Today -100: June 23, 1922: Of assassinations, show trials, and bad gonads

Field Marshal Sir Henry Wilson, former Chief of the Imperial General Staff, current MP for North Down in Northern Ireland, is shot dead outside his house in London by two IRA men. He tried to defend himself with his sword. I mean he retired from the Army when he stood for Parliament a few months ago, but I guess he was still just wandering around London in uniform, with a sword. The assassins are captured (one of them has a wooden leg, which probably didn’t help) after a chase in which they shot a constable and a bystander; they’ll be executed. (Reading further in the story, I begin to doubt the sword thing). With no evidence whatsoever, Northern Ireland PM Sir James Craig blames “a wide conspiracy against those who are fighting the battle of Ulster.”

Workers, quite possibly orchestrated by the Soviet government, demonstrate at the Social Revolutionaries’ show trial in Moscow, demanding the death penalty. Prosecutor Nikolai Krylenko (who will later experience Soviet justice from the other side) allows representatives of the demonstrators to enter and address the court because “we are only carrying out their wishes.”

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A whole bunch of scab coal miners are killed in Herrin, Illinois. There’s a “death march” and everything. And a lot of mine equipment is dynamited.

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Today -100: June 22, 1922: Of mandates, funky vitamins, menaces, shameful documents, tools of international bankers, and barrels

The British House of Lords rejects the League of Nations mandate for Palestine for violating the pledges Britain made to the people of Palestine by giving the Zionist minority more power than the Arab majority.

Several thousand striking coal miners attack a mine near Herrin, Illinois, killing 22 scabs.

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Sounds like the title of a late ‘60s movie that Vincent Price was ill-advised to agree to. Casimir Funk, by the way, discovered vitamins and came up with that word, although he spelled it vitamine.

The Illinois state Supreme Court affirms the imprisonment of 19 Communists for, you know, being Communists. “Communists are a menace,” says the court.

Éamon de Valera says the proposed Irish constitution will “exclude from public service, and practically disfranchise, every honest Republican” by the required oath to the king and Empire. The Republic of Ireland newspaper, edited by Erskine Childers, who lost his election race for the Dáil, calls it a “shameful document.”

The Paterson, New Jersey Ku Klux Klan protests the closing of public schools to honor the late Dean William McNulty of St. John’s Catholic Church, which they say violates the separation of church & state.

NYC Mayor John Hylan denounces Democratic women who prefer Alfred E. Smith over William Randolph Hearst for governor of NY as “misguided” tools of “international bankers who have their clutches on the Government at Washington” and “public utilities and corporate interests which are in control of the State Government”. 

The bathing suit war continues in Atlantic City, which has decreed that bathers must wear coats over their bathing suits as they walk to and from the beach. As a protest, the guests of one unnamed hotel buy barrels to wear instead.

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Today -100: June 21, 1922: First women

Anna Dickie Olesen wins the Minnesota Democratic primary for US Senate, the first major party nomination of a woman for the Senate. This follows the D. party convention’s endorsement of her. She will lose the general election. Mrs Peter Oleson, as she and her husband would prefer she not to be called, reassures that women’s participation in politics need not interfere with housework.

The Countess Markievicz, the first woman elected to the British Parliament, although she didn’t take her seat, is defeated for re-election to the Dáil. 

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Today -100: June 20, 1922: In complete order

Lenin’s doctors say he’s much better. Better from what is not clear, since they refer to symptoms (now gone) of the stomach and bowel tract, disorder in the blood circulation (now better), and say “All the internal organs are in complete order” (alphabetical?), but fail to mention his stroke, which Russia is presumably back to denying ever happened.

It’s also denying that Russia is now run by a directorate.

The KKK orders Pennsylvania Prohibition Director John Davis to resign within 10 days or be tarred & feathered. “If they come I am ready for them,” he says. It is unclear what the Klan’s quarrel with Davis is.

