Today -100: July 5, 1916: I don’t think Hallmark makes a thank-you card for that one

Chicago fires 68 teachers who are members of a union.

As the polio epidemic continues, wealthy New Yorkers are sending their children out of the city. There is no treatment for polio, so the patients just have to ride it out and hope for the best.

Prince Wilhelm of Germany, 2nd in line to the throne, is enrolled in the German Army as a lieutenant of the First Guard Infantry. On his tenth birthday.

Willy will still be wearing that uniform (well, probably a larger version) when he was, um, will be (Jesus with the verb tenses already!) killed in action in Belgium in 1940.

Carranza finally responds to Washington’s demand of June 25th that he make clear his attitude towards the US military presence in his country. Carranza’s note is reportedly mild enough in tone to reduce the possibility of a Mexican-American war.

On the 4th of July Woodrow Wilson dedicates the new American Federation of Labor building, though being Woodrow Wilson he says something pompous about having, as president, to serve all classes and not favor any one class, so he’s dedicating the building to common counsel and a common understanding. Mabel Vernon of Nevada, a women’s suffrage organizer, interrupts to ask why he opposes a national suffrage amendment. The police throw her out. Wilson and Vernon’s paths will cross again.

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

Today -100: July 4, 1916: Of Wall Street witches, guardsmen and candy, polio, unchecked lawlessness, and bats

Hetty Green, the Witch of Wall Street and the richest woman in the world, dies
 at 81. She inherited a fortune (some of it quite possibly by forging a will), invested well in bonds and railroads and whatnot, and was legendarily, epically cheap. She leaves an estate worth upwards of $100,000,000.

US national guards are moving towards the Mexican border. Pennsylvania guardsmen arrive in Kansas starving, because they weren’t provided enough food for the train trip, while New York troops heading for Texas are being overfed by hospitable Southerners on the route. “At every stop since leaving Indianapolis a royal reception has been accorded the men, said reception too often consisting of too much candy, ice cream, and cake.”

There’s a polio (“infantile paralysis”) epidemic in New York City, with 72 new cases and 23 deaths in a 48-hour period. There will be a lot more. Movie theaters are ordered to admit no children under 16. Licenses have been revoked for Fourth of July celebrations in Brooklyn, where the outbreaks are most numerous. This polio epidemic will be followed by smaller, related outbreaks in succeeding summers, including the one in 1921 in which Franklin Roosevelt contracted it.

A Royal Commission into the Easter Rising blames former Chief Secretary for Ireland Augustine Birrell. It says the “main cause of the rebellion appears to be that lawlessness was allowed to grow up unchecked,” what with the volunteer forces of both sides openly drilling and so on.

Baseball news: Ty Cobb is suspended and fined for throwing his bat into the stands after striking out.

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

Today -100: July 3, 1916: What’s the Russian for “too little, too late?”

The Russian Duma passes a bill giving equal civil rights to peasants.

Supposedly, Carranza has refused to accept Pancho Villa’s surrender. Total bullshit, I’m pretty sure.

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

Today -100: July 2, 1916: Of evacuations, offensives, and peasant women

Secretary of State Lansing asks Congress for $300,000 more to evacuate Americans from Mexico. He seems to think they should all leave the country. The US Army has been commandeering munitions intended for the Europeans, including 250 machine guns (price: $450,000), and may take their barbed wire as well.

The French and British offensive along the Somme River captures 5 towns.

Headline of the Day -100:

They’re resisting preliminary steps, like surveying, for land re-division, suspecting that petty officials will use it to screw them over. They’ve been rioting wherever anything is tried.

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

Today -100: July 1, 1916: A day of downs and ups

The Battle of the Somme begins. This is the big one, the offensive that will end the war, according to the British generals. They are so convinced that a one-week bombardment (1.6 million shells!) would cut the German barbed wire, destroy their positions, and demoralize the German soldiers who survived into instant surrender, that the British soldiers were ordered to advance at a walking pace towards the German trenches and they were weighed down with 60 or 70 pounds of equipment, including shovels so they could rebuild the trenches they’d be capturing and bury all the dead Germans. And after that, on to Berlin. The French generals were more sceptical about the plan.

