Today -100: March 14, 1924: Of dissolutions, injunctions, and bumpers-and-friends

German Chancellor Wilhelm Marx dissolves the Reichstag after a fight over the government’s special powers. And since no Reichstag means no parliamentary immunity, the police arrest 17 Communist deputies.

Coolidge appoints Curtis Wilbur, the chief justice of the California Supreme Court, as secretary of the Navy. This is his first appointment, the rest of the Cabinet still consisting entirely of holdover Harding appointments.

The federal court for Wyoming issues a temporary injunction against drilling at Teapot Dome by Harry Sinclair’s Mammoth Oil Company, in response to a government petition asserting that the lease was made after bribes to Interior Sec. Albert Fall and false claims by Fall to Harding.

The Teapot Dome Committee questions Teddy Roosevelt Jr. about sending in marines in 1922 to eject trespassers of the oil-extracting variety  from the Teapot Dome region when he was assistant Navy secretary. He says it was done at the insistence of Interior Sec Albert Fall, allegedly with Harding’s approval. Sen. Thomas Walsh suggests they sent troops rather than go through the courts because that would have brought legal scrutiny to the lease. Col. Roosevelt admits having asked Harry Sinclair to give his brother Archie a job.

Roxy Stinson, ex-wife of Attorney Gen. Harry Daugherty’s “bumper and friend” (whatever that means), Jess Smith – the bagman who had no government job but had a desk outside Daugherty’s office and who committed “suicide” in mysterious circumstances last May – spills the beans to the Senate committee investigating Dirty Harry: secret meetings, oil speculation, payoffs to facilitate the illegal circulation of films of the Carpentier-Dempsey boxing match, bribes for pardons, illegal withdrawal of liquor from government-bonded warehouses, etc. Some of it may even be true.

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.

Today -100: March 13, 1924: More tempest in a Teapot Dome

The House of Representatives authorizes an investigation of the Chicago federal grand jury charge that two congresscritters took bribes to facilitate pardons from Daugherty’s super-corrupt Justice Dept.

At the Senate Teapot Dome Committee, Washington Post publisher Edward McLean admits that last December his friend Interior Secretary Albert Fall asked him to say that he’d lent Fall $100,000 as a cover for the bribes Fall had taken from oil companies, though Fall told him it had nothing to do with Teapot Dome. McLean did tell the lie he was asked to do, evidently without asking what was going on if it wasn’t Teapot Dome.

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.

Today -100: March 12, 1924: Utterly impossible

Coolidge asks Congress to cut federal taxes 25% by March 15th so people filing on or by that day can take advantage of it. Congressional leaders say it’s impossible to do it by then.

The Dictator of Bavaria at the time of the Beer Hall Putsch, Gustav von Kahr, insists at the Hitler-Ludendorff trial that neither he nor Gen. Otto von Lossow could possibly have worked with Hitler because “We considered Hitler, Hitler’s followers and Hitler’s plans as utterly impossible.” Says he took Hitler showing up at the Bürgerbräukeller with a revolver and a mob as a comedy over which he was laughing secretly.

The German sense of humor is a mysterious thing.

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.

Today -100: March 11, 1924: Of peculiar and natural functions and swashbuckling little ward politicians

Government lawyers will, finally, file suit for an injunction against Harry Sinclair operating the Teapot Dome oil leases and Doheny for his leases. The lawyers will have to travel first to Cheyenne, then to LA to do so.

The US Supreme Court upholds the NY law banning night work by women in restaurants (except as singers, actors or cloakroom attendants). Justice George Sutherland says the law is not unreasonable or discriminatory because it’s hard to sleep in the day in large cities, which is more dangerous for women because of their “more delicate organism,” and night work “threatens to impair their peculiar and natural functions, and... exposes them to the dangers and menaces incident to night life in large cities”.

Gen. Otto von Lossow, the former illegally appointed chief of the Reichswehr in Bavaria, testifies at the Beer Hall Putsch trial, calling Hitler a “swashbuckling little ward politician”.

