Today -100: September 10, 1924: Cut out the Klan

Since the Republicans did so well in the Maine elections after pretending that their being backed by the Ku Klux Klan wasn’t even an issue and that the election was really about backing Coolidge, it is thought that Coolidge, who was delaying making some sort of statement about the Klan until after Maine voted, will now continue to refuse to engage with the Klan issue. The Washington Post takes from the Maine election the lesson that everyone should “cut out the Klan,” that is, stop picking on it.

After a military takeover of the Chilean government, President Arturo Alessandri resigns and hides out in the US Embassy, but the Senate refuses to accept his resignation.

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Today -100: September 9, 1924: Of groundswells

Reacting to the Chinese civil war, the US, Britain, Italy and Japan land forces in Shanghai to defend their nationals.

In the Maine general elections, Republicans win the Senate seat and all 4 House seats, with Ralph Brewster elected governor. The Democratic campaign against him focused on his Klan backing.

The German cabinet discusses whether to officially inform other nations of Chancellor Wilhelm Marx’s repudiation of the war guilt clause of the Versailles Treaty.

Robert La Follette says Progressives are now even with Republicans. Evidently there’s a groundswell.

Coleman Blease will win today’s South Carolina Democratic primary for the US Senate (and – Spoiler Alert) the general election. Blease was this blog’s frenemy back when he was governor (1911-15), so a quick recap of some of the highlights of his record is in order. Blease supported lynching (“where black men commit crimes against white women, and are lynched for it, I declare Constitutions do not apply. For that, there is a higher law than the Constitution”). He opposed black people going to school, and opposed the drinking of Coca-Cola. He revoked the licenses of 3 notary publics who supported the accusation by a railroad ticket agent that he tried to cut in line and got abusive when she refused to let him. He sold pardons but also pardoned thousands for capricious reasons such as “he has the same name as my childhood friend,” almost emptying the state prisons before he left office. He opposed medical inspection of school children and promised to pardon any father who killed a doctor who tried to examine his daughter.

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Today -100: September 8, 1924: Of endorsements, rallies, and, um, bonds

Not surprisingly, Thomas Edison endorses Coolidge.

Responding to Wisconsin Gov. John Blaine’s declaration of war on the Ku Klux Klan, it calls for a rally in Capitol Square on the 23rd. At night in hoods and sheets, natch.

NOT OK, New York Times, NOT OK:  

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Today -100: September 7, 1924: On remaining American

Coolidge attacks (although not by name) Robert La Follette: “The question is whether America will allow itself to be degraded into a communistic or socialistic state or whether it will remain American.”

The Earl of Cromer, who as Lord Chamberlain is Britain’s theatre censor, licenses George Bernard Shaw’s “problem” play about prostitution, Mrs. Warren’s Profession, after 30 years of lords chancellor refusing to do so. There were private performances in London in 1902, and it played on Broadway in 1905, only to be raided by the police.

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Today -100: September 6, 1924: Of common honesty and temples of peace

John W. Davis tells a Rockford, Illinois audience that he will bring “a government of common honesty.” Which would certainly have been an interesting experiment, having never been tried.

French Prime Minister Édouard Herriot responding to Ramsay MacDonald at the League of Nations, says arbitration is necessary but not sufficient. “Arbitration, security and disarmament are three pillars of the temple of peace you are building here, and if that temple is to rise the foundations must be solid.”

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Today -100: September 5, 1924: Pacts or no pacts, you will be devastated

At the League of Nations conference on disarmament in Geneva, British Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald says military alliances (France’s policy) won’t bring security. Only a system of arbitration will, and without one there won’t be disarmament. Or peace. He wants Germany in the League and the US and who knows maybe even Russia some day. He tells small nations, presumably those allied to France in the Little Entente: “In a military world, pacts or no pacts, you will be invaded; pacts or no pacts, you will be devastated.”

Italy denies that anyone tried to assassinate Mussolini, saying yesterday’s report was a “Bourse maneuver.”

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Today -100: September 4, 1924: A corncob pipe in every garage

Someone tries to assassinate Mussolini but hits the car behind his instead. No one is hurt.

They’re really going to report every single thing the Prince of Wales does in America, aren’t they? Anyway, he’s playing polo and shit.

Civil war breaks out in China, as was the custom. Izvhestia blames American capital and Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes.

Vice presidential nominee Charles Bryan adopts as his symbol the corncob pipe because the Democratic team is just that exciting.

The Texas Democratic Convention adopts a platform denouncing the Ku Klux Klan as “undemocratic, un-Christian and un-American,” although the word “treason” is dropped from the draft. It calls for registering the names of the membership of such organizations and for a law against masks.

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Today -100: September 3, 1924: The only issue

William Pattangall, the Democratic candidate for governor of Maine, says the Ku Klux Klan is the only issue in the Maine campaign. He says Coolidge won’t dare denounce the Klan until after the Maine election – which is next week. Republican candidate Ralph Owen Brewster is very much Klan-backed.

