Today -100: September 23, 1914: I’ve been looking all morning for Armageddon

Fog of War (Rumors, Propaganda and Just Plain Bullshit) of the Day -100: Prince Adelbert, Kaiser Wilhelm’s third son, is reported dead, for the second time this month.

Serb and Montenegrin troops have reportedly captured Sarajevo.  (Update: No, they haven’t.)

Some naturalized Italian-American citizens who were visiting Italy are being detained for military service.  Italy doesn’t have a naturalization treaty with the US, so it doesn’t recognize their US citizenship.

The French Army is considering changing its uniforms to something less colorful (red pants!) and target-y, as rather a lot of officers are getting sniped.  I don’t know if anyone’s talking about steel helmets, which haven’t been issued to soldiers in any army yet.

The NYT says the seeming pro-Allied bias of its war reporting is due to Germany banning war reporters and only issuing curt official statements.

In occupied Brussels, anyone found by the Germans with a French or English newspaper is shot, or at least that’s what they say they’ll do.

The British armored cruisers Cressy, Aboukir, and Hogue are sunk by a German submarine in the North Sea, with 1,400 or 1,500 lost, and 837 rescued by a Dutch steamer.  The 14-year-old obsolete ships really shouldn’t have been out there.  The British are saying the attack was by five U-boats, two of which were sunk, but it was a single U-boat, which wasn’t damaged, much less sunk.

Britain denies stories that Foreign Secretary Sir Edward Grey called for Germany to be carved up between France and Russia and its commerce taken over by Britain.

(click to embiggen.  Caption:  Old Lady: “I’ve brought back this war map you sold me yesterday, Mr. Brown. It’s not up to date. I’ve been looking all morning for Armageddon, and can’t find it marked anywhere.”)

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Today -100: September 22, 1914: So many of the Louvains of which we now hear so much

Pope Benedict is pissed at the destruction of the Cathedral of Rheims, says he cannot “believe it possible, in such a civilized epoch as the twentieth century, to be plunged back to the time of Attila.”

Brig. Gen. Christiaan Beyers, commandant-general of the South African army, resigns over Britain’s invasion of German Southwest Africa (Namibia), saying that South Africa had no quarrel with Germany.  He discounts all the talk of German barbarity, at least compared to that of the British during the Boer War: “With very few exceptions all the [Boer] farms, not to mention many towns, were so many of the Louvains of which we now hear so much.”

Fog of War (Rumors, Propaganda and Just Plain Bullshit) of the Day -100: The London Standard claims that Bavarian troops are almost on the verge of mutiny after fatal clashes in Brussels with Prussian troops who were defiling the portrait of Queen Elisabeth of Belgium, who was a Bavarian princess before marrying King Albert.

Supposedly, Austrian Field Marshal Vodinowski is executed for spying for the Russians and Field Marshal Foreich is fired after a particularly disastrous battle and shoots himself (the only Google references to Foreich refer to this incident, so I’m not convinced he actually existed).

The War Tax Bill is progressing through Congress.  It will replace the expected $100 million shortfall in import duties caused by the war with various stamp duties, taxes on brokers and museums and concert halls and theaters and bowling alleys and pool halls and tobacco dealers, and gasoline and beer and wine.  Republicans are insisting that no new taxes are needed and the $100 million could simply be cut from the budget.

Anthony Comstock files a complaint about the play “A Beautiful Adventure” (by Robert de Flers and Gaston Armand De Caillavet), which he calls “immoral, indecent, and totally improper.”  The assistant district attorney is being sent to judge for himself.  Director Charles Frohman says he’ll sue Comstock for slander.

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Joshua Narins

Josh Narins died yesterday, after a protracted, cranky battle with scleroderma. He was 42-ish.

Josh had a vast online presence, from Twitter to Reddit to
his blog – pardon me, blogs, to his website on his theories about the interrelationship between language, nationality and conflict, to his numerous comments on bulletin boards and blogs, including this one, to Facebook and to other forms of social media you or I have never even heard of, but he did. And emails. His first email to me was precisely one week shy of ten years ago, and there have been hundreds since. He embodied the intellectual equality of the cyber age, corresponding with anyone and everyone who would respond to him, from the lowliest blogger to professors, politicians and Nobel laureates.  Despite a disease that made it all but impossible to sleep or eat, he was recommending readings on Islamic thought and movies and arguing with people on Twitter just a week ago, and now he is silent.

