Today -100: April 7, 1921: Of peons, yapping, and involuntary deputies

Testifying in the trial of the Georgia plantation owner John Williams for the murder of Lindsey Peterson, Clyde Manning, the “coal black” negro who killed some of the 11 black workers on Williams’ orders, says he was afraid Williams would kill him if he disobeyed. Williams killed (or had killed) the men he was afraid would talk to federal investigators looking into peonage on the farm. 6 of the men were chained to rocks and thrown into rivers while still alive, the rest were shot or hit in the head. Of the several articles on this case, this is the first to confirm that Williams acquired the services of the men by paying their court fines.

Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes writes to Britain, France, Italy and Japan refusing to accept the League of Nations decision to grant Japan a mandate over the island of Yap and indeed rejecting its power to grant any mandate without US permission, citing the “right accruing to the United States through the victory in which it has participated.”

The king of Italy dissolves the parliament and sets elections for May 15.

The sheriff of Polk County, Florida thwarts a lynching of a black prisoner by... swearing every member of the mob in as a deputy sheriff.

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Today -100: April 6, 1921: We are strong, and because we are strong we will be paid

French Prime Minister Aristide Briand tells the French Senate that if Germany doesn’t pay up by May 1, “it is a firm hand which will grip her by the collar. It will be our right, and it will be our duty to collect our debts by force.” He doesn’t add that it will also be their pleasure, but that’s pretty much understood. He shouts, “But we are strong, and because we are strong we will be paid!”

Albert Einstein and Chaim Weizmann are visiting New York City. They were going to be given the freedom of the city but one alderman, Bruce Falconer, objects, because the honor is given out too freely and anyway he’s never heard of them (“He asked to be enlightened, but nobody offered to explain the theory of relativity”) and it’s certainly not because they’re Jews. (They will be given the freedom of the state instead).

Former emperor Charles finally leaves Hungary. To make sure, his train is accompanied by Entente soldiers and also Austrian cops, leading to the protest resignations of Austria’s interior and war ministers. Charles issues a statement that he is leaving because “the moment has not yet come for him to take over his right of governing. ... He leaves the land as the crowned King of Hungary.” Yes, he’s referring to himself in the third person, like a common Trump.

In Bologna, “Professor” Benito Mussolini tells 20,000 Fascisti that they should participate in the upcoming general elections to prevent “worn-out men” returning to power. I’m pretty sure this is the first mention of Mussolini in the NYT.

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Today -100: April 5, 1921: Monarchy is best for us

Fog of War (Rumors, Propaganda, Fake News, and Just Plain Bullshit) of the Day -100: Prince Andreas of Greece and Denmark is reported killed in the Greco-Turkish war. He isn’t. (Update: ah, that report came from the Turks).

Admiral Miklós Horthy, “Regent” of Hungary, explains to NYT correspondent Charles Grasty that “a republican Hungary is not possible” because “the Hungarian mind has become habituated to monarchy” and elections would just lead to “agitation and excitement.” He denies having ambitions to claim the throne for himself. Former emperor Charles is still refusing to leave the country without a list of demands being met, even as the Little Entente threatens to invade Hungary if he isn’t out by 6 p.m. Thursday and Austria threatens to cancel his safe conduct unless he uses it sharpish. One new demand from Charles is that Horthy resign as regent and then be renominated as regent by Charles.

American citizens’ pre-war ability to enter or leave the country without a passport (and permission from the government) is restored.

A black man is lynched near Brandon, Mississippi. 

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Today -100: April 4, 1921: There is nothing of normalcy about it

Former Austro-Hungarian emperor Charles is STILL in Hungary, claiming to be too ill to leave his bed much less the country. No one believes him.

Sinn Feiners attempt to set fire to hotels and warehouses in Manchester, so the police raid the Erskine Street Club and a gunfight ensues.

The film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is playing at the Capitol Theatre, and the NYT reviewer is... confused. Interested, but confused:

“Doubtless these expressionistic scenes are full of meaning for the specialist in the form of art they represent, but the uninitiated, though they will now and then get a definite suggestion from some touch here or there, and enjoy it, are not asked to understand cubism,” but these backgrounds and settings accompany a “coherent, logical, a genuine and legitimate thriller”. Everything in the film is unreal, “There is nothing of normalcy about it.” And “it is not likely that it will establish a vogue of cubistic films” unless it is financially successful, in which case studios might make “terrible imitations” of it. The Capitol Theatre provides an orchestra accompaniment; I wonder what they played.

