Today -100: October 10, 1923: Of death sentences

Oklahoma Gov. Jack Walton makes a rather odd offer: if the Legislature passes his anti-Klan bill, which would ban masking and make secret societies’ membership lists public, he will resign, immediately. What makes it odd is that he’s been claiming for months that cops and judges throughout the state are klansmen or at least klan-adjacent and are failing to enforce laws against Klan crimes such as floggings. So adding new laws for them not to enforce would accomplish what, exactly?

Convicted murderer Felix Gueydan is guillotined in Aix-en-Provence. It would have happened 18 months ago but they, er, forgot about him. They might have continued to forget about him but he sent a letter asking what was up.

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Today -100: October 9, 1923: Of borers, boycotts, and emergency powers

Headline of the Day -100:  

The coalition that won the Philippines elections says the Legislature will refuse to pass anything recommended by Governor Leonard Wood.

The German Reichstag will consider a bill to give the government emergency powers to do almost anything by decree, including departing from constitution rights, but not, in a concession to the Socialists, to alter the 8-hour day.

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Today -100: October 8, 1923: Of special sessions, warding off attacks of robbers, sick mayors, and German confusion

Oklahoma legislators are saying that sure, they’ll consider Walton’s anti-Klan legislation in the special session but only after they impeach him.

Bavarian Dictator Gustav von Kahr says “Germany must regain sufficient strength to ward off the attacks of robbers,” meaning France. In his war against Socialists he’s swarming Munich with police acting in cooperation with Hitler’s storm troops.

NYC Mayor John Hylan has been sick since August. He may be allowed to leave his bed in a week but probably won’t be mayoring until January. Seems a long time for a major city not to have a working mayor.

Headline of the Day -100:  

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Today -100: October 7, 1923: 20% off beer!

Gustav Stresemann has put together a new coalition, composed of the same 4 parties as the last one, and a cabinet with only the finance minister changed. No one’s happy about it. Communist deputies in the Reichstag call Stresemann “Stinne’s representative, office boy and stage scenery.” That’s industrialist Hugo Stinnes, head of the Deutsche Volkspartei (People’s Party, DVP), which is only part of the coalition because it has given up (for now) on the scheme for a dictatorship under Erich Ludendorff. Stinnes is also heavily funding the Nazis, so he personally hasn’t given up on the idea of Ludendorff dictatorship. Stresemann says martial law was necessitated solely by the Communists.

Bavarian dictator Gustav von Kahr orders the price of beer reduced by 20%. He may get around to doing the same for milk, but, you know, priorities.

Oklahoma Gov. Jack Walton has sort of reversed himself on the subject of special sessions of the Legislature, calling one for the 11th (6 days before the one called yesterday by legislators themselves to impeach him), which would have as its purpose “the enactment of a law to protect the people from masked and lawless marauders and secret organizations”. Its sole purpose. Not anything else. Definitely not impeaching him.

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Today -100: October 6, 1923: The time is not ripe yet

An Oklahoma state representative invokes the newly voted (but not certified) constitutional amendment to call a special session of the Lege for the 17th. There’s some precedent in OK for acting on initiatives before they’re certified, as in 1907 when the governor moved the capital from Guthrie to OK City on the very day of the vote on an initiative to do so.

Bavarian PM Eugen von Knilling says the only answer to the unsettled political situation in Berlin is either new elections or for the Reichstag to be dissolved and replaced by a dictator. Asked about putting Crown Prince Rupprecht on the Bavarian throne, he says “the time is not ripe yet.” He says Bavarians aren’t the separatists, the real separatists are those in Berlin who try to make Bavaria accept their Red government; Bavarians don’t like all those Marxists and Communists (Marxist is replacing Bolshevik as a term of abuse in Germany).

There’s been a kerfuffle in the art world the last few months about the legitimacy of works of art in various museums such as the Louvre. Now a Prof. John C. Van Dyke of Rutgers says there are only 35 real Rembrandts extant, including none of the “Rembrandts” in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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Today -100: October 5, 1923: Of pinchots, woods, and closed cars

Pennsylvania Gov. Gifford Pinchot (R), just finished negotiating a deal to end the coal strike and currently burnishing his Prohibitionist credentials by going to war with Philadelphia saloons, which are ignoring his order to close, may be running for president. Treasury Sec. Andrew Mellon has already been around trying to get him not to, as have other leaders of the Pennsylvania Republican Party.