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Today -100: September 21, 1914: The senseless Berserker fury knows no bounds

Rheims Cathedral is still on fire.  The French protest “this act of odious vandalism” and say there was no military reason to shell the cathedral.  The Germans say the French were shooting from that direction.  The London Times says “The senseless Berserker fury knows no bounds.”

Princes currently rumored to have been shot and wounded: Prince George of Serbia, Prince August Wilhelm of Germany.  Also, a Swiss official just back from Vienna says Austrian Emperor Franz Josef died a week ago but they’re keeping it secret to prevent a revolution.

Fog of War (Rumors, Propaganda and Just Plain Bullshit) of the Day -100: A German newspaper claims that on July 22 either British Foreign Secretary Sir Edward Grey or the former ambassador to Germany said that the only way to avoid a civil war over Irish Home Rule was a war with Germany.

Pancho Villa declares himself Dictator of the North after a fight with Constitutionalist General Obregon, in which they barely refrain from shooting each other.

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Today -100: September 20, 1914: Of cathedrals, flanks, submarines, footballers, and horses

The Germans shell the 13th century Rheims Cathedral, setting it on fire. This will feature heavily in Allied propaganda for some time to come, as in this French cartoon



and this 1915 Irish recruiting poster.



Headline of the Day -100: “PUSHING IN GERMAN FLANKS.; Allies Fail to Budge the Invaders’ Centre, However.” War, or bad sex?

A while back, I was saying that no one is defining their war aims. Well, the London Times says the war will go on “until German militarism, its causes, and its effects are destroyed once and for all. ... Not until the German people have been compelled to perceive this struggle in its true light, as a revolt of the invincible forces of civilization against the systematized ethic of barbarism forged by German potentates and Professors, can there be a prospect of lasting peace for the world.” See, and I didn’t think there were any concrete war aims.

An Australian submarine sinks, or at any rate disappears. Probably an accident. Anyway, Australia evidently had submarines.

Mexico’s Not-Provisional-President-Because-Woodrow-Wilson-Said-He-Can’t-Call-Himself-That Carranza orders the expulsion of 400 Catholic priests and nuns from the country.

Headline of the Day -100: “English Soccer Players Go to War.”

The French Army is selling off several hundred horses captured from the Germans.  They can’t be used by the French Army, because they only speak German, so they’re being sold off to farmers (who had their horses requisitioned by the army).

Columbia, already the largest university in the country, will have its largest class ever this year, as people who’d expected to study in Europe think better of it.

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Today -100: September 19, 1914: Whoever knows the good-natured character of our troops cannot seriously pretend that they are inclined to needless or frivolous destruction

Austrian police ban the spreading of news about Austria’s war losses.

Automobiles are banned from leaving Paris except for military ambulances and the cars of officials and journalists.  Possibly to thwart the use of cars by spies, who are supposedly whizzing around Paris identifying concentrations of troops.

Headline of the Day -100:  “Von Kluck Flanked?”  That’s German Gen. Alexander Heinrich Rudolph von Kluck, the inspiration behind this British soldiers’ song, sung to the tune of Pop Goes the Weasel:

Kaiser Bill is feeling ill,
The Crown Prince, he’s gone barmy.
We don’t give a cluck for old von Fluck
And all his bleedin’ army.

Germany distributes a pamphlet in Italy, which says “With German energy we have determined to win, and we invite the Italians to win with us.”  Sure, they can bring their Italian... energy.

Fog of War (Rumors, Propaganda and Just Plain Bullshit) of the Day -100: a Belgian courier arrives in London with news that the Germans have mined all the public buildings and large private homes in Brussels, and filled the schools with straw, preparing to blow up and burn down the city.

Fog of War etc: Alfred Zimmermann, Germany’s assistant foreign secretary, adds a new detail to Germany’s propaganda about the Louvain massacre: the treacherous civilians included women and children who blinded wounded German soldiers.  Obviously, the “severest measures” were required, indeed were forced on the Germans, for their self-preservation.  “Whoever knows the good-natured character of our troops cannot seriously pretend that they are inclined to needless or frivolous destruction.”

Repulsive Headline of the Day -100:  “Repulse Germans 10 Times.”  My favorite bit in this dispatch from the First Battle of the Aisne: “All the next day the battle was of a ding-dong nature”.

