Today -100: July 18, 1921: Of letters, no demands but one, and non-helpful policies

The Harding administration hasn’t answered any mail from the League of Nations since taking office. Rude. Letters on opium suppression, sex trafficking, starving populations, all ignored. After a while, the League started sending them by registered mail.

The NYT says that (according to unconfirmed reports) Sinn Féin abandoning the demand for an Irish Republic is a “sign that Sinn Fein has come to a better and more sensible mind”. De Valera denies making any compromises: “I have made no demand but one – the only one I am entitled to make – that is that the self-determination of the Irish nation be recognized.”

A Senate sub-committee investigating charges by Admiral William Sims, who commanded US naval forces in Europe during the war, about mismanagement of the Navy during the war and lack of preparation between 1914 and 1917, divides on partisan lines, with Democrats siding with former Secretary Josephus Daniels and the Republican majority insisting that the US, rather than putting everything into winning the war, held back in case the Allies lost, implementing a “self-defensive, non-aggressive and non-helpful policy”.

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Today -100: July 17, 1921: The impulse of the moment

The German war crimes court in Leipzig convicts two U-boat lieutenants for firing on lifeboats and survivors after sinking a Canadian hospital ship, the Llandovery Castle, in 1918. They’re convicted for manslaughter rather than murder because they “acted on the impulse of the moment,” and are sentenced to 4 years, without hard labor. The actual commander of the boat, Helmut Patzig, fled Germany and is therefore not being tried.

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Today -100: July 16, 1921: Of bonuses and blackguards

The Senate accedes to Harding’s insistence that they delay passing a bonus for WW I veterans. Republican leaders say it will be reconsidered... just as soon as conditions permit. Porter McCumber (R-ND), who was in charge of the bill, says those conditions include, but are no doubt not limited to, the passage of tariff and tax legislation, and all the Allies paying off their war debts to the US. He then offers to go outside and fight James Reed (D-Missouri) after the latter, who didn’t even call him Mr McCucumber, which how could you resist, points out that the administration expects debt repayment to take at least five years. He adds that only blackguards offer to settle things “outside.” All this will be censored from the Congressional Record.

No one ever says “blackguard” anymore. They don’t even know how to pronounce it.

The German Federal Council, in a tie vote, rejects the government’s proposal to allow women to serve as judges and jurors in accordance with the Weimar Constitution’s provision for equal rights and responsibilities. Voting no, Bavaria’s rep says “The admission of women would result in a softening of justice, which is most undesirable just at this time.”

“Citzens’ posses” in Aberdeen, South Dakota, in conjunction with the sheriff, round up and eject 130 supposed Wobblies. “Other towns in the vicinity were notified to keep the men moving.”

In his talks with Lloyd George, Éamon de Valera is reportedly insisting that while he’s willing to grant a Northern Irish assembly a great deal of autonomy, it must be subordinate to the all-Ireland parliament. That is, its powers must derive from Dublin, not London.

Lloyd George is mispronouncing de Valera’s name.

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Today -100: July 15, 1921: Of Jim Crow conventions and a president and a prime minister meet

The Virginia State Republican convention bars all but 3 black delegates. What happened was Republicans decided that the adherence of black people to their party was a major obstacle to its success in Virginia, so they held secret local conventions to name delegates. When black Republicans found out about them afterwards, they held their own meetings and elected alternative delegates, all of whom have now been told to fuck off.

Éamon de Valera and Lloyd George meet. For two hours. Nothing is revealed of what they discussed, but you will be shocked to hear that they drank some tea.

Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti are convicted of murder in Dedham, Massachusetts for killing a paymaster and a guard during a robbery a year ago. The judge had told the jury to ignore the fact that they’re Italians.

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Today -100: July 14, 1921: Of masses of anarchy and ruin, earls, and conspicuous straightforwardness and honesty

A Southern Methodist group demands a national Blue Law banning Sunday newspapers and closing movie theaters, businesses and trains on the sabbath. It warns about “a mass of anarchy and ruin” in 25 years if this isn’t done.

German Minister of Justice Eugen Schiffer responds to French attacks on the German war crimes court by bringing up the Dreyfus Affair.

The Earl of Bandon, abducted by the IRA 3 weeks ago, is released.

The London Times says neither Prime Minister Lloyd George nor Foreign Secretary Lord Curzon should go to the Washington disarmament conference, because the British Empire’s reps should have “conspicuous straightforwardness and honesty” and LG lacks these things. It’s funny cuz it’s true. It also attacks Curzon’s “pompous and pretentious manner and incapacity for business”. 10 Downing Street and the Foreign Office respond by banning all Northcliffe papers from receiving press releases and other official information.