In fact, the Somme offensive was so ambitious, conducted along an 18-mile front, that British artillery was too spread out to do that sort of damage (also a lot of the shells, mostly imported from the US, failed to go off). Also, the German trenches, some of the oldest of the war, were very well constructed – German trenches were always the best, French the worst. So the wire wasn’t cut, the positions weren’t destroyed, and the German soldiers sat out the bombardment relatively safe deep underground and are therefore well-positioned to use machine guns to take out wave after wave of soldiers, who did not stroll all the way across No Man’s Land or in many cases make it past their own trenches. For the British Army, July 1, 1916 was the bloodiest day of this or any other war, with almost 20,000 killed out of 120,000 casualties, 3% of the casualties suffered by the British for the whole war on just this day. Compare that to the 21,000 killed in the whole of the Boer War. German casualties were less than a tenth of that.

Gen. Douglas Haig, whose baby this was, wrote in his diary on July 2 (to be fair, the early reports he was receiving were innaccurate): “A day of downs and ups. I visit two casualty-clearing stations. They were very pleased at my visit, the wounded were in wonderful spirits. Reported today that total casualties are estimated at over 40,000. This cannot be considered severe in view of numbers engaged and the length of front of attack.”

The Battle of the Somme lasted nearly 5 months. British positions advanced, at most, 8 miles.

Carranza comments that Americans, including those in the Punitive Expedition, have killed 48 Mexicans despite the supposed lack of a state of war between the two countries.

Mexico denies a report in an Italian newspaper that Mexico and Germany signed an alliance.

Four more of the Columbus raiders are executed in New Mexico.

British sources (so take it for what it’s worth) say there are riots all over Germany in response to the imprisonment of Karl Liebknecht.

Sir Roger Casement appeals his conviction. King George revokes his knighthood.

This is an official film, The Battle of the Somme, released in Britain in August. Most of it’s real, although the brief scene of the soldiers going over the top is probably a re-enactment.

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

Today -100: June 30, 1916: If ever a man deserved capital punishment, it is he

Mexico releases the 10th Cavalry prisoners.

What do you think this obviously deeply racist NYT reporter would be saying about the black soldiers if he weren’t doing the rah rah nationalism thing? He uses the phrase “big buck negro” in the next paragraph.

There’s an unconfirmed report that Pancho Villa is still alive.

Headline of the Day -100:  

There’s a first time for everything, I suppose.

Sir Roger Casement makes a statement in court, objecting to the whole concept of being tried in England by an English jury under an English statute (the 1351 Treason Act). He is of course found guilty by the English jury and sentenced to English death. The Daily Telegraph says (but then it would, wouldn’t it?), “If ever a man deserved capital punishment, it is he.” The Daily Express, coming close to hinting at Casement’s homosexuality, says “The Irish have a genius for the canonization of martyrs, but even they will hardly find ground for admiration in the career of this clever, educated, and rather sordid and extremely degenerate traitor.”

The Berliner Tageblatt newspaper reappears, after running afoul of the censors for saying that corporations want to see the war go on indefinitely for the sake of their profits. The editor had to sign a promise not to disturb “the uniformity of patriotic enthusiasm.”

Germany is extending meat rationing to the entire Reich.

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

Today -100: June 29, 1916: Of spillsburys, courts-martial, and German gold

The Carranza government orders the release of the American prisoners. That’s 23 negro soldiers and their Mormon scout Lem Spillsbury, which is more or less the name you’d expect for a Mormon scout, I guess. Although the US is also still demanding Carranza’s active consent to the US Punitive Expedition roaming the Mexican countryside, the Mexican-American War II: Electric Bugaloo (is that how you spell bugaloo? I’ll be damned if I’m gonna look it up) seems for now to have been averted. To mixed reaction in Juarez, according to the NYT’s ever-condescending correspondent:

All foreigners living in Juarez are being disarmed, in retaliation for the disarming of Mexicans in El Paso.

Karl Liebknecht is sentenced by court-martial to 30 months in prison and dismissal from the army (which, as a member of the Reichstag he shouldn’t have been drafted into anyway, but then neither should he be tried when he has parliamentary immunity, so whatevs). The charges were attempted high treason, gross insubordination and resistance to the authorities for his speech at a May Day rally. The trial was held in secret, with newspapers banned from printing any details except the verdict.