Gen. Funston, in charge of the US occupation of Vera Cruz, wants Pres. Wilson to delay the ending of the occupation until October 10 so that all the refugees and priests and nuns can escape before the Constitutionalists inevitably slaughter them all, or something.

Evidently French youths have not been allowed to volunteer for the army before the age of 20 without permission of their father.  Now the government will allow mothers to give that permission, but only if the father is absent.

Germany is supposedly trying to conscript ethnic Germans in the parts of Russia it’s occupying, and hanging those who refuse to comply.

John Rizzo, a prisoner at Sing Sing prison who served as waiter to the warden, escapes after the warden’s dinner party.

The British Parliament suspends the £3,000/year annuity of the Dowager Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, a cousin of Queen Victoria who married a German 70-some years ago.

Turkey orders newspapers to call the renamed city of Petrograd by its old name St Petersburg.  I don’t know why.  Probably just to piss Russia off.

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Today -100: September 18, 1914: Of feet, friendly fire, and withdrawals

Perhaps fortunately, I don’t have an image of the full page of atrocity photos printed in today -100’s Daily Mail, including one of a Belgian holding up the charred remains of his daughter’s foot.

Fog of War (Rumors, Propaganda and Just Plain Bullshit) of the Day -100: The London Times reports that a bunch of German warships accidentally fired on each other.

Fog of War of the Day -100: Austria is supposedly trying to arrange a peace with Russia.

Woodrow Wilson says he ordered the withdrawal of US troops from Vera Cruz because he believes the Mexicans are now able to run their own country.  He does not say why it was up to him to decide when they were ready to run their own country. I guess he thought it was just obvious.

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Today -100: September 17, 1914: Of dum-dums, liberty and the realization of national views, and stacks of corpses

Woodrow Wilson responds to Kaiser Wilhelm’s complaints about the alleged use of dum-dum bullets by the French and British, refusing to express any opinion at this time, saying it would be unwise, premature and inconsistent with American neutrality to do so.  He gives an identically phrased response to Belgian complaints about German atrocities.

When the Germans thought they had captured parts of France, they set about proclaiming themselves the new governors and putting up placards saying that if there was any sabotage, the commune (town) in which it occurred would face severe collective punishment.  Also, “Any locality where persons of the German Army are traitorously wounded, poisoned, or killed will be immediately burnt.”

A Russia proclamation being distributed in the parts of the Austro-Hungarian Empire its troops are occupying says that Russia “brings liberty and the realization of your national views” to oppressed nationalities.  Who knew?  Perhaps the Poles of Austrian Galicia can ask the Poles of the Russian Empire about that liberty and realization of national views.

One thing we’re not hearing much about is war goals.  That proclamation suggests that Russia intends the dismantling of the Habsburg Empire, but it’s short on specifics and obviously more propaganda than policy statement.  The rest of what we hear about war aims is mostly speculation and rumor: Germany wants to annex Belgium, Britain wants the complete dismantling of the German Navy.  Obviously France wants Alsace and Lorraine back and Serbia wants Bosnia, but even those aren’t being openly announced.

Rioters in Italy demand that Italy enter the war on the allies’ side.  The Radicals seem especially bloodthirsty, but everyone wants to get Italy’s claims for new territory (at Austria’s expense) in before everyone else divides up all the good bits.

French Gen. Joffre supposedly escapes an artillery ambush, thanks to fast driving by his chauffeur, a race-car driver.

Irish Nationalist leader John Redmond, evidently satisfied with postponed Home Rule (and postponed civil war), calls for Irish men to join the army.

The London Times says that during the battle of the Marne, at one spot German soldiers built a barricade of corpses six feet high.

The US resumes deporting illegal aliens, which was stopped at the start of the war.

The Colorado miners’ convention accepts Woodrow Wilson proposed three-year truce.

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Today -100: September 16, 1914: The pen is mightier

The Allies recapture Rheims.

Pres. Wilson orders the withdrawal of US troops from Vera Cruz and thus from Mexico.  Carranza seems to be obeying Wilson’s demands that he not take the provisional presidency.  He will therefore be able, under the Mexican constitution, to run for the presidency.  It’s not clear to me why Wilson is so concerned about abiding by the details of the Mexican constitution.

Fog of War (Rumors, Propaganda and Just Plain Bullshit) of the Day -100: Two of the German officers involved in the Zabern affair in 1913, in which the German military trod rather heavily over Alsatian civilians, are reported killed in action.  They aren’t, but Lt. Baron von Förstner will be be killed in action in 1915.

