Today -100: June 8, 1917: Of conchies, Romanovs, and vivisection

Theodore Roosevelt doesn’t think much of conscientious objectors.

The workers’ section of the Petrograd Workers’ and Soldiers’ Soviet vote to send ex-Czar Nicholas and his family to Kronstadt. The Leninists had suggested putting them to work in the gold mines of Siberia.

Rutgers University’s application to the state of New Jersey to teach using vivisection is turned down.

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Today -100: June 7, 1917: Of Alsace-Lorraine and socialist congresses

The French Chamber of Deputies’ insistence that peace terms must include the restoration of Alsace-Lorraine (and indemnities) is pissing off German socialists, who want peace but also want to retain the provinces, which are German and have always been German, according to Germans with either relatively short memories or relatively long memories.

In Iowa, several men from Alsace-Lorraine registered for the draft, but will be exempt because the US considers them German, even though they think of themselves as French (the US insists this is not taking a position on who owns the provinces, just what their status was at the start of the war).

The Petrograd Workers’ and Soldiers’ Soviet will summon an international socialist congress in Stockholm next month. They think peace would more likely come from talks with other representatives of the proletariat than between nation-states.

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Today -100: June 6, 1917: Of registration

National Registration Day passed off successfully, with estimates of over 10 million men having registered. There is little resistance, and that mostly by individual agitators. A march in Butte (evidently organized by Finns) is dispersed by soldiers with bayonets and the Negaunee, Michigan sheriff swears in all the men who registered to prevent an anti-conscription march. Navajos drive off an Indian agent who comes on their reservation to try to register them. Ute Indians also resist, pointing out that they don’t have the vote. A man in Waterbury, Connecticut asks to be exempted because he’s supporting a wife and two children here and another wife and three children in Russia.

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Today -100: June 5, 1917: Of registration, awed anarchists, Albanias, and the Pulitzers

Preparing for Registration Day today, the government claims to expect everything to go smoothly, with minimal resistance. Men will just be registering today; any claims for exemption (conscientious objection, being a foreign citizen) will be made later. Secretary of War Newton Baker says men should “rejoice” at the opportunity to register. Rejoicing will be vigorously enforced:

Austria-Hungary is talking about a peace without annexations of Russian territory, but it still plans to annex Serbia, take Italian territory, and it will demand an indemnity. Also a dependent (but nominally independent) Albania, and the Balkan states forced into a customs union with Austria.

Italy also wants indirect control of an independent-but-not-really Albania.

The first ever Pulitzer Prizes are awarded. The New York Tribune wins best editorial for one on the anniversary of the sinking of the Lusitania that used the phrase “wanton murder.” Other winners are the French ambassador J.J. Jusserand for “With Americans of Past and Present Days” and a bio of Julia Ward Howe.

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Today -100: June 4, 1917: Of concrete expressions of a new idea for democracy, and the mad hatters

Russia’s Provisional Government threatens to cut off the Kronstadt fortress if the Petrograd Workers’ and Soldiers’ Soviet doesn’t give it back. The Kronstadt revolt is led by Anatoly Lamanov who is a third-year chemistry student. He believes Russia should devolve power to the communal level and that Kronstadt is leading by example as “the concrete expression of a new idea for democracy.” But the fort will still be ready to fight off any Huns who show up.

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This stems from the ridiculous 1908 Supreme Court ruling that a boycott of Danbury hat companies using scab labor during a 1902 strike was illegal under the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. The company was awarded heavy damages and is now seizing hatters’ homes. It plans to shut its factories while that’s going on, because of the aforementioned fear of revenge. Just as an aside, mercury was a major component of hat manufacturing, so it was a pretty fucking dangerous trade.

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Today -100: June 3, 1917: Of objectionable zitheads, parading anarchists, submarine warfare, and banned leaflets

An article in the NYT Sunday Magazine section explains the standards theoretically used by army surgeons to inspect potential recruits, but somehow I doubt that anyone is really rejected for excessive acne (because “The man must not be objectionable to his tent mates”).

