Today -100: September 16, 1917: The heel of authority must crush the heads of the serpents of sedition

Kerensky, still unable to form a coalition government, establishes instead a 5-person Directorate consisting of himself, Foreign Minister Mikhail Tereshchenko, Minister of War Gen. Alexander Verkhovsky, Navy Minister Dmitri Verderevsky, and of course Minister of Posts and Telegraphs Alexei Nikitin.

Nikitin is also interior minister, NYT, otherwise that would be silly.

Kerensky issues an order to the men of the army and navy, telling them to stop with all the political discussion, stop arresting their commanding officers, and stop forming voluntary groups on the pretext of fighting counter-revolutionaries.

Headline of the Day -100: 

A NYT editorial about street-corner speakers expresses the Times’s traditional support for free speech: “The heel of authority must crush the heads of the serpents of sedition before they have become too numerous.”

CSI: Stockholm. An autopsy is performed on Sweden’s King Karl XII to determine whether he was shot by his own men or by the enemy. Karl was killed in 1718.

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Today -100: September 15, 1917: Of masses, Russian turmoil, and celery

The Masses is banned from the US mails, again. Circuit Court Justice Augustus Noble Hand refuses to enjoin the postmaster because the paper “hold[s] up violators of the Conscription act to admiration”. Hand is the judge who ruled in 1934 that James Joyce’s Ulysses is not obscene.

Kerensky is still having trouble keeping his government functional. The Kadets have withdrawn from the Cabinet (except one). Meanwhile the Bolsheviks get the Petrograd Council of Deputies to support their position that all representatives of the bourgeoisie including the Social Revolutionaries (SRs) must be excluded from power. Also abolition of private property, workers’ control of the means of production, etc.

Headline/Name of the Day -100: 

That’s the Argentinian naval attaché in Berlin, Captain Arturo Celery.

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Today -100: September 14, 1917: Of crushes, failed coups, and cursing the president of the United States

Headline of the Day -100: 

Gen. Lavr Kornilov offers his surrender. Soldiers who participated in his revolt claim they were misled. And some of them don’t speak Russian, so maybe. Muslim troops from the Caucuses ask to be reassigned there, as long as they don’t have to fight Turks.

In South Carolina, Edward Oldham – a white man, the NYT feels obligated to inform us – is charged for having, to quote the warrant, “cursed the President of the United States and the Federation Government and used words to thwart the draft law,” to wit, expressing the wish that President Wilson be put adrift on foreign seas and victimized by a submarine.

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Today -100: September 13, 1917: Of bloodless liquidations, newspapers, and conscription

The German legation in Buenos Aires is attacked by mobs pissed at Germany sending secret messages via Swedish diplomatic channels. Also attacked: the German Club, a German-language newspaper and various German-owned businesses. The chargé d'affaires, Count Luxburg, is being expelled.

Russian Prime Minister Alexander Kerensky takes over as commander-in-chief of the army, what with the previous one leading a revolt and all. Kerensky says the revolt has failed in a “bloodless liquidation.”

The Senate passes a Trading With the Enemy Bill, including a bit requiring German-language newspapers to provide an English translation in side-by-side columns for any article commenting on the war, foreign policy, the government of the United States, or its allies.

The Senate passes a resolution for the drafting of aliens from friendly countries for military service and aliens from Germany and its allies for non-combatant war work. Aliens from countries with treaty rights prohibiting that (Italy, Serbia, Japan) who invoke those treaties would have 90 days to leave the country.

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Today -100: September 12, 1917: Of coup attempts, and envelopes of true information

Petrograd is under martial law. Kornilov’s troops are advancing on the city, but the NYT reports that the Workers’ and Soldiers’ Soviet, the Cadets, and the Constitutional Democrats are all backing the government, which might be true but would carry more weight if the Times’ correspondent knew that Kadets and Constitutional Democrats are the same thing. Some members of the Duma are joining Kornilov, or being arrested before they can do so.

The Kadet and Socialist members of the cabinet resign over Kerensky’s plan to rule through a five-member Directorate, which isn’t going over particularly well in the Duma.