Sir Roger Casement’s lawyer faints during his closing speech at Sir Roger’s treason trial. He was able to call no witnesses, because they’re all in Germany, where the treason allegedly took place. He claimed that the Irish brigade Casement was recruiting from POWs was only intended to fight for Irish Home Rule, not to assist Germany. Casement, making a statement, denies taking any “German gold.”

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

Today -100: June 28, 1916: Of treason and rough riders

More Mexican soldiers are arriving at the border. The worry in the US is that they’ll invade the US through El Paso while the US Army is elsewhere.

Mexico is recruiting for its army, just like the US is. Including from its jails. A circular promises that the Mexican Army will capture Washington D.C.

Spoiler Alert: It won’t.

At his trial, Sir Roger Casement’s lawyers try to have his treason indictment quashed because the alleged treason took place... outside the country. Is that even against the law?

In event of war, Theodore Roosevelt plans to ask the War Department to be allowed to field his own Rough-Riders-type unit and organize it according to his own notions, with horses and airplanes and everything. He’s already started recruiting.

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

Today -100: June 27, 1916: It is the acme of idiocy to inquire of a man what his purpose is after he shoots you in the face

The Progressive Party’s National Committee, after a long, bitter debate, endorses Charles Evans Hughes for president, following the instructions of Theodore Roosevelt. A motion to instead run Victor Murdock, newspaperman and former Republican congresscritter for Kansas, is defeated 2 to 1. And that’s pretty much it for the Progressive Party. You were fun while you lasted, Bull Moosers, not least because you were called Bull Moosers.

The US demands Mexico release the prisoners it captured at Carrizal, or else. The US also wants permission for its troops to remain in Mexico, doing whatever the hell they want.

Thousands of Carranza soldiers arrive at the Arizona border.

The US Navy tells ships to ignore Mexican lighthouses, which are either out or doing something unspecified but sneaky (there’s never any follow-up, so I have no idea what this is about).

Capt. Lewis S. Morey, the sole American survivor (other than those captives) of the Carrizal fight, himself wounded in the shoulder, reports that the men of the 10th Cavalry faced death with smiles on their lips and singing, although sadly he does not say what they were singing. That may all be true, who knows, but when a white captain is saying it about his negro subordinates, it sounds a little, well...

Morey is repeating the story that the Mexicans started the fighting.

The House and Senate are still negotiating the Militia Bill, and yes they probably will screw over the families of members of the militia sent to war in Mexico. Sen. William Stone (D-Missouri) says supporting the dependent sons of militiamen would just make them “degenerate.”

Speaking of war, they’ve decided not to. Specifically, they’ve removed the phrase “in the opinion of Congress an emergency now exists,” which could have been taken as acknowledging a state of war, and we can’t do that. Sen. Lawrence Sherman (R-Illinois) disagrees: “It is the acme of idiocy to inquire of a man what his purpose is after he shoots you in the face.”

The British Cabinet might break up over Irish Home Rule. Lord Selborne has resigned as president of the Board of Agriculture, and others may follow. Or they may not.

Ernest Shackleton is unable to reach his men on Elephant Island. Too much ice. He thinks/hopes they can survive on “short rations, supplemented by penguins” until he can get his hands on an icebreaker.

The 8th Earl of Sandwich dies at 76. His book “My Experiences in Spiritual Healing,” in which he claimed to be able to cure disease through prayer and the laying on of hands, came out just last year. Awkward. It was the 4th earl who could cure hunger through the laying on of meat between two slices of bread.

A note about the NYT -100’s fidelity to the facts: the earl was born in 1839, so they just went ahead and said he was 77. They always do this. Always.

The Cleveland Indians become the first baseball team to wear numbers so fans can identify the players.

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

Today -100: June 26, 1916: Change of food and water causes more deaths than bullets

Germany’s food dictator threatens to ban all meat consumption starting in September.

Col. Terribery of the NY National Guard announces the standards for new recruits: they must be at least 5’4” and weigh 128 to 195 pounds (max 165 for mounteds). No four-eyes, no “excessive nervousness.” No one with bad molars (the British Army had a dental-health standard for recruits, but dropped it in early 1915 – insert your own joke here). And there’ll be a negro regiment, which will be a first for New York.

