Today -100: January 9, 1917: Wars of murder and rapine are the worst kind

A British court in India sentences 17 Indians in the 1915 “Lahore conspiracy” to overthrow the Raj (aka the Ghadar Mutiny). 6 are sentenced to death (actually a lot more than that were executed). The court says the movement originated in the United States in conjunction with the German consulate in San Francisco (which is actually true). “The enemy’s plan was to bring about a war of murder and rapine.”

Sen. Robert Owen (D-Oklahoma) introduces a joint resolution to remove the Supreme Court’s power to declare federal laws unconstitutional. In a speech a couple of days ago, Owen said that the Court is an “antiquated institution” which has outlived its usefulness. He objects to their getting to rule on the Adamson 8-Hour Act.

Chicago Police Superintendent Charles Healey and several others are arrested for taking payoffs from brothels, thieves, gamblers, etc. A raid ordered by the state attorney grabs up bagman Thomas Costello, who has on him a book detailing which places could be raided and which could not. At his trial in October, Healey was represented by Clarence Darrow, who put the blame on Costello, on Mayor Big Bill Thompson, on anyone other than Healey. Darrow had him come to court practically in rags and called him “old, weary, feeble, and broken” (he was c.61, but would live to c.103) and got him acquitted.

The Supreme Court upholds the ban on liquor shipments from wet states to dry ones.

The AP is suing Hearst’s International News Service for stealing its stories through bribery and other nefarious means.

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Today -100: January 8, 1917: Why, the trenches are almost like a health resort, what with the mud baths and everything

Lord Northcliffe claims that the average death rate among British soldiers is 3 per thousand per year and their rate of illness is less than among civilians in London.

Former Greek finance minister Alexandros Diomidis, who has defected to the Venizelos side, says that King Constantine is only waiting for German orders before declaring war on the Entente.

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Today -100: January 7, 1917: Of hitherto unsuspected peoples, leaks, and boards of education

The various statements made by the Entente in favor of the protection of small states (Belgium, Serbia, etc) and peoples, as well as similar statements from the Central Powers (Poles, the Flemish), cynical and instrumental as they are, have “brought to the surface the claims of many peoples whose very existence has been hitherto unsuspected.” Lithuanians, Croats, Ukrainians, etc in the United States have been putting forward claims to independence. Also “Jugoslavs” (southern Slavs), a term I don’t think I’ve seen in the NYT before.

Oh, Congress is serious about investigating the rumor that Wilson’s peace note was leaked to Wall Street in advance. There’s no real evidence to date that there was a leak.

NY Mayor Mitchel appoints a negro, E.P. Roberts, to the Board of Education. Roberts is a doctor who has been a medical inspector for the Board. There was a negro on the Board once before, in the 1890s. It’s unclear how many members the board has; more than 10 anyway. Mitchel has 10 seats to fill and appointed Roberts first, presumably in case other choices objected to working with a black man.

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Today -100: January 6, 1917: The mystery of Rasputin and the wolfhound

Everyone in Russia is still talking about Rasputin’s mysterious death and related mysteries like Who killed the dog in Prince Yusupov’s house? Was he given a revolver (Rasputin, not the dog) and told to kill himself but instead he shot at one of the conspirators and hit the dog?

The Senate votes to endorse Wilson’s note to the belligerents. Well, to support the part calling on them to state their war aims but not the bit about creating an international agreement to keep the peace, which might involve the United States actually doing something. Some Republicans propose a substitute hoping for peace without mentioning Wilson at all; it fails 36-27.

Pres. Wilson nominates a woman to the United States Employees’ Compensation Commission: Frances Axtell, a Republican former state legislator in Washington.

The appellate division of the New York State Supreme Court orders the dismissal of a supervising nurse in the NYC health Department for being an alien (a German), despite the fact that she has the most supervising-nursey name ever, Eugenia S. Prengel.

NYPD Patrolman Hugh McKiernan dies, supposedly as the result of a disease contracted from being bitten six months ago by a man he was arresting.

Carrie Chapman Catt, president of the National American Woman’s Suffrage Association, says that women’s suffrage has been thwarted by fraud in at least 5 states, noting that the majority of states make no legal provision for challenging fraud in referenda or forcing recounts, so that even proof of rampant corruption wouldn’t overturn a rigged election result. She doesn’t name the 5 states or as far as I can tell offer any evidence of actual corrupt ballot practices.

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Today -100: January 5, 1917: Wherein is named a blessing of war

Germany promised to return some of the Belgians it deported to Germany for forced labor. If they’ve done so, I haven’t heard about it, but they are returning 70 tuberculosis cases. In a slow cattle car.

