Today -100: January 19, 1924: Of faulty actresses and tankers

Mabel Normand is in a state of complete nervous collapse, please excuse her from attending the hearing in the case of her chauffeur shooting that guy. Edna Purviance does come, but claims she was in another room and can’t remember anything that happened that evening.

The Huertista rebels fire at a couple of American commercial ships, including a Sinclair Oil tanker, which were running their barricade at Tampico.

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Today -100: January 18, 1924: It would be a waste of time to indulge in the thankless task of slaying a suicide

The crew of the dirigible USS Shenandoah think that surviving that gale means it can totally fly to the Arctic (Spoiler Alert: the USS Shenandoah will never fly to the Arctic). 

Former British Prime Minister H.H. Asquith, somehow once again leader of the Liberal Party, will back a no-confidence motion against Stanley Baldwin’s Conservative government, ensuring that the next government will be Labour. He says the Tory government would be remembered for confusion, vacillation and impotence. You may insert your own joke here. He says, “It would be a waste of time to indulge in the thankless task of slaying a suicide.” Winston Churchill, still in the Liberal Party but not in Parliament, roars a protest against Asquith’s move.

The Obregón government in Mexico asks permission to move its troops through US territory to attack the Huertista rebels. This will also require permission from Texas (Arizona and New Mexico’s governors have already given theirs).

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Today -100: January 17, 1924: There is no such thing as liberty without observance of the law

At the White House, Pres. Coolidge declares to delegates of the Anti-Saloon League annual convention, “there is no such thing as liberty without observance of the law.”

The US Navy dirigible Shenandoah is torn from its mooring in Lakehurst, New Jersey and dragged 60 (other reports say 80) miles with its crew before they regain control. It was out of radio contact most of the time, so radio stations stopped regular broadcasting and asked listeners to look out for it and report in. Finally WOR Newark heard back from the Shen. It’s nose will require expensive repairs.

The House Immigration Committee approves a ban on Oriental immigrants, although immigration officers could allow in individual students, merchants, whatever.

Philadelphia Director of Safety Gen. Smedley Darlington Butler drafts Philly’s firemen into his war on “bandits,” giving them .45 revolvers so they can “pitch in.” He also wants 100 motorcycles because vroom vroom.

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Today -100: January 16, 1924: Vigorously resented

The Democrats choose New York City for their Convention. It came down to a bidding war, because the party still has a deficit from the 1920 election. $255,000, including broadcast rights and preparing Madison Square Garden.

Rebel Gen. Adolfo de la Huerta declares a blockade of the port of Tampico, and the US is not best pleased, calling it an unwarranted interference with ordinary commercial transactions and saying it would be “vigorously resented.” Vigorous resentment is the worst kind of resentment.

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Today -100: January 15, 1924: Of drivers’ licenses and the Klan issue in Louisiana

NY Gov. Al Smith points out to the Legislature that NY is behind other states in setting automobile regulations. He suggests a statewide system (not just in NYC) of drivers’ licenses (upstate Republicans have blocked this in the past), giving the state the power to revoke licenses and to collect accurate data on accidents.

The Louisiana primary vote is tomorrow, and candidates have been forced to declare themselves on the Ku Klux Klan. The 3 Democratic gubernatorial candidates, one of whom is Huey Long, all oppose the Klan, and Lt Gov Hewitt Bouanchaud says he will follow outgoing Gov. John Parker’s policy of not appointing any to office (Bouanchaud is Catholic). Long is also running against Standard Oil.

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Today -100: January 14, 1924: Of conventions, valets, states, and cynical allusions

The DNC is about to pick a site for the Convention, and William Gibbs McAdoo’s backers are fighting the choices of machine-ridden Chicago or New York, especially NY (NY Gov. Al Smith doesn’t feel like a major candidate, but maybe he does to McAdoo.) Maybe they should find someplace cooler in the summer, in case....

After church, Calvin & Grace Coolidge go to the negro section of Washington to visit dying Arthur Brooks (I almost typed Albert Brooks), White House valet since 1909.

A delegation of representatives of the 3 leading Puerto Rican political parties, appointed by the Legislature, is coming to the US (that’s how the NYT phrases it), along with (US-appointed) Gov. Horace Towner. Those parties have all dropped demands for independence, but they want statehood, not territorial status, and they want it as soon as possible. The NYT opposes statehood because the majority of Puerto Ricans are illiterate.

Students from 16 Eastern universities gather at the U of Penn to discuss getting rid of drinkers and bootleggers at their universities. One step: “ask the Faculties to avoid cynical allusions to the matter.”

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Today -100: January 13, 1924: In which is revealed what were the best contracts the United States government ever made

The British railway engineers & firemen union says it will order a strike, but won’t say when. Which is embarrassing for the Labour Party’s plans to form a government. 

NYC Police Commissioner Richard Enright is charging 13 of the 22 inspectors, as well as a bunch of deputy inspectors and captains, with failure to enforce Prohibition.