The Texas Democrat Convention is purged of Klan delegates.

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Today -100: September 2, 1924: The Delos Duty sounds like a paperback in a crap series of Robert Ludlum ripoffs

Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes rebuffs a League of Nations request for the US to send a rep to the committee drafting a treaty to control the arms traffic, but it will send reps to any conference to consider the plan.

On Labor Day, Prez. Coolidge tells union leaders in the White House (whose expenses might have been paid by the RNC) that immigration restriction and protective tariffs are the best policies for labor and will “prevent America from producing cheap men.” Republicans are running a little scared of labor defecting to what Coolidge calls the radicalism and paternalism of Robert La Follette.

John Davis, addressing union members in Wheeling, West Virginia, calls for: the anti-child-labor amendment to the US Constitution, abolition of the Railroad Labor Board, and limiting anti-strike injunctions.

A bomb is discovered in Lenin’s tomb. Student groups had visited the tomb, so the Cheka tortures false confessions out of many, many students, as is the custom.

Herrin, Illinois Sheriff George Galligan is arrested by the coroner (I didn’t know they could do that), along with 2 of his deputies, for allegedly starting the gun fight with the Klan that resulted in 6 deaths. There are warrants out, not yet served, on a judge and State’s Attorney Delos Duty. The gloriously and alliteratively named Duty thinks the general in charge of the troops sent into Herrin and the governor himself are secret klansmen. Also every preacher in Williamson County.

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Today -100: September 1, 1924: Of defectives and princes

Secretary of War John Weeks says half the population is “subnormal” and/or “defective,” which means the US will have to “defend itself with one arm tied behind its back.” He wants children inspected so the next generation is better, but I’m unclear on what he’s suggesting be done.

Headline of the Day -100:  

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Today -100: August 31, 1924: As I go in, the Klan will go out

Emma Goldman gets permission to move to Britain from Berlin.

In the latest shenanigans in Herrin, Illinois, Sheriff George Galligan and his deputies get into a gun battle with Klansmen, then barricade themselves in Herrin Hospital, while the kluxers occupy city hall, possibly with a machine gun. The sheriff telegraphs Springfield calling for state troops. 6 dead so far.

I guess we know the German Nationalists’ demand for passing the railroad part of the Dawes Plan: Chancellor Wilhelm Marx disavows the war guilt clause of the Versailles Treaty. France is (spoiler alert) pissed.

Future Texas governor Miriam “Ma” Ferguson tells the NYT that the main issue of the election is the Ku Klux Klan. She won’t hire any kluxers for state offices: “As I go in, the Klan will go out.”

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Today -100: August 30, 1924: Dawes done

The German Reichstag passes the Railroad bill required to implement the Dawes Plan after days of fighting by Nationalist and Communist deputies. Many of the former gave in, presumably not wanting to face a new election or having been bribed in some way.

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Today -100: August 29, 1924: The last supreme shock of the world

Nathan Leopold promises that if he is executed his last words will be “the last supreme shock of the world.” “I really think I can make it worth any one’s while who is fortunate enough to obtain an invitation.” Also, there’ll be hard punch and a good jazz band. Dickie Loeb plans to play in the jail baseball league.

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Today -100: August 28, 1924: Cities are doomed

After NY Gov. Al Smith meets with new Tammany boss George Washington Olvany, the latter says Smith is definitely not running for re-election, leaving the Dems without an obvious replacement. Smith wants FDR to run, but FDR is ruling himself out on health grounds.

The South Carolina Democratic primary fails to produce a majority winner for the US Senate race, so there will have to be a second primary next month (shouldn’t that be called a secondary?) between ex-Gov. Coleman Blease and Rep. James Byrnes.

Coolidge has decided on the subjects on which he will run: common-sense farm relief, unofficial cooperation in Europe without political “engagements,” and, of course, tax cuts.

The Idaho Democratic convention condemns the Klan.

Marcus Garvey says the black people he intended to settle in Liberia will now go instead to... some other African country tbd. He says Britain, France, and Firestone Tire and Rubber Company forced Liberia to say it didn’t want the immigrants.

Henry Ford says cities will eventually vanish and industry and population be decentralized. Cities are simply too expensive to be maintained. Farmers will work in these factories during the dull season.

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Today -100: August 27, 1924: What do we care about that, anyway?

Headline of the Day -100:  

Evidently the “Ku Klux Klan issue” is a real head-scratcher for Cal.

The Ohio Democratic convention condemns the Klan.

The Oklahoma Democratic party also opposes the Klan, but Republican Sen. John Harreld says klansmen are welcome in his party. “What do we care about that, anyway?” Gov. M.E. Trapp (D) says the KKK controls the R. party in the southwest. Oh sure, some kluxers are Democrats, he says, but they’re taking orders from Grand Dragons who are Republicans.

State’s Attorney Robert Crowe sums up: Leopold n’ Loeb are perverts, rattlesnakes, mad dogs, etc. He also has insults for the defense psychiatrists and Clarence Darrow.