Russian censorship is relaxed to allow newspapers to “publish all conceivable versions” of the death of Rasputin.

Headline of the Day -100:

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Today -100: January 4, 1917: Of romantic killings, brutal Senegalese negroes, princes, consuls, and improper promotions

Headline of the Day -100:

Germany complains that its POWs in Africa are being over-worked, mistreated and “are guarded by colored troops with brutality characteristic of the Senegal negroes.” German prisoners are even whipped by negro guards, they claim.

Pancho Villa supposedly shot his secretary for sending out a manifesto, I guess in Villa’s name.

There sure are a lot of German princes, although there’s now one less. Prince Friedrich zu Fürstenberg, 18, was killed in the fighting in Romania late last year.

Mexico’s consul general in New York, Juan Burns, is arrested in the US for arranging arms shipments to Mexico.

Mary Cornwallis-West, who is a former under-aged mistress of Prince Edward, the wife of  the lord-lieutenant of Denbighshire, mother of a princess (in someplace called Pless, in Silesia)(Princess Daisy, she’s called) and also mother of Winston Churchill’s step-father (who may or may not have been Prince Edward’s biological son), is censured by a military Court of Inquiry for interfering to secure the transfer and promotion of a soldier, presumably her boy-toy. The British press will eat this up with a spoon. She sounds like her life would make an excellent book, although evidently the actual book about her life is not that book.

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Today -100: January 3, 1917: Of mad monks, governors, and generals

Headline of the Day -100:

This is not the first time Rasputin’s been reported murdered nor the first time somebody’s actually tried to kill him, so the Times is treating the report with cautious scepticism. 

Arizona Gov. George Hunt refuses to give up his office to the other Arizona governor, Thomas Campbell, so Campbell rents a temporary office in which to attempt to govern. The Post Office has decided that any mail addressed to “the governor of Arizona” will go to Campbell.

The new French Minister of War Hubert Lyautey fires 11 generals, replacing them younger men with experience in this war.

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Today -100: January 2, 1917: The man who has come to regard the ballot box as a juggler’s hat has renounced his allegiance

Headline of the Day -100:

Turkey abrogates the Treaty of Paris (1856) and the Treaty of Berlin (1878). I think that means they’re restarting the Crimean War. Turkey says the promises of the signatories to guarantee her sovereignty were always ignored anyway. Turkey will also abolish the semi-autonomous status of the Christian province of Liva in the Lebanon.

The news of Grigori Rasputin’s murder is out. He is said to have been “assassinated under dramatic circumstances,” as opposed to the usual humdrum, boring assassinations.

Arizona still has two governors. Thomas Campbell takes the oath. In his “inauguration” speech, Campbell says “The man who has come to regard the ballot box as a juggler’s hat has renounced his allegiance.” Yeah... what? “My office is the saddle; I am the governor of Arizona.” Unfortunately, he is then refused entrance into his saddle in the Executive offices, supposedly because it’s the New Year’s holiday and everything’s closed.

Berlin, Ontario changed its name to Kitchener last year. First there was a referendum on whether to change the name, in which a name change won by a very low turnout, then a second low-turnout referendum chose between Kitchener, Brock, Corona, Adanac (Canada spelled backwards), Benton, and Keowana. But not everyone was happy with the idea, and the Citizens’ League has just been voted into power in the city, with a mandate to change the name back, provoking a riot by soldiers.

Police in Long Island City disrupt New Year’s Day festivities, namely cock-fighting. The organizer, a Simon Flaherty, says the birds were sent to him for reshipment and he had no idea about the fighting part. Which doesn’t quite explain what 40 roosters were doing in a second-story hotel room.

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Today -100: January 1, 1917: Of dark forces, enduring Newfoundland sober, idiots, field marshals (fields marshal?), and vehicular slaughter

The Russian Duma deplores the “dark forces” undermining the war effort.

Prohibition goes into effect in Newfoundland.

Politically Correct Headline of the Day -100:

Douglas Haig is promoted to field marshal to reward his many achievements in senseless slaughter.

In 1916, 729 people died in automobile accidents in New York State (a record), 392 of those in NYC.  248 of those were children. Another 78 people were run over by trolleys in the City and 74 by horse-drawn wagons.

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Today -100: December 31, 1916: less an offer of peace than a war maneuver

There is some dispute over the results of the Arizona gubernatorial election, and a recount is still going on, so Thomas Campbell (R) takes the oath of office. Aaaaand so does the incumbent governor, George Hunt (D). I foresee hijinks.

The Entente countries respond to Germany’s call for talks, saying that an end to the war at this stage would be to the advantage only of the aggressors (they mean the Germans, because we’re still playing the “But you started it” game). “A mere suggestion, without a statement of terms, that negotiations should be opened, is not an offer of peace. The putting forward by the Imperial government of a sham proposal lacking all substance and precision would appear to be less an offer of peace than a war maneuver.”