Former Interior Secretary Albert Fall says the Teapot Dome and Elk Hills deals were “the best contracts the United States government ever made,” and he’d love to tell the Senate Committee all about it... health permitting. Which it didn’t yesterday when he was supposed to appear. He’s currently hiding out in Palm Beach, although he denies that he’s hiding out.

At the Communist Party conference in Moscow, acting PM Lev Kamenev attacks War Minister Leon Trotsky, after which a censure resolution is adopted. Evidently Trotsky is supporting economic positions contrary to those of the Central Committee. Trotsky is not present, being ill. Lenin is not present, being dying.

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Today -100: January 12, 1924: The King’s Peach

The British Cabinet decides that the King’s Speech can’t be broadcast on radio, since it’s a political speech (written by the party currently in power), and those are banned from the airwaves.

Eleftherios Venizelos gives in, oh so reluctantly, and will form a Greek government after all, after the Liberals prove too divided to form one.

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Today -100: January 11, 1924: Oops

A British battleship bumps a British submarine, accidentally – or so they’d have us believe – sending all 43 submariners to the bottom of Portland Bill, which is a body of water rather than a hipster coffee shop. Elsewhere in the exercise, two other subs have a fender-bender.

The West Virginia Democrats endorse former ambassador to Britain John W. Davis for president. Let the Johnmentum begin!

A state constitutional amendment is proposed in the NY Assembly to increase the gubernatorial term from two years to four. Another suggestion is to allow women to serve on juries. Not require them to, mind you; that didn’t happen until the mid-70s (which explains “Twelve Angry Men”).

The state of Illinois steps in to stop dry raids in Williamson County conducted by the Ku Klux Klan. They’ve also been beating & robbing Italians, as was the custom.

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Today -100: January 10, 1924: Of assassinations and censorship

Franz Josef Heinz, the self-proclaimed president of the “Autonomous Government of the Palatinate,” is assassinated, alongside a couple of bysitters, in the Wittelsbacherhof Hotel restaurant in Speyer by members of the Viking League paramilitary group, who presumably would prefer the Palatinate remain in Germany.

Ohio bans Mabel Normand and Edna Purviance films. Ditto Michigan for Normand.

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Today -100: January 9, 1924: Um, sure

Coolidge wants the tax-reduction bill passed before the veterans’ bonus bill. Also, he opposes the Democrats’ alternative tax bill, which he says favors the rich by taxing them the most when they have the power to pass on those taxes to consumers.

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Today -100: January 8, 1924: Go out and get some

Coolidge puts an embargo on arms sales to the Huertaista rebels in Mexico.

Headline of the Day -100:  

This is the sort of authoritarianism you can expect when you put a US Marine general on a leave of absence, one Smedley Darlington Butler, in charge of a city’s cops (and firemen and elevator inspectors). Gen. Butler says “I have a free hand and will not be interfered with by the politicians.” He tells 2,000 cops at the Metropolitan Opera House, “I don’t believe there’s a single bandit notch on a policeman’s gun in this city. Go out and get some.” Spoken like a veteran of many imperial wars treating the mean streets of Philly like the Philippines.

Elsewhere in law enforcement, Birmingham, Alabama police have gotten 5 black men to confess to 8 axe murders through the use of “‘truth serum,’” the NYT’s quote marks presumably indicating they were falsely told they had been injected with truth serum.

The New York State Moving Picture Commission declines to ban the films of Mabel Normand or Edna Purviance as many other locales are doing because the infatuated chauffeur of the former shot a guy in the presence of the latter.

Michigan Agricultural College (Go Aggies!) is planning to broadcast a sort of running account of a basketball game on the radio. This will be a first.

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Today -100: January 7, 1924: Of peace plans, bombs, and munitions

Edward Bok, former editor of the Ladies’ Home Journal, sponsored a $100,000 prize for the “best practicable plan for U.S. cooperation in world peace.” Of the 22,165 submissions, he chose:  join the World Court, cooperate with the League of Nations, which has to change the provisions of its Covenant (“substitute moral force and public opinion for military and economic force...”)... I’m gonna stop there, since this is just the Republican position from when they were torpedoing Wilson’s attempt to join the League. This is... nothing... justifying my ignoring all the stories about this contest until now.

Someone throws bombs at the Japanese Imperial Palace. The police leap into action and suppress a newspaper that reports the incident, which seems to have been more in the nature of a demonstration than an actual attack intended to hurt anyone. A Korean is arrested, as was the custom.

The State Dept warns against US arms dealers selling to the Mexican rebels, but it’s not a formal ban, at least not yet.

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Today -100: January 6, 1924: Hail King Harry!

Eleftherios Venizelos, returning to Greece from exile, is elected president of the National Assembly almost unanimously and celebrates by having a heart attack. Before this, Venizelos said he intended to remain in office only until the possibility of a civil war passes.

Mexican rebel general Adolfo de la Huerta orders rifles & machine guns & ammo for both in New Orleans to test the US government’s claim when it sold arms to the Mexican government that there is no embargo on arms sales to Mexico.