The French have supposedly taken prisoner the German general who would have been Governor of Paris if the Germans had, you know, captured Paris.

Germany threatens China for its supposedly allowing Japanese troops to use its territory in their march on Kiao-Chau.  In response it will “deal with” China “as it sees fit.”

The British House of Lords passes the bill to postpone Irish Home Rule. Tory leader Andrew Bonar Law makes a speech in favor of postponed treason: when the war is over and Home Rule is implemented, he says, Tories will support Ulstermen in whatever steps they think necessary to “maintain their rights.”

The Chamber of German-American Commerce will try to get Belgian movies showing German troops committing atrocities in Belgium banned in the US, as violating the spirit of neutrality.  They’re not even claiming that these films distort the truth, just that they would inflame public opinion.

That article quotes a letter sent by the National Board of Censors to movie producers last month asking that any war scenes (re-enactments, there is as yet no real war footage) be preceded by a request to the audience to “refrain from any expressions of partisanship as the pictures are shown.”

South Carolina Gov. Coleman Blease’s loss of influence continues.  Early in the year, his candidates for the Democratic State Convention almost all lost, and badly.  Last month, he lost his bid for the US Senate, and now his choice to succeed him as governor loses spectacularly to Richard Manning, who is more or less a progressive, by South Carolina standards.

Click to enbiggen.  The papers Kaiser Wilhelm is writing with the lie-ink say “Germans approaching Petersburg,” “Great Austrian victory,” “British fleet wiped out,” “Paris in flames.”  Envelopes are addressed to the American press, the Italian press, Dutch, Swedish.  Caption: “I’m not quite satisfied with the sword. Perhaps, after all, the pen is mightier!”

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Today -100: September 15, 1914: Of marnes, pro-Germs, race treachery, and refugees

The First Battle of the Marne.  Germany’s chance of a blitzkrieg capture of Paris as called for under the Schlieffen Plan, already hopelessly behind schedule due to Belgium’s surprising (to Germany) unwillingness to allow itself to be used as an autobahn, is definitively lost.

Is it an unintentional typo that refers to a made-up interview with William Jennings Bryan that appears in an Argentine newspaper as showing a “pro-Germ view?”

Irish Home Rule will be enacted this week, finally.  Well, put on the statute books.  Asquith intends to postpone implementation for at least a year, and modify the bill, possibly excluding Ulster, before it goes into effect.  The disestablishment of the Church of England in Wales will also be postponed.

Albert M.C. McMaster, a professor of modern languages at Sweet Briar College, writes to the NYT to refute the idea that England siding with France against Germany is race treachery.  In fact, he says, the English are racially most similar to the French, both being based in the Celt.

Fog of War (Rumors, Propaganda and Just Plain Bullshit) of the Day -100:  Rumors in Paris that Gen. Alexandre Percin has been executed as a traitor for having failed to defend Lille and ignoring orders to relieve the fortress Namur.  It was considered suspicious that he had a German wife.  I think the wife bit is wrong, and I know the rest of it is.

Fog of War: Germany says there is a revolt going on in India. There isn’t.

First World War Problems: an American woman stranded in Britain without funds applies to the American Relief Committee (at the Savoy) for passage home, but goes on hunger strike when she finds out it will be third class.  She gives up in the afternoon when the chairman, a Mr. Herbert Hoover, offers her 4s to buy herself dinner.

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Today -100: September 14, 1914: Of war shit

Germany is having trouble fighting a two-front war against France and Russia.  It’s not currently doing well in either.

And it’s not getting much help from Austria.  The Russian war minister is bragging that the Austrian army is so broken that Russia can safely ignore it and concentrate on Germany.  And he’s not exaggerating much.

Serbian forces, surprisingly aggressive in their tactics or perhaps figuring that the Austrian army has its hands full with the Russians, will try to capture Budapest (meeting up with Russian troops).

Belgian lawyers and judges are on strike, refusing to conduct trials while the Germans keep the public out of courtrooms in violation of Belgian law.

German troops invade Kenya, because why not.

Theodore Roosevelt has been making no public comments about the war.  He must be about ready to explode.

