Today -100: February 5, 1923: Of crown princes, occupations, and klokards

The Lausanne Conference breaks up in failure. Turkey refused to honor the corrupt concessions the old Ottoman government gave foreigners and refused to allow foreign legal advisors to control the arrests and searches of foreigners. The Turks point to all the territorial concessions to which they did agree.

Former crown prince Wilhelm of Germany is meeting monarchist conspirators from Germany near the border. The Netherlands is not happy that he’s abusing the terms of his asylum.

The French occupation of the Ruhr and Rhineland is going swell. In Ingelheim, French troops start shooting after two coal trains ram into each other, mistakenly thinking it was sabotage rather than what happens when you try to run trains during a train strike. And in Bilke, a French soldiers trips and accidentally shoots a young German girl dead. In Essen, French troops fire machine guns over the heads of a Communist meeting. And French soldiers occupy railroad junctions in order to cut the line between Frankfort and Switzerland, in retaliation for Germany stopping the running of express trains through Germany between Paris & Prague and Paris & Bucharest, ostensibly due to a shortage of coal, i.e. the French coal blockade of Germany. And a tuberculosis sanitarium in Sankt Blaslen in the Black Forest is forced to expel its French and Belgian patients. The German government is sending money to the Ruhr to prop up the resistance. Indeed, they’re printing money as fast as they can, which may have consequences later.

Greece informs Britain and France that it will go to war with Turkey, again, if the latter continues to claim Karagatch. Britain & France are expected to tell Greece to simmer down.

The Rev. Dr. Oscar Haywood, the Ku Klux Klan’s national Klokard (lecturer), is in NY and challenges Thomas Dixon to a debate. He also says that the Mer Rouge Klan did not murder Watt Daniels and Thomas Richards, who in fact merely “disappeared”; those two dead bodies found in Lake La Fourche were actually cadavers stolen from a medical school.

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Today -100: February 4, 1923: America knows nothing of love, food or art

At the League of Nations, Lithuania threatens war with Poland, something about a neutral zone. The League Council responds that any use of force will be met with a blockade.

Isadora Duncan finishes her tour of the US and says she’ll never be back. The bootleg liquor she found to be especially bad (“would kill an elephant”). “I would rather live in Russia on black bread and vodka. ... America knows nothing of love, food or art.” Also, she doesn’t even know where the Bronx is (don’t ask). In other words, she faced a press hostile to her politics and love life, lost money on the tour and cut it off early.

Two black men are lynched in Milledgeville,  Georgia. Alleged robbers, they shot one of a posse pursuing them.

NYT Index Transcription Error of the Day -100:

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Today -100: February 3, 1923: Of fascist colonial wars, ruhrs, war debts, small cottages, and Bruces

NYPD Commissioner Enright ends the stationing of cops in cabarets, restaurants and dance halls to enforce Prohibition, patting men down for hip flasks and tasting their drinks. Owners of those establishments agree to enforce it themselves and to stop serving at 2 am.

Mussolini’s first colonial military action: he sends troops to Libya to put down some rebellious chiefs.

Germany calls off the railroad strike in the Ruhr and the Rhineland. Ruhr coal mines are still closed.

The US and Britain come to an agreement on Britain’s war debts to the US. Something about bonds. Harding is strongly opposed to the idea put forward by some congresscritters to use the money for a bonus for veterans, because fuck those guys.

Sir Horace Plunkett says “a small cottage will do me for the rest of my days.” To which the IRA replies, probably, “Yeah, we can burn that down too. Easier, really.”

The Communist International and Soviet trade unions announce a fund for a “world-wide” fight against fascism.

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He’s the Commonwealth Treasurer and is also in charge of the sheep dip.

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Today -100: February 2, 1923: Of radical trolley workers, bagwells unbagged, and suspended animation

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And yes it is the phrase “radical faction of trolley workers” that drew my eye.

The IRA release Sen. Bagwell. Or he escaped. For some reason, he’s not talking.

An assassination attempt on the Bulgarian prime minister and several cabinet members, which will somehow not make it into the NYT.

The Phoenix, AZ coroner orders that George Stevenson be buried, because he is dead. For the last 8 days his family have insisted that he’s actually in suspended animation. Stevenson was a doctor and he had... theories.

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Today -100: February 1, 1923: Of blockades, memels, imperfect storms, and bagwells bagged

France stops all coal shipments to Germany from the Ruhr and plans to continue doing so until Germany agrees to all French demands on reparations and beyond. This is in response to Germany’s failure to pay the most recent reparations.