There is talk that Germany might disclose its war aims/peace terms in confidence to Woodrow Wilson, who would then act as go-between or something.

The meeting of the psychology section of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, held at Columbia, decides not to have a Serb, Prof. Paul Radosavljevich, read his paper on “The Psychology of the German People.” He’s going along with their story that it was cut because of length. (To be fair, it sounds like the sort of intellectual horseshit you’d expect from someone specializing in “race psychology”).

Eduard Strauss, Austrian composer of waltzes and polkas, conductor, and brother of Johann II and Josef, dies.

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Today -100: December 30, 1916: Of mad monks, paper, and mail tubes

It’ll take a few days for the news to get out of Russia (indeed, for the body to be found), but Rasputin is assassinated today by a party of aristocrats at the Yusupov Palace. The official investigation was cut short by the tsar and the stories of the participants varied, but he doesn’t seem to have been as hard to kill as the legends suggest: a few bullets did it.

The Scandinavian countries support Wilson’s peace proposal.

Former French Prime Minister Joseph Caillaux is in Italy, trying to get it to join France in making a separate peace. He’s not getting very far. And the pope refused to see him.

Paper manufacturers refuse to answer questions from the Federal Trade Commission about why newsprint prices are suddenly so high.

NY Mayor Mitchel protests to Congress the plans to end pneumatic mail tubes, which he says would add to traffic congestion by increasing the number of mail trucks, and those things drive crazy, yo.

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Today -100: December 29, 1916: Of conscription, progressives, and toddling

The US War Department claims that in the event of war, state national guards have the power under existing law to conscript any man aged 18 to 45.

In the November election, the Progressive Party failed to get the 10,000 votes required to stay on the New York ballot, so it’s closing up its offices and selling off the furniture.

Headline of the Day -100:

It’s a dance.

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Today -100: December 28, 1916: Of failed negotiations and national registration

Carranza rejects the agreement made between US and Mexican negotiators. The protocols would have had the US expedition leave in 40 days unless something came up. Carranza believes this would just be an incentive for Villa to embarrass him by making something come up. Also, if Mexico agreed to a delay in the US leaving, it would amount to an affirmative agreement to the illegal US occupation. You can see his point.

Canadian Prime Minister Robert Borden is proposing a system of national registration but says it’s not intended to lead to conscription, unless it does.

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Today -100: December 27, 1916: Of nations in bondage, leagues of nation, birth control, and mad monks

Headline of the Day -100:

Arthur Henderson arguing against peace to the French socialists, who seem strangely interested. “If we enter into negotiations now we do so when Germany is not repentant for her wrongdoing and is glorifying in the success of her military efforts, in fact, in the victory of German imperialism. In my opinion, if France and ourselves were to enter into negotiations under existing conditions, with such a spirit, we should be nations in bondage. Nothing less than that is the price which our enemy would exact for peace today.”

Germany has responded to Wilson’s note, promising to talk about measures to prevent future wars – after Germany has won this one. It has not responded to his request to spell out its peace terms/war aims.

The White House is denying that Wilson’s idea of a league of nations would entail US involvement in a military force intended to intervene to stop wars & invasions. No, he’s thinking more along the lines of international arbitration and “moral force.” Still, it’s alarming enough to many in Congress that Wilson thinks he can unilaterally commit the US to arbitrating its disagreements with other countries. Why, Rep. John Rogers (R-Mass.) points out, we might even be forced to arbitrate our racist immigration laws.

The Medical Society of the County of New York votes 210 to 72 against calling for birth control to be legalized. There were only six women doctors at the meeting; they all voted in favor of birth control.

Iliodor, the Mad Monk of Russia, well the other Mad Monk of Russia (little-known fact I just made up: the collective term for monk is a “madness of monks”), who fled to the US six months ago, says that his frenemy Rasputin now supports Russia making a separate peace, probably because of German bribery. Iliodor will publish articles next month in The Day, a Yiddish newspaper, and doesn’t seem to mind being bylined as The Mad Monk of Russia.

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Today -100: December 26, 1916: Of infernal devices

Someone tries to blow up Utah Gov. William Spry’s home, but the device is discovered accidentally by a neighbor shoveling snow. Authorities suspect the IWW, as was the custom.

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Today -100: December 25, 1916: Somewhere in France blood is flowing

The French Senate unanimously rejects peace talks as long as there are German soldiers still on French soil.

