Today -100: January 26, 1920: It is always well for men to walk humbly

Massachusetts Gov. Calvin Coolidge says he’s not a candidate for president, without quite saying that he would object to someone nominating him at the Republican Convention. He says he doesn’t want anyone to be able to say that he used the office of governor to influence the selection of Massachusetts’s delegates. He says “The curse of the present is the almost universal grasping for power in high places and in low to the exclusion of the discharge of obligations. It is always well for men to walk humbly.”

The Soviets announce that they have captured not only Irkutsk, but Adm. Kolchak and his government as well. The latter is true, the former is not.

The French winners of Nobel prizes in economics and medicine decline to accept the award because the chemistry prize went to Fritz Haber for his work on nitrogen, um, something or other, which is important in producing fertilizer but which he also put to use during the war in developing chemical weapons. (Update: or possibly this story is complete horseshit - see comments).

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

Today -100: January 25, 1920: Of medicinal whisky, destroying the state in open combat, and armistices

As influenza spreads in New York and elsewhere, Assistant Supervising Federal Prohibition Agent James Shevlin says that “most druggists have little desire to handle whisky because of the legal restrictions, but that an appeal was being made to them on the ground that they were in duty bound, as purveyors of medicine, to carry a stock of liquor.” (I asked my GP about this a couple of weeks ago. He seemed to think using whisky to treat flu and pneumonia is a bad idea.)

Secretary of Labor William Wilson decides that membership by aliens in the Communist Party is a sufficient ground, all by itself, for deportation, because the Party is “seeking to destroy the State in open combat.”

The Allies (not including the US) are trying to resume commercial relations with the Soviet Union without actually recognizing the Soviet Union by dealing directly with Russian cooperatives. But Russia says that unless there is a military armistice first, it will sink any ships arriving at Russian ports.

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

Today -100: January 24, 1920: Of emigration, extradition, and ugly duchesses

Japan is prohibiting emigration to Mexico, because of an “understanding” with the US.

The Netherlands refuses to extradite former kaiser Wilhelm. In truth, the demand by the Allies’ Supreme Council was a bit bizarre, saying that, had Willy remained in Germany, the peace treaty would have required Germany to extradite him, so, um, Holland should. The Dutch point out that they aren’t a party to the Versailles treaty because they weren’t actually, you know, in the war, and that there’s no international court to try war crimes anyway.

Quentin Matsys’s 16th-century painting The Ugly Duchess sells at Christie’s for 880 guineas.

The painting is now (2020) in the National Gallery in London.

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

Today -100: January 23, 1920: Root and branch

Herbert Hoover is seriously considering running for president without committing himself as to which party’s banner he’d run under. This would be accomplished by the formation of Hoover clubs, dominated if not entirely comprised of business men. He would then  publish a platform, and either party would be free to adopt both him and it.

The mayor of Camden, New Jersey appoints a black man, Dr. Clement Branch to the city’s Board of Education. Immediately, the president of the board and another long-time member resign, with more threatening to do so, although no one’s admitting that Branch’s appointment is the reason.

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

Today -100: January 22, 1920: Of communist laborers, flu, women’s suffrage, and whipping

A Chicago grand jury indicts 39 Communist Labor Party leaders, including John Reed (who is in Russia) and William Bross Lloyd, for conspiracy to overthrow the government by force.

Influenza is rearing its head again and the main problem is the difficulty in getting whisky for, you know, medicinal purposes.

The lower house of the Mississippi Legislature rejects the federal women’s suffrage Amendment.

Atlanta City Council orders an end to the whipping of women prisoners at the city stockade.

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

Today -100: January 21, 1920: Of weak, doubtful, second-class men, and open arms

The Allied Supreme Council breaks up without resolving the status of Fiume. It sounds to me like Yugoslavia conceded to Italy almost everything it demanded, but that’s still not good enough for Italy.

The NYT editorial page expresses confidence that the Republican party will choose Henry Cabot Lodge as its presidential candidate. “The Republican party is not going to foist upon the country any weak, doubtful, second-class man.” (They’re being sarcastic).

Russia has evidently decided to accept all 249 deported radicals. As Maxim Gorky’s wife tells them, “Russia opens her arms to all who are politically persecuted.” Um, yeah, that’s totally what Russia does (I’m being sarcastic).

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

Today -100: January 20, 1920: Of international duties, exiles, and the more extreme types of foolishness

The Allies send the Netherlands a note demanding she “fulfill her international duty” and hand over the former kaiser.