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.

Today -100: March 10, 1924: The miasmic air of scandal is the worst kind of air of scandal

The congressional hearings on Harry Daugherty and the Justice Dept begin this week, starting with rumors that DOJ agents and oil men have been stirring up revolution in Mexico.

The NYT quotes unnamed people in touch with the thoughts of Americans who say there’s a “reaction” against “the prevailing tendency to tear down honorable reputations through the circulation of rumors and open accusation.” Albert Fall, Dirty Harry Daugherty, those sorts of honorable reputations? The article, which reads more like a “NYT Pitchbot” editorial than a front-page news article, exults that Coolidge’s reputation has not been damaged. The Senate, it says, not entirely unfairly, has accomplished nothing this term since “Its atmosphere has been so permeated with the miasmic air of scandal”.

Oil tycoon Edward Doheny says the naval reserve oil leases were signed with the authorization of Congress and navy secs Daniels & Denby also knew exactly what was going on. Doheny mocks Sen. Thomas Walsh, chair of the Teapot Dome Committee, and “his fellow-howlers, who are too busy wind-jamming to stop to learn the truth”. He also deploys the always delightful phrase “flim-flam.”

Eleutherios Venizelos leaves Greece, saying he was mistaken to believe he could help the country.

Germany, which will have elections soon, asks France to restore freedom of speech and the press in the areas it occupies.

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.

Today -100: March 9, 1924: Of naming names

Attorney Gen. Harry Daugherty refuses to name the 2 congresscritters identified by the Chicago federal grand jury as involved in the corruption at the Veterans’ Bureau until such time as he personally sees evidence that convinces him of their guilt, because justice.

That said, the names are pretty widely known. Rep. Frederick Zihlman of Maryland says he wants his name cleared and will testify whenever & wherever. The other is Rep. John Langley of Kentucky, who will be arrested for something else entirely later this month.

The House Census Committee gives up attempting to reapportion the House’s seats, you know, the thing they were supposed to have done 3 years ago according to the Constitution. John Rankin (D-Miss.) and E. Hart Fenn (R-CT) support doing nothing because the 1920 census showed a shift of population to the cities, which is scary.

Eleutherios Venizelos, who rode in to rescue Greece from itself but then had a bunch of heart attacks, is riding back out again. And Prime Minister Georgios Kafantaris and his cabinet are forced to resign by the Army for refusing to abolish the monarchy in advance of the referendum on whether to abolish the monarchy.

The latest New York newspaper/police obsession:

She’s been robbing chain stores and pharmacists for weeks.

Philippines newspapers suggest that Coolidge is backing the much-despised Governor Leonard Woods to keep him from coming back to the US and running for president against him.

The Soviet Union bans the buying or kidnapping of women to be brides in Turkestan, Khirghizstan, etc. Also bigamy and child brides. Also, murderers won’t be able to get out of legal consequences by paying bribes to their victim’s family.

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.

Today -100: March 8, 1924: Of duels and petroleum boots

French Prime Minister Raymond Poincaré challenges Deputy De Launay to a duel over remarks he made in the National Assembly. The seconds call the thing off after determining that he misheard those remarks.

Sen. James Reed of Missouri thinks William Gibbs McAdoo can’t win the presidential election: “no man wearing boots filled with Mr. Doheny’s petroleum can carry a State in the general election.”

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.

Today -100: March 7, 1924: Everyone’s a fucking drama queen in this courtroom

Attorney Gen. Harry Daugherty will be ousted within 48 hours... is something that has been said before, and is now said again.

The prosecutor in the Beer Hall Putsch trial storms out, complaining about the insults from alliterative defense lawyer Karl Kohl about his failure to prosecute high Bavarian officials implicated in the putsch. He turns the prosecution over to his assistant, who asks for an adjournment.

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.