Also playing: The Passion Flower, with Norma Talmadge and Harrison Ford. Not that Harrison Ford.

But if your entertainment tastes run more to bullshit:

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Today -100: April 3, 1921: Of paprika, registers, German wiles, and well dressed Klansmen

Former Austro-Hungarian emperor Charles still hasn’t left Hungary. He’s spending his time calling Adm. Horthy several times a day and playing at performative Magyarism, like ordering “highly seasoned Magyar national dishes.” The Chamber of Deputies votes unanimously to kick him out of the country.

508 white women employees in the office of the Register of the Treasury petition against the possibility of a negro man being appointed Register, which is one of those few federal posts, like ambassador to Haiti, that sometimes goes to a black man. There have been four black registers in the past, all under Republican presidents, I believe. The women point out that the 900 clerks are mostly white women and veterans and “For a negro to have jurisdiction over those clerks would be intolerable.”

Headline of the Day -100:  

A group of “well dressed white masked men” kidnap a black bellboy from a Dallas hotel, flog him and brand “KKK” on his forehead with acid. He had been found in a (white) (female) guest’s room last week.

The Sunday New York Times Book Review reports on several books exposing the fallacies of anti-Semitism in particular and The Protocols of the Elders of Zion in particular.

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Today -100: April 2, 1921: Of impeachments, kings, national homes, and conciliatory motives

The impeachment vote against Oklahoma Gov. James Robertson in the Legislature fails by a 42-42 vote. One legislator staggers in covered in blood after an ambulance bringing him from home crashed avoiding running over a child. To quote Birdie Coonan, that story’s got everything but the bloodhounds snapping at her rear end.

Former Austro-Hungarian emperor Chuck agrees to leave Hungary. In exchange, all of the Hungarians complicit in his little coup attempt will receive amnesty. He will return to Switzerland through Austria in a train accompanied by Etente troops, with every station through which his train will pass closed and under military guard. I’m not sure about the chronological order of the various dispatches in today’s paper, but a possibly earlier AP piece says Charles would only leave Hungary if he could issue a manifesto saying why he was leaving Hungary. This after Horthy made clear that any attempt to return to Budapest would be met by a military response.

Britain’s decennial census will not be taken in Ireland, for obvious reasons.

In Jerusalem, British Colonial Secretary Winston Churchill tells Muslims that “The establishment of a national home does not mean a Jewish government to dominate the Arabs.” Phew.

Britain appoints Lord Edmund Talbot the new Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, the first Catholic to hold the office since 1687. The Daily Chronicle says the appointment shows an obvious “conciliatory motive,” “and we hope it will be appreciated.” Spoiler Alert: It won’t be. Also, Lord E. happens to be English, not Irish, and is a member of the Conservative and Unionist (Tory) party. Conciliation only goes so far.

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Today -100: April 1, 1921: Of coal, kings, hand grenades, and paper cuts

Britain declares a state of emergency over the coal strike and implements rationing. The miners have called out the pump men, who are usually allowed to work during strikes so the mines don’t flood.

Former Austro-Hungarian emperor Charles is negotiating with Hungary on conditions for leaving the country and maybe even officially abdicating. Of course his conditions are ridiculous. He wants his 8-year-old son Otto’s claims to the throne upheld in Hungarian law and he wants civil list money of 150 million kroner, which is the equivalent of some money, and an annual payment. As Hungary’s Little Entente neighbors mobilize troops to prevent Charles being crowned king, Adm. Horthy is trying to send Chuck to Spain. There are a lot of rumors going around, including one that Charles is marching on Budapest at the head of Gen. Anton Lehár’s West Hungary army.

Germany was supposed to disarm by today but hasn’t. Now it wants to arbitrate the question. It says it won’t disarm the fortresses on the Polish border because of “present events in the East.”

A police barracks in West Cork is blown up and burned down, with 6 cops known dead and others probably buried under the rubble so are hand grenades from the barracks’ armory and they’re exploding from time to time.

Sinn Féin will contest rather than boycott the elections for the two Irish parliaments. Éamon de Valera says the elections will demonstrate the Irish desire for independence and no partition.

Headline of the Day -100:  

Who would pay for a paper cut?

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Today -100: March 31, 1921: Nobody has a right to send for me

Attorney General Harry Daugherty says the US will settle down in a year or two and start obeying Prohibition laws.