The “undesirable aliens” deported from the US arrive, finally, in Russia, crossing over the frozen Systerbak River from Finland. They are met by a military band and welcoming crowds. Emma Goldman says “This is the greatest moment of my life. After 35 years of absence I am returning to Russia with a feeling of awe. I am glad to leave America, but I love the American people and expect to return there some day.” She won’t.

Nicholas Murray Butler, president of Columbia University, suggests that since there is “no human cure for some of the more extreme types of foolishness,” radicals should be rounded up and exiled to some island in the Philippines.

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

Today -100: January 19, 1920: Of deserters and Gaelic

The Paris police plan to round up 1,000 US Army deserters they claim are living in Paris, many of them broke and engaging in crimes. The flics will arrest anyone in uniform without the proper papers. Wait, in all their criming they haven’t stolen some new clothes?

Sinn Féin win a majority of seats on the Dublin municipal council. They even win a few seats in Belfast. One of the new councilors, Michael Carolan, who fought in the Easter Rising, gives a speech thanking his voters... in Gaelic. In Belfast. Love it.

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

Today -100: January 18, 1920: Of the most Bolshevist act in New York, arks, and Fenian councillors

The New York Bar Association condemns the Assembly’s refusal to seat those 5 Socialist members. Former governor and former US Supreme Court chief justice Charles Evans Hughes says that the Assembly, “in the name of hatred of Bolshevism commit the most Bolshevist act ever performed in this state by depriving a part of the population of the right to be represented by their duly elected representatives.”

The “Soviet Ark” drops its deported radicals off in Finland, from whence they will be taken to the Russian border by train. The Finns have informed the Soviets of this plan and requested that Soviet troops stop shooting when the train arrives, but they have received no reply. Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman say they will not stay in Russia, but return to the US to save it.

The French National Assembly elects Paul Deschanel president of the Republic. His term in office will be most notable for his descent into eccentricity/insanity.

Sinn Féin does quite well in Irish municipal elections. There aren’t that many women candidates, but those are mostly SF, including Hannah Sheehy-Skeffington, woman suffragist leader and widow of Francis S-S, summarily executed for no very good reason during the Easter Rising.

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

Today -100: January 17, 1920: Of prohibition, leagues of nations, dumping grounds for agitators, rejected tigers, and brown October ale

Prohibition is now in effect.

So is the League of Nations, although it’s mostly just sitting around, waiting for the US to show up. There’s an empty chair and everything.

The “Red Ark” containing Emma Goldman and 248 other deported aliens still hasn’t reached Russia. The ship broke down and needed several days to repair, and now Finland and Soviet Russia are negotiating. The Soviets seem reluctant to “be used as a dumping ground for agitators from America.” Finland may take custody of them and trade them to Russia for Finnish prisoners.

French Premier Georges Clemenceau drops out of the French presidential race after his caucus rejects him in favor of Paul Deschanel, with whom he once fought a duel. Clemenceau says he didn’t really want to be president anyway and only ran because his friends wanted him to.

The Allies will resume trading relations with Bolshevik Russia. This comes out of the blue and the reasons are obscure. The speculation is that Lloyd George has realized that the White forces are doomed, which they totally are. “The only official explanation of the move is that it is intended to reach the Russian peasants and thus weaken the Soviet Government. Some statesmen say that this reasoning is not clear to them.” The US was never part of the blockade of Russia.

Reginald De Koven, American composer of songs such as “Oh, Promise Me,” and light operas, most famously Robin Hood (1890), dies at a dance held in celebration of his recently opened Rip Van Winkle. Here’s a song, such as it is, from Robin Hood, praising a substance no longer legal in the United States.

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

Today -100: January 16, 1920: Of swarms, free cities, and Reds

Secretary of War Newton Baker tells Congress that Poland needs a large loan to enable it to withstand the onslaught of Soviet Russia. Loans should also be made to Armenia and Austria, he says. Gen. Bliss agrees with a suggestion by Rep. John Nance Garner that the Bolsheviks could “swarm over Europe.”

Italy agrees to give up its claim over Fiume, leaving it a “free city,” with its port and railroads controlled by the League of Nations and with its “Italian character” to be recognized, whatever that means. France and Britain are putting pressure on Yugoslavia to accept the deal.

A federal judge orders the release of 9 of the “Reds” being held for deporation on Ellis Island. 65 more will be bailed. The position of the Immigration Commission is that the burden is on the aliens to prove that they should not be deported.

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

Today -100: January 15, 1920: Of citizens

The House passes a bill giving Native Americans US citizenship, although it sounds like it’s really more about breaking up tribal property.

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

Today -100: January 14, 1920: Gloom

Oregon ratifies the women’s suffrage Amendment. 25 down, 11 to go. The measure is proposed by Sylvia Thompson, the only current woman member of the Legislature (and third ever woman member).