Armed anarchists parade in Petrograd.

When Germany resumed unrestricted submarine warfare, the German people were told that it would end the war in two or three months. Well, Germans have calendars, and...

The US is considering giving every soldier and sailor free life insurance out of the goodness of its heart. $4,000.

British and French airplanes have been dropping leaflets on Belgium. The German occupation authorities impose a fine of 10,000 marks and 3 years’ imprisonment for any Belgian reading them.

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Today -100: June 2, 1917: Of draft dodgers and fortresses

Pres. Wilson warns the young men fleeing draft registration by traveling abroad that they will be prosecuted when they return. US borders and outgoing ships are now being watched carefully and new passports not being issued to draft-age men.

The Petrograd Workers’ and Soldiers’ Soviet decides that it’s in sole control of the Kronstadt fortress now, and the provisional government can go suck eggs.

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The fruits of our labor will be seen very shortly even more so

Today Trump pulled out of the Paris Climate Accord.

SO SAD. BIGLY SAD: On a failed robbery in Manila that wasn’t terror: “But it is really very sad as to what's going on throughout the world with terror.”

WE DON’T: “It was a very, very successful trip, believe me.”

STILL DOESN’T KNOW ISRAEL IS IN THE MIDDLE EAST: “We’re also working very hard for peace in the Middle East, and perhaps even peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians.”

WE (SIGH) DO: “And believe me, we’ve just begun.  The fruits of our labor will be seen very shortly even more so.”

HE NOT ONLY DOESN’T KNOW THAT ISRAEL IS IN THE MIDDLE EAST, HE DOESN’T KNOW THAT THE UNITED STATES IS IN THE WORLD: “The Paris Climate Accord is simply the latest example of Washington entering into an agreement that disadvantages the United States to the exclusive benefit of other countries”

WHAT A CYNIC (WITH NO UNDERSTANDING OF CLIMATE SCIENCE) WOULD SAY: “This agreement is less about the climate and more about other countries gaining a financial advantage over the United States.  The rest of the world applauded when we signed the Paris Agreement -- they went wild; they were so happy -- for the simple reason that it put our country, the United States of America, which we all love, at a very, very big economic disadvantage.  A cynic would say the obvious reason for economic competitors and their wish to see us remain in the agreement is so that we continue to suffer this self-inflicted major economic wound.”

MAYBE HE THINKS WE’RE FINLAND? “The United States, under the Trump administration, will continue to be the cleanest and most environmentally friendly country on Earth.  We’ll be the cleanest.”

OH, LET’S: “So if the obstructionists want to get together with me, let’s make them non-obstructionists.”

He wants to re-negotiate the Paris Accord, although if climate change isn’t real I’m not sure why we’d bother.

WHAT HE’LL ENSURE: “I will work to ensure that America remains the world’s leader on environmental issues”.


NOVEMBER 8, 2016: “At what point does America get demeaned?  At what point do they start laughing at us as a country?”

HORRIFIED SNIGGERING, YES, LAUGHING, NO: “We don’t want other leaders and other countries laughing at us anymore.  And they won’t be.  They won’t be.”

YEAH, FUCK PARIS!  “I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris.” (Actually, Hillary kicked his ass in Pittsburgh.)

(Update: He made two of those cracks, the second being about putting Youngstown, Detroit etc before Paris, France. He does know that the city is just the place the agreement was signed, right? The Accord wasn’t issued as a decree by the mayor of Paris. Or is it just an attempt to tap into American anti-French sentiment like failed missionary Mitt Romney used to?)

NICE NAME: “Beyond the severe energy restrictions inflicted by the Paris Accord, it includes yet another scheme to redistribute wealth out of the United States through the so-called Green Climate Fund -- nice name –”

SURE, DIMES ARE AMERICAN MONEY: “Many of the other countries haven’t spent anything, and many of them will never pay one dime.” Yeah, the idea is to distribute money from the rich countries to the poor ones. There wouldn’t be a lot of point to it if everyone was paying in.