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Trading

John Kerry was in Egypt today, talking with his good friends in the coup government.

poll by twiigs.com

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Today -100: September 13, 1914: It’s just a flesh wound

War Headlines of the Day -100:

• “CORPSE EVERY SIX FEET.; Wounded Frenchman Tells of German Right Wing's Fearful Losses.”
• “PRIEST TAKES 26 CAPTIVES.; Austrian Slavs Won Over by His Eloquent Appeal.”  A Russian priest supposedly shames his fellow Slavs to surrender.
• “BRITISH COOLLY DRINK TEA ON BATTLEFIELD; Highlanders, Game Under Terrible Fire, Receive Candy for Good Marksmanship.”  Kill a Kraut, get a chocolate.  Literally.
• “German Called "Slightly Wounded" Had Lost Both Arms.”  The German government may be downplaying casualties a bit.
• “Prisoners Bother Russia.”  They have captured rather a lot of them and don’t know where to put them all.

Prof. Brander Matthews, a literature professor at Columbia, thinks the European war should be great for literature.  Although he predicts that it will take the form of drama rather than novels (the thought that it might be films doesn’t seem to have occurred to him).

South African PM Louis Botha says South Africa will back Britain in this war.  The whole Boer War thing is like totally forgotten.

Rumor of the Day -100: Two or even three of Kaiser Wilhelm’s sons are reported killed. I’m guessing we’re going to keep seeing these stories, so I’ll just do a major spoiler now and say that none of the princes were killed in action during World War I.  One did commit suicide soon after, though, and one became a Nazi.

Britain, France, Russia and Italy tell Turkey that it can’t unilaterally abrogate the treaties giving their citizens immunity from Turkish courts.  The US will say the same.

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Today -100: September 12, 1914: We must go forth unflinchingly to the end

Supposedly, Greece, Romania and Bulgaria have signed an agreement to fight Turkey if it enters the war.

Woodrow Wilson instructs William Jennings Bryan to tell the Turkish ambassador to stop talking about lynchings in the South.

Rumor of the Day -100: the Turkish crown prince and the war minister are said to have either gotten in a duel, in which the latter received a fatal bullet, or, less formally, the war minister got angry during a discussion of policy and took a couple of shots at the prince, who returned fire.

First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill gives a speech with the Churchillian line, “It is our life against Germany’s.  Upon that there must be no compromise or truce.  We must go forth unflinchingly to the end.”

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We will not get dragged into another ground war in Iraq

Last night, Obama gave a speech announcing our next war. Hurrah.

“We took out Osama bin Laden... and recently eliminated the top commander of its affiliate in Somalia.” Enough with the euphemisms for killing.

“Thanks to our military and counterterrorism professionals, America is safer.” Safer than what, he doesn’t say. Gaza?

“We can’t erase every trace of evil from the world.” We must invest in giant-eraser technology.

He does the “Holy Roman Empire” thing on the Islamic State. “ISIL is not ‘Islamic.’” I have a problem with non-Muslims declaring what is or is not Islamic: Your beliefs which I do not consider to be true are not the same as these other beliefs which I also do not consider to be true. If you don’t believe in fairies, you have no standing to tell someone they believe in the wrong type of fairies.

“No religion condones the killing of innocents.” Innocents no, heathens, heretics, apostates, followers of false gods, people who believe in the wrong type of fairies, and bystanders killed in “just” wars, yes. Also homosexuals. And witches.

“And ISIL is certainly not a state. It is recognized by no government, nor by the people it subjugates.” I wasn’t aware that the US had a problem with Middle Eastern regimes not recognized by the people they subjugate. Must be a new thing.

“Last month, I ordered our military to take targeted action against ISIL to stop its advances.” Targeted action = blowing shit up.

“we will conduct a systematic campaign of airstrikes”. As long as it’s systematic.

“we will not get dragged into another ground war in Iraq.” Obama - he kept us out of war.

“I have the authority to address the threat from ISIL...” He does not explain from what this authority magically derives. “...but I believe we are strongest as a nation when the President and Congress work together.” He uses the word “believe” because it’s purely theoretical at this point. “So I welcome congressional support for this effort in order to show the world that Americans are united in confronting this danger.” How can you welcome it when you haven’t asked for it, as specified in the Constitution?

“Now, it will take time to eradicate a cancer like ISIL.” Ah, dehumanizing the enemy, classic.

“taking out terrorists who threaten us”. There’s that euphemism again.

“America is better positioned today to seize the future than any other nation on Earth.” We’re invading the future now?