Every invited nation except, so far, Japan, have responded positively to the call, and Belgium and the Netherlands are grumbling about not being invited, the latter pointing out that the conference is also supposed to deal with the Far East and they own rather a large chunk of that.

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Today -100: July 13, 1921: With every breath you take

Éamon de Valera arrives in London with his party, to a large greeting by presumably Irish people at Euston Station.

Headline of the Day -100:  

Save the type on this one, NYT, you’ll be using it again.

The Prince of Wales has a cold.

Harding’s call for disarmament talks has elicited positive responses from most foreign governments (well, France says it won’t be cutting its army no matter what). He now offers a tentative date: November 11, Armistice Day, in D.C. He also plans to bring up his stupid idea of an “association of nations” to replace the League of Nations.  

France threatens to continue the occupation of the Rhine until the German war crimes court in Leipzig starts punishing the Germans France thinks it should be punishing.

A Dr. Maingot of Paris is pushing phrenoscopy, which is the science of deducing a person’s character by seeing how they breathe. Sez Maingot, “With his first breath the infant shows the traits that will mark him for life, and with his last breath man shows what sort of person he was in his life.”

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Today -100: July 12, 1921: And now I want an ice cream soda again

Éamon de Valera will meet Lloyd George Thursday, just the two of them.

Wisconsin is the first state to enact full legal equality for women. This includes sitting on juries, care & custody of children, holding office, property, and – the only specific rights mentioned in the article – the right to wear trousers and chew tobacco.

Daniel O’Callaghan, the Lord Mayor of Cork who arrived in the US as a stowaway 6 months ago, sneaks back into Ireland, evidently as a stowaway again, since US immigration officials have no record of him leaving the country.

The Bronx Confectioners’ Association caves and will reduce the price of ice cream sodas from 15 to 10¢ (plus the 1¢ war tax). Whether that will appease the children who have been marching for 5¢, we shall see.

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Today -100: July 11, 1921: Of bloody Sundays and ice cream sodas

15 people are killed in rioting in Belfast, which is how the Irish celebrate a cease-fire. Throughout Ireland there are many incidents of violence, arson, shooting cops, etc in advance of the truce coming into effect in a day that will be called “Bloody Sunday.” Not the first “Bloody Sunday” in Irish history, and not the last.

The NYT thinks Ivanoe Bonomi’s new coalition government in Italy won’t last very long.

Boys in the Bronx have been demonstrating for cheaper ice cream sodas.

Now I want an ice cream soda.

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Today -100: July 10, 1921: Under the flag of pure democracy at present are grouping all the counter-revolutionary elements

A truce is declared in Ireland between Sinn Féin and British government forces. British newspapers are sceptical about whether de Valera has enough control over the various IRA groups to make the truce effective.

Headline of the Day -100:  

The first in the delightful “Ambassador Child” series of children’s books.

Headline of the Day -100:  

At the Third International congress, Lenin says Russia is using the temporary breathing spell in the onslaught of the capitalist countries against it to rebuild and to prepare a revolution against them. While the struggle is going on, democracy and liberty are out of the question in Russia because “under the flag of pure democracy at present are grouping all the counter-revolutionary elements.”

The German Leipzig war crimes court acquits two generals of allowing – or encouraging – a typhoid epidemic in a POW camp.

The British will abolish the penal colony in the Andaman Islands. Now where will prisoners and guards swear secret pacts about treasure?

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Today -100: July 9, 1921: Peace?

Congress declared peace last week, but “nobody in authority in Washington seems to know whether we are actually at peace or not.” The resolution may have been enough by itself, or there may need to be some sort of proclamation, especially if the US is to retain the “rights” it acquired by the term of the armistice. It’s also unclear if laws passed for the duration of the war are still in effect. “Meanwhile the country may be engaged in a state of war with Germany without anybody knowing how to end it.” Treaties with Germany and Austria would definitely do it, but Harding shows no sign of making a move in that direction.

France withdraws its delegation from the Leipzig war crimes court, calling it a travesty of a mockery of a sham of a mockery of a travesty of two mockeries of a sham. This also means French complaining witnesses won’t appear.

Former kaiser Wilhelm refuses to pay taxes in the Netherlands, claiming he didn’t come to the country willingly and is being held as a virtual prisoner, so he doesn’t have to pay taxes.

