Today -100: July 5, 1924: 62 to 70

The Democratic National Convention holds ballots 62 to 70. William Gibbs McAdoo’s support grows from 469 to 528½, Al Smith barely moves from 338½ to 334½. The delegates are “unhappy, confused and disposed to be morose”.

Al Smith’s people propose that all the presidential candidates be allowed to address the Convention. McAdoo’s people, fearing the spectators’ home-town bias for their governor, oppose this idea, and while the proposal is changed to exclude the audience and have the speeches in executive session, it gets a majority but not the necessary 2/3. A second motion to allow just Smith to speak – as the governor of the state hosting the Convention, certainly not as a candidate, perish the thought – is likewise defeated, even though William Jennings Bryan was allowed to speak earlier for some reason. This so pisses off the Smithafarians that later McAdoo in a letter asks the Convention to let Smith speak, but it is ruled out of order. The Smithistas are thinking about hiring Carnegie Hall so he can make a speech to which delegates could come.

McAdoo sends Bernard Baruch & Thomas Chadbourne to Al Smith to politely request that he quit. He does not.

However, two of the dark horses do withdraw: James Cox, the Dem. nominee in 1920, and  Sen. Samuel Ralston, who seems to have never wanted his name entered in the first place. He cites the attribution by many of a connection between himself and the Klan, which he says doesn’t exist, as a reason to withdraw in order to facilitate a “harmonious solution”.

On the 68th ballot, Will Rogers gets a vote from Arizona.

The Fourth is also Pres. Coolidge’s 52nd birthday, but the Coolidges don’t do birthdays, so no cake. Also, Calvin Coolidge Jr. is unwell. The 16-year-old got a blister on his foot playing tennis without socks and now has blood poisoning.

The Ku Klux Klan holds a Fourth of July “Tri-State Klorero” with 20,000 attendees in Long Branch, New Jersey, mostly to demonstrate against Al Smith – a speaker says there will only ever be Protestant presidents & vice presidents. For a nickel, you can throw 3 baseballs at an effigy of Smith, if that’s your kink.

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

Today -100: July 4, 1924: 43 to 61

No significant movement in Democratic Convention presidential ballots 43 through 61: McAdoo drops 20 votes, to 469. Smith gains 16, ending at 335. Various states changed their preferred candidate over the course of the day. No end in sight, delegates losing will to live and have run through their expense money and are getting eyestrain from the Garden’s arc lights. Sen. Samuel Ralston (Ind.) cracks 100 for the first time, displacing John W. Davis as #3, before sinking again in the night-time ballots to 37, like riding the world’s most boring rollercoaster.

The McAdoo camp insists the deadlock is the fault of the favorite sons, i.e. everyone who isn’t Smith or McAdoo, and they should all just pull out pronto. Others are suggesting it should be McAdoo who withdraws.

Mussolini’s Blackshirts will swear a new oath to the king, replacing their old oath to The Duck personally. And if... an oath... doesn’t remove the threat of dictatorial rule backed by a personal militia, I don’t know what would.

Giacomo Puccini is finishing up his opera Turandot, which he says will premiere not in Milan, where audiences hissed Madame Butterfly, but at the Met in New York next year. Actually, he’ll die before completing it.

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

Today -100: July 3, 1924: 31 to 42

The British Cabinet decides against building a Channel tunnel.

The Conference for Progressive Political Action will open on the 4th in Cleveland and will create a 3rd party called the Progressive Party (which was the official name of Teddy Roosevelt’s Bull Moose Party), which will nominate Fightin’ Bob La Follette for president. Now we hear officially that he will (gasp) accept. The Progressives don’t have a consensus on Fightin’ Bob’s running mate, but Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis seems favored.

The Georgia Lege rejects the proposed constitutional amendment to regulate child labor by 170-3. “State’s rights,” you know. Viola Napier, one of the two women in the House, votes for it. The state senate will reject it unanimously tomorrow.

The Democratic Convention holds presidential ballots 31 through 42. Al Smith’s support remains quite steady, holding between 310 and 323 votes all day, ending at 318. McAdoo recovers, reaching 503. John W. Davis sinks back into double figures.