The Entente orders Lithuania to remove its troops from Memel.

Frederick Storm, who is both the exalted cyclops (that’s the best kind of cyclops) of the Yonkers, New York Ku Klux Klan and kleagle of Westchester County, is convicted of possession of a blackjack and put on probation.

The IRA kidnap the aptonymical Sen. Bagwell, a Unionist. The Irish Free State threatens reprisals, as was the custom, unless he is released within 48 hours. There is some discussion in the Dáil about whether lawless violence is the correct way to respond to lawless violence.

The IRA blow up Sen. Sir Horace Plunkett’s home, Kilteragh, near Dublin, as was the custom (it’s the second time).

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Today -100: January 31, 1923: Of French tools, conferences, and fatties

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After his announcement of a Nazi war against “the criminals of Nov. 9, 1918” (German pols who surrendered to the Allies), despite the ongoing occupation of the Ruhr, maybe not the best time for such an announcement. The costly rallies he just held raise suspicions that he’s being subsidized by the French... royalists?

Another reason the British are not best pleased with the French is that the French delegates at the Lausanne Conference say they’ll stay and continue negotiating with Turkey rather than walk out and end the conference at the expiration of the deadline Britain has declared.

Fatty Arbuckle says he’s done with acting. He’ll direct. The last films he made before his little legal trouble will remain unreleased.

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Today -100: January 30, 1923: Ghent is French

Pres. Warren G. Harding says the federal budget might be in balance by the end of the year.

France is arresting German officials in the Ruhr for refusing to obey French orders, and deporting them to Germany proper. They say they have authority to do this under the Hague conventions; Germany points out that those only apply in time of war. France is censoring and closing newspapers all over the Rhine, and interfering with news reports to Germany.

A massive march in Brussels protests the new law mandating the use of the Flemish language in Ghent University. “Ghent is French! Ghent is French!” they chant. In French, presumably.

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Today -100: January 29, 1923: Of militias, flirting with Moscow, insulting childs, and Armenian homelands

Hundreds of young men arrive in Berlin, having heard that the army is enrolling volunteers in case of war with France. It’s believed that that (false) rumor was spread so that they’d join royalist freikorps groups instead.

Bulgarian Prime Minister Aleksandar Stamboliyski threatens in what the AP calls “a blunt satirical speech” that if the Allies keep pressing Bulgaria on reparations, they’ll get them in the form of the corpses of the leaders of the bourgeois parties, who are currently in prison. I don’t think he understands how reparations work. A bill to try the bourgeois party leaders by a people’s tribunal, without the usual legal protections, is in process. He also says he’s been “flirting with Moscow.”

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Not a low-budget horror film about a malevolent haunted sweater. Angora = Ankara. Child = US Ambassador to Italy Richard Child, acting as observer at the Lausanne Conference. 

Russia offers to take Armenian refugees and give them land – the use of land rather than private ownership of course – in southwestern Russia, so long as they become Russian citizens.

Charlie Chaplin and actress Pola Negri announce their engagement, which has been rumored for months. That is, Negri has been whispering it to gossip columnists for the publicity. Not sure why Chaplin is playing along now.

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Today -100: January 28, 1923: I do not want any monkey business

France surrounds the Ruhr with customs posts so as to tax exports into Germany proper. German propaganda says France plans to tax food going into the Ruhr, France denies it. The railroad strike continues.

Remember how Bavaria declared martial law to stop Hitler holding a rally? I believe that was <checks notes> yesterday. Without actually lifting martial law, the Bavarian government now decides to allow not one but six Nazi rallies in Munich, after entreaties from Gen. Ludendorff, Crown Prince Ruprecht, etc. (the AP counts 12 meetings). Hitler “expressed the belief that the Ruhr invasion would stimulate German unification.”

Captain J.K. Skipwith, Exalted Cyclops of the Morehouse Klan, says he has promised Attorney Gen. Adolphe Coco, on his word as a Southern gentleman, to keep down the turmoil in Morehouse Parish. Until the Grand Jury convenes in March, anyway. So he issues this order: “so far as I am concerned I do not want any monkey business.” He claims one of the two murdered men is actually still alive, somewhere.

A Chicago fireman is fighting his suspension for being a member of the KKK.