Illinois Gov. Len Small’s lawyers decline to put on a defense in his corruption trial, a bold move you can only make if you know your client is innocent or has bribed the jury. One or the other.

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Today -100: June 19, 1922: Of vitamins, model citizens, and smoking

Johns Hopkins biochemist Elmer McCollum discovers Vitamin D. Vitamin A was also one of his. So now sunlight may replace cod liver oil as the cure for rickets.

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Kansas Attorney General Richard Hopkins says state Superintendent of Public Instruction Lorraine Wooster has no authority to remove the accreditation of schools and colleges that allow smoking by administrators, teachers or pupils.

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Today -100: June 18, 1922: Of elections, klans, and hearsts

The Irish elections are conducted, with relatively few raids on voting places, kidnappings, threatening notices, etc. Early results show strong pro-Treaty majorities.

The NYT Sunday Magazine has a longish piece about the Ku Klux Klan and its election activities this year.

Democrats are worried that if William Randolph Hearst is elected governor of NY this year, he’d be in a good position for a presidential run in 1924. So they’re putting increasing pressure on Al Smith to run for governor.

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Today -100: June 17, 1922: Of thoughtful Jews, melons, and helicopters

A. Lawrence Lowell, president of Harvard says that restricting the number of Jewish students in Harvard might be Good for the Jews: “The anti-Semitic feeling among the students is increasing, and it grows in proportion to the increase in the number of Jews. If their number should become 40 per cent. of the student body, the race feeling would become intense. When on the other hand, the number of Jews was small, the race antagonism was small also. . . . If every college in the country would take a limited proportion of Jews, I suspect we should go a long way toward eliminating race feeling among the students, and as these students passed out into the world, eliminating it in the community.” Alfred Benesch, the lawyer (and Jewish alum) to whose letter Lowell is responding, replies that the logical conclusion of Lowell’s argument is that a complete ban on Jewish students would solve the problem of anti-Semitism. Lowell says a committee on the proposed Jew Quota will be formed and it will “get into communication with the thoughtful Jews in this country.”

Harvard is also accused of segregating black students in dorms and dining halls.

Congressional Republicans tell Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon to fire Democratic officials (including some who actually aren’t) in the Treasury. He tells them to suck his melon balls.

A helicopter (a plane with lifting propellers on its wings, I’m not sure that really counts as a helicopter) rises seven (7) feet in the air in a demonstration before US Navy experts.

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Today -100: June 16, 1922: Have no sensational announcement to make

The draft Irish constitution is released, a full day before the Constituent Assembly elections, which should give the voters plenty of time to absorb the details. Those details include equal suffrage between men and women (unlike in Britain), proportional representation, referenda, and Ireland not being forced into some war unless it’s actually being invaded. In general, the position of Ireland re Britain would be similar to Canada’s.

Supposedly Lenin’s German doctors are telling him he needs to rest at a sanitarium for at least 6 months. They recommend German sanitaria because there are no decent Russian ones. So they’re looking for one that will be happy to admit a patient with a battalion of guards.

The foreign communists supporting the Social Revolutionary defendants at the Moscow show trial withdraw, correctly claiming the judges have been obstructing the defense. The judges reply that the counsel have been unreasonable from the start and “They quit the Court because the political situation is against them.”

The World Court is open for business. There are only two things on its docket, advisory opinions on 1) whether the International Labor Organization covers agricultural workers and 2) whether the Dutch delegates to the ILO were properly chosen.

Marconi sailed to the US on his floating lab/yacht, trying to pick up radio messages from Mars but, replying to the AP, says “Have no sensational announcement to make.”

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Today -100: June 15, 1922: Of troikas and the smoke of burning bodies

While Lenin recovers (or not) from his stroke, Russia will be ruled by a triumvirate of Stalin, Lev Kamenev, and... well, the NYT says Alexei Rykov, but actually Grigori Zinoviev. And no Trotsky.

A silent parade of negroes in D.C. demands passage of the Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill. One of their signs says: Congress Discusses Constitutionality While the Smoke of Burning Bodies Darkens the Heavens.