The NYT says the British public is “resigned” to the possibility of a Labour government and thinks it might not even be a calamity. The possibilities of a fusion Tory-Liberal cabinet, or the king simply putting Asquith in office, are fading. Those “resigned” Britishers are reassuring themselves that Labour can’t do anything especially radical with a minority in Parliament and zero members in the House of Lords.

Albania keeps offering its crown to foreign princes & dukes, and keeps being turned down. Now they’re trying American oil guy Harry Sinclair, who just a few days ago testified very much against his will at the Senate Teapot Dome hearings. His connection with Albania is that he breeds horses there.

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Today -100: January 5, 1924: Of arms sales and censorship

The US sells 5,000 rifles, 5 million rounds of ammunition, and 8 aeroplanes to Mexico to use in crushing the rebellion. Coolidge is ignoring Congress to make the sale, like a common Joe Biden.

As New Hampshire bans Mabel Normand’s movies, and Ohio and Kansas look to follow, Mabel appeals to Americans’ sense of fair play. Good luck with that.

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Today -100: January 4, 1924: Chin out

40 or so people die in a starch explosion at the Corn Products Company in Pekin, Illinois.

There have been disturbances at the vault in Marion where Warren G. Harding’s body is entombed, possibly aimed more at the guards than Harding, possibly by children: bugles blown, stones thrown at the guard houses, etc. So Lt. Harriman, in command of the guard, sends for riot guards and says he’ll shoot at future people causing disturbances.

Rep. William Upshaw (D-KKKGeorgia) demands that Pres. Coolidge “begin a righteous crusade by breaking every jug and bottle in official Washington and by using the Executive guillotine on the neck of every drinking official including army, navy and Cabinet officers.” In other words, that Cal fire every government official who engages in “drinking devilment.” Upshaw also wants to deport aliens who break Prohibition (we’ve been hearing that idea frequently of late). And a lot more ideas along those lines.

Mabel Normand has an appendectomy in the same hospital in which Courtland Dines is staying after being shot by Normand’s chauffeur. Memphis censors say her films will be banned in the city forever. They haven’t decided about Edna Purviance yet. Kansas Attorney General Charles Griffith will ask the censor board to ban films featuring both women. Will Hays is rushing to California to look into the affair, “and I have my chin out,” whatever that means.

John D. Rockefeller, 84, likes to play golf, and to be praised for how he plays golf. He keeps dimes in his pocket to hand out to anyone who applauds one of his shots.

For weeks before he was exiled, King George of Greece wouldn’t have his hair cut because he was afraid Greek barbers would do a Sweeney Todd on him, I guess. The first thing he did when he arrived in Bucharest was to get a haircut.

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Today -100: January 3, 1924: Of scofflaws, pernicious non-Communist influences, and worried mustaches

A banker in Quincy, Massachusetts who glories in the name Delcevare King, is sponsoring a contest with a $200 prize to come up with an epithet for people who drink in violation of Prohibition laws which will be so harsh, so cutting that it will “stab awake the conscience of the drinker,” like “scab” or “slacker.” Entries received so far include bootocrat, boozshevik, law-jacker, sliquor and wetocrat. The winner, which will be announced in a couple of weeks: “scofflaw,” a new coinage sent in separately by two people. The obituary of Mr King in the ‘60s says the term was mostly used at that time for parking and other automobile-related offenses. How is it used today?

Russia extends its ban on religious schools to all private schools in order to combat “pernicious non-Communist influences.” It also bans corporal punishment in all schools.

Greece’s coup regime turns power back to the National Assembly, calling for a republic. Still, “No Parliament ever exhibited more worried mustaches.”

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Today -100: January 2, 1924: Of referenda, actresses & shootings, orderly procedures, hand-shaking, and corsets

Former Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos suggests a referendum to decide whether Greece will become a republic, or, if it stays a monarchy, whether a different ruling family shall reign.

Denver oil man Courtland Dines is shot by actress Mabel Normand’s chauffeur (with her gun) because, he says, Dines was bothering Normand. Edna Purviance, Charlie Chaplin’s leading lady, also witnesses the shooting. The story implies that there was drinking involved. Dines was in a dressing gown, more proof that silent movies were documentaries.

Although there’s a movement in Congress to express opposition to arming the Obregón regime in Mexico, Coolidge intends to go right ahead regardless under authority the administration claims he has, “in the interest of orderly procedure,” whatever that means. These opponents have coined “the Harding doctrine,” for a policy of not selling arms to foreigners (Harding refused to allow an earlier proposed arms sale to Mexico).

Mussolini’s dictatorial powers expire.

 

President Coolidge and First Lady Grace hold the traditional New Year’s Day reception and both shake hands with 3,891 people.

King Albert of Belgium says his country’s financial future depends on 1) reparations from Germany, 2) exploiting the Belgian Congo.

Maternity corset, for fuck’s sake.

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Today -100: January 1, 1924: Of arms and ashes

There’s a movement in the Senate to stop the proposed arms sales to the Mexican government for use against rebels. Some senators think it would break international law.

A thief is caught stealing the ashes of some saint in Avezzano, Italy. The crowd beat him up and set him on fire, as was the custom.

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Today -100: December 31, 1923: I got nuthin’

Nuthin’

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