British military types support Kornilov and the idea of a military dictatorship that will keep Russia in the war. Mostly it’s a “martial races” thing – Kornilov is a Cossack.

The US feds claim that the raid on the Philadelphia Tageblatt shows it is at the center of a massive plot, German money, yadda yadda yadda. It printed pro-German news and “didn’t even take the trouble of opening the envelope containing true information sent out by the United States Government to all newspapers.”

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Today -100: September 11, 1917: Of suffrage, coup attempts, newspapers, and war taxes

Maine’s referendum vote rejects women’s suffrage nearly 2 to 1 (on an incomplete count).

Russia: Gen. Lavr Kornilov is fired as Commander in Chief of the Russian armies after he asks to be named dictator of all the Russias, please, threatening to march on Petrograd. The government declares a state of siege. Foreign Minister Tereshchenko thinks it’s all a big misunderstanding which will be cleared up. The misunderstanding part is not entirely untrue – a go-between reported Kornilov’s suggestions as ultimata, which made Kerensky understandably nervous about Kornilov’s request that Kerensky come to talk in person. But Kornilov’s desire to impose authoritarian discipline on Petrograd as he had reimposed it in the military would have brought him into conflict with the civilian government sooner rather than later. So it’s sooner.

The US government closes down the Philadelphia Tageblatt, a German-language socialist paper, and arrests the editor and 5 others for treason and shit.

The Senate passes the taxation bill. With provisions for consumption taxes on coffee, sugar, tea and cocoa removed, the war will be funded from increased income taxes, an excess war profits tax, and distilled spirits.

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Today -100: September 10, 1917: Of evacuations and Wobblies, but not wobbly evacuations

The civilian population of Petrograd is ordered to evacuate the city. The government claims it’s not because of approaching German troops, but food supply issues. The government itself is staying put for the time being.

Wobblies disrupt a loyalty meeting in Milwaukee and get into a gun battle with the police, who kill 2 of them.

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Today -100: September 9, 1917: Spurlos versenkt

Japan starts making cars.

Secretary of State Lansing releases secret dispatches sent by the German chargé d’affaires in Buenos Aires to Berlin via Swedish channels, in which he advised that two Argentine steamers sailing for France should either be let go or sunk without trace (“spurlos versenkt”). They were let go. He also called the Argentine foreign minister an “ass.” The US doesn’t say how it acquired the documents (British Naval Intelligence?). The US plans to use this incident to pressure Sweden to pick a damn side already.

The grand jury looking into the East St. Louis, Illinois race riots indicts Mayor Fred Mollman and 37 others.

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Today -100: September 8, 1917: Where are our ideals to go when we have to bribe our men to fight the battle of liberty?

Sen. Thomas Hardwick (D-Georgia) is loudly attacked by several other senators as unpatriotic for supporting Bob La Follette’s proposal to give $50 a month extra to every soldier sent to France. The alliterative Knute Nelson (R-Minnesota): “Tax the rich so as to bribe our men to go France? Where are our ideals to go when we have to bribe our men to fight the battle of liberty?” Nelson, who volunteered to fight in the Civil War without ever asking what his pay would be, says we have to fight the Germans there or they’ll invade, “and then I should like to see the senator from Georgia at the head of a battalion of colored troops leading them down there.” Nelson calls offering soldiers extra money “humiliating, belittling legislation”. I would imagine most soldiers would quite like to be humiliated and belittled.

The government of Alexandre Ribot resigns. It was France’s fourth government of the war.

The Canadian Parliament is working on a bill to extend the vote for the duration of the war to female relatives of overseas soldiers. The Liberal opposition asks instead for proper women’s suffrage.

The Hoboken School Board removes German from the curriculum. It’s been mandatory in grammar schools there for the last 25 years, because more than half the students used to be German. Italians were probably never especially happy about that, but really don’t appreciate it now.

China now has a military government under Sun Yat Sen.

Karel Kramář, a member of the Austrian Imperial Council until he was sentenced to death in 1915 for supporting Czech independence but was recently amnestied by the new emperor, is elected to the Hungarian Parliament.

