privileges at Eton for the King’s Third Son.” Unless you count, you know, going to Eton. He is fagging for Viscount Gage.

Russia, Britain and France object to Turkey’s using Germans to reconstruct and reorganize its military. Since they also used German advisers before the disastrous First Balkan War, I’m not sure why everyone’s complaining.

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Obama press conference: I adequately discussed my frustrations

Barack Obama had a gift for the Washington press corpse today: a surprise press conference.

On the lapsing of unemployment benefits: “So when Congress comes back to work, their first order of business should be making this right.” When Congress comes back to work. Funny how Congress isn’t working but they still collect pay. And by funny I mean awful.

On the Obamacare website problems: “I think in the last press conference I adequately discussed my frustrations on those.” There is no more Obamalike a phrase than “I adequately discussed my frustrations”.

Ed Henry says Merry Christmas to him and he says Merry Christmas back and nobody tell me what Bill O’Reilly has to say about this.

There’s some discussion of NSA snooping. He continues to say that the NSA has done nothing wrong ever. And while he’s pretending that NSA surveillance will be dialed back in some unspecified way (we need a metric: will they pull back to 3/4 of the way up our asses?), it’s only because of the entirely unwarranted suspicions of the American people (“that trust in how many safeguards exist and how these programs are run has been diminished. .... [I]n light of the disclosures that have taken place, it is clear that whatever benefits the configuration of this particular program may have may be outweighed by the concerns that people have on its potential abuse”).

On debt ceiling chicken games: “But I’ve got to assume folks aren’t crazy enough to start that thing all over again.”

And that’s where I stopped paying attention.

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Today -100: December 20, 1913: By fire and sword

Lt. Gunther Freiherr von Forstner is convicted by a court-martial for assaulting that lame cobbler in Zabern, Alsace with his sabre. Forstner said the lame cobbler looked like he might hit him, and a Prussian officer who allows himself to be struck is irretrievably dishonored.

Mexican Federal troops nearly capture Emiliano Zapata (or so they say). They moved in on his temporary hq and surprised the rebels, the last few of whom “cut their way out” with machetes (the NYT doesn’t quite say that they cut their way through troops rather than through bushes or something, but that’s the gist).

Zapata sends a circular to random addresses in Mexico City warning that he will soon take the capital “by fire and sword.” All members of the Federal Army will be executed without trial, he says, and Huerta will be hanged from the balconies of the National Palace “as a warning” and the other members of the Cabinet shot. After a short trial, of course, because justice.

AT&T is forced by the Department of Justice to reorganize and drop its control over Western Union to avoid anti-trust prosecution.

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Today -100: December 19, 1913: Of smallpox and prisons

The battleship Ohio was struck by a smallpox epidemic on the way from Europe to Guantanamo. One dead, 11 definite cases and 12 suspected.

British suffragettes seem to have attempted to blow up Holloway Prison, not very successfully. Presumably as a protest rather than an escape attempt.

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