“Abroad, American leadership is the one constant in an uncertain world.” Like death and taxes, with both of which American leadership is intimately associated.

“It is America that has the capacity and the will to mobilize the world against terrorists.” Not condescending to the entire rest of the world at all.

“Tonight, I ask for your support in carrying that leadership forward.” Although, like the “support” of Congress, it’s basically irrelevant to what I’m going to do anyway. Which is why this was such a bland speech, not intended to rally the nation or win over sceptics.

Listeners to this speech will be left unenlightened about what Obama’s goals are, how they can be measured, how he intends to go about fulfilling them, how long it will take, and how much it will cost.

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Today -100: September 11, 1914: But is it good for the Jews?

German troops invade Nyassaland (then a British colony, now Malawi).

Japan denies being in negotiations with Britain to send troops to Europe.

The NYT complains about the senseless censorship by the warring countries of war news, such as the cutting of the names of places in which battles occur, despite the enemy presumably knowing that they were in a battle there.  Yet, they point out, that story yesterday about the Algerian soldier keeping a German head as a souvenir got through, giving support to German protests against the employment of colonial soldiers by France and Britain.  The NYT notes that this protest is just like the American colonists’ complaint in the Declaration of Independence about the British employment of “merciless Indian savages.”

The Women’s Freedom League (UK) points out, “One share of the arguments brought against the enfranchisement of women is to the effect that since women have no share in war they should not be given a voice in decisions of peace and war. After the sack of Louvain... can it be said any longer that women have no share in the horrors of war?”

Turkey abrogates the treaties dating back to 1056 exempting various foreigners from Turkish courts.

France says that Germany is making false claims about British and French troops using dum-dum bullets in order to justify doing so themselves.

The NYT is amused at the competing attempts of Russia and Austria, as well as France and Britain, to appeal to the Jewish residents of the regions of Russia in which the two armies are presently fighting.  The Times thinks that all the promises made will have to be kept, so this is a turning point for the better for the Jews.  Um, hurrah?

South African Prime Minister Louis Botha will not allow the union leaders he summarily deported to Britain some months ago to return.

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Today -100: September 10, 1914: My heart bleeds for Louvain

Kaiser Wilhelm, in a letter to Woodrow Wilson (leaked to a Danish newspaper; the text will leak a week later) which mostly consists of complaints about supposed British and French use of dum-dum bullets (which they deny, although some soldiers are probably making their own) – “I solemnly protest to you against the way in which this war is being waged by our opponents, whose methods are making it one of the most barbarous in history” – and the audacity of Belgium’s “bloodthirsty population” resisting German occupation, says he regrets the necessity for reprisals and “My heart bleeds for Louvain,” and hints that he’s willing to negotiate an end to the war.  Britain is saying that any peace would require compensation by Germany to Belgium.

One discovery from the war: dirigibles are a lot less useful than expected, and more vulnerable to artillery.

Headline of the Day -100 (L.A. Times):  “Please Don’t Fire, It’s Our Airship.”  The British Admiralty announces that one of its airships will be cruising over London and please don’t shoot at it.

The Seattle school board bans any mention of the war by teachers.  Similarly, California State Superintendent of Public Instruction Edward Hyatt issues an order to teachers not to discuss the war “until the war has closed, until man recovers his senses.”  “Is it not a worthy task, to keep the feet of a hundred million people in the path of honest industry and away from the gory fields of war?”

One of France’s Algerian soldiers brought back a trophy: a German’s head.  He is not happy that it was taken away from him.

A Butte, Montana barber who refused to cut the hair of a national guard private, for fear of offending his regular customers who don’t like the military occupation of Butte to break the miners’ strike.  Given martial law, the barber is tried by a major, who says he is guilty of insulting the governor, the uniform of the National Guard, the US Army, and the American flag, and sentences him to 60 days.

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Today -100: September 9, 1914: The foreign barbarian yoke is gone

Woodrow Wilson proclaims October 4 a day for Americans to pray for peace in Europe.

Austria, whose troops (with Germany’s) are in Russia’s Polish territories, issues a proclamation to the Jews there asking for their support, saying that Austria brings equal rights and religious freedom.  “The foreign barbarian yoke is gone.”

British Chancellor David Lloyd George plans to out-spend his way to victory: “The first hundred million our enemy can spend as well as we, but the last they cannot, thank God.”