Secret Service agents and members of the American Protective League arrest 66 suspected IWW members in Cleveland.

Another issue of The B.E.F. Times, formerly the Wipers Times, appears, and it’s a rather alcohol-themed issue from the parody of Longfellow’s Excelsior (which I can never read without picturing Thurber’s illustrations):

The shades of night were falling fast,
When up the muddy C.T.* passed
A youth who bore, though looking glum,
A mighty gallon jar of rum.
Excelsior!

* C.T. = communication trench.

to the letter in support of the Society for Providing Free Gin for Generals. “‘Jack’ and ‘Tommy’ have their rum provided by a benevolent government what about our generals? ‘Gin for Generals’ should be on everyone’s lips during the coming months.”

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Today -100: September 7, 1917: One city, one loyalty, one people

Germany and Austria have decided that, since Poles seem to be unwilling to volunteer to be soldiers for them, they won’t get an independent state after all, and Poland will continue to be partitioned, though between 2 countries rather than 3, with Germany getting 1/10th of Russian Poland and Austria the rest. Austria will proclaim a new kingdom of Poland, with its emperor getting the crown, to add to his collection of pretty, pretty crowns; the Dual Monarchy will become the Threesome Triple Monarchy. Poland will get its own subordinate parliament, so Polish deputies will be kicked out of the Austrian Reichsrat, making that body less Slavic and more Germanic in composition.

When Kaiser Wilhelm visited occupied Brussels last week, the Bruxellois ignored a “request” to fly flags and instead put out “closed for national mourning” signs.

The feds raid the offices of four Chicago newspapers, which the NYT describes as socialist but at least 3 of which are German-language.

A Gertrude Goodstein of Brooklyn admits to bigamy but says she thought her first marriage was dissolved by the fact that her husband did not support her. She’s coming forward because she’s heard that he’s claiming exemption from the draft because she’s dependent on him, which she isn’t. Oh, and she’s 15. The first marriage was contracted when she was 13.

Chicago Mayor Big Bill Thompson feels a little beleaguered. He’s suing the Chicago Herald for $250,000. The Herald says, “We accept the compliment.” Thompson says his enemies have bored holes in his walls to install dictographs.

Hungary orders foreigners to leave Budapest. This includes Austrians, particularly from Vienna, who have moved there because food is more freely available.

Headline of the Day -100: 

The mayor’s Commission on National Defense claims that NYC is 80% foreign in birth or speech and must be Americanized. “One city, one loyalty, one people” is their slogan. Which, ironically, sounds better in the original German.

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Today -100: September 6, 1917: German loyalty will bring to nought every attempt to separate the German people and their Kaiser

Russia arrests some more grand dukes and countesses.

The US arrests IWW president Big Bill Hayward and raids IWW offices all over the country. Also the Socialist Party’s hq in Chicago. The Wilson administration has decided to destroy the IWW, and it pretty much will. The NYT claims from an unnamed source that the IWW had a nation-wide plot to burn corn and wheat crops, disrupt mining, and commit “a multitude of crimes” to disrupt the war effort.

The grand jury that issued the IWW search warrants is rumored to also be investigating Chicago Mayor Big Bill Thompson (yes, everyone named Bill in 1917 was nicknamed Big Bill, it was the law) and the pro-Thompson newspaper The Republican.

The Justice Department is also investigating the German-language press for possible prosecutions.

Kerensky sends the governor-general of Finland back to Helsinki with dictatorial powers to put down any moves towards independence.

Kaiser Wilhelm finally responds to Woodrow Wilson’s reply to the pope, saying “German loyalty will bring to nought every attempt to separate the German people and their Kaiser.” It probably sounds even more pompous in the original.

With male elevator operators all off to the front, Greenhut’s department store on 6th becomes the first to employ elevator girls.

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Today -100: September 5, 1917: Of envy, plots, Pankhursts, grand dukes, and the Lusitania’s revenge

Woodrow Wilson says he feels “genuine envy” for the soldiers about to go overseas.