William Jennings Bryan, a member of the Florida delegation, gives a speech in which he names eight people he thinks would be acceptable presidents – including his brother. In other words, he thinks McAdoo no longer has a chance.

A recount is ordered in the close Maine Republican primary. State Sen. Ralph Brewster claims he really won. Brewster is the Klan candidate and ran on a platform of defunding sectarian schools. Spoiler Alert: he will be the next governor (and congresscritter and US senator after that).

Portugese Prime Minister Álvaro de Castro fights a duel (with swords) with Flight Captain Teófilo José Ribeiro. He wins.

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

Today -100: July 2, 1924: 16 to 30

In presidential ballots 16 to 30 at the DNC, former ambassador to Britain John W. Davis picks up some votes as the difficulties faced by McAdoo & Al Smith in reaching 2/3 become increasingly clear. McAdoo loses support, including Missouri, starting the day at 478 votes and ending at 415½. Smith gains achingly slowly, from 305½ to 323½. Davis has 126½ at the 30th ballot. William Jennings Bryan is telling anyone who’ll listen that the party can’t nominate a Wall Street lawyer like Davis, who has worked for J.P. Morgan (could be worse lawyering; in his last case in 1954 Davis defended segregation in the South Carolina part of Brown v. Board of Education).

28 people are sentenced to 2 years for participating in the Lilly, Pennsylvania fight between Klansmen and townies last April.

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

Today -100: July 1, 1924: Sitting pretty on top of the world

Coolidge wants to cut the budget by another $83 billion. “I am for economy. After that I am for more economy.”

The DC Federal Grand Jury indicts former interior secretary Albert Fall and oil tycoons Harry Sinclair, Edward Doheny & Edward Doheny Jr. for bribery (or receiving a bribe, in Fall’s case) and conspiracy to defraud the US in the Teapot Dome/Elk Hills oil leases.

The Democratic National Convention holds its first 15 ballots for president. McAdoo is ahead with 479 votes, but well shy of a majority, much less the 2/3 (732 votes) he needs. Al Smith, far behind with 305½, says he’s “sitting pretty on top of the world.” Kansas switches to McAdoo, New Jersey to Al Smith.

The NYT points out that William Jennings Bryan, while objecting to the introduction of a religious question into politics in his speech favoring not mentioning the Klan by name, has himself been trying to get state legislatures to ban the teaching of evolution.

The New York law requiring motorists and motorcyclists to have a driving license, following an examination, by October 1st, goes into effect. There will also be a minimum speed limit of 12 mph in cities other than NY, Rochester and Buffalo. Standards are set for headlamps, trucks have to have rear-view mirrors. It is illegal not to stop on a signal from someone driving a horse.

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

Today -100: June 30, 1924: Of crooks and bootlegging scoundrels

William Gibbs McAdoo, speaking to supporters (not in the Convention), pledges to go after “the crooks and bootlegging scoundrels who are debauching the morals of American youth by encouraging them to defy the laws.”

Edward, Prince of Wales, turned 30 last week and the newspapers are again bitching that he isn’t married yet. There are rumors that he’s promised the royal family that he will think about it.

Calvin Coolidge Jr., 16, plays tennis without wearing socks, but it doesn’t make the newspaper. Yet.

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

Today -100: June 29, 1924: Three words

The Democratic Convention spends the entire day talking about the Klan, finally deciding not to name it in the anti-Klan plank by a vote of 542-541. Now it just calls for “religious liberty” without specifying any particular threat to religious liberty. William Jennings Bryan, on behalf of the McAdooites, calls for the generic plank, saying it would avoid dissension among Christians, and anyway “The Klan will soon die.” “We can exterminate Ku Kluxism better by respecting their honesty and teaching them that they are wrong.” “[T]he Ku Klux Klan does not deserve the advertisement that you give them.” Of course the “advertisement” will consist more of this stupid debate over whether to include what WJB keeps referring to as “three words” or, even, “these three magic and mystic words” than the platform itself. He suggests a separate resolution condemning the Klan by name, which wouldn’t be included in the platform.