Protesters outside the Reichstag in Berlin, objecting to a bill setting up factory workers’ councils which they say are not good enough, allegedly attack soldiers, who respond with machine gun fire, as was the custom.

Headline of the Day -100: 

Last month driver’s licenses were introduced in Ireland, intended to curb Sinn Féin drive-by shootings. So in Sligo, a bunch of cars and trucks which belong to people who complied with that law – “driven under British permit” as the notices attached to them describe them – are sabotaged.

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

Today -100: January 13, 1920: Whatever happened to pulling a sword out of a stone?

In an editorial entitled “A Severe Strain on Credulity,” the NYT calls bullshit on Prof. Robert Goddard’s claim to have invented a rocket that could operate in space because how could its forward motion continue in the vacuum of space? “To claim that it would be is to deny a fundamental law of dynamics, and only Dr. Einstein and his chosen dozen, so few and fit, are licensed to do that.” Goddard, “with his ‘chair’ in Clark College... does not know the relation of action and reaction, and of the need to have something better than a vacuum against which to react – to say that would be absurd. Of course he only seems to lack the knowledge ladled out daily in high schools.”

The NYT will issue a correction to that editorial in its July 17, 1969 edition: “Further investigation and experimentation have confirmed the findings of Isaac Newton in the 17th Century and it is now definitely established that a rocket can function in a vacuum as well as in an atmosphere. The Times regrets the error.” I can’t get a functional link, but it’s on page 43, the same page as an article by Isaac Asimov explaining that spacecraft maneuver like a squid.

The US will pull the last of its forces out of Siberia. They’ll help the remaining anti-Bolshevik Czech soldiers evacuate, and then they’re outta there and Japan can protect the trans-Siberian railroad itself.

The Monarchist Party in Hungary wants, as the name suggests, a king. They’re hoping a rich American will buy the position, paying off the country’s debts. None of the Habsburgs has enough money.

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

Today -100: January 12, 1920: Of rockets and colored and other unchecked profligates

Prof. Robert Goddard has invented a multiple-charge, high-efficiency rocket he thinks can reach beyond earth’s atmosphere, maybe even to the moon.

Headline of the Day -100: 

The Allied occupying forces in the Rhineland have issued an edict – I think this is real but I may be wrong – setting forth fines or imprisonment for anyone whose “words, manners or attitude” towards members of the occupying authorities or the occupation troops or indeed their flags are “insulting or improper.” According to irate Prussian Finance Minister Albert Südekum, this means any British, French or American negro soldier is placed “in a position to terrorize even the most harmless person against whom his brutal African instincts may wish to vent themselves. ... Rapine and murder may well become a pastime of these black fiends if this edict takes effect” as they can simply send the male relatives of any woman who catches their eye into detention, leaving her “unprotected game for colored and other unchecked profligates.” He notes that the edict is based on the armistice agreement which Woodrow Wilson signed, though it “practically encourages all those crimes for which, in the United States, negroes are burned at the stake. What do Americans think will be the effect of the return of those negro soldiers, whose licentiousness in Germany is officially encouraged, on the rest of their race?” In fact, the US Army points out, there are no negro units stationed on the Rhine.

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

Today -100: January 11, 1920: We won’t need any music

The Peace Treaty has been ratified. The Allies and Germany are now at peace. French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau refuses to shake hands with the Germans, which is very on-brand. The US was not, of course, present, but the State Department decides to piss on the event on general principles:

There are rumors that the German government has been overthrown, but nah.

The Supreme Council of the League of Nations will meet for the first time on the 16th. France, Britain, Belgium, Italy, Japan, Spain and Brazil will be on the council. Clemenceau decides against it being a big ceremonial affair. “No, we won’t need any music,” he growls (I assume; he’s a growler).

The House of Representatives again votes not to seat Victor Berger, 328-6. He was re-elected in a special election in Wisconsin’s 5th District after the last time the House refused him his duly elected seat. He says he’ll run again. The Socialists re-nominate him, saying “We will keep on nominating Berger until Hades freezes over if that un-American aggregation called Congress continues to exclude him.” Wisconsin Gov. Emanuel Philipp (R) says he won’t call another special election, he’ll just leave the seat empty.

A lot of Republicans have come out against the NY Assembly’s refusal to seat 5 Socialists, including Warren Harding, former governor and Supreme Court Justice Charles Evans Hughes, and now Sen. Borah.

Admiral Kolchak is reported to have been arrested by the White “All-Russian Government.” That’s not quite right, but it’s about now that he does get betrayed and handed over to the Bolsheviks for... disposal.

