Today -100: March 4, 1924: Where is the pain?

The Chicago federal grand jury which indicted Charles Forbes, the ex-director of the Veterans’ Bureau, failed to name the two congresscritters it says took money from the Bureau. Rep. Jasper Tincher (R-Kansas) will demand those names.

Professors from Northwestern, Columbia, and Antioch transmit thoughts on radio station WJAZ, you know, psychically: numbers, animals, food, “Ouch, it hurts... where is the pain?” And listeners hear/feel the thoughts, so it must be real.

Turkey deposes the caliph (who is the cousin of the deposed sultan) and abolishes the caliphate. The caliph will be exiled to... Switzerland, along with his harem (Update: actually, he leaves his harem and eunuchs behind, whether from choice or not is not clear). Religious teaching is also banned. There is no longer an ostensible head of the Muslim world. Britain is worried about what that means for India.

In the Beer Hall Putsch trial, the testimony for the defense, which evidently precedes that for the prosecution, has concluded, following super-long speeches by Hitler & Ludendorff, who blame Bavarian officials Dictator Gustav von Kahr, Gen. Otto von Lossow, and police chief Hans Ritter von Seisser for sneaking out of the beer hall after initially agreeing to back the putsch, thereby ensuring the putsch’s failure. I’m not sure how admitting to attempting treason but failing because of “betrayal” amounts to a defense. That said, they did have their own plans for marching on Berlin and overthrowing the Republic, so...

One of the accusations Ludendorff made at the trial was that the Vatican backed the Entente during the Great War. Not so, says the Vatican.

Russia is going to put a bunch of professors on trial for plotting against the government and spying for Poland.

Ku Klux Klan endorsements play a significant role in the elections of the (Republican) mayors of Saco & Rockland, Maine.

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Today -100: March 3, 1924: Of primaries and independent & constitutional candidates

NY Gov. Al Smith withdraws from the Illinois primaries after his name was filed without his permission. Evidently his strategy is to avoid all the primaries, which will then choose favorite son candidates with no chance of winning the national vote, who will give him their endorsement at the national convention after they see they have no chance of winning the national vote. I can see nothing that could go wrong with this strategy.

Winston Churchill, who lost his seat at the last general election, will stand in the Westminster by-election as an “independent and constitutional” candidate, which I guess means no longer a Liberal but not yet ready to rejoin the Tories. He’s positioning himself as an anti-Socialist.

Seán O'Casey’s play Juno and the Paycock premieres at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin.

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Today -100: March 2, 1924: Of demoralized parties and automobiles

The NYT says the Republican response to the Teapot Dome and other scandals shows a demoralized party, “men who had lost their nerve,” “panic-stricken,” “an attitude of surrender.” Congressional Republicans fail to show any support for Coolidge, who they’d prefer be replaced.

An automobile “census” finds there are about 18,241,477 cars in the world, 15 million of them in the US (11% of which are trucks). Behind the US, in order, Britain has 655,000, Canada 642,000, France 460,000, Germany 152,000.

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Today -100: March 1, 1924: Of bribery, hotel butterflies, and freedom of the German nation

US Marines intervene, as was the custom, in the conflict in Honduras between the 3 competing presidents.

Charles Forbes, the ex-director of the Veterans’ Bureau, is indicted by a federal grand jury for waste, fraud, and... debauchery. Also indicted is contractor John Thompson, who paid bribes to Forbes.

By a 282 to 72 vote, the House of Commons passes the second reading of a bill to equalize the terms for suffrage between the sexes, reducing the age for women to vote from 30 to 21. The Duchess of Atholl, who was anti-suffrage back in the day but then got elected to Parliament, opposes the bill, saying young wives wouldn’t have time to study politics. She then gets into a discussion with Rhys Davies over the relative merits as voters of traveling tinkers and “hotel butterflies.”

At the Beer Hall Putsch trial, Erich Ludendorff gives a political, anti-Semitic speech: “We want a Germany free of Marxism, semitism, and papal influences.” “Freedom of the nation cannot be expected from [the Jew].”

