Today -100: October 10, 1925: Pessimistic for home consumption

At the Locarno Conference, “Everybody was optimistic except the Germans, but they were described as ‘pessimistic for home consumption.’”

18 months after the murder of Italian Socialist Deputy Giacomo Matteotti , the state prosecutor completes his investigations and retains the cases against the 5 people directly involved in the assassination while dropping charges against everyone higher than them in the Fascist hierarchy who was part of the plot and who linked knowledge of that plot to Mussolini himself. The charges of “instigation” of the crime no longer apply because the prosecutor has decided that it was an “unpremeditated murder” that just kinda... happened... while they were kidnapping him. And that kidnapping, being a political crime, falls under the recent amnesty. One of the 5 was never captured, so the remaining 4 are expected to put all the blame on him.

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Today -100: October 9, 1925: That’s one check on their new to-do list

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From a Berlin synagogue. There’s been a spate of synagogue burglaries so valuables had been moved to safety; the (silver) tablet was the only thing the burglars found worth taking.

Mussolini’s Cabinet Council strips the city of Rome of self-government, much like the District of Columbia, the NYT notes. All power will be held by an appointed governor.

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Today -100: October 8, 1925: Fascisti frenzies are the worst kind of frenzie

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Exchange students, presumably.

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Also suppressing town councils in towns under 5,000, transferring their powers to appointed commissioners and councils appointed by business and land barons. Labor disputes will be “settled” by government-appointed labor magistrates, with strikes made illegal once they become involved.

Inappropriately Alliterative Headline of the Day -100:

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Today -100: October 7, 1925: Of intellectual demobilization, non-vanity, vodka, and tennis

Speaking to the American Legion convention, Pres. Coolidge calls for tolerance in vague terms which are taken as attacking the Ku Klux Klan, which he fails to name. Honestly, it doesn’t seem to me to be a particularly impressive speech, but he’ll get a lot of praise for it. He says it’s natural for intolerance of difference was inevitable during the war, “but when need for such a solidarity is past there should be a quick and generous readiness to revert to the old and normal habits of thought. There should be an intellectual demobilization as well as military demobilization.”

The United States Lawn Tennis Association lifts the wartime ban on Germans playing in American tournaments.

Col. Billy Mitchell, formerly of the Army Air Service, defies Coolidge’s order that members of the military not try to affect public opinion on military matters by sending a telegram to the American Legion convention calling for a Department of National Defense with sub-depts for the army, navy, and an air force. Interesting to see “Defense” instead of “War.” Wonder when the push for that change began. Incidentally, the National Military Establishment (NME), created in 1947, became the Department of Defense in 1949 because too many people were pronouncing the former abbreviation ENEMY, the best unintended acronym until the Northern Ireland Police Service.

Gloria Swanson’s 3rd husband the Marquis Henri de la Falaise, acting very much the middle husband, defends his use of the title marquis (it’s not clear in the article who questioned it or to whom he defended his marquisiosity). He says the title “has not caused me vanity,” then talks about being embarrassed that he only has the birth and marriage certificates of his ancestors dating back to 1271, names every French king who re-affirmed the title, and waves around his (notarized) papers. He says in the US he’s known as Hank. Gloria, wearing a dressing gown because of course she is, says, “I am greatly pained at these reports and want the thing settled once and for all.”

The limitation on the strength of vodka in Russia has been lifted, and Moscow is soooooo drunk right now.

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Today -100: October 6, 1925: Smashed to atoms

In Italy, the Confederation of Fascist Trade Unions comes to an agreement with the employer group the Confederation of Industry to deal exclusively with each other, shutting out the Socialist unions. The Italian, presumably Fascist, press says this will change workers’ attitudes from class warfare to class cooperation.

The Lehigh Valley Railroad is indicted for transporting beer. The railroad says the two carloads were labeled “cereal beverage” and how were they to know?

At the Locarno Conference, Germany agrees to join the League of Nations. It will also sign treaties with France over the Rhineland and for arbitration.

Susan Brandeis, daughter of Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis and herself a lawyer, argues a case before the Supremes. The NYT thinks she is the first woman to do so, and they’re off by 45 years. She argues for a lawyer fined for charging more than $3 to file an affidavit to the Veterans’ Bureau.  Daddy recuses himself.

British Home Secretary Sir William Joynson-Hicks (Jix to his friends, if any) says he wants new powers to deal with the Red Menace, though who even needs them because, there would be such a backlash to any Communist impertinence (okay, he didn’t use that word, but he was thinking it), the CP “will be smashed to atoms.”

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Today -100: October 5, 1925: Bordering on diplomatic tactlessness

The Paris-Strasbourg express train crashes into a freight train because someone forgot about the change back from Daylight Saving Time and someone in the other rail line didn’t.