Sen. Robert Owen (Oklahoma), speaking for the non-specific version, says he isn’t afraid of any klansman living or dead (especially the dead ones), but won’t convict a million kluxers without trial. He says many joined the Klan to defend the Constitution & the law.

A plank for immediate entry into the League of Nations fails 742½ to 353½, in favor of one calling for a referendum which the government could ignore.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt “slowly wended his way, leaning heavily on crutches, down the main aisle”.

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

Today -100: June 28, 1924: Of nominees, plnks, exiles, and secessions

16 men have been put into nomination for president at the Democratic National Convention, which doesn’t mean that more favorite sons, dark horses, dark sons, and favorite horses won’t be put forward later.

Member of the DNC from South Carolina Lena Springs, or Mrs Leroy Springs as the NYT calls her, will be placed in nomination for vice president. Springs, who was not told this would happen, says “There isn’t a chance in the world of my being nominated,” but she appreciates it.

The Resolutions Committee adopts McAdoo’s position on the League of Nations, expressing broad approval of the body but saying the US would only join after a referendum. There are 3 competing anti-Klan resolutions and the issue is overshadowing and indeed postponing lesser matters like choosing a presidential candidate.

McAdoo’s nomination is seconded by J.F.T. O’Connor, a lawyer who used to be in the North Dakota Legislature. More importantly, he is a Catholic who uses his speech to denounce the Ku Klux Klan by name, which McAdoo won’t do, and does so before he gets around to mentioning McAdoo. It would be interesting to know exactly when O’Connor was chosen.

In other Convention news:

France will allow 210,000 Germans it exiled from the Ruhr to return. It will also release from prison people convicted of passive resistance.

Italy’s opposition parties, except the Communists, meet on Aventine Hill to demand the abolition of militias and the repression of political violence, and... they fail to call for Mussolini’s resignation. They say they will not return to Parliament “as long as the present conditions prevail.” This will be called the Aventine Secession.

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

Today -100: June 27, 1924: Of happy warriors, mechanical screechers, and wet planks

There’s a race at the D. convention between finalizing the platform and starting the balloting for president. The McAdoonians want to push forward with the latter before a decision on whether the anti-Klan plank will actually mention the Klan. The adjournment at 5:30 pm was therefore a victory for the anti-McAdoo forces. In some desperation, McAdoo releases his supporters to vote their conscience on the Klan.

The demonstration following Al Smith’s nomination lasts 73 minutes, which is longer than McAdoo’s was. Tammany workers might have had something to do with that. It was quite loud, human sounds being augmented by ambulance / fire engine-type sirens and “mechanical screechers,” whatever those might be.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt gives the nominating speech for Gov. Alfred E. Smith, calling him the “happy warrior of the political battlefield.”

Pornhub title or Headline of the Day -100?

 

A mass murderer is executed by electric chair in the Philippines, another example of the United States bringing modernity to its imperial possessions.

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

Today -100: June 26, 1924: And if you can’t fake sincerity and spontaneity...

The Coolidge Admin files suit against 50 oil companies, including the Standard spin-offs, for conspiracy to violate anti-trust laws and raise gasoline prices. Something about patents.

Headlines of the Day -100:  

Forney Johnston’s nomination speech for Alabama Sen. Oscar Underwood, which precedes McAdoo’s nomination, includes a denunciation of the Klan that sets off a 15-minute anti-Klan demonstration that surprises people by the geographic spread of anti-kluxer sentiment. However, one-third of the delegates remained conspicuously seated, including McAdoo-supporting delegations such as Georgia and California.

That reference to “sincerity and spontaneity”: McAdoo’s demonstration aimed instead for length (one hour) and wound up looking artificial, so Smith’s people are going for quality over quantity.

The NYT calls for “a clean sweep of prejudices.” Sure, the Democrats attack racial & religious intolerance, it says, but what about corporate lawyers (meaning McAdoo), huh? huh? huh?