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Today -100: February 29, 1924: Physicians astonished

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Today -100: February 28, 1924: Super-important government business

Attorney Gen. Harry Daugherty refuses to resign until after he receives a fair hearing. And then rushes off to Chicago for some unspecified “important Government business,” after which he’ll go to Florida. It is not clear, perhaps even to himself, what Coolidge will do about this flouting of his demand that Dirty Harry resign within 48 hours.

Cops in Lufkin, Texas shoot at a lynch mob trying to storm the jail to seize a black prisoner. Four are wounded. The mob has not dispersed and the sheriff asks the governor to send Texas Rangers.

One of the Beer Hall Putsch defendants, former Bavaria Chief of Police Ernst Pöhner, insists that former Bavaria Dictator Gustav von Kahr supported the putsch.

3,000 people break up a meeting at a hotel in Waukesha, Wisconsin to organize a Ku Klux Klan branch.

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Today -100: February 27, 1924: Not ruffled in the least

Coolidge has supposedly told Attorney Gen. Harry Daugherty to resign within 48 hours. He also wants him to resign as a delegate from Ohio to the Republican National Convention. I guess it was Dirty Harry buying Sinclair stock that finally got Coolidge to get off his ass.

The Beer Hall Putsch trial of Hitler, Ludendorff and 8 others begins. “Hitler showed plainly the strain of the excitement he was laboring under, while General Ludendorff apparently was not ruffled in the least.” It is decided to allow members of the public to observe (after being searched, of course). Many of the witnesses have come down with mysterious illnesses that will prevent them coming to testify. Hitler says he’s not guilty of treason.

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Today -100: February 26, 1924: Of rounded out holdings, Guv McCrayCray, and collectors

Attorney Gen. Harry Daugherty admits having bought some Sinclair shares after the Teapot Dome lease was signed, but not many and only to “round out” his holdings. As one does.

Indiana Gov. Warren McCray is indicted for violation of banking laws and using the mails to defraud.

Coolidge will not appoint a replacement for William Cohen, the black man whose nomination for controller of customs in New Orleans was rejected twice by the Senate due to the opposition of Louisiana’s Democratic senators. Instead Cohen will continue in the job until Congress recesses, then Coolidge will give him another recess appointment. Of course he can’t actually be paid, but he’s rich and hasn’t been paid for the job for the last 9 months.

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Today -100: February 25, 1924: Of camel’s steps, fake news, intellectuals, and fertilizer

The Vatican newspaper Osservatore Romano attacks modern dances, especially the shimmy and the camel’s step.

Red revolution in Bulgaria! Prime minister and Cabinet killed! Etc! Or none of this happened.

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Today -100: February 24, 1924: Of resignations, assassination attempts, jubalands, naughty dances, and poles

Sen. William Borah (R-Idaho) tells the Senate that the resignation of Attorney General Harry Daugherty is necessary for the good of the country and of the Republican party. If Coolidge doesn’t act, he says, impeaching of the attorney general will be the only course. During the Senate discussion, no R. defended Dirty Harry.

Albanian Prime Minister Ahmet Zogu (the future King Zog) is shot twice by an anarchist student in the Assembly building, but not seriously.

Mussolini writes to the British Foreign Office demanding Britain hand over Jubaland (currently part of British Kenya). Jubaland was one of the bribes offered to Italy in 1915 to get it to join the Great War on the Allies’ side.

Interior Secretary Hubert Work responds to a petition from the San Ildefenso Pueblo of the Tawa tribe of New Mexico asking the government not to interfere with their ceremonial dances. Work says that “those who are the guardians of the Indians” don’t wish to ban dances “which are not degrading” or go against the law of nature or moral laws.

The Navy gives up on its plans to send a dirigible over the North Pole.

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Today -100: February 23, 1924: Of invasions, fanatics, and reichstags

The Yugoslav ambassador to France claims that Bulgaria is plotting an attack on eastern Serbia.

Indian troops shoot dead 14 Sikh “fanatics” in Nabba State.