The London Tube introduces a railroad innovation: electrical signs in the cars announcing the stations. Mornington Crescent!

Gen. Pershing denies in a letter to the House War Investigation Committee that soldiers’ lives were wasted when pointless attacks were ordered on 11/11/18. FACT CHECK: soldiers’ lives were totally wasted in pointless attacks on Armistice Day.

The US Senate passes a bill against sedition.

100 or so Sinn Féiners attack a police barracks in County Galway with bullets and bombs. Doesn’t sound like anyone got killed.

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

Today -100: January 10, 1920: Sure, Norway, why not

Since the US now seems unlikely to accept a League of Nations mandate over Armenia, some are suggesting it be taken by... Norway.

The last of the American Expeditionary Forces leave Europe. The AEF’s last commander in Paris, Brig. Gen. Fox Connor tells Paris reporters how much he likes Paris, France’s well-behaved children, and its women, “the most perfect and the most developed.” Asked about the Germans, he replies, “I believe we have got to watch them.”

Lucy Page Gaston of the Anti-Cigarette League, is running for president.

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

Today -100: January 9, 1920: The world has been made safe for democracy, but democracy has not been finally vindicated

The Democratic Convention will be held in San Francisco. Which some consider a plus for Herbert Hoover, if he decides to run for president as a Democrat.

A letter supposedly from Pres. Wilson is read to the Jackson Day dinner calling on the Senate not to alter the meaning of the peace treaty, although interpretations are fine. If it persists in doing so, he wants the 1920 election to focus on the treaty and the League of Nations. “The United States enjoyed the spiritual leadership of the world until the Senate of the United States failed to ratify the treaty... Personally, I do not accept the action of the Senate of the United States as the decision of the nation.”  Wilson’s former secretary of state William Jennings Bryan then gives a speech calling for the issue to be kept out of politics and saying whatever compromise is necessary to get the treaty passed quickly should be made.

Sen. Warren Harding calls the NY Assembly’s refusal to seat those 5 duly elected members unconstitutional. “We still adhere to popular government and its liberties,” he says, wrongly. New York Mayor Hylan also “regrets” the Legislature’s actions. The 5 say they were expelled to prevent them asking uncomfortable questions about the activities of the Lusk Committee and exposing that it’s being manipulated by the British Secret Service.

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

Today -100: January 8, 1920: Every country has its traitors

The New York State Assembly refuses by a vote of 140-6 to seat five Socialist members elected from New York City. The no’s include 4 of the Socialists. There will be a hearing later about whether to make this permanent. The vote is preceded by a hectoring speech by Speaker Thaddeus Sweet (whose claim to historical fame is that he will be the first ever member of Congress to die in an airplane crash, in 1928), accusing them of being bound to obey the orders a party whose executive “may be made up in whole or in part of aliens or alien enemies owing allegiance to governments or organizations whose interests may be immediately opposed to the best interests of the United States and of the people of the State of New York.” Sweet refuses to let the accused assemblymen respond to the resolution refusing to admit them because... they hadn’t been admitted.

Two of former kaiser Wilhelm’s sons, ex-princes August Wilhelm and Joachim, are getting divorces.

Viscount Milner, Special Commission for Britain in Egypt, has been having difficulties finding any prominent Egyptian willing to negotiate with him. He meets with the Grand Mufti, who tells him, “We can have no discussion until the protectorate is withdrawn.” Milner tells him some Egyptians would be willing to discuss reforms within the protectorate system, if they weren’t afraid of being killed; the GM replies, “Every country has its traitors.”

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

Today -100: January 7, 1920: Of Socialists, lashing, divorces & boners, and women’s suffrage

Victor Berger, the Socialist elected from Wisconsin to Congress, which refused to seat him, and who has since been re-elected, is ejected by police from Jersey City, where he was due to speak, and put on a ferry bound for Manhattan.

Headline of the Day -100: 

Not to be mistaken for “Harding lashes Americans red.” What goes on behind closed doors between a US senator and his mistress remains behind closed doors.

A court in Kentucky blocks the 4th marriage of 27-year-old Ora Iring. The judge decided that her third divorce didn’t count because it was on the grounds of cruelty, the same as her 1st divorce, and Kentucky doesn’t all more than one divorce on the same charge. She had planned to marry the president of a milk powder company, a Mr. O. W. Boner.

The Indian National Congress demands the removal of Gen. Reginald Dyer and the prosecution of Punjab Lt. Gov Sir Michael O’Dwyer for the Amritsar Massacre.

Rhode Island and Kentucky ratify the Women’s Suffrage Amendment to the federal Constitution. 24 down, 12 to go.

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