Christabel Pankhurst gives a speech suggesting that militant women might be able to rouse spirit of militancy in men.  She says, “The defeat of our country and the victory of Germany would be a calamity from the women’s point of view.”  Christabel is in the process of adjusting her rhetoric: where before Asquith’s government represented the worst of masculine attitudes, now Germany does.  Speaking of Asquith, she says, “I agree with the Prime Minister thoroughly at this time, and I hope he will never disagree again with me.”

Inez Milholland, who has mostly retired from suffrage activism to pursue her legal career, is suing  the Sociological Research Film Corporation for payment of her legal fees for her defense of the film “The Inside of the White Slave Traffic.” They respond that she can’t collect legal fees because as a Swede she is ineligible to practice law in New York (they’re right that she lost her American citizenship when she married a foreigner, although he’s actually Dutch not Swedish).

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Today -100: September 8, 1914: Of vigorous shelling, deadly traps, and vulgar traps

It looks like the immediate threat of a German attack on Paris is over.

War Headlines of the Day -100:

•  “Paris Hears French Shell Germans Vigorously as They Retire.”
• “Austrian Army in Deadly Trap,”
• “Even Servian Women Fighting to Hold Bombarded Capital.”
• “Allies Forget the Japs in Peace Preliminary” (L.A. Times).  The allies didn’t ask Japan to join the agreement not to come to a separate peace with the Central Powers.

The Romanian people would really like to join the war on Russia’s side, but the king of Romania really wouldn’t like this.  Coincidentally, all of the king of Romania’s money is in German banks.

Pres. Wilson offers miners and mineowners in Colorado a plan to end the strike (and allow the removal of federal troops): a 3-year truce (he uses that word); striking miners to be re-employed; elected grievance committees, a majority of whose members must be married; no mine guards employed; no union recognition; no picketing or colonies for 3 years.

Fog of War (Rumors, Propaganda and Just Plain Bullshit) of the Day -100: The London Standard: “One [Belgian] officer took his solemn oath that he had seen an infant carried through the streets on a bayonet.”

Turkey is rejecting plans for American naval vessels to help get Red Cross aid to Christians in Turkey.  The Turkish ambassador to the US claims that Britain is talking about atrocity stories in a “vulgar trap” to somehow get the US involved in the World War (that only makes sense if Turkey joins the war, but everyone now assumes that that’s inevitable).  The ambassador says that yes, there have been massacres, but the Armenians and Maronites were massacred “not as Christians but as political agitators engaged in undermining the Ottoman state.”  Just like Russia kills Jews and France kills Algerians and England kills Indians and the US lynches blacks and waterboards Filipinos.

During the sacking of Louvain, a Swedish diplomat asked a German lieutenant if he could take a picture.  In a delightful misunderstanding, the lieut., not understanding that Mr. Pousette meant he wanted to take a photograph with his camera, pointed him to a mansion which he said had particularly good pictures and told him to help himself.

Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin D. Roosevelt, running for US Senate in NY as an anti-Tammany Democrat, thinks that Boss Murphy’s preferred candidate, Ambassador to Germany James Gerard, wouldn’t run if nominated, because ambassador to Germany is kind of an important job just at the moment.  “I am willing to concede the servility of some of the followers of Murphy, who run or withdraw from a ticket just as he decrees; I am not yet willing to believe that he can drag an ambassador away from important duties to make him the respectable figurehead for a bad ticket.”  Spoiler Alert: FDR is quite wrong about that.

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Today -100: September 7, 1914: Days big with destiny

The German army invites residents of Louvain, Belgium to return to what’s left of it.  They pinky-swear there will be no more burning and looting if the Belgians behave themselves.

Headline of the Day -100:  “Kaiser Calls out Old Men.”  Some of the Landsturm troops spotted in Belgium have white hair.

Woodrow Wilson won’t campaign for any Democratic candidates for Congress this year.  He strongly hints that he’ll just be sittin’ in Washington, waiting for the warring European countries to ask him to mediate their little differences and save the day.  “These are days big with destiny for the United States, as for the other nations of the world,” he writes to Rep. Frank Doremus.

British newspapers strongly suspect that the agreement between Britain, France and Russia not to come to a separate peace had secret provisions...

1/3 of Oxford undergrads have volunteered for the army.

The Russians capture a German zeppelin.

King Victor Emmanuel of Italy falls off his horse.

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