The stove French serial killer Henri Landru used to burn up the bodies of his victims is sold at auction for 4,200 francs, which is the equivalent of some money. A store (what sort of store is unspecified) plans to put it in its window. Wonder where it is now.

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Today -100: January 27, 1923: Beware of Ruhr indigestion

The French arrest Düsseldorf’s bürgermaster and police chief, as well as the Prussian governor of the district for not suppressing anti-French demonstrations and for refusing to carry out French orders. Supposedly the police chief, being held responsible for his force going out on strike, told General Simon “You French will find the Ruhr a tough morsel to digest. Beware of Ruhr indigestion.”

Bavaria declares martial law to prevent Hitler holding a rally.

The Connecticut Legislature fails, for the 3rd time, to ratify the 18th Amendment (Prohibition).

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A Klonvoklation is held in a building which is rented out for meetings at night but houses the Brooklyn Traffic Court during the day (the Klan rented it under the name “Brooklyn Circle Club”). They’re charged with disorderly conduct (no elaboration on that) and possession of a blackjack and a bottle of whisky.

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Today -100: January 26, 1923: Of ruhrs and electric chairs

Rioting in French-occupied Essen and Düsseldorf. France plans to occupy the Ruhr for at least 2 years (the period of a proposed reparations moratorium plan, which Germany has not yet accepted). Ex-General Erich Ludendorff is trying to gin up resistance to the occupation. Some Germans are suggesting adopting the guerilla tactics of the IRA.

Sing Sing inaugurates its new electric chair by frying a black man, as was the custom. He killed a white woman he was trying to rob.

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Today -100: January 25, 1923: Of ruhrs, wrong lynchings, and justices

A French court-martial fines 6 Ruhr industrial types for refusing French orders to deliver coal (but obeying German orders not to). Large fines, except for Felix Thyssen’s, ostensibly because he is only the son of the company owner, but probably because he looked like becoming a martyr (which also explains the fines instead of prison sentences). France plans to cut the Ruhr entirely off from unoccupied Germany. France would love to set up a buffer Rhine-Ruhr-Sahr state and is pumping in separatist propaganda, without stirring up much enthusiasm. The last US soldiers withdraw from the Rhine.

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Don’t you hate it when that happens?

Pres. Harding nominates Edward Sanford to the Supreme Court, replacing Justice Mahlon Pitney, who retired after a stroke. This is his 4th Sup Court nomination.

An ad from the National Surety Company saying it paid off on a bank robbery reported in the paper just yesterday:

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Today -100: January 24, 1923: Of congresswomen, freak legislation, and dentists

Hey, there’s a new woman in Congress (the 4th ever). Mae Nolan (R) wins in a special election in California’s 5th district to fill the seat of her husband John Nolan, who died in November, for both the remainder of the 67th Congress and the 68th. Then she’ll step down because politics is man’s business. She said it, not me.

The House of Representatives votes 223-101 for a Constitutional amendment to block the exemption of securities from state or federal taxes.

The speaker of the New Hampshire Legislature complains about “freak legislation,” specifically 4 bills to 1) require everyone to sleep 8 hours a day, 2) investigate all homes to determine if they’re happy, 3) require women to marry their grandmother’s son, 4) stop the Ku Klux Klan calling meetings unless authorized by the kleagle.  There’s gotta be a story here, or several stories.

The very late Czar Nicholas’s dentist, Dr. Henry Wollison, an American, dies in Paris.

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Today -100: January 23, 1923: If we win this we shall have peace for fifty or 100 years

20-year-old French anarchist Germaine Berton assassinates Marius Plateau, a leader of the far-right monarchist group the Camelots du Roi and editor of L’Action française, at that newspaper’s offices. She’d actually wanted to kill monarchist deputy Léon Daudet, of whom we shall hear more later this year, but he wasn’t in. Berton will admit, nay brag about the act at her trial in December and will be acquitted, presumably because it was a political crime – her lawyer will point out that the assassin of Jean Jaurès was acquitted on those grounds. Berton blamed Plateau in part for Jaurès’ assassination and for the occupation of the Ruhr.

The strike in the Ruhr is, maybe, not going that well, depending on whether you listen to French or German reports. The problem is in getting miners, railroad workers, etc. to come out on strike in support of their terrible bosses, especially when they’ve been underpaid for years and can’t afford to go on strike. Gen. Denvignes tells the AP “This is the last battle of the war. If we win this we shall have peace for fifty or 100 years. If we lose, all our sacrifices of men and money during the war will have gone for naught.”