More details about former Austro-Hungarian emperor Charles’s visit to Budapest. On arrival, he changed into a general’s uniform, went to the royal palace and demanded entrance, then sent for Admiral Horthy, who was eating dinner. Horthy replied, “At present I am head of the Hungarian state. Nobody has a right to send for me.” Their meeting went about as well as that beginning portended, and Charles agreed to leave the country. Bishop Count János Mikes, who hosted him, has been arrested, along with several monarchist army officers (the leg of his journey through Austria has also led to arrests). The worry is that Gen. Anton Lehár (brother of  operetta composer Franz Lehár), who has his own power base in West Hungary, a disputed region which is supposed to go to Austria, will support Charles’s ambitions. Horthy is censoring all news of this. The Little Entente (Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Romania) warns Austria that if Charles is allowed to remain in that country they will invade and warn Hungary that any restoration would be a casus belli.

NJ Assemblyman Dr. Walter Alexander presides as acting Speaker, which is notable in that he is black and indeed the first black man elected to the NJ Legislature, in 1920. His parents were slaves.

The Republican-dominated Oklahoma Legislature is considering impeaching Democratic Gov. James Robertson. A special committee accuses him of “waste and incompetency,” excessive clemency to convicts, graft, tax evasion, threatening legislators representing the area containing the University of Oklahoma with funding cuts if they didn’t vote with him, etc.

The Dept of Agriculture asks Americans to eat more onions.

Parents in Westfield, Massachusetts are giving their children sugar lumps soaked in ether to reduce their appetites.

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Today -100: March 30, 1921: Of exiles, newspaper bans, and mumps

Charles, the 33-year-old exiled former emperor of Austria-Hungary, sneaks into Austria disguised as a Tyrolean tourist, with his mustache shaved off, travels to Vienna to chat with some monarchists, and then to Budapest, where he speaks to Admiral Miklós Horthy, the “regent” of Hungary, presumably about becoming king of Hungary, which his followers have convinced him is something Hungary is just panting for. It isn’t and neither is Horthy, who suggests he go back to exile in Switzerland. Which he doesn’t. Also, Austria may not give him safe passage, since he broke his pledge not to leave Switzerland.

More sporadic fighting in Germany, with the authorities generally beating back the Communist insurgents.

Georgia Gov. Hugh Dorsey wants an early trial for John Williams, the planter who kept black slaves (I think he acquired them by bailing out prisoners, and the articles use the word peonage rather than slavery, but the articles are curiously silent on this detail) and his black assistant Clyde Manning for the murders of 11 of them. There have been rumors of a black uprising, but it seems they were started by Williams’ 3 sons hoping to stir up a race war to get him out of prison. 

The Cincinnati City Council passes an ordinance banning any books, pamphlets, or newspapers – and we mean you, Henry Ford’s anti-Semitic Dearborn Independent – that hold any race, creed or religion up to ridicule or tend to cause race prejudice.

Headline of the Day -100:  

This is Crown Prince George of Greece and Princess Elisabeth of Romania.

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Today -100: March 29, 1921: Of chief justices, barricades, and little tramps’ little mums

The NYT has information, “of a character sufficiently definite to furnish good ground for credence,” that Supreme Court Chief Justice Edward Douglass White will soon resign and Harding will appoint former president Taft to replace him. White really wants Taft to succeed him, and the assurance that he would do so is the basis of the (false) belief that he will soon resign. In fact, he will soon die. Taft named White chief justice in 1910, despite White being a Democrat who was appointed associate justice by Grover Cleveland.

Berlin is barricaded against the communist insurrection. In Halle, all phone calls are required to be in German, because of course Russians are behind all this.

Charlie Chaplin’s mother Hannah is temporarily detained at Ellis Island because of her mental health history, which this article claims is shell shock from World War I air raids, which it very much isn’t. Chaplin has been lobbying officials for two years for her to be allowed into the US.

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Today -100: March 28, 1921: Of bulls, jazz, parades, and bombs.

Headline of the Day -100 Because I Mean It Must Be The Headline of the Day -100, It’s On the Front Page Above the Fold For Some Reason:  

Hungary bans jazz. Also the foxtrot.

Headline of the Day -100:  

Several bombs go off in Berlin, presumably set by Communists. The German government is blaming Russia for all the disturbances, as was the custom.

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Today -100: March 27, 1921: Of evilly disposed people and congresses of freaks

A British general warns that due to the number of “evilly disposed people” in Londonderry, the military will fire on sight on anyone with a gun. That general’s name: General Allgood.

“Home Rule” will start on April 19th, when both Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland parliaments are due to open. Elections will follow in May. Which seems kind of like the wrong way around.

The Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus is coming to Madison Square Garden. The ad features a drawing of a terrifying clown

and promises “carnivals of 100 capering clowns,” which is surely the stuff of (alliterative) nightmares. Also the “only gorilla in captivity.” And a “Congress of freaks” (but I repeat myself).

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Today -100: March 26, 1921: This man tried to assassinate the United States Government

Headline of the Day -100:  

It’s the road commissioners who have “Czar-like authority,” according to new Gov. Thomas McRae (D). And the road taxes do seem to be insanely high, although strangely there is no evidence that Arkansas now has tens of thousands of miles of top-notch roads on which to totter.

Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes says no economic relations with Russia until it changes its political and economic system and gives “firm guarantees of private property, the sanctity of contract and the rights of free labor.”

The NYT complains that Eugene Debs was allowed out of prison to talk pardon with the attorney general. Why, it asks, “is he treated, not as the dangerous criminal he is, but as a persecuted saint”. “This man tried to assassinate the United States Government.” 

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Today -100: March 25, 1921: Mr. Debs Goes to Washington

John Williams, a white farmer in Jasper County, Georgia, is indicted for the murder of 3 of his black employees he’d been keeping in peonage, although another (black) employee, Clyde Manning, says Williams actually killed 11 men, some dumped in the Yellow River, some in the Alcovy River, and some buried. Manning murdered some of them at Williams’ direction.

Two Italian Fascists challenge the head of the Russian commercial delegation in Rome to a duel.

The Communist uprising in Hamburg and other cities in Germany “is believed to be receding”.

Eugene Debs comes to Washington to discuss a possible presidential pardon with Attorney General Harry Daugherty. They let him out of prison and let him make his way from Atlanta to DC without any guards, expecting him to return when his conference is over. Which of course he will. At his trial Debs acted as his own lawyer, so who else would meet Daughtery?

Yup, Greece has invaded Turkey.

A bomb explodes in the Diana theatre in Milan, killing 31. Possibly thrown by anarchist(s). Fascists wreck the office of the anarchist newspaper Humanita Nova on general principle, as well as offices of the Syndicalist Union and the Socialist Club.

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Today -100: March 24, 1921: A minor state of siege

Violence in Ireland is ramping up. In various attacks on police in retaliation for executions, the IRA mostly lose, but a bunch of cops die too. The government plans to continue with the executions. And with elections in May for the two parliaments in North and South Ireland.

Germany defaults on the payment of 1 billion marks gold, which is equivalent to some money, saying it can’t pay and it disputes the Allied valuation of reparations already paid in goods.

There’s a Communist uprising in Hamburg, Dresden, Leipzig, etc. The Senate (whether state or federal is unclear) declares a “minor state of siege.”

Greece has probably gone to war with Turkey.

The Chicago police ban the sale of Henry Ford’s Dearborn Independent on the streets, following a petition from a Jewish Republican group. There’s a similar ban in Toledo, imposed after a newsboy selling it was beaten up.

A group representing movie theatres in California bans the film Fate, starring Clara Smith Hamon, because it would “unduly and improperly put a premium on violence.” Let’s go back a bit. Jake Hamon was an Oklahoma oil man who took Clara as a mistress when she was 16 and he was 40. He paid his nephew to 1) marry her, and 2) leave the state immediately afer the marriage, so that Jake and Clara would have the same last name and could stay in hotels without awkward questions. Last summer Hamon went to the Republican convention to buy himself a candidate, any candidate, and wound up backing Harding in exchange for being named secretary of interior so that he could have access to the oil reserve at Tea Pot Dome. But it turned out that Florence Harding was distantly related to Hamon’s abandoned wife, and she insisted that Hamon return to his wife and children before being nominated. When Hamon told Clara that he was doing so last November, she shot him, and while he insisted before dying that he had accidentally shot himself while cleaning his gun, no one believed him and she was arrested and tried, though acquitted. And now she’s starring in a film, playing herself, although I can’t find any details about the exact plot of the film, which was never shown anywhere because of this sort of moral hissy fit.

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Today -100: March 23, 1921: Of jumping jacks, fire curtains, and new economic policies

The French parliament passes a bill to require physical training for the youth of both sexes.

Poland, pretending to reach out to the Jews (I phrase it that way because the article, presumably following the language used by Polish officials, keeps talking about “relations between the Poles and the Jews”), will stop special Jew taxes, such as those on Jewish hospitals.