Today -100: March 6, 1924: Evidence that something is yet lacking in development of political consciousness and capability

Pres. Coolidge says the Filipinos are not ready for independence in a letter to Speaker of the Philippines House of Representatives Manuel Roxas, currently in the US as part of a mission to demand... independence.  Coolidge congratulates the independencers for talking about using “all lawful means in our power,” such moderation being of course a tribute to the progress the Filipino people have made under US auspices. Anyway, without US “protection,” the Philippines couldn’t maintain its independence in this wicked world. The Filipino mission to the US, he says, is actually “evidence that something is yet lacking in development of political consciousness and capability.” So if they ask for independence, they’ve proven they’re not ready for it, got it. Another sign of Filipino “unpreparedness for the full obligations of citizenship”: complaining about, and resisting, the high-handed tactics of Governor Gen. Leonard Wood (who was, of course, not elected by the Filipino people), who Coolidge thinks is doing just great, having discussed it with people who are almost certainly all white. He does hold out the hope that if there is a time when independence would be better for the Filipino people and if they still want it, the US will grant it. If. If.

The Michigan Supreme Court upholds the Michigan State Normal School for “upholding some of the old-fashioned ideals of young womanhood” by expelling a student for smoking. This rule, which the student says doesn’t even exist, is not applied to male students.

The left wing of the British Labour Party revolts over, of all things, irrigation in the Sudan, which amounts to subsidizing of private enterprise.

German Deputy Carl Craemer says he’s too busy to take up the 3 duel challenges by the deputies he called traitors, but he is willing to repeat the statements outside the Reichstag and they could try to sue him for libel. Some joker puts out toy guns in the Reichstag.

France and Britain both suggest candidates to replace the caliph deposed by Turkey, candidates, obviously that they think they can control and who can tamp down discontent in their colonial empires. France is offering the Sultan of Morocco, Britain King Hussein of the Hedjaz (Saudi Arabia).

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.

Today -100: March 5, 1924: Of high traitors, crims, and misinterpretations

Ah, so Attorney Gen. Harry Daugherty’s mysterious trip to Chicago was so he could testify to the grand jury investigating bribery at the Veterans’ Bureau, which fingered two (still unnamed) congresscritters.

Also, there’s an Assistant Attorney General Crim. John Crim. That’s his name. He’s refusing to give the Senate committee investigating the Vets’ Bureau the names of the congresscritters.

The Beer Hall Putsch trial holds a secret session to examine how Reichswehr weapons were handed over to Hitler’s followers.

Carl Graemer of the German People’s Party (DVP) refers to Albrecht von Graefe of the German Völkisch Freedom Party (DVFP) as a “high traitor” (that’s the worst kind of traitor) for his participation in the Beer Hall Putsch.  Von Graefe and two other right-wing deputies challenge Graemer to a duel – they even give him the convenient option of dueling with all 3 of them at once.

Winston Churchill officially announces that he is running in the by-election in the Abbey division of Westminster. I think he’d expected the Liberals and the Tories not to run candidates against him so he could run an anti-“Socialist” campaign as a “Constitutionalist,” but both parties, and Labour, will run their own. The Liberal will be a man much persecuted during the Great War as a conscientious objector, the unfortunately named James Duckers. The Tory will be the Otho Nicholson, nephew of the MP who died.

Mexican Pres. Obregón sets the next presidential and legislative elections for July 6, saying the rebellion has been quelled enough to hold them.

The NYT says the proposed bill to make the Philippines independent will be “misinterpreted” in the colony as suggesting that the Philippines will actually be made independent in the near future. Meanwhile, Secretary of War John Weeks thinks it would be better to set a date; he suggests 1949.

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.

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.

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.

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.

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.

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.

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.

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].”

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.

Today -100: February 29, 1924: Physicians astonished

Headline of the Day -100:  

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.

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.

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.

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.

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.

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.

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.

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.

Headline of the Day -100:  

Headline of the Day -100:  

 

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.

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.

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.