Elections in the Philippines reject candidates seen as supporting Gov-Gen. Leonard Wood, but not by as large a percentage as was expected.

People increasingly prefer closed cars.

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Today -100: October 4, 1923: Stresemann does the hokey pokey

Oklahoma Gov. Jack Walton gets a temporary restraining order against the election being certified.

German Chancellor Gustav Stresemann resigns! President Friedrich Ebert asks... Gustav Stresemann... to form a new cabinet, which just seems lazy. The Social Democrats had voted to withdraw from the coalition, which was trying to abolish the 8-hour day.

German Socialists claim 100,000 monarchists participated in the attack on Küstrin’s fortresses.

The Daily Mail (London)’s Munich correspondent visits Hitler’s hq and “received a rather poor impression of the Bavarian Nationalist leader and his following.” Hitler is unsurprisingly opposed to the ending of passive resistance and says every factory and furnace in the Ruhr should have been destroyed.

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Today -100: October 3, 1923: The fight on Invisible Empire has just started in Oklahoma

With a quarter of ballots counted, the Oklahoma constitutional amendment allowing the Legislature to call itself into session is passing 4 to 1. Gov. Jack Walton issues a statement: “The fight on Invisible Empire has just started in Oklahoma. I am still Governor of the State.” Fact Check: correct. For now. In a couple of counties state police seize voting materials or prevent polling places opening, including Johnson County where voters instead vote by affidavit, mailing their ballots to the state election board.

Walton (and everyone) seem to miss the constitutional provision requiring a special election to have a 2/3 vote of the Legislature, which means this provision will be thrown out by the state Supreme Court, but not until 1930.

Russia gets a new triumvirate of Dzerzhinsky, Trotsky and Stalin (oh my!).

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Today -100: October 2, 1923: Elections a-comin’

Oklahoma Gov. Jack Walton offers a compromise, keeping his ban on elections Tuesday but holding them in 2 months. Counties are going ahead with preparations for the election anyway, ignoring Walton and his tame State Election Board and his attempt to dismiss county election boards defying him. A state district court enjoins Walton from interfering with elections officials and with the elections. The only direct interference by the governor’s forces today is an attempt by special police to prevent the distribution of ballot boxes in Tulsa; they are thrown out of the court house by 200 special deputies.

800 German royalists of the “Black Reichswehr” paramilitary group attack the Küstrin Fortress in eastern Germany in some sort of half-assed attempt at a putsch begun out of anger at the end of passive resistance in the Ruhr (and maybe to let Black Reichswehr chief Bruno Buchrucker escape an arrest warrant out for him). The Küstrin Putsch is a pathetic affair which does not last long. The government somehow blames Communists as well as monarchists.

Frederick Stock, director of the Chicago Symphony, returns from visiting Europe, predicting another European war because new European music is hysterical, new dances display weird frenzy, women’s clothing is brightly colored and sexalicious, which all shows that Europeans are fidgety, restless and frenzied. You heard it here first.

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Today -100: October 1, 1923: There may be bloodshed, but there will be no election

French PM Raymond Poincaré does not care for the tone of Germany’s proclamation ending passive resistance, he does not care for it AT ALL: “The surly proclamation of an inevitable truce is nothing; it is the execution which is everything.”

Oklahoma Gov. Jack Walton orders the indefinite postponement of tomorrow’s election, which he does not have the authority to do. He says there wasn’t 5-day’s notice of the inclusion on the ballot of the constitutional amendment allowing the Legislature to call itself into session, but that’s not actually a requirement and the OK Supreme Court said last Friday that the election is legal. To prevent the vote – “There may be bloodshed, but there will be no election” – Walton orders the mobilization of the National Guard plus 75,000 volunteers plus 22,000 secret service, which seems like a lot of secret service for a state with a little over 2 million people. Walton says he has been very patient but “one more crack and I am going to put this state under martial law that will be martial law. I will make them go to bed at 6 o’clock”.