While Russia wants to send a delegation to the US to discuss opening trade relations, the thing Commerce Secretary Hoover just said wouldn’t happen, British Prime Minister David Lloyd George explains to Parliament his reasoning for signing a trade deal: the Soviet regime ain’t going anywhere and we can’t rule out half of Europe and much of Asia and “just ring down the fire curtain and allow the fire to burn itself out.” He thinks the Russian Communists are coming to recognize that their system won’t and can’t work (he suggests the British Labour party should do the same).

What Lenin actually said to the 10th All-Russian Congress of the Bolshevist Party was that the government made mistakes in trying to transition to a peace economy, that Russia can’t depend on world revolution to save it since world revolution seems to be taking longer than anticipated for some reason. Peasants will be given more autonomy, paying part of their produce in a food tax but free to sell the remainder. This would be the famous shift from “War Communism” to the “New Economic Policy” (NEP).

France is considering dividing Upper Silesia between Germany and Poland in a way that sorta matches the voting in the plebiscite but just so happens to give most of the coal and other mineral resources to Poland.

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Today -100: March 22, 1921: Of Austens, constitutions, trade, unjust and violent methods, duels, and “bombs”

The new Tory party leader, following Andrew Bonar Law’s “retirement,” is Austen Chamberlain (brother of Neville). Under the terms of the Coalition, this makes him leader of the Commons.

The new Polish constitution bans corporal punishment. And coats of arms. It includes women’s suffrage and equal rights for all religions, but Jewish proposals to ban discrimination were rejected, so, yeah.

Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover opposes negotiating a trade agreement with Russia. He says Russia has nothing to sell and won’t as long as the Bolshevik economic system continues. In other words, the US policy is still that Russia’s government must be overthrown. Interesting that this statement of policy towards Soviet Russia comes from the secretary of commerce rather than the secretary of state or the, you know, president.

The plebiscite in Upper Silesia goes in favor of the province being part of Germany rather than Poland. The Allies may not abide by the results, and might give Poland those parts of Silesia that voted for Polish annexation, votes which Ger. Pres. Ebert attributes to “a resort to unjust and violent methods.” German newspapers have been writing a lot about “Polish terror”. Before the plebiscite, German newspapers in Silesia claimed (falsely) that Poland was going bankrupt and its currency was now worthless and the Warsaw Stock Exchange had closed down, so who’d want to join that? One reason for the pro-German vote: Germany has no draft while Poland has two years compulsory military service. Also, German factory owners were threatening to shut down their plants if they lost. Also, Germany brought in a lot of Germans with historical connections to the region but who don’t actually live there to vote (it was legal). Still, a lot of Poles must have voted to join Germany.

Dueling is now legal in Uruguay, which two army captains celebrate by dueling with pistols. The Uruguayan army is now short one captain.

Headline of the Day -100:  

I believe I’ll leave you to make your own joke here.

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Today -100: March 21, 1921: Equal rights and no quarter asked

Over the weekend, IRA ambushes kill 11 of the Crown forces in Ireland, and there were numerous attacks on individuals like a court-martial judge, and a major melee in County Cork.

The Chamber of Commerce introduces a new slogan: “More Business Methods in Government, Less Government Management In Business.”

The National Woman’s Party also has a new slogan: “Equal rights and no quarter asked.” It’s planning to introduce a bill to remove all legal disabilities on women in federal laws. Before long, this will be the Equal Rights Amendment. A proposal to include disarmament among the NWP’s aims is turned down, Alice Paul saying it’s not a feminist issue.

A black man accused of killing a black woman is lynched in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. 

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Today -100: March 20, 1921: Get ya paper!

A “young negro,” which I’m guessing means a teenager, is lynched in Water Valley, Mississippi.

Paper-sellers for Henry Ford’s Dearborn Independent are warned by Detroit police to stop yelling out anti-Semitic quotes from the paper.

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Today -100: March 19, 1921: Now I want a dirigible

The government is going to publish the names of 160,000 draft dodgers and possibly prosecute them.

The commander of military headquarters (I guess for Ireland as a whole?) and the divisional commissioner of the Royal Irish Constabulary in Limerick send condolences on the murder of the city’s mayor. The Corporation responds, fuck you, you did it. Which they totally did.

The British government is giving away ten dirigibles, two of them seized from Germany, for free to anyone who wants them.

Russia, the Ukraine, and Poland sign a peace treaty. Poland gains land. Everyone agrees to refrain from propaganda against each other.

Headline of the Day -100:  

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