In other convention news, Pres. Coolidge is listening to it on the radio, as are crowds outside New York radio stores, and William Jennings Bryan has lost his watch.

The alliterative Heinrich Held of the German National People's Party is the new chancellor of Bavaria. The NYT is surprised that monarchy- and aristocrat-loving Bavaria chose an “ex-fiddler,” who as a child played fairs with his musician father.

Headline of the Day -100:  

 

Following the kidnapping and presumed murder of Matteotti by Fascists no doubt acting entirely on their own initiative, Mussolini says he’ll “lead Fascismo back to strict legality... purify our party of all its undesirables... follow a policy of national conciliation.” But the opposition must not, um, oppose the regime or “seek to force us to give up our principles”. Opposition deputies are not there to hear the Duck’s speech, having, perhaps temporarily, perhaps not, withdrawn from Parliament. He repeats that he will not dissolve the Fascist militias.

A couple of professors in the Lehigh University chemistry department have invented an unbreakable cigar.

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

Today -100: June 25, 1924: What America now needs is not a Sphinx

It is hot in Madison Square Garden as the Democratic National Convention opens. Sen. Pat Harrison of Mississippi’s keynote speech makes note of Republican corruption: “Show this Administration an oil well, and it will show you a foreign policy.” He says they’re more interested in oil fields in Mosul than protecting Christians in Turkey. “What America now needs is not a Sphinx, but a Paul Revere to awaken it.”

After Harrison finishes his speech, predicting Democratic victory, the band strikes up “It’s a Long, Long Trail.” They don’t know the half of it.

In other convention news,

President Bartolomé Martínez of Nicaragua asks the US what its reaction would be if he violates the constitution by being re-elected. The US says in that case it wouldn’t recognize him. Here’s the thing: Martínez wouldn’t be “re-elected,” since he succeeded a president who died last October to serve the remainder of his term ending in Jan. ‘25.

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

Today -100: June 24, 1924: Of underwoods, shock & unrest, and runaway Republicans

Sen. Oscar Underwood (Alabama) says if the Democratic Convention doesn’t reject the Ku Klux Klan by name, he will drop out as a candidate for president.

In other news, Oscar Underwood has been running for president. Who knew?

The betting odds on Wall Street are now 3 to 1 against McAdoo and 2 to 1 against Smith.

Mussolini announces that he will remain as prime minister despite the crisis over the murder of Matteotti, thus saving Italy from the “shock and unrest” of a change of government.

All the Rhode Island State Senate Republicans but one have indeed fled the state to avoid voting on D. proposals (the one stayed beyond so he could object if there isn’t a quorum). They have been discovered at the Hotel Bartlett in Rutland, Massachusetts. They say they won’t return until their safety is guaranteed, citing “gunmen and thugs” they claim were spotted recently in the audience at Senate meetings. They’ve hired guards to prevent their being seized and returned to RI.

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

Today -100: June 23, 1924: Of invisible governments and junkmen & cockchafers

William Gibbs McAdoo gives a speech calling for the “restoration of the administration of national affairs to the people from the control of a sinister, unscrupulous, invisible government, which has its seat in the citadel of privilege and finance in New York City.” Not sure if that’s the euphemism for Jews it sounds like. He’s also not too thrilled with New York newspapers.

Oh, and there’s a new slogan: McAdoo’ll do. Which sounds to me like a rooster crowing. Maybe that’s the idea?

The Illinois Democratic State Committee picks lawyer Earl Dickerson as its candidate for Congress in the First District. He is the first black person so chosen by the Democratic Party. Dunno what happened, but Dickerson will not wind up being the D. candidate.

An American, Edwin Hawley, was killed by Chinese junkmen who objected to him shipping goods by steamer rather than junks. So the commander of the British gunboat Cockchafer threatens to bombard the city of Wanshien unless Chinese military leaders march to Hawley’s funeral in full uniform, arrest the two junkmen, and execute them. Which is done.

Yes, “Cockchafer.”