Wow.

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Today -100: June 14, 1922: Of oaths and oafs

British Colonial Secretary Winston Churchill tells Parliament that members of the Irish Free State’s Provisional Government will be required to take the oath of allegiance to the king but members of the Provisional Parliament won’t, although members of the eventual permanent Irish Parliament will. “The House was a little mystified by the explanation.”

We last visited Annapolis earlier this year when everyone was saying how unkind it was to nominate a negro to study there when he would just be treated like shit by the midshipmen. Well, Sen. Howard Sutherland (R-West Virginia) brings to the attention of the Senate an insult to one of his constituents: the page in the Annapolis yearbook featuring graduate Leonard Kaplan is perforated, so it can be easily removed. The page is unnumbered and Kaplan is not listed in the index, so there’d be no sign that something was missing if a grad chose to tear it out. Kaplan is a Jew.

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Today -100: June 13, 1922: We reserve the right to begin again

At the Moscow show trial of the Social Revolutionary leaders, Timefieff, speaking for the defendants, says they did indeed carry on armed resistance in 1918, but stopped after Kolchak’s defeat. “Even now, however, we reserve the right to begin again.”

Darrell Figgis, a pro-Treaty member of Ireland’s Constitution Committee and noted ginger, is attacked in his home by 3 men, presumably from the IRA, and forcibly shaved. Traumatized by the event, which she had not unreasonably assumed to be an assassination, his wife Millie committed suicide in 1924 (with a pistol given to her by Michael Collins after this incident) and he followed in 1925. Although Figgis says he would recognize the men, it was only in the 1950s that Robert Briscoe, Lord Mayor of Dublin, confessed to being one of the rogue shavers. 

Wolfgang Kapp of the 1920 Kapp Putsch dies before he can be tried.

The bidding war for the world-wide rights (excluding the German-language version) of former kaiser Wilhelm’s memoirs is won by a consortium that includes Harper & Brothers, the NY Times, the LA Times, the London Sunday Times, etc etc for more than it can possibly be worth.

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Today -100: June 12, 1922: Watch out for snakes!

No rum can be found in Alipine, New Jersey to treat a man bitten by a copperhead snake. (In case this needs to be said, do not treat snakebite with rum).

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Today -100: June 11, 1922: Of lynchings, scared Hottentots, Yankee enterprise, and nanooks

5 suspects in the lynching of a black man last month in Texarkana, Arkansas are arrested.

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And by “scare,” they mean “bomb and machine gun.”

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The semi-documentary Nanook of the North premieres, semi-documenting the Inuit people.

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Today -100: June 10, 1922: Of the business we call show trial

The trial of 12 members of the central committee of the Social Revolutionary party (SR) and 10 other members begins in Russia. This is considered the first of the Soviet show trials. It has been carefully planned for many months and authorized by Lenin before his stroke. The charges, including armed struggle against the Soviet state, conspiring to assassinate Lenin, Trotsky, et al,  and treason through contact with enemy foreign nations, derive from a penal code that went into effect June 1st, after the alleged crimes took place. Foreign Communists are present in the court on both the defense and prosecution sides (and let me say how disappointed I am with Clara Zetkin). Some of the former challenge the right of the court to sit at all.

Samuel Gompers, president of the American Federation of Labor, says the Supreme Court decision that the Sherman Anti-Trust Act can be used against unions is a denial of the right to strike, reestablishing “slavery and involuntary servitude, not for the black man alone, but for the white men and women of labor of the United States.” 

Judge Robert Street directs a verdict of misconduct against Jefferson County, Texas Sheriff Tom Garner and removes him from office for being a member of a criminal organization, the KKK, in contravention of his oath of office.

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Today -100: June 9, 1922: Of looting, cannibalism, fake counts, and entire approval

After stripping the treasures from many churches, the Russian government is raiding the tombs of emperors – except Peter the Great, who’s still pretty popular. Jewelry is stripped from the corpses of Catherine the Great and others.