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Today -100: September 30, 1923: If the Nazis complain about being cancelled, I may fwow up

Otto Gessler, who German Pres. Ebert put in charge of martial law, suppresses the Nazi newspaper Völkischer Beobachter, which is owned by Hitler personally, until further notice, after it quotes Bavarian dictator Gustav von Kahr saying that he would allow the proclamation of a Bavarian monarchy soon (Prince Rupprecht has been very visible in Munich lately, reviewing parades of veterans and the like). Von Kahr refuses to confirm or deny the quote. The federal government first tried to get von Kahr to suppress the paper, but he refused.

An ad for Ben Hecht’s book The Florentine Dagger calls it “A mystery story that does not insult the intelligence.”

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Today -100: September 29, 1923: Of ballots, facists, and little boys at Columbia

The Oklahoma Supreme Court hears arguments about whether a ballot initiative can be tacked onto next Tuesday’s election alongside the less exciting constitutional amendments already on the ballot. This one would give the Legislature permission to call itself into session without being called by the governor, in order to investigate officials  (i.e., impeach Gov. Walton) but not pass legislation.

Bulgaria crushes the Communist uprising, or whatever it was.

The NYT finally, I mean FINALLY, gets caught by the common student spelling error:

Headline of the Day -100:  

In case you were wondering what the correct clothes for little boys were.

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Today -100: September 28, 1923: Of Oklahoma coups and Hitler coups, reparations, refugees, and ethnic cleansing in North Carolina

67 members of the Oklahoma House of Reps apply for an injunction against the National Guard preventing it meeting.

Headline of the Day -100:  

Pfew. Bavaria’s Minister President Eugen von Knilling assures German PM Gustav Stresemann that the declaration of martial law & the appointment of Gustav von Kahr as dictator of Bavaria didn’t mean any rejection of the federal state. Von Kahr bans all 14 scheduled Nazi beer hall meetings in Munich.

Brilliant Prediction of the Day -100:  

With von Kahr’s dictatorship, “Any prospect of Hitler playing a leading part in Bavarian politics appears to have vanished”.

Italy gives Corfu back to Greece after the Council of Ambassadors (over Britain’s objections) awards it that 50 million lire from Greece (the exact sum Italy demanded) for no very good reason. I don’t believe the Council has any intention of forcing Italy to pay reparations to Greece for those refugee children it slaughtered.

Romania is pushing Jewish refugees from Russia and the Ukraine over the Dneister into Russia.

A white mob in Spruce Pine, North Carolina rounds up all the black men working on a road construction project and deports them after some black guy attacks an old white woman. 

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Today -100: September 27, 1923: For millions of Germans the idea of individual liberty no longer exists

Germany formally and bitterly proclaims the end of passive resistance: “the Ruhr and Rhineland have endured most grievous oppression. ... For millions of Germans the idea of individual liberty no longer exists.”

Slightly undercutting the “individual liberty” message, Pres. Friedrich Ebert declares martial law and suspends some provisions of the Constitution, including freedom of press and assembly.

Bavaria also declares a state of emergency ahead of a planned “general review” of Nazis on Friday. Former Bavarian PM Gustav von Kahr is appointed “general commissioner of state” with power to declare martial law if needed. In the meantime, Kahr suspends freedom of speech, press, assembly, mail secrecy, habeas corpus, etc etc etc. Hitler, perhaps pissed that someone got to be dictator before him, “orders” Nazi members of non-Nazi paramilitary groups to quit them and join Nazi stormtroop groups.

Oklahoma Gov. J.C. Walton’s troops disperse legislators attempting to hold their special session of the Legislature.

Walton extends super-duper martial law to another county, but won’t say which one.

Charlie Chaplin says in future he will switch from slapstick to whimsical humor.

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Today -100: September 26, 1923: Of national guards, putsches, and flapjacks

Oklahoma Gov. J.C. Walton says 35,000 Oklahoovians have answered his call to join the National Guard to prevent the Legislature from meeting. Which seems like over-kill until you realize the Legislature has 50,000 members, probably.

A putsch is supposedly scheduled for Sunday in the Rhine which will establish an independent state, with, naturally, a dictator.