Ad of the Day -100:

According to Drugs.com, it’s sodium bicarbonate.

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

Today -100: June 25, 1916: Mexico has long been an international nuisance

The Wilson administration is rather annoyed at not being able to formulate a Mexican policy (i.e., go to war) because of Gen. Pershing’s delay in sending a full report on exactly what happened at Carrizal (i.e., who really started the shooting between Mexican and US forces). The delay is in part because US soldiers are still making their way back in dribs and drabs. But the US is demanding the immediate release of captured US soldiers.

Gen. Jacinto Treviño, the Carrancista chief in Chihuahua State, says in a telegram to some random Mexican that at Carrizal he was only following Carranza’s orders. The US will take this as an admission that if there’s a war, the Mexicans started it.

The threat of impending war has brought Mexicans together, with some of Pancho Villa’s generals and men flocking to join Carranza’s army.

The US Senate Military Committee drops the $1 million the House appropriated for the families of National Guardsmen drafted into federal service. Instead, any guardsman with a wife and/or children may ask to be discharged. The Committee also removes the House’s 3-year limit on the terms of service, leaving it as “the period of the emergency.”

William Howard Taft says the duty to invade Mexico is clear – “Mexico has long been an international nuisance.” But, as he was told when he president, it will take 250,000 soldiers, we’ll need to capture every major city and port and then deal with guerilla warfare and it will all take two or three years.

This is surprising: a Sunday NYT Magazine article on the rather obscure late artist Henri Gaudier-Brzeska.

The Mag also examines why so few French Canadians are joining the army. Evidently it’s because public schools in Quebec are not taught in French.

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

Today -100: June 24, 1916: Of emergencies, ammunition, home rule, and dicks

The House of Representatives passes a resolution authorizing the president to draft state militias into the US military and allowing them to be used out of the country in Mexico, to meet what Woodrow Wilson is calling an “emergency” and is pointedly not calling a “war.” The House also appropriates $1 million for the families of men in the National Guard (the families of men in the regular Army can suck it, evidently).

If there is a full-scale war with Mexico, there may well be an ammunition shortage, because US munition-makers have all recalibrated their machinery to supply the European market with ammo of a different caliber than that used in US Army rifles. US Army ammunition is made by government arsenals, whose capacity is fairly limited.

A convention of Irish Nationalists from Northern Ireland, held in Belfast, agrees by a vote of 475 to 265 to John Redmond’s demand (backed up by a threat to resign as leader of the party) that they accept Lloyd George’s proposal to implement Home Rule but “temporarily” exclude 6 Ulster provinces. Lloyd George, always a sneaky fuck, let the Nats think that the exclusion was for the duration of the war only while telling the Unionists that it wasn’t and that there would be a whole new set of negotiations after the war, which they could obstruct to their hearts’ content. Sir Edward Carson and the Unionists have already accepted the proposals, even though they entail a Home Rule Parliament in Dublin.

Disconcerting Headline of the Day -100:

That’s William Dick and his new bride, Madeleine Force Astor, widow of John Jacob Astor IV, who went down with the Titanic.

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

Today -100: June 23, 1916: Elk?

The Allies force Greece to demobilize its military. The resignation of the Cabinet yesterday also seems to be in response to Allied demands. Parliament will be dissolved and new elections called. The Entente also demands the firing of the Athens chief of police; he’s taking a leave of absence.

Carranza troops evacuate Juarez, expecting the US to occupy it if there’s a war, which would give the US Army access to the railroads, which they have not been allowed to use to supply the Punitive Expedition.

The NYT has heard rumors about Germany trying to influence Carranza into a war with the US, but doesn’t believe them.

Headline of the Day -100:

The Arabs are revolting.

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

Today -100: June 22, 1916: The Battle of Carrizal

The 10th Cavalry (a negro unit) are attacked at Carrizal, Chihuahua, where they mistakenly thought they might find Pancho Villa, by Carrancista troops. Or at least that’s the American version. They lose the engagement, with 16 dead and 24 captured, though there are more Mexican casualties, including Gen. Félix Gómez. The first Pres. Wilson hears of this is literally hearing newsies yell “Extry!” and buying a newspaper.