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

Today -100: June 22, 1924: The real people of the country want to see me nominated

William Gibbs McAdoo still refuses to express an opinion on the KKK or prohibition, saying he wouldn’t presume to dictate to the Convention on platform planks. Honestly, I’m not sure how much the move for an anti-Klan plank is genuine and how much is an attempt to force McAdoo to take a position that would alienate his many klannish supporters. His people are also refusing to take any position on who his running mate should be.

By the way, McAdoo’s people are referring to a “wet reactionary clique” supporting Smith. I tend to forget that prohibition supporters thought of their position as progressive.

Al Smith says his real strength is that “the real people of the country want to see me nominated.”

Filippo Filippelli has supposedly confessed to ordering the kidnapping of Giacomo Matteotti, but says he wasn’t supposed to be killed, just kidnapped.

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

Today -100: June 21, 1924: Fascismo will come out of this storm stronger and more respected than ever

The third British Everest expedition ends when George Mallory and Andrew Irvine disappear somewhere on the mountain.

William Gibbs McAdoo’s campaign manager refuses to pass on to McAdoo a reporter’s question about the proposal for a plank condemning the Ku Klux Klan by name. 

Italy’s ambassador to the US Gelasio Caetani says “merciless justice will be meted out to the dastardly murderers” of Giacomo Matteotti. Dastardly murderers are the worst kind of murderers. Merciless justice is the... best?... worst? kind of justice. “Fascismo will come out of this storm stronger and more respected than ever,” he says, after the purging of “extremist elements” from the Fascist Party. “It will come out purer and stronger.”

High Sheriff Andrews, who was ordered to arrest the Republican Rhode Island state senators boycotting the Senate, let them all go after they produced doctor’s notes that they were too ill from the gas attack in the chamber yesterday. If they all then fled the state that’s certainly not his fault, says Andrews. Democratic senators seem to be mysteriously immune to gas. R’s claim they are in fear of their lives from thugs roaming the corridors of the Senate.

The Turkish Ministry of Agriculture will send 30,000 guns to Smyrna to fight off hailstorms.

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

Today -100: June 20, 1924: I will not even acknowledge the existence of a second choice

Commendatore Giovanni Marinelli, treasurer of the Italian Fascist Party, is arrested for ordering the kidnapping murder of Socialist leader Giacomo Matteotti. Fascist editor Filippo Filippelli is also under arrest (he supplied the car Matteotti was forced into) and is singing like a canary. Also, his name is Filippo Filippelli, which is the most Italian name possible.

Democrats in the Rhode Island State Senate have been filibustering since January, demanding, among other things, a referendum on a constitutional convention, a 48-hour week, and the abolition of the property qualification to vote in city council elections (RI tended to be massively behind the times constitutionally – look up the Dorr Rebellion when you’ve got some free time). Person or persons unknown decide to end the filibuster with bromine gas, placed behind the rostrum. 4 senators go to hospital (the 3 R’s may be faking it). Some Republican senators say they will boycott tomorrow’s session, so Democratic Lt. Gov. Felix Toupin, who has been leading the filibuster, reading Shakespeare and the Encyclopedia out loud for 42 hours but who escapes ill effects from the bomb because he was being shaved at the rostrum and had a towel over his face, orders the high sheriff (that’s the best kind of sheriff) to arrest them and drag them back to the Senate.

Former ambassador to Britain John Davis says he’s not a candidate for president, but if the Dem. convention drafted him...

Al Smith says he would refuse the vice presidency. “I will not be a second choice,” he says, “I will not even acknowledge the existence of a second choice.” Dude, NO ONE acknowledges the existence of a vice president.

The feds claim that the Wobblies are deliberately spreading foot and mouth disease in California.

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

Today -100: June 19, 1924: Of assassins, truces, smuts, and ma’s

Mussolini claims that almost everyone involved in the kidnapping and presumed murder of Socialist leader Giacomo Matteotti has been arrested. One was caught by a submarine chaser, one was apprehended in the Alps trying to reach Switzerland, and 3 were caught on a steamer about to leave for Albania.