What’s an international peace conference without a good ol’ assassination rumor? Today’s is about German nationalists intending to kill Foreign Minister Gustav Stresemann for his plan to sign a security compact within the framework of the hated Versailles Treaty. The German government would really like to revisit the whole “war guilt” thing, but France and Britain are nixing that.

Stresemann complains that Soviet policies, including using Berlin as a center for disseminating propaganda, are “bordering on diplomatic tactlessness.”

And the Romanian police thwart yet another possibly imaginary assassination plot against King Ferdinand and Queen Marie to serve as a trigger for a possibly imaginary revolution plot.

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Today -100: October 4, 1925: Of rent, keystones, assassinations, special constables, and Venetians

The Dept of Justice’s landlord serves a 30-day eviction notice on its offices, possibly in a move to jack up the rent.

Ahead of the opening of the Locarno (Switzerland) Conference French PM Paul Painlevé says “Franco-German reconciliation is like the keystone of European civilization.”

A local Fascist leader is assassinated in Florence, the assassin shot up but not killed by members of the crowd. For some reason Florence officials respond by closing all the theatres.

3,000 British Fascisti will join the Liverpool cops as special constables to serve in emergencies like the Communist uprising that they claim is planned for spring. The Liverpool PD says sure, why not. I strongly doubt there are 3,000 British Fascisti.

The citizens of Venice, California vote for the city to be absorbed into Los Angeles.

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Today -100: October 3, 1925: Of crockers and handshakes

Aimée Crocker, 60, daughter of the late California Supreme Court Justice Edwin Crocker, marries a Russian prince, Prince Mstislav Galitzine, 25. He’s her 5th husband and 2nd prince, not counting the prince she was engaged to but didn’t marry. She had a ridiculously colorful life.

Russian Minister of Health Nikolai Semashko starts a crusade against handshaking. He’s also not too thrilled with kissing.

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Today -100: October 2, 1925: We have not more money than that

The conference over repayment of the French war debt to the US collapses. French Finance Minister Joseph Caillaux tells the Americans, “We have offered all that France can pay; we have not more money than that.”  According to the NYT, “He did not appear particularly depressed this evening.”

Two unconnected people are arrested in Indiana and Ohio for pretending to be survivors of the Shenandoah crash. I’m not sure what criminal charge that would be.

The first television transmission, by John Logie Baird in London, including the image of a ventriloquist’s dummy, Stooky Bill, and some random office worker in the same building, although the resolution isn’t good enough to make out the latter’s face.

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Today -100: October 1, 1925: Of bumbling amateurs, pomp, debt, dust, bad beer, and large underwear

At the presidential board of inquiry into recent Navy aircraft disasters, Col. Billy Mitchell blames the crash of the Shenandoah on “bumbling amateurs,” which are the worst kind of amateurs.

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The German president doesn’t want a fuss made over his 78th birthday tomorrow. No parades, no flags. The far-right nationalists had intended to exploit his birthday for far-right nationalist propaganda.

France counter-counter-proposes paying $6.2 billion of war debt to the US over 67 years. 

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Today -100: September 30, 1925: Of fightin’ Bobses, dining at Balmoral, and straw hats

Robert La Follette Jr. easily wins the special election to fill his late father’s US Senate seat.

The British Labour Party conference rejects the Communist Party (CPGB)’s request for affiliation by a wide margin. During the angry debate, one “Red” delegate calls party leader Ramsay MacDonald “the man who dines at Balmoral,” i.e., with the king. While Communists have been banned since last year as Labour candidates, there are plenty of Communist delegates at the conference representing unions.

The maharajah of Kapurthala (Punjab) visits Atlantic City. What does the NYT think you should know about that? 

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Today -100: September 29, 1925: Of prohibition, subs, apoplexy, ratcatchers, and (ahem) professions

The Legislative Assembly of India votes approval of the idea of introducing Prohibition. Of course British colonial officials, sots to a man, won’t allow any such thing.

Divers are still trying to get inside the sunken submarine S-51 to rescue crewmen who couldn’t possibly have survived this long.

George Hagedues, a Hungarian MP who is president of the Awakening Hungary group, gives an anti-Semitic speech and then drops dead. He died as he lived: of apoplexy.

Republican candidate for New York City mayor Frank “That Fountain Pen Guy” Waterman claims the Board of Health spends $72 for each rat it catches and $77 for each flea. That is, each flea killed. They don’t catch fleas; they’re not weirdos. Update: ah, the fleas in question were on the rats, which is relevant if you’re trying to prevent bubonic plague. Anyway, he’s claiming these ratcatchers are examples of Tammany patronage featherbedding.

The London Daily News claims Mussolini is trying to put together an alliance with Germany and Russia, without so far receiving a positive response from the latter.

The British censors finally allow George Bernard Shaw’s Mrs. Warren’s Profession (1893) a public performance in London.