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Today -100: August 26, 1924: Poor young Jews

The deadline for Germany to ratify the Dawes Plan is Saturday. Chancellor Wilhelm Marx tells the Reichstag he will ratify it no matter what they do.

Day 3 of Clarence Darrows’s concluding speech pleading for mercy for “these two poor young Jews”.

Charles Dawes says he and Coolidge didn’t actually talk about the Klan.

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Today -100: August 25, 1924: Of zeppelins, the Klan in politics, and Mars

The ZR-3, an airship built for the US Navy by the Zeppelin company in Germany will soon fly to the US. Any stowaways will be thrown over the side, with a parachute. Over the Atlantic?

“Ma” Ferguson increases her lead. She says it’s the death knell of the Klan in Texas. And when governor, she’ll fire kluxers holding government jobs.

The Ku Klux Klan’s prominence as an issue in this election cycle continues to grow, given further impetus by the victory of Ma & other anti-Klan candidates in the Texas Dem. primaries. Coolidge has called Dawes in to meet in person in Vermont, and the speculation is that it’s to talk about the Klan. Ohio Democrats are divided over how to deal with the Klan issue in their state convention. Georgia’s former governor/US senator Thomas Hardwick, who is running to reclaim the Senate seat from William Harris, accuses him of being a kluxer, specifically a member of the super-secret adjunct called the Imperial Klan. Professional Klan lecturer Rev. Oscar Haywood says the Klan is actually politically neutral; he says he won’t say anything against Davis, who is a “splendid man” but “I am not going to vote for him.”

With the Earth and Mars at their closest (physically, I mean, not emotionally), astronomers and others have been turning their telescopes and radios to the red planet. They haven’t found signs of life – yet – but have confirmed that Mars has water and an atmosphere.

H. L. Mencken, in his Baltimore Evening Standard column, says Davis is a bystander in the presidential campaign: “The actual combatants are the Hon. Mr. La Follette and the Hon. Mr. Coolidge. Each of these great statesmen stands for something that is simple and obvious—something that anyone may understand. Dr. Coolidge is for the Haves and Dr. La Follette is for the Have Nots. But whom is Dr. Davis for? I’m sure I don’t know, and neither does anyone else. ... La Follette is belaboring Coolidge, and the friends of Coolidge are belaboring La Follette, but no one seems to think it worthwhile to belabor Davis. He is simply concealed in the crowd, like a bootlegger at a wedding.” Read the whole column.

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Today -100: August 24, 1924: Of domestic controversy or discord, women in the Reichstag, and let’s invade Denmark!

Miriam “Ma” Ferguson is well ahead, so far, as votes are counted in the Texas Democratic primary election for governor. She answers  the question of whether she’ll be the “dummy” for her husband, while rejecting the advice of those who want her to announce she won’t be listening to him at all. She says she will be “guided” by him on subjects he knows better, like fiscal affairs, taxes, prisons, etc., while using her own judgment on education, social affairs, women, children, etc. “By adopting this course I believe I will be able to render service to the people of Texas without creating any domestic controversy or discord.”

Gen. Charles Dawes, Republican vice-presidential nominee, gives a speech in Augusta, Maine in support of Republican candidate for governor Ralph Brewster. In it, Dawes denounces the Klan, which... is behind Brewster’s candidacy.

The German Reichstag has 29 women deputies out of the 472.

The Danish government plans to eliminate the army.

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Today -100: August 23, 1924: When the public thinks as one man it only thinks of killing someone

Clarence Darrow at the Leopold n’ Loeb trial: “For God’s sake, if the State in which I live is not kinder, more humane and considerate and intelligent than the mad act of these mad boys, then I am sorry to have lived so long.” “When the public thinks as one man it only thinks of killing someone.”

At a campaign rally in Seagirt, New Jersey, John W. Davis condemns the Ku Klux Klan by name and invites Coolidge to join him, thus removing the Klan issue from the presidential campaign. Which Coolidge declines to do. The Seagirt crowd is jubilant at the Klan diss, some shouting “Hang ‘em!” and “Throw them in the river!,” which seems to rather miss the point.

Imperial Wizard Hiram Evans says the Klan is neutral between Davis and Coolidge, but will fight against Bob La Follette.

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Today -100: August 22, 1924: No Ma for me

VP candidate Charles Dawes refuses to pose for newsreel cameras: “Hell, they’re not going to make a damned movie man out of me!”

Headline of the Day -100:  

The White House releases a letter Coolidge wrote to the president of the National Negro Business League in which he congratulates the “economic emancipation being splendidly wrought out by the colored people for themselves; so I believe their full political rights will be won through the inevitable logic of their position and rightfulness of their claims.” Which is a good way of saying he doesn’t actually intend to help in any way, they’re on their own.

The Klan’s inevitable riposte to Miriam Ferguson’s “Me for Ma” slogan is “No Ma for Me.”

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