IS THAT THE SAME NOBODY WHO DIDN’T KNOW HEALTH CARE WAS COMPLICATED? “And nobody even knows where the money is going to.”

WE DON’T BELIEVE YOU; IT WAS ALWAYS NON-BINDING: “Believe me, we have massive legal liability if we stay in.”

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Today -100: June 1, 1917: Over where?

The House again votes down Wilson’s censorship provisions in the Espionage Bill, 184 to 144. Many of those opposing it express a touching faith in the patriotism of US newspapers.

US medical societies are asking the government to abrogate or suspend German drug patents for the duration. They’re especially worried about the supply of Salvarsan, because there’s a war on, and where there are soldiers and sailors, there’s syphilis. Lots and lots of syphilis.

At the Stockholm international socialist peace conference, German socialists insist that Germany must keep Alsace-Lorraine.

The Justice Dept arrests more people for counseling resistance to draft registration, including two Columbia students and one (female) from Barnard.

In Austria, a minor government official is sentenced to 5 years for distributing the (American) song “I Didn’t Raise My Boy to Be a Soldier.”

George M. Cohan publishes the song “Over There.” Here’s Cohan singing it in 1936 (1 minute in):



Here’s the first recording of it, by Nora Bayes in 1917:



She says “Sammies” instead of “Yanks.” And finally, Enrico Caruso in a 1918 recording. Kind of funny with his accent.

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Today -100: May 31, 1917: The first duty of a man is to be a man

In his Memorial Day address, Woodrow Wilson says “We did not set this government up in order that we might have a separate and selfish liberty”. “America will once more have an opportunity to show to the world that she was born to serve mankind.” (Warning to the world: It’s a cook book!).

At his own speech, Theodore Roosevelt tells young men not to wait to be drafted. “The first duty of a man is to be a man.”

What is it with race riots this week? A couple of hundred negroes in Harlem fight cops trying to arrest a man.

The Germans have evidently been asking Turkey not to expel Jews from Jerusalem, because it looks bad.

Anti-black violence continues in East St. Louis, although reduced by rain and the National Guard. Blacks are fleeing the city.

Some draft-age males are escaping to Cuba and Mexico to avoid registration. France plans to force expatriates to register, or something. Also, June 5, National Registration Day, doesn’t really work in Alaska, because ice, so they’ll need a later date. Attorney-General Thomas Watt Gregory orders stenographers to attend anti-draft meetings to take down speeches with a view to prosecution.

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Today -100: May 30, 1917: No evasive reply is acceptable

The Petrograd Workers’ and Soldiers’ Soviet says that its policy of “peace without annexations or indemnities” means there should be an immediate offer of peace negotiations. And if Russia’s allies don’t agree to make this offer, they “take equal responsibility on themselves with the Governments of Germany and Austria-Hungary for the continuance of the war. No evasive reply is acceptable.”

The Russian War Ministry orders all monks sent to the front lines to work in sanitation. Try not to think about how long Russian Orthodox monks’ beards are.

And in other news from Russia: vodka riots! Or, as they call that in Russia: Tuesday.

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Today -100: May 29, 1917: I think it would be a good thing if all our young Quakers should go to jail

Brazil’s Chamber of Deputies votes 136-3 in favor of war on Germany, or to be more precise, to revoke the decree of neutrality. Brazil won’t actually declare war until October.

The Justice Department arrests 9 men in Texas, claiming that a co-op had been infiltrated by German spies, or something, and turned into an anti-conscription action group, or something, with weapons and a secret oath and everything. And some others in the “feud region” of Virginia (including a McCoy) are arrested for plotting to murder draft officials and declare a rebellion. And 10 Detroit socialists are arrested for distributing anti-conscription literature.

There have been a lot of wild tales lately about forthcoming miracle weapons. The latest: a Brooklynite, Dr. Dayve De Waltoff claims to have invented a vastly superior explosive which he has named... wait for it... Terrorall. A mere five (5) grains of Terrorall would suffice to blow up the Woolworth Building, if that’s your idea of a good time.