The Tuskegee Institute reports that there were 36 lynchings in the United States in the first six months of 1921, up from 12 in the same period in 1920. 2 of the lynchees were white, 34 black. Mississippi and Georgia had the most lynchings.

Éamon de Valera finally responds to Lloyd George’s invitation to London, asking “on what basis such a conference as that proposed can reasonably hope to achieve the object desired, huh, huh?” I may have added the huhs. Lloyd George agrees to a suspension of hostilities in Ireland from Monday.

More proof that life in the 1920s was EXACTLY as it was portrayed in silent films:  

Congress moves quickly to enact the dying wish of Rep. Edward Taylor of Colorado to rename the Grand River the Colorado River. A rather uninteresting dying wish, if you ask me, but then Taylor won’t actually die until 1941.

Jack Dempsey says he won’t box Jack Johnson (just out of prison) or any other negro.

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Today -100: July 8, 1921: Too many du Ponts

The US sends the warship Cleveland to Tampico, Mexico to protect American interests (i.e., property, especially oil) against anticipated labor disturbances but also possibly as a subtle way of registering displeasure over the recent increase in taxes on oil exports.

Albert Einstein, back home from his trip to America, says the “excessive enthusiasm” for him there is because the American people are “colossally bored” because there is intellectual poverty outside of New York, Boston and Chicago. Oh, and also women run the US.

The German war crimes court in Leipzig acquits Lt-Gen. Karl Stenger of ordering the killing of French POWs in 1914 (he actually didn’t issue any such order), while a major was convicted and given a light sentence for carrying out the order, if order there was. The French are pissed.

Sen. Josiah Wolcott (D) of Delaware resigns to become chancellor of Delaware (their name for attorney general). In other words, Gov. William Denney got him to give up his seat so he could appoint a Republican to replace him, T. Coleman du Pont, from the always contentious Delaware family (NYT: “There are too many du Ponts for so small a state.”)

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Today -100: July 7, 1921: Of virtual defeats, soluble problems, and Trotsky in chains

The Senate is debating a Bonus Bill for veterans, giving them $1 a day for each day of service, $1.25 for each day overseas. That money would be paid in installments starting in 1922, the 2nd installment coming conveniently right before the Congressional elections. Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon denounces the idea, saying it would “virtually defeat the Administration’s program of economy and retrenchment,” hamper re-financing the national debt, create inflation, and somehow, the veterans would lose more from it than they would gain. There’s a lot of bullshit from senators about how the soldiers didn’t fight for money (especially the 25¢ a day 

difference between service in the US and service in the trenches). Mellon refers to “a sacrifice that can never be measured in terms of money.” Well not with that attitude, mister.

Right next to that story on the front page of the NYT is this one:

South African Prime Minister Jan Smuts says that Ireland is totally “soluble,” and he knows this because “If ever this problem of the subjection of one people to another presented a hopeless view it was in South Africa” but “we solved the problem, and today South Africa is one of the happiest countries in the Empire.” Of course, the people who were under subjection in that formulation were the Boers; the majority black population of his country literally don’t enter into his thinking. One of the happiest countries in-fucking-deed.

Latest completely unconfirmed rumor about Russia that the NYT nevertheless publishes: Lenin has imprisoned Trotsky.

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Today -100: July 6, 1921: Of dominions

Various discussions have been going on in advance of the conference in London. De Valera and other Sinn Féin leaders met with Southern Irish Unionists, the Ulster ones having refused an invitation. Now South African PM Jan Smuts is in Dublin, presumably to play up the Dominion option to Sinn Féiners because hey it’s working out so well in South Africa.

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Today -100: July 5, 1921: Wine was served

An anti-Prohibition parade marches up 5th Avenue in New York, yes, on the Fourth of July. 20,000 marchers, the NYT says, which is smaller than was expected; the Anti-Saloon League did its own count, and says 14,922. Mayor Hylan watched the parade while having an ice cream soda. Banners included the slogans “Prohibition took sunshine from our homes and put moonshine in,” “We are citizens, not inmates. Which are you?”, “Russia went dry in 1919; went mad in 1921. How rational do you feel yourself?”, “Only a mother could love a prohibitionist’s face,” “Tyranny in the name of righteousness is the basest of all tyranny,” “Greenwich Village wants drinks,” “The rich have it. Why not the poor?” One marcher carries a reproduction of da Vinci’s The Last Supper with the caption “Wine was served.” 