The Chicago City Council votes 42 to 6 praising Gov. Lowden for attempting to ban the convention of the People’s Council of America for Democracy and Peace and by implication rebuking Mayor Big Bill Thompson for allowing it. The Society of Veterans of Foreign Wars holds a mock lynching of the mayor.

An alleged plot to blow up the Canadian Parliament building and assassinate Prime Minister Borden is thwarted. The plotters oppose conscription. The police claim German gold was behind it all.

Adela Pankhurst, daughter of Emmeline, sister of Christabel and Sylvia, is sentenced to 9 months in prison for holding a demonstration against conscription in Melbourne. This while she was out on appeal of a 1-month sentence for holding a demonstration last month against food prices. And she’ll find time this month to get married. Mazel tov! They’ll both go to jail next month, which is a Pankhurst’s idea of honeymoon (they’ll also both be interned during the Second World War). Her mother denounced her in a letter to Australian PM Hughes earlier this year.

Deposed Czar Nicholas’s brother Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich and his wife are arrested for a supposed counter-revolutionary plot.

The US denies that it’s telling Germany to depose Kaiser Wilhelm and the Hohenzollern dynasty. But a change must be made such that the US can trust the German government, whatever that means.

Walther Schwieger, the captain of the U-boat which sank the Lusitania, is killed when his current u-boat hits a mine.

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Today -100: September 4, 1917: Of rigas, stürmers, and milk

Germany occupies Riga.

Czar Nicholas’s foreign minister & prime minister Boris Stürmer dies in prison.

France bans milk from all restaurants, cafés, etc. after 9 a.m. It may begin local rationing of milk.

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Today -100: September 3, 1917: A prince, a general, and a bishop walk into a bar...

A monarchist counter-revolutionary coup plot is uncovered in Russia. Many arrests are made. The government says, seemingly as a non sequitur, that it has no intention of replacing Gen. Lavr Kornilov as Commander in Chief of the Russian armies, giving no hint (perhaps it wasn’t clear to them yet?) that the plot is Kornilov’s. He was evidently attempting to march on Petersburg and put himself in charge, although it didn’t get far enough for his plans to become clear.

Germany replaces the Polish State Council, which just resigned, with a regency consisting of a prince, a general, and a bishop.

The People’s Council of America for Democracy and Peace hold a public meeting in Chicago after all, after being dispersed by police acting under Gov. Frank Lowden’s orders yesterday. This time, they’re under the protection of  Chicago police by order of Mayor Big Bill Thompson, who seems to have even arranged a venue for them. Gov. Lowden sends militia from Springfield to break it up, but they arrive too late. Thompson is now being threatened with prosecution and impeachment (which is not actually a thing under Illinois law).

The conductor Arturo Toscanini gets a medal for keeping his military band playing during the Battle of Monte Santo. Not many First World War battles had musical accompaniment, but this one did. Toscanini wrote to his son, “We played in the Austrians’ faces, and we sang our national anthems.”

NYC policemen are “mildly excited” by rumors that they may soon be required to wear wristwatches. One patrolman says that if ordered to wear one, will do so above the elbow, while others will probably strap them to the small of their back (which is evidently a thing), “but as I understand it that practice is not followed in good society.”

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Today -100: September 2, 1917: Pacifists are law-abiding citizens

A meeting of the organization committee of the People’s Council of America for Democracy and Peace has now been banned or actually expelled from Minnesota, Wisconsin, Utah, and Illinois. The latter came from Gov. Frank Lowden, after Chicago Mayor Big Bill Thompson refused to, saying “Pacifists are law-abiding citizens.”

Not only are German-American organizations refusing the demand of the National Security League that they tell their fellow Germans in Germany that they stand with the United States, but they point out that such communication with the enemy would be illegal.

Racial fights in Lexington, Kentucky, from aggression by white soldiers against local blacks.

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Today -100: September 1, 1917: Of hearsts, Polands, and Jewish regiments

William Randolph Hearst will not run for mayor of New York after all.