There are several conflicting stories about how the fighting started. In one, the Mexicans ambushed the Americans under a flag of truce. In another, Gen. Gómez sent out a captain with a message ordering the Americans not to enter the town, but after hearing the message, they shot at the captain instead, injuring him and killing a private. I believe there’s a proverb about this sort of behaviour. A variant is that as the Mexican couriers approached, the Americans deployed in a skirmish line, making Gómez believe that they planned to attack, so he ordered his men to open fire.

Behind the scenes, Gen. Pershing is so pissed that he asks permission to seize the city of Chihuahua and the railroads, but Wilson tells him no. Hey, Wilson really did “keep us out of war.” Although he also took us to the brink of it. (Note that the 1916 Democratic election slogan is “He kept us out of war,” not as it is often misquoted “He kept us out of the war.” The slogan covers both Mexico and Europe).

Companies are being urged to continue the pay of employees who are off with the national guards, and many are, making up the difference between militia pay and regular wages or even paying full wages. But pacifist Henry Ford says no, and will treat any such workers as having quit. (Ford will deny this.)

The mayor of El Paso, Texas has Pancho Villa’s wife (as well as her sister, her sister’s 5-year-old child, and the child’s nanny) seized and deported to Mexico. Didn’t know mayors could do that.

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

Today -100: June 21, 1916: Of discourteous tones and tempers

The NYT publishes a report about life on the British submarine E-9, interesting perhaps because written by Rudyard Kipling.

The US note is finally sent to Carranza, and it is as abrasive, not to say insulting, as advertised. It complains about Carranza’s “discourteous tone and temper,” then discourteously refuses to withdraw troops and indeed promises to send more, while discourteously castigating the First Chief for failing to control anarchy in Mexico, for giving shelter to bandits who invade the US, for being “unable or possibly considered it inadvisable to apprehend and punish” the Villaistas responsible for the Columbus, New Mexico raid, and worst of all, for maligning the innocent motives behind the US invasion. It warns of “the gravest consequences” if Mexico treats this as a declaration of war. Many now expect a war. Everyone’s quite excited.

The US arrests a German banker from Mexican City suspected of doing the German government’s nefarious business in Mexico.

Supposedly there were food riots in Munich in which 25,000 people, no less, took part.

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

Today -100: June 20, 1916: I.M. Laughter, we hardly knew ye

The US government has been leaking for days that it is about to respond to Carranza’s demand for US troops to leave Mexico by telling him to stuff it. Now, Carranza issues an order to the military not to let any more US soldiers cross the border. He denies that the US incursion is aimed purely at bandits.

The governors of two Mexican states, Sinaloa and Yucatan, order Americans to leave in what the NYT is describing as declarations of war, though without quotes it’s hard to tell how seriously to take that.

One person who doesn’t know how seriously to take it is the commander of the gunboat USS Annapolis, who decides to send some bluejackets ashore in Mazatlán to ask what “declaration of war” means. Mexican soldiers shoot at their boat and arrest two crew members but release them after “an explanation” (the explanation may have been their commander threatening to bombard the city). Only one American is reported injured, Boatswain’s Mate I.M. Laughter. Well, that’s what it says, I.M. Laughter.

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

Today -100: June 19, 1916: Go to your homes and be good Mexicans

Helmuth von Moltke the Younger, former German Army chief of staff and nephew of the famous strategist, drops dead at a funeral service in the Reichstag held for Field Marshal Colmar von der Goltz, who died in Baghdad in April.

Pres. Wilson calls out almost every remaining state militiaman for duty guarding the Mexican border, freeing the regular army to invade in case of an all-out war.

Carranza tries to tamp down anti-American demonstrations, calling on his people to “Go to your homes and be good Mexicans, remembering also that I will do my utmost to preserve the dignity of the Mexican nation. If we are forced to resort to arms I will lead you in person.”

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

Today -100: June 18, 1916: Of trails of blood, bananas, pirates of public opinion, follies, and the hidden crimes of society

Mexico demands that the latest bunch of US troops to cross the border be withdrawn or they will be attacked. The soldiers are pursuing the bandits I mentioned 2 days ago. “A trail of blood followed last night by the cavalry led to the body of a Mexican peon. His only possessions were two bullet holes, a rifle, and some ammunition.”

Headline of the Day -100:

We’ve all been there.