German Chancellor Wilhelm Marx threatens the Reichstag: if it attempts to annul any martial-law decree, he will dissolve it.

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Today -100: February 22, 1924: Of compensation and oil

The Mixed Commission’s umpire in the cases arising from the 1915 sinking of the Lusitania awards $1 million to Americans, although human lives are only valued in pecuniary terms, so if a survivor was not financially dependent on a victim, they get nothing.

Sen. Burton Wheeler (D-Montana) accuses Attorney Gen. Harry Daugherty of having bought Sinclair oil stock. Dirty Harry is defiantly refusing to resign and claims the charges against him are just politics.

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Today -100: February 21, 1924: Of coxes, patriotic tragedy, and competing relics

James Cox, the Democrat candidate for president in 1920, announces that he’s running again.

The (German) National Association of Ex-Officers declares next week’s trial of Gen. Erich Ludendorff a “patriotic tragedy.”

Yesterday I told of the sale by auction of the coat Abraham Lincoln was supposedly shot in. It seems the Chicago Historical Society has, um, another coat Lincoln was shot in, owned by a different former White House doorkeeper, that they’ve been displaying for years.

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Today -100: February 20, 1924: A bigger fool than the people of the United States give him credit for being

A White House spokesmodel, annoyingly unnamed, says the American people can rest assured that most government work is done without wrongdoing, and they should just ignore all the rumors.

The clothes worn by Abraham Lincoln when he was assassinated sell at auction for $6,500. Mary Todd Lincoln had given them to a White House doorkeeper.

Sen. Burton Wheeler (D-Montana) denounces Attorney Gen. Harry Daugherty for protecting criminals, selling public offices, and says he may well have known about Teapot Dome. “If the attorney general has not actually got the money that has been collected in these various cases from one end of the country to the other, he is a bigger fool than the people of the United States give him credit for being.” Wheeler offers a resolution for an investigation of the AG. Since he wants a “real investigation,” he takes the unusual step of naming the senators he wants on the investigating committee, including, of course, himself.

The National Republican, the RNC organ, engaging in both-sidesism, says Democrats are trying to shield other Democrats who might be “smeared with petroleum.”

Louisiana Lt. Gov Hewitt Bouanchaud, who has been running for governor as an anti-Klan candidate, is given a big Fuqua You, as he is defeated by Henry Fuqua in the Democratic primary.

William Gibbs McAdoo would prefer not to do a grueling presidential campaign tour, so he’s applied for a permit to put up a radio broadcasting plant at his Los Angeles home capable of reaching the entire country.

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Today -100: February 19, 1924: Back to Honesty

Navy Secretary Edwin Denby resigns, effective next month, then issues a statement that the Teapot Dome etc leases were legal and in the best interests of the government. Coolidge accepts his resignation, telling him “You will go with the knowledge that your honesty and integrity have not been impugned.” Assistant Navy Sec. Teddy Roosevelt Jr. wasn’t told about this in advance. He goes to the White House to ask if Coolidge wants him to resign too. No. But he won’t be promoted to Secretary. And we hear he won’t be running for governor of NY.

William Gibbs McAdoo’s supporters tell him his connection with oil tycoon Edward Doheny, unrelated to Teapot Dome, isn’t enough to harm his shot at the presidency, so he announces that he will continue his campaign. He says he’ll drive corruption out of Washington; the supporters suggest the slogan “Back to Honesty.”

NY Gov. Alfred E. Smith, asked if he’s a candidate for president, says “I am a candidate for nothing.”

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The 2 senators from Louisiana (Democrats) objected to Cohen as “personally obnoxious” to them. Cohen was originally nominated by Harding but was blocked, then re-nominated by Coolidge.

Gustav von Kahr quits as dictator of Bavaria, along with Gen. Otto von Lossow, who was illegally named by Kahr as commander-in-chief of the Reichswehr in Bavaria back in October. Kahr says he’s resigning because he was totally undercut by the Interior Ministry allowing demonstrations, although his forthcoming appearance as a witness at the Beer Hall Putsch trial may also have something to do with it. Lossow’s resignation may be a response to the deal between Bavarian PM von Knilling & federal Chancellor Marx requiring members of the Reichswehr in Bavaria to redo the old oath to Germany instead of the oath he introduced in October to Kahr & himself.