Pan-German newspapers in Germany are now saying that the resignation of the Polish Council is a perfect opportunity to rescind that whole “independent Poland” thing.

The British Army now has a Jewish Regiment, but leaders of the Jewish community object, and Minister of War Lord Derby promises to change the name.

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Today -100: August 31, 1917: For the salvation of the country we will kill with all our souls

Kerensky says that as minister of war he is re-establishing the military death penalty that he abolished when he was minister of justice; “this re-establishment hurts to the very soul, but for the salvation of the country we will kill with all our souls.”

The city of Spartanburg, South Carolina, objects to the War Department’s plans to station black troops in the training camp there. Mayor J.F. Floyd worries that, “with their Northern ideas about race equality, they will probably expect to be treated like white men. I can say right here that they will not be treated as anything except negroes.” The Chamber of Commerce says, “It is a great mistake to send Northern negroes down here, for they do not understand our attitude.” Oh, I think they understand it very well.

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Today -100: August 30, 1917: In which is revealed how French people recognize American troops

Headline of the Day -100: 

How can it be an “anti-British campaign of sedition,” NYT?

The puppet Polish Council of State resigns en masse. For months the Council has been in conflict with Germany, which isn’t prepared to hand over much power to them. The final straw was Germany’s decision to make Lithuania and Courland, territories wrested from Russia, into German protectorates. The Poles wanted Lithuania for themselves. (Update: tomorrow’s paper will say that the resignations were over an order that Polish sharpshooters be placed at the disposal of Austria, to reinforce its failing position on the Italian front.

Since it hasn’t decided whether to accede to Southern and Texan demands to keep black soldiers out of their states, the War Department will temporarily stop drafting blacks.

Gen. Lavr Kornilov, the Commander in Chief of the Russian armies, shows up at the National Convention. Soldiers who are delegates from the Soldiers’ and Workers’ Soviet refuse to stand for him. He gives a speech. The Times doesn’t quote a word of it, but evidently “It was a quiet but terrible and merciless exposé of facts that chilled his listeners with a sense of the cold breath of utmost calamity.”

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Today -100: August 29, 1917: Go on Kaisering and we will smash you

Woodrow Wilson responds to Pope Benedict’s peace proposals: it’s a no. He refuses to talk with Germany unless and until it changes its rulers and its form of government and its national flower. The knapweed is a bullshit flower and everyone knows it, Germany.

(Update: George Bernard Shaw summarizes Wilson’s note thusly: “Become a republic and we will let up on you; go on Kaisering and we will smash you.”)

The cops raid the Hamilton Detective Agency on Broadway. The agency was kidnapping sailors on leave, holding them until they’d overstayed their leave and then turning them in for the reward money ($25 for stragglers, $50 for deserters). When the cops arrive to check out the story of previous victims of the scheme, they find two sailors on the premises, although one turned out to be someone who was just masquerading as a sailor for some reason – free drinks?

Minnesota Gov. Joseph Burquist (R) bans a meeting of the People’s Council of America for Democracy and Peace.

On the Brooklyn waterfront, 50 Russian sailors fight 50 American sailors/marines, with some of the Russians firing guns. The Russians are drunk, as was the custom, and think the US sailors might be Germans, crew from one of the interned German liners. And then the Americans think that that language the Russians are speaking might be German, and hilarity ensues.

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Today -100: August 28, 1917: Supreme power alone can assure the salvation of the country

The NYC magistrates’ Board, looking for a way to crack down on street-corner speeches by pacifists, decides that the laws on disorderly conduct cover them.

The Wilson administration plans to create a commission to investigate the IWW threat.

The members of the Texas congressional delegation petition for the withdrawal of black troops from the state. The NYT says that the urgent need to train soldiers for the war outweighs any consideration of whether the federal government has the right to train black soldiers in the South: “time is precious and the inevitable results of the ill-feeling caused by the spectacle of armed negroes in the South should be avoided.” It’s funny how ill-feeling felt by black soldiers – armed negroes, indeed! – isn’t even a factor in their thinking.

Kerensky warns military conspirators and Bolsheviks alike:

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