Race war in East St. Louis, Illinois, with white mobs determined to force out the blacks who have been arriving from Mississippi to work, including in munitions factories.

Some Quakers are annoyed that the government so readily exempted them from the draft, depriving them of “their much cherished privilege of suffering for their convictions.” Says Isaac Sharpnell, president of Haverford College, “I think it would be a good thing if all our young Quakers should go to jail.” It would certainly make running an all-male Quaker college easier, huh Ike? The Quakers (at least at a NYC meeting) won’t admit any new members who are military-age males (which is irrelevant to the Draft Act, since the exemption doesn’t apply to those who joined after conscription was announced).

Russian monks want the vote.

Arthur Balfour, who was touring the US with great fanfare, has moved on to Canada, where he tells the Canadian Parliament “No greater miracle has ever happened in the history of civilisation than the way in which the co-ordinated British democracies worked together with a uniform spirit of self-sacrifice in the cause in which they believed not merely their own individual security, but the safety of the empire and the progress of civilisation and liberty itself were at stake,” which might have been more convincing if not for the anti-conscription riots a few days ago in Quebec.

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Today -100: May 28, 1917: Half the fun is saluting, ammiright?

Food dictator Herbert Hoover wants to “enlist” every housewife in the nation in his food administration and sign a pledge to carry out its culinary instructions. There will be serious pressure on women to do so.

The new censorship & propaganda czar George Creel releases proposed regulations of things newspapers should not write about. In addition to the obvious (troop movements, etc), it includes: disagreements between the Allies, speculation about peace, articles offensive to allies or neutral countries, etc. The idea was that if newspapers would agree to this voluntarily, there would be no need for the censorship law the administration is having trouble getting Congress to pass. There has been no such agreement.

Russian Minister of War Kerensky promulgates new rights for soldiers including freedom of opinion, no obligatory saluting, etc.

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Today -100: May 27, 1917: Of race riots, deadly pencils, and millionaire actors

There’s a race riot in NYC’s Upper East Side, following an incident where a bartender over-charged a black man that escalated thanks in part to some incompetent policing by National Defense Guards, who were covering for regular cops taking the sergeant’s exam. White and black men attack each other with razors and guns, and police shoot one black men dead.

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Baron von Rosen of Sweden is arrested in Norway with “an amazing collection of bombs, poisons, and deadly bacilli”. And exploding pencils! Which blow up whoever tries to sharpen them. But evidently the good baron is breaking no Norwegian law, so they let him go and tell him to leave the country.

The film industry has stopped blabbing about how much it’s paying its stars now that Congress is looking for sectors of the economy to soak in order to pay for the war, but three stars are evidently making more than $1,000,000 a year. And yes, they’re Charles Chaplin, Mary Pickford (the Bank of America’s sweetheart), and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.

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Today -100: May 26, 1917: Base instruments have begun to speak of the preservation of each soldier’s life

Rear Admiral William Sims, in charge of the US destroyers off Europe, complains that “the German spy system” informed Berlin that the destroyers were coming four days before they arrived (how he knows this is unclear).

The Petrograd Workers’ and Soldiers’ Soviet “menaces” Gen. Mikhail Alexiev, telling him to shut up after he gives a speech denigrating the notion of a peace without annexations or indemnities and complaining about the tendency among soldiers “to peace and ease instead of activity” while “base instruments have begun to speak of the preservation of each soldier’s life.”

New Jersey socialist Frederick Superior (!) has been posting circulars saying “Impeach Wilson” and “Free Speech Denied.” The police rather make his point by arresting him for sedition.

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Today -100: May 25, 1917: I do not think I should have enjoyed my luncheon if I had known I was eating off a German plate

It is now illegal in the US to sell booze to members of the Army in uniform. Sailors and marines seem not to come under this law.