Later in the day, 5th Ave sees another parade, sponsored by the American Association for the Recognition of the Irish Republic. Hylan observes that one too.

Ivanoe Bonomi forms a government in Italy.

Italian Fascists respond to the killing of one of their members by Communists in Grosseto, Tuscany with a military-type attack on the town, killing 16.

Headline of the Day -100:  

Headline of the Day -100:  

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Today -100: July 4, 1921: Here’s Johnny

Headline of the Day -100:  

Happy 4th!

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Today -100: July 3, 1921: Peace, ain’t it grand

Between rounds of golf, Harding signs the Congressional joint declaration ending the war with Germany and Austria. He accidentally dripped some ink on it, which is probably one of those metaphor things.

Dempsey wins, which is enough about that.

Wait, no it isn’t. Some people from the International Reform Bureau, whatever that is, attend the match in order to attempt to get the winner arrested for assault and battery. However the cops won’t do it without a warrant, even though the chief of police personally witnessed the assault, and they can’t find a judge to issue one.

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Today -100: July 2, 1921: I know the people do not want me to go

The Senate passes the resolution declaring the Great War over, 38-19. Some Democrats complain that this means the US will have to give back all the German property it seized during the war.

The lawyers for Sacco and Vanzetti, on trial for murder, insist that all evidence that they have a reputation for being peaceful and law-abiding be stricken from the record. The jury is told to disregard anything they’ve heard along those lines (a couple of cops from Vanzetti’s town and a couple of Sacco’s former employers so testified).

Attorney General Harry Daugherty says he won’t attend the Dempsey-Carpentier fight because he “had too much respect for the opinion of people who disapprove of prize fights and of whom I must be a sort of unofficial representative.” Gov. Wilson Sproul of Pennsylvania also won’t be there, saying he’s never been to a prizefight and wouldn’t know what was going on and “I know the people do not want me to go.” J.P. Morgan says he won’t go because he disapproves, not because of the boxing, but for some other reason he doesn’t care to disclose (he’s commenting because he was accidentally included on a list of attendees).

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Today -100: July 1, 1921: Chuckles the Judge

Headline of the Day -100:  

In the morning, Pres. Harding nominates former Pres. William Howard Taft to be chief justice of the Supreme Court, and the Senate confirms him by the afternoon, with 4 no votes (William Borah, Hiram Johnson, Robert La Follette, all Republicans, and George Watson, D of Georgia). Borah says Taft hasn’t practiced law in 30 years and at 63 is just 7 years from the legal age of incompetence. Harding didn’t even inform Taft before sending the nomination to the Senate, but Taft’s been panting for a seat on the Court for...  decades, really and everyone pretty much knew he was getting it.

The British release Sinn Féin Vice President Arthur Griffith and other SF MPs from prison so they can take part in the London conference (although de Valera has yet to accept).

The NYT requests people not call their offices for updates during the Dempsey-Carpentier fight.

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Getting new blog posts by email

Google is killing that Feedburner function sometime in July, because reasons. I've added a new get-posts-by-email thing in the column to the right, from something called follow.it. If you want to continue/start getting posts in your inbox, enter your email address there.

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Today -100: June 30, 1921: We need to know the whereabouts of these people

Northern Ireland Prime Minister Sir James Craig rejects Éamon de Valera’s request for a meeting (which de V initially sent to a different Unionist politician named Sir James Craig).

The Dáil Éireann authorizes reprisals against British reprisals. A house for a house.

The House of Representatives votes 330-4 for the Borah Amendment in favor of calling naval limitation negotiations with Britain and Japan.

Winston Churchill’s mother Jennie, aka Lady Randolph Churchill, dies. The story is on page 12, which is odd since her leg being amputated was front-page news earlier this month.

The Cuban Senate votes against women’s suffrage. 

US Secretary of Labor James Davis wants to track immigrants, “not to regulate him, but to help him, to teach him, and encourage him. We need to know the whereabouts of these people, if it is only to protect them from the insidious poison of Red propaganda.”

A Lake County, Illinois jury takes 20 hours to convict a hotel owner of violating Prohibition law, because that’s how long it took for them to consume the evidence, 3 quarts of whiskey and 1 of port.

No, I’m not going to read the op-ed about how vivisection is “vindicated.”

I thought we’d heard the opinion of every person on earth about the Dempsey-Carpentier match, but... George Bernard Shaw thinks Carpentier will win.

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