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Today -100: September 28, 1925: Of annoyed Italians and repulsive banquets

9 Italian MPs arrive at New York harbor for the Interparliamentary Conference in D.C. and are greeted by clashes between Fascists and anti-Fascists, with some light shooting. “As the taxicabs sped eastward along Fifty-sixth Street the delegates had an opportunity of seeing how their countrymen in this city behave when they were annoyed about something.”

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That’s the H.M.S. Repulse, which Prince Edward has been using as his personal yacht, with a specially installed squash court, sauna, bubble bath (I assume that means jacuzzi), etc.

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Today -100: September 27, 1925: Of derogatory statements and pep

Herbert Ladd, a carpenter, is charged with making “derogatory statements” about the Willimantic (Connecticut) Trust Company’s solvency that led to a run on the bank. A carpenter.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle: “The church dogmas of today need pep, as the Americans would say, and pep is spirit communication – the actual proof of survival after death.”

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Today -100: September 26, 1925: How are they going to eat?

The steamship City of Rome collides with the submarine S-51 off the coast of Rhode Island. 33 crewmen on the latter drown, 3 survive. The biggest submarine disaster in US history, which includes the Great War.

Coal-mine owners in West Virginia get many injunctions against United Mine Workers officers trying to call on non-union miners to strike. One injunction is against picketing at the mines of the Consolidated Coal Company, where scabs have been hooted – HOOTED! – on the way to and from work. The petitioners especially object to a picket-line song which goes a little... like this:

Shoot them in the head,

Shoot them in the feet,

Shoot them in the dinner bucket,

How are they going to eat?

The US counter-proposal to France’s offer to pay $4 billion in war debts over 62 years: how about $10 billion? Finance Minister Joseph Caillaux says he won’t change his plans to return to France next week.

The investigation into the crash of the Shenandoah is showing that the dirigible was just badly designed and badly constructed, lacking stability and engine power. The Navy knew this and was planning to make alterations, but still had the thing flying about, doing important Navy things like flying over fairs.

John Scopes begins graduate study at the University of Chicago, studying geology.

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Today -100: September 25, 1925: It’s pronounced just like it’s spelled, probably

In Washington for discussions on repayment of the French war debt, Finance Minister Joseph Caillaux offers to pay $25 million per year for 5 years, rising thereafter until $4 billion will have been paid by 1987. The Americans reject the proposal out of hand.

Hungary claims that Russia gave the Hungarian Communists a list of people, including Adm. Horthy, to be assassinated within the next 6 months.

The US will deport a Siamese man (and accused arsonist) named Lleieusszuieuszesszec Willihiminizzissteizzii Hurrizzissteizzii.

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Today -100: September 24, 1925: Of Hungarian Jews & executioners

Since the US is already banning British Communist MP  Shapurji Saklatvala from the Interparliamentary Conference, the Federation of Hungarian Jews in America asks Secretary of State Frank Kellogg to also ban 8 Hungarian delegates for inciting pogroms, suppressing free speech, etc.

John Hulbert, the executioner at Sing Sing and elsewhere, plans to retire next June when he becomes eligible for a pension. Since executions are by electric chair, his replacement will have to be an electrician like him (that’s his day job at Auburn Prison). He gets $150 per execution (his predecessor quit after the state refused to continue paying his standard $250 rate). At his retirement, Hulbert will have executed 140 men (and no women). He will commit suicide, by gunshot, in 1929.

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Today -100: September 23, 1925: Of girders and agitators

The crash of the airship Shenandoah is blamed on “poor girders,” which sounds like a euphemism.

Britain plans to deport foreign “Communist agitators,” starting with 50 French and Russians.

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Today -100: September 22, 1925: A regular working day

Special Prohibition agent Thomas Easton, at the trial of a man he arrested in Middletown, New York because the man’s WIFE sold him whisky, is asked by the judge how many drinks he had in the course of his duties that day. After he admits to 24, the judge dismisses the case.

The Stoke-on-Trent Labour Party adopts Lady Cynthia Mosley, wife of future Fascist leader Sir Oswald Mosley and daughter of the late Lord Curzon, viceroy of India (who had strong views on interference by women in political life) (he was against it), as its candidate for Parliament. They may come to regret their choice.

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Today -100: September 21, 1925: I expect an uninteresting and meaningless campaign

Parisians are pissed off at a new tax on horsemeat.

Fiorello LaGuardia declines to launch a 3rd-party campaign for NYC mayor. He says the primaries so confused the issues that he would have no practical road to victory. “I expect an uninteresting and meaningless campaign,” he says. He predicts that Walker will be a crap mayor.

Coolidge has been taking walks around DC accompanied by a few Secret Service agents, unrecognized by the public. Including Nathan Smith of Baltimore, driving a car that almost hits him a block from the White House. He’ll be fined $35, though he claims he was a good 20 feet from Coolidge and was going 8 mph.

In New Albany, Mississippi, a mob burns a black man at the stake after seizing him from the sheriffs and forcing a confession out of him for attacking a farmer’s daughter.

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