The Washington Herald complains that after it wrote about the fatally defective shells supplied by the Navy to the Mongolia, the new chief propagandist George Creel called them up, “questioning the spirit and correctness” of the editorial. The Herald warns of censorship. Creel denies attempting to control them. He was totally attempting to control them.

Sinn Fein officially rejects Lloyd George’s proposed Irish convention unless it is elected by universal suffrage (unclear if this includes women), has the power to declare independence, and can’t have its decisions vetoed by the British government.

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Baseball’s National Commission bans the bean ball.

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Today -100: May 24, 1917: Of passports, tiszas, and potatoes

The US refuses passports to socialists who had intended to travel to the Stockholm peace congress, and threatens to prosecute any Americans who manage to attend it anyway.

Hungarian Prime Minister Count István Tisza and his cabinet resign. Tisza has been increasingly at odds with the Empire’s central government since the accession of Emperor Karl, and he especially opposes moves to expand Hungary’s very limited franchise (although he was willing to grant it to soldiers... if they had medals of courage).

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Pretty sure these are euphemisms for sex acts which commoners are forbidden from engaging in upon pain of death (see also “eating a swan”).

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Today -100: May 23, 1917: Of censorship, deserters, dissolving empires, black empire menaces, and lynchings

The Republican caucus votes to oppose press censorship being reintroduced in the Espionage Bill’s reconciliation process. Pres. Wilson, however, demands censorship.

Russian War Minister Kerensky orders an operation that captures 30 army deserters. Since the Revolution, soldiers have been deserting with impunity.

Finland would like to be independent of Russia now, please and thank you.

And Hungary, whose equivocal commitment to the Austro-Hungarian Empire was based in part on a fear of Russian territorial acquisitiveness which is now assuaged by the Russian Revolution, is also thinking seriously about independence.

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South African Gen. Jan Smuts says Germany wants a large empire (citing a captured map) in central and southern Africa so that it can use Africa’s “huge population” to create “the most powerful army the world had ever known,” a black army that would threaten South Africa and of course “the whole of the civilized world.” He hopes that the future League of Nations will ban the military training of African colonial populations (perhaps unaware of the role of Senegalese Tirailleurs, among others, in the French Army).

Wisconsin Governor Emanuel Philipp vetoes a bill for a referendum on prohibition.

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She did, however, decline an offer to apply the match herself. Southern ladies do not do such things themselves, they have baying mobs for that.

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Today -100: May 22, 1917: Lenin always did love a good balcony

The US steamship Mongolia, which last month sunk a u-boat, limps back into port after a shell explodes (or something like that) during target practice, killing a couple of nurses who were on their way to the war. Evidently there have been two other such incidents on the commercial vessels which Pres. Wilson ordered armed, suggesting the Navy is supplying them with defective ammunition. The St. Louis found, when practicing targeting by shooting at glaciers, that 14 of 48 shells fired were duds.

Atlanta, or at any rate 73 blocks of it, burns down. The fire started in “an obscure negro section” of the city. Dynamite is used (ineffectively) in a 10-hour struggle to put the fire out.

A Russian court orders Lenin and his followers to vacate the expropriated palace of ballet dancer (and former mistress of Tsar Nicholas II) Mathilde Kschessinskaya, who skedaddled for Paris. Presumably the government wants him out because he’s been using the balcony to make incendiary speeches.

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The NYT scoffs at a new California law requiring windows in hotel rooms.

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Today -100: May 21, 1917: Of Belgians, compulsory labor, and anti-coup coups

Germany is deporting Belgian officials who oppose the splitting of Belgium into Flemish & Walloon units.

Theodore Roosevelt gives up on leading troops into battle, but takes credit for the US sending troops to France earlier than Wilson had planned.

West Virginia enacts a law requiring able-bodied men aged 16 to 60 to work at least 36 hours a week or be forced to work for city or county governments.

Costa Rica has uncovered a plot to reverse the coup that put Federico Tinoco into power in January. Tinoco is portraying the plot as instigated and funded by Germans in the United States.

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