More news about the Prince of Wales’s eating habits on his visit to Canada: flapjacks, he likes flapjacks.

Charlie Chaplin’s A Woman of Paris starring Edna Purviance premieres in Hollywood. It’s a drama. My review: Go back to comedy, funny man.

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Today -100: September 25, 1923: Of shooting to kill and passive resistance

Oklahoma Gov. J.C. Walton orders the adjutant general in charge of the National Guard to “use all force of arms necessary” to keep the Legislature from meeting Wednesday. “The troops will be ordered to shoot to kill,” he tells reporters. He also orders all Oklahoovian men aged 21 to 45 to grab their firearms and hold themselves ready to follow the governor’s orders. 

German Chancellor Gustav Stresemann abandons passive resistance in the Ruhr following a conference of reps from the Ruhr & Rhineland. He tells them, “In the course of battle it sometimes becomes necessary to surrender or evacuate a fortress because it requires too many men, too much food and too much ammunition.” 8 quadrillion paper marks a week, he tells them is the cost of funding the resistance, which is the equivalent of some money. The reps agree to the capitulation but don’t want to put it into writing, because the French would just fucking love that, wouldn’t they?

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Today -100: September 24, 1923: The peasants are revolting!

Oklahoma Gov. J.C. Walton’s anti-Klan efforts, presumably the military part of them, are bankrupting the state. He is using “deficiency warrants,” whatever those are, which banks are being warned may not be covered.

100,000 peasants march on Sofia to overthrow the Bulgarian government. That’s a lot of peasants.

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Today -100: September 23, 1923: Of aggregations of dragons, zeps, initiations, and horse-snogging

Oklahoma Gov. J.C. Walton threatens to close the state fair and put Oklahoma County under super-duper martial law unless state legislators – “the lawless element” – “that aggregation of dragons” – give up their plan to hold an extraordinary session. “The only thing that surprises me is that they have not convened their Legislature at night in the whipping pasture, where, in full regalia of masks and robes, in the presence of dragons, cyclops, goblins and wizards, they could impeache [sic] me in the sanctity of nature’s temple that has so often resounded with the cries of agony of tortured victims.”

Bulgaria declares martial law to fight Red Revolution. 

The Navy’s ZR-1 zeppelin drops a wreath on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

A Klan claim to have held an initiation ceremony in the White House dining room is denied.

Headline of the Day -100:  

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Today -100: September 22, 1923: Of governors and unlawful Klan assemblies

Pres. Coolidge will call the governors together next month to talk Prohibition enforcement, among other things. Sounds like a party.

Oklahoma Gov. J.C. Walton says the meeting of the lower house of the Legislature called by 75 members would be an “unlawful Klan assembly.” He says 68 members of the House are kluxers.

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Today -100: September 21, 1923: Of corn on the cob, the true Prussian faith, ethnic cleansing, and very special sessions

Visiting Canada (a hastily scheduled trip so he would be out of the country while his former mistress was being tried for murdering her husband), the Prince of Wales eats corn on the cob for the first time in his life. His reaction is unrecorded.

Marshal Paul von Hindenburg calls on Bavaria not to secede but to “preserve the true Prussian faith.” Has no one told him that Bavarians are not Prussians?

Mayor Joseph Cauffiel of Johnstown, Pennsylvania  orders all Mexicans and negroes who have lived in the town less than 7 years to leave the town after one drunk black guy kills 3 cops. Gov. Gifford Pinchot vaguely promises Mexico to intervene after it complained (if he also promises black people anything, it is not mentioned). The mayor now denies that it was a formal order, although it sure as shit sounds like one.

69 members of the Oklahoma Legislature (so far) sign a call to convene the House, whether Gov. J.C. Walton (or Speaker of the House Murray Gibbons) likes it or not. So the Lege will probably depose Gibbons before moving on to impeach Walton. Among the 25 charges: he opposes the death penalty, abused his pardon & parole powers, appointed convicts as peace officers, directed certain classes to shoot & kill others, promising them immediate pardons, imposed martial law without cause, is establishing a dictatorship, etc.

Walton says if necessary he will “arm every man in this state who is opposed to the Invisible Empire.”

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