The Maine Progressive Party dissolves and its candidates step down, a week ahead of primaries.

Headline of the Day -100:  

Wolfgang Kapp (you may know him from the Kapp Putsch of 1920), who German Chancellor Bethmann-Hollweg called one of the “pirates of public opinion” in the Reichstag because of a pamphlet he wrote attacking the chancellor, tried to challenge him to a duel, but B-H said he was too busy, what with the war and everything.

Now playing on Broadway: Marion Davies in the Ziefeld Follies.

Kings County (Brooklyn) District Attorney Harry Lewis gets summonses issued for the president of Universal Film Exchange and for the manager of the Rialto Theatre because he objects to “Where Are My Children?”, a Tyrone Power Sr. movie about a district attorney whose crusade against abortion finds connections to it in... his... own... house! Lewis says “I am bitterly opposed to both plays and films that portray the sex relations and also exhibit the hidden crimes of society for the curious mind of the young.” 

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

Today -100: June 17, 1916: A jumble of words

The Democratic Party platform includes this atrocity of a sentence, straight from the pen of Woodrow Wilson himself: “The Democratic party, therefore, recognizes the assertion and triumphant demonstration of the indivisibility and coherent strength of the nation as the supreme issue of this day in which the whole world faces the crisis of manifold change.”

The only contention over the platform (indeed, the only plank actually debated on the floor of the convention) was about the women’s suffrage plank. The debate was heckled and cheered by women in the galleries, and suffragists wrote down the names and votes of delegates, leading the NYT, perhaps inevitably, to make snide Madame Defarge references. The convention votes to “recommend the extension of the franchise to the women of the country by the States on the same terms as to men” after a speech by Sen. Thomas Walsh of Montana pragmatically reminding them that women vote in 12 states now and could really fuck up their shit in November, or words to that effect. Carrie Chapman Catt is not happy about the failure to support a federal constitutional amendment, saying the D’s “thought to hoodwink the women by a jumble of words”.

The man in charge of the Mexican Army in the north, Gen. Jacinto Trevino, warns Gen. Pershing that any movement of US troops further into Mexico will be considered an act of war. All males in Juarez have been ordered to report for military duty in preparation for that war. Mexico is already pissed off at the harsh language reportedly in the unsent US response to Carranza’s demand that its troops be withdrawn and is now also miffed at the Democratic platform, which justifies the occupation and its continuation while congratulating Wilson on his “resistance” to calls to just conquer Mexico, “notwithstanding the provocation to that course has been great, and should be resorted to, if at all, only as a last resort.” If at all!

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

Today -100: June 16, 1916: I join the American people in thanking God that we have a president who does not want the nation to fight

The Democrat Convention nominates Woodrow Wilson and Thomas Marshall, earlier than planned. The delegates realized that there wasn’t enough business to keep the convention busy for all 4 days for which it was scheduled to run in order to keep the money rolling in to St Louis hotels and bars and prostitutes. They threatened to go home before the nominations and the organizers gave in and moved the noms up, deleting a day of boring speeches from the schedule.

William Jennings Bryan is attending as a reporter, but the delegates demand he be allowed to give a speech. Funnily enough, he has one all prepared. He praises Wilson effusively, saying “I join the American people in thanking God that we have a president who does not want the nation to fight.” He applauds the Federal Reserve Act for breaking the hold of Wall Street not only on the business of the nation but its politics, setting the nation free.

Pope Benedict bans dancing at all Catholic entertainments. Priests are banned from attending any dances.

The Bishop of Brooklyn says he’ll order phones removed from all Church buildings if another instance of phone-tapping occurs.

Mexican bandits raid across the border, attacking a US cavalry encampment, killing 3 soldiers but losing rather more themselves.

Laredo, Texas businessmen force the editor of El Progreso across the border into Mexico, not to return under penalty of death.

Rumors that Jews in Russia are encouraging desertion from the army lead Prime Minister Boris Stürmer to order governors to “keep strict watch over” Jews. “You must very carefully observe what the Jews talk and how they behave in railroad carriages”; “In case of the least suspicion, a Jew should be tried by court-martial” and if there is no evidence, exile them to Siberia anyway.

A mail train is blown up by a bomb mailed to the governor of Utah.

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