The Royal Ascot horsie race bans women smoking in the royal enclosure in response to the scandal of one woman breaking that unwritten rule of etiquette.

Democrats have reportedly negotiated a “truce” whereby William Randolph Hearst and his newspapers won’t attack Al Smith anymore.

South African PM Gen. Jan Smuts’s South African Party badly loses parliamentary elections. Smuts loses his own Pretoria seat. But at least the country will still have a Boer War general as PM. J.B.M. Hertzog of the National Party will become the new PM on a platform of disfranchising the black voters in the Cape Province.

Miriam Ferguson, wife of former Texas Gov. James Ferguson (1915-7), is herself running for governor. He can’t do it because he was impeached and barred forever from holding state office for acts of embezzlement, corrupt banking practices, trying to bribe the speaker of the house to prevent the impeachment, and threatening the University of Texas. “Ma” Ferguson is running on “Pa”’s old platform and says she’s running to clear the family name so that her grandson might one day be able to run for office with the stigma of grandpappy’s impeachment wiped out by the “rebuke” to it of her being elected. She is the first woman to run for governor in the US.

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

Today -100: June 18, 1924: We can beat ‘em anyway

William Gibbs McAdoo says he doesn’t care about the 2/3 presidential nomination rule: “We can beat ‘em anyway.”

Al Smith records a 6-minute “talking movie,” the first use of that technology in a presidential campaign.

Sen. Pat Harrison of Mississippi will give the keynote speech to the Dem. convention. Former Miss. senator LeRoy Percy accuses him of leading “a Ku Klux Klan delegation.” Percy was on one of the anti-Klan delegations that wasn’t seated at the state convention. He doesn’t accuse Harrison of being a kluxer, but says most of the state’s delegates are.

Lawyers boycott courts in Naples & Palermo to protest the probable murder of Giacomo Matteotti. Police disperse various anti-Fascist protests. Supposedly Pope Pius met Matteotti’s widow, for half an hour no less.

The NYT suggests that the Matteotti kidnapping threatens Mussolini’s grip on power and has damaged “the prestige of Fascismo”: “The Government of Mussolini may go down in history with the Government of the Tarquins and of Appius Claudius to testify that a people which will endure loss of liberty may rise on an issue of personal outrage.” The murder “is of a kind that may kill a movement by depriving it at a stroke of its moral content.” You know, that celebrated Fascist moral content.

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

Today -100: June 17, 1924: Out of the mouths of babes

Babe Ruth comes out in favor of Al Smith for president, after campaign manager Franklin Delano Roosevelt wrote him asking for his endorsement.

Some delegates to the Democratic Convention want to do away with the rule requiring a 2/3 vote to nominate a presidential candidate. Reducing that to a simple majority would most likely benefit William Gibbs McAdoo, but his followers are worried that they’d alienate delegates by pushing it. Ah, should be okay.

Oh, this can’t be true: the ancestors of Coolidge & Dawes ran a grocery store called Dawes & Coolidge in Worcester, Massachusetts in the 18th century. William Dawes was part of the Ride of Paul Revere.

The analysts working for Leopold & Loeb’s lawyers determined that they are abnormal and should not be held responsible for their actions. Now the State’s analyst says no, they are in fact “smart alecks.”

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

Today -100: June 16, 1924: Of finzis, acting governors, and abnormals

Ah, now I understand why Italian Under-Secretary of the Interior Aldo Finzi had to resign over the Matteotti disappearance: Matteotti had been about to give a speech attacking Finzi for various forms of corruption, including taking bribes from Harry Sinclair’s oil and bribery biz.

New Mexico Gov. James Hinkle will be a delegate at the Democratic National Convention. While he is out of the state, Secretary of State Soledad Chacón, a woman-type person and a Hispanic-type person, will be acting governor (the lt. governor died). The NYT gets her name and age wrong, because of course it does. She’s not the first US woman temporary governor (we’ll get some real ones soon, for better or worse), that would be Carolyn Shelton in Oregon in 1909. While Chacón is acting governor, the acting secretary of state will be the assistant director, who is her husband.

Headline of the Day -100:  

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