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Today -100: February 18, 1924: Of dry cases, fanatics, and Jewish problems

In the first 4 years of Prohibition, 115,000 criminal cases have been prosecuted at the federal level. 80% resulted in convictions. This is putting a strain on federal courts.

Rebels in the Philippines are fighting (i.e., being massacred), and this must be the 6th time they’ve been referred to in NYT headlines as “fanatics.”

Russia is considering establishing a Jewish autonomous state on the Crimean peninsula. This would solve the “Jewish problem,” a phrase used a couple of times in this short article but never defined.

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Today -100: February 17, 1924: Funny how you never see heterodyne and super-heterodyne in the same place

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The Organization of Teachers of Colored Children of New Jersey complains that black teachers are paid $100 to $200 less per year than white ones in several NJ counties (no, it doesn’t say less than what figure).

Japan claims to have stopped a Russian-backed Communist plot to take over the government last June.

The American Engineering Standards Committee is trying to standardize the colors of traffic signs and signals. In Chicago, for instance, green means stop.

A bill is introduced in the NY Legislature to require licenses for people flying airplanes. Stunt flights over populated areas or too close to the ground would be banned, as would hunting from planes. Planes approaching each other would pass on the right, and lighter-than-air aircraft would have right of way over heavier-than-air ones. Marriages (and other contracts) entered into in aircraft would be legal, subject to the laws of the land underneath.

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Bitten by a radioactive heterodyne?

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Today -100: February 16, 1924: Of shoot-outs, dirigibles, and radio wars

A prohibition agent gets in a shoot-out with bootleggers on Capitol Hill and accidentally shoots US Senator Frank Greene in the forehead.  Oops. The wound will leave Greene partially paralyzed.

Coolidge suspends plans to send a dirigible over the North Pole until Congress gives permission. Some congresscritters have been criticizing the expensive expedition.

Whenever “Deutschland Über Alles” is played on German radio stations, there’s mysterious interference coming from the direction of France.

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Today -100: February 15, 1924: Japanese then would come into possession of all our land

The Paris Excelsior claimed that France was making a deal to give the French West Indies (Guadeloupe, Martinique, etc) to the US in exchange for writing off the French war debt. The US would then pay the amount of the French debt to Britain to buy Jamaica off it. The British Foreign Office denies this.

Rep. John Raker (D-Cal.) rejects Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes’ call for the Japanese to be treated the same as other nationalities in the immigration bill, that is, being limited to 2% (or 3%, it’s still being worked out) of those in the US in 1890, rather than being banned outright. 2% would mean 246 Japanese immigrants per year, but evidently that’s too many. Raker warns it would be a slippery slope towards abrogating the Western states’ racist land laws: “Japanese then would come into possession of all our land.” The Immigration Committee’s minority report notes that Germans would be the most favorably treated using the 1890 census and the US’s allies during the Great War less favorably treated.

German dictator Gen. Hans von Seeckt gives permission to President Ebert to lift martial law at the end of the month.

Sen. Thomas Heflin (D-Alabama) says he is not a Ku Klux Klan member.

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Today -100: February 14, 1924: Of precipitate diplomatic relations

The latest Teapot Dome rumor is that oil tycoon Edward Doheny tried to hire Woodrow Wilson’s law partner but failed because the firm was dissolved.

The US no longer recognizes the Honduran government, which now has 3 people claiming to be president, none of them legitimately under the constitution.

Britain’s new Labour government ends the crusade against the Poplar (East London) local government paying more in unemployment benefits than the Tory national government thought it should.

In Parliament, Stanley Baldwin criticizes the “precipitate” establishment of diplomatic relations with Soviet Russia, a mere 6 years after the October Revolution.

And, hey, the NYT finally spells Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald’s name correctly.

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