The son of former Colorado Gov. Shafroth, doing relief work in Russia, claims Russians are digging up cemeteries and chowing down. No one’s eaten Catherine the Great yet, though.

The widow of Prince Joachim of Prussia – the former kaiser Wilhelm’s son who committed suicide in 1920 – nearly becomes engaged to Count Demuth-Stroemer. Who turns out not to be a real count and is under arrest as a con artist who also passed fake checks and deserted from the army.

Pres. Harding writes to the Senate giving his “entire approval” to Interior Secretary Albert Fall and Navy Secretary Edwin Denby’s leasing to private companies of the naval oil reserves in Elk Hills, CA and Teapot Dome, Wyoming.

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Today -100: June 8, 1922: Of strokes and klans

Acting Russian Premier Lev Kamenev says Lenin didn’t have a stroke after all.

Lenin totally had a stroke.

The Los Angeles County Grand Jury indicts 43 members of the Ku Klux Klan for the attack on a family in Inglewood in April. I still don’t know what that was all about.

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Today -100: June 7, 1922: Of Jew quotas, kingly close calls, and indoor choppers

Massachusetts Gov. Channing Cox will appoint a committee to investigate whether Harvard discriminates against Jews.

Italian King Victor Emmanuel’s car is almost hit by a train.

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Today -100: June 6, 1922: Of trusts, motor automatism, bigamy, acid attacks, and presidential candidate assembly lines

The Supreme Court rules that unions can be sued under the Sherman Anti-Trust Act for striking, which is definitely not how the act was intended to be used, and strike funds can be assessed for damages. However in this particular case the Court rules in favor of the union, deciding that the national UMW was not responsible for a 1914 coal miners’ strike, the local branch was, and it didn’t interfere with interstate commerce. Chief Justice Taft expresses “regret” that the Court can’t punish the union.

In more important rulings, the Supreme Court refuses to define what constitutes a ouija board. The Baltimore Talking Board Company objects to its ouija boards being taxed as sporting goods, when they are obviously “a grade of motor automatism, involving considerable subconscious action of intelligence” and so... a children’s toy. The Court won’t consider the company’s appeal from a lower court. Also, why does spellcheck want me to capitalize ouija?

The British shell Pettigoe, a town in the Irish Free State on the border with Northern Ireland which an IRA unit had occupied, and Michael Collins is not best pleased.

The bigamy charge against Rudolph Valentino is thrown out.

Former German chancellor Philipp Scheidemann (SPD) is attacked with prussic acid whilst on vacation. Herr S. shoots at his assailant a couple of times (missing) before losing consciousness, but seems to be mostly unharmed.

Henry Ford has said (privately) that he’d be willing to be drafted to run for president, if he didn’t have to spend any of his own money.

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Today -100: June 5, 1922: Of aroused leaders, ape ancestors, goldfish, and Jew quotas

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Hungarian elections: Socialists win seats in Parliament for the first time, and 8 of 11 cabinet members fail to be reelected. There was a secret ballot in the cities but open voting in the countryside, if I’m understanding correctly.

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Gerald, his name was Gerald. William Jennings Bryan has been scoring points, or what he thinks are points, by offering rewards to professors, such as this one to a West Virginia University biology professor and any other professors at the U willing to declare their belief in the Bible.

Some chemical the Parisian authorities put in the water supply is killing all the goldfish.

The Harvard University Faculty refuses to give the Admission Board the power to establish a quota for Jewish students.

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Today -100: June 4, 1922: Stroking Lenin

So the US won’t go to any of the international conferences, but Harding will join the investigation of Turkish atrocities against Christians?

Britain is sending troops, lots of troops, into Northern Ireland.

Lenin has a stroke, a complication of the surgeries that removed the bullet from that old assassination attempt. I’m surprised they made the news public so quickly.

An anti-lynching parade in NYC calls for the federal Dyer anti-lynching bill to be passed. It won’t be. Until 2022.

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