Oil baron Harry Sinclair is allowed to stonewall Fightin’ Bob La Follette’s Senate Oil Investigating Committee and refuse to produce papers about the Teapot Dome lease. His testimony “failed to provide a single thrill”.

Thomas Dixon Jr., author of the novels that D.W. Griffith turned into Birth of a Nation, denounces the current Ku Klux Klan for not being as fun as the original, or something.

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Today -100: January 22, 1923: We can only offer passive resistance

The Daily Mail attacks former Prime Minister Lloyd George for “deliberately making mischief” in his article (he writes for the Hearst papers now, among others) attacking the French occupation of the Ruhr.

The Ruhr coal miners’ union orders a “folded arms” strike for tomorrow, where colliers go to work and then don’t actually work. Their decision is no doubt influenced by the threat of the German government to imprison any miner who digs coal that goes to France. There are also railroad and other strikes, and the banks are still closed. Says German Chancellor Wilhelm Cuno, “We can only offer passive resistance.” The Berlin State Opera cancels a production of Carmen (it’s unclear whether one was actually scheduled), and theatres are cancelling all French plays. Middle schools in Bavaria are dropping the teaching of French in favor of English. 

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Today -100: January 21, 1923: Of thyssens, free state executions, and ethnic cleansings

The French in the Ruhr are busily arresting coal owners, including Fritz Thyssen, as well as bank officials who refuse to open for business, the Essen postmaster, etc. Lots of passive resistance (passive Germans are the best Germans). France has been diverting coal trains intended for Germany to France, but railroad workers are now refusing to allow coal trains out of the Ruhr.

Ireland executes 9 more men for having firearms and 2 for train-wrecking. That’s 45 executions since November 17. The “Free State” is kinda violent.

A meeting of the whites of Blanford, Illinois “order” the black population to leave town unless they give up the man who assaulted an 11-year-old white girl.

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Today -100: January 20, 1923: I bow to the inviolate right of bayonets

The German government describes its Ruhr policy as “a course of non-aggressive but determined moral resistance”.  It’s always good when Germans are being non-aggressive and moral. The French arrest the region’s finance head, Dr. Schlutius, for refusing to hand over records. “I bow to the inviolate right of bayonets,” he says, as he is led away.

The element hafnium is discovered. Evidently it was in Denmark all this time.

The Justice Dept raids a meeting of Marcus Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association in New Orleans, claiming to have uncovered a negro anarchist plot to overthrow the government. This follows the murder of a black preacher who was to be a witness against Garvey.

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Today -100: January 19, 1923: Of humanity, watches on the Rhine, sages, and the surprising origins of that Two Ronnies routine

The French Parliament votes to suspend the parliamentary immunity of Marcel Cachin (Communist) so he can be prosecuted for treason for articles in L’Humanité, of which he is editor, calling for a general strike against the Ruhr occupation. A major fight breaks out in the Chamber.

The Rhineland High Commission gives France (and Belgium, I guess) the power to seize customs in the Ruhr, as well as state forests, and to collect the coal tax and...  Given the (predictable) lack of cooperation (the Reichsbank just removed all its funds to Germany proper), France may just have to run the place. 

France will also court-martial 6 coal magnates (it isn’t saying which ones). Also, a German cop is arrested for not saluting a French officer. Also, the songs “The Watch on the Rhine” and “Deutschland über Alles” are banned. Which is pissing off the German miners, because you know how those guys love to sing. 

Adolf Hitler says he’ll review 200,000 armed Nazis ready to go to resist the French occupation.

William Jennings Bryan wants to be the “sage of the Democratic Party” at the 1924 Convention.

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Gosh, so they didn’t just sit in the dark, isn’t Egyptology fascinating?

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Today -100: January 18, 1923: In which is revealed what will end war forever

France threatens to drag Ruhr mine owners into court if they don’t obey its commands; Germany threatens to drag them into court if they do.

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The other 4 are Trotsky, Dzerzhinsky, Kamenev, and Rykov. Lenin is “resting” these days. 2 of the 5 will die of natural causes, 3 will die of Stalin.

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Today -100: January 17, 1923: Of occupations and dangers to American rights

French troops now occupy the whole of the Ruhr Basin. The French call together the heads of mining companies and order them to resume coal deliveries by tomorrow or else.

The Massachusetts House of Representatives unanimously passes a resolution calling the Ku Klux Klan “dangerous to American rights.”

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