Opening today: Cecil B. DeMille’s Joan the Woman, the Joan being Joan of Arc, played by opera singer Geraldine Farrar, who is also currently signing Madame Butterfly at the Met. The movie has a framing story set in the trenches of the Great War in which a soldier – an English soldier, curiously – discovers a sword and has a dream about Joan, or something. In this version, Joan has a boyfriend!

Also opening today: Snow White, with Marguerite Clark in the title role. You can watch the rather gorgeously restored version here.


And it’s the Grand Xmas Double Number of the trench newspaper The Wipers Times (now the B.E.F. Times). “Between ourselves I think the least said about ‘Peace on earth, goodwill to man’ the better, when most of the inhabitants of this planet are trying to ‘put it across’ someone or other in the most unpleasant way that lies handy.”

The poem “Gone” commemorates the dead of the 73rd Brigade, the brigadier, transport officer, etc, with the refrain “We ne’er shall forget his cheery face, Tho’ we’ve got another to take his place.”

And here’s the poem “Shattered Illusions”

It may be love that makes the world go round,

Yet with the statement oft I disagree;

It was not love (on that I’ll bet a pound)

That, last night, made the world revolve round me.

I cannot bring my mind to realise

That love inspired friend Fritz, when he propelled

A Minnie* of a most terrific size

In my direction, so, I had him shelled.

*Minnie: trench mortar (Minenwerfer)

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Today -100: December 24, 1916: Of leagues and leagues

Secretary of State Lansing says that Wilson’s peace proposals might lead to the US joining some sort of league of nations to keep the peace.

Opening today: Stuart Paton’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, a special-effects extravaganza, with Allen Holubar as Nemo. The ads say it’s “the ONLY photo drama actually photographed at the bottom of the ocean.” In the Caribbean, the exact same location used by Disney’s 1954 James Mason version.

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Trump’s brain

The problem is that Trump is very clear about how he thinks, and we just didn’t believe him because it’s, you know, crazy. During the campaign he kept talking about how other candidates didn’t look “presidential” of have a “presidential look,” and we just thought it was a looks- or gender-based insult, but Trump actually thought he was making a logical argument, as we now realize when we read that he rejected certain cabinet choices based entirely on appearance – that said, I wouldn’t want to have to stare at John Bolton’s mustache across a conference table either. Many people are subconsciously swayed by appearance, of course, but Trump will just say it out loud like it’s a legitimate category of analysis.

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Today -100: December 23, 1916: Terror and savagery have become the very air we breathe

Rep. W.R. Wood (R-Indiana) wants an investigation into reports that Woodrow Wilson’s letter to the belligerent powers was leaked in advance to stock speculators.

The Germans have been rather pleased with Wilson’s letter, taking it as reinforcing their own call for peace talks, which the White House strenuously denies was the intention.

King George V gives a speech which is seen as a big No to Wilson, saying “The vigorous prosecution of the war must be our single endeavour until we have vindicated the rights so ruthlessly violated by our enemies and established the security of Europe on a sure foundation.”

Bertrand Russell evades British censorship by sending a letter by a mysterious female messenger to the American Neutral Conference Committee, which will pass it on to Pres. Wilson. Russell asks Wilson to intervene to stop the war before it destroys European civilization. He says that the Germans dominate on the mainland, the Allies on sea, and so neither can win a decisive, crushing victory. He says the war has lowered “the whole standard of civilisation. ... Fear has invaded man’s inmost being, and with fear has come the ferocity that always attends it. Hatred has become the rule of life, and injury to others is more desired than benefit to ourselves. ... Terror and savagery have become the very air we breathe. The liberties which our ancestors won by centuries of struggle were sacrificed in a day, and all the nations are regimented to the one ghastly end of mutual destruction.”

Charles Evans Hughes, who resigned from the Supreme Court for his failed run for the presidency, is back before it,  as a lawyer for the Corn Products Company, something about stock dividends. I’m sure it was in no way awkward.

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Today -100: December 22, 1916: Of camels, borahs, POWs, and shylocks

First flight of the Sopwith Camel. After being consistently outflown by German planes, the British finally have a decent fighter, or will have when they’re introduced into battle in a few months (although they are a pain in the ass to learn to fly).

The Allies demand that Greece give them control of its telegraphs, posts and railroads, release all Venizelos prisoners, and ban all meetings of army reservists.

Sen. William Borah (R-Idaho) blocks a Senate vote of support for Wilson’s letter to the belligerents. He says the Senate just hadn’t had enough time to consider it. Evidently they’re just hearing about this whole “war” thing for the first time and don’t have an opinion on it yet.

Germany gets Russia to stop using German POWs to build a railroad under harsh conditions by the simple expedient of reprisals against Russian POWs, as was the custom.

Sarah Bernhardt plays Shylock at the Empire Theatre in NYC.

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