Today -100: October 20, 1925: Wherein is revealed whose head Alfred E. Smith would bite off and what no man in possession of his proper senses would ever do

Treasury Sec. Andrew Mellon proposes lowering the maximum income tax, reducing taxes at every income level, eliminating federal inheritance tax, and passing a constitutional amendment eliminating tax-free securities. He wants to kill federal taxes on trucks but not on passenger cars.

New York Gov. Al Smith says he’s definitely, final answer, not running for re-election. “I’ll bite the head off the first leader who tries to tell me I’ve got to run for governor.” As for president in 1928, well, he’s willing to be drafted – “No man in possession of his proper senses would ever turn down the nomination for president” – but he certainly won’t be campaigning for it or indeed even announcing his candidacy.

British Brig. Gen. John Charteris, a Tory MP who was Army Chief of Intelligence during the Great War, admits, at a National Arts Club dinner of all places, that he’s the one who started the story that Germany was boiling down the bodies of its soldiers for glycerine. He planted it in a Shanghai newspaper to influence the Chinese, then the story spread to British newspapers.

The US Supreme Court overturns Arizona’s minimum wage for women.

Although Italy has in theory held Somaliland as a (cough) protectorate since 1889, it didn’t dare try to occupy the north, possibly put off by the ass-kicking Ethiopia gave it in the ‘90s, but now Mussolini sends in troops.

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Today -100: October 19, 1925: Of locarnoes, panamas, and income tax

The Soviet Union, at least as expressed in Izvestiya and Pravda, considers Locarno to have been a victory primarily for Britain, which now has Germany in its grasp, loosening the links Russia tried to forge with Germany as fellow European outcasts with the Treaty of Rapallo. Russia is feeling left out and lonely.

Passengers on a ship arriving from Panama inform the NYT of a revolt – in fact, a rent strike – in Panama a week ago that you’d think the paper would have heard about before now, especially considering US troops are helping suppress it, a fact that won’t appear in the paper for another 6 days as the occupation winds up.

Treasury Sec. Andrew Mellon tells the House Ways & Means Committee that he opposes exempting incomes under $5,000 from income tax because then it would be only fair, he says, to exempt the first $5,000 of incomes over $5,000, and that would double the revenue loss. He wants to reduce federal taxes in ways I can’t help notice would especially benefit the rich, and to eliminate federal inheritance tax altogether. He says taxing lower-income people would give them “a stake in the country.” He also wants to eliminate the publicity clause making the amount of income tax people pay being public.

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Today -100: October 18, 1925: Allied powers by any other name would smell as sweet

French Foreign Minister Aristide Briand says the phrase “allied powers” must no longer be used, thanks to Locarno reuniting Europe in peace and friendship forever.

NY Gov. Al Smith says he won’t run for re-election, which I assume means he wants his time free to run for president, although the NYT has no clue about that and is befuddled by Smith’s decision. The article also says the D’s are expected to run Franklin Roosevelt for US Senate. Which they won’t.

To wear a turban in Turkey now requires a permit, which will only be issued to Muslim clerics.

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Today -100: October 17, 1925: When two ride one horse one rides behind

French Foreign Minister Aristide Briand says the Locarno Conference lays the foundations for the United States of Europe. Hurrah!

In Locarno, Mussolini holds a press conference, but most of the British and French, and some of the German, reporters boycott it to protest censorship in Italy.

Responding to the US Episcopal Church’s decision to drop “obey” from women’s marriage vows, William Inge, the Dean of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, says “When two ride one horse one rides behind.”

The Texas Textbook Board orders the deletion of any reference to evolution in textbooks.

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Today -100: October 16, 1925: Never fight again

Mussolini unexpectedly turns up at the Locarno Conference. Wants to be at the signing ceremony, I guess. He’s being asked by the Swiss authorities not to go out in public, since the region of Switzerland in which Locarno is located has many refugees expelled from Fascist Italy.

First sentence of the article on Locarno: “Today France and Germany promised never to fight again.” Phew. The demilitarized Rhine zone will exist in perpetuity, guaranteed by Britain and Italy. There’ll be arbitration treaties between Germany and France, Germany and Belgium, Germany and Czechoslovakia, and Germany and Poland (the latter two guaranteed by France). Most importantly, perhaps, Germany is now on equal footing with other nation-states.

Sen. Samuel Ralston (D) of Indiana drops dead. Gov. Ed Jackson (R) will name a Republican/Klansman, Arthur Robinson, to replace him.

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Today -100: October 15, 1925: Of leagues, entokillers, and pagans

At the Locarno Conference, Germany agrees to apply for League of Nations membership without reservations about military commitments, but with a wink and a nod from the allies (rather than a written guarantee) that they’ll take into account Germany’s lack of a military to commit.

Obit of the Day -100: Harold Maxwell-Lefroy, entomologist and insect-slaughterer extraordinaire. He was playing with lewisite in his lab, probably (they might have been able to keep him from dying when they found him unconscious if they’d known what gas he was using but he was the secretive type). Lewisite was invented during the war as a chemical weapon by a dude named Lewis. It’s assumed Maxwell-L. was trying to use it to kill flies. Don’t fuck with flies. In fact, his young son died in India of typhoid or another of those tropical fly-borne diseases, so he wasn’t fond of flies. This is not even the first time this year he became unconscious in his lab mucking about with insecticides. M-L is credited with saving Westminster Hall from being eaten by beetles and with killing some of the lice infesting soldiers in the trenches during the war (the origin of the word “lousy,” if I haven’t mentioned that before).

Scotland Yard raids Communist Party headquarters. There’s been a lot of talk lately about seditious literature.

NY Secretary of State Florence Knapp added religious questions to the state census for Indians (and only Indians), enabling her to reveal that half of them are good Christians while half are “pagans.” 

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Today -100: October 14, 1925: I should no longer hold an office I cannot adequately fill

John Weeks finally resigns as secretary of war on health grounds (he had a stroke 6 months ago and hasn’t been able to do his job since then; he will die in a few months). His resignation letter says “I should no longer hold an office I cannot adequately fill,” a sentiment unheard of a hundred years later. Weeks used to be mayor of Newton, Massachusetts, while Woodrow Wilson’s secretary of war was named Newton Baker, which is perhaps the least interesting coincidence ever. Weeks will be replaced by assistant sec’y of war Dwight F. Davis, who trained for this job by playing a lot of tennis (he’s the founder of the Davis Cup).

Mussolini fires the prefect and chief of police of Florence over the recent anti-Masonic riots that resulted in 4 deaths. He also fired a bunch of other government officials and expelled rioters from the Fascist Party.

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Today -100: October 13, 1925: Of planes, poor Jews, and general stirs

A single-seater women’s airplane goes on sale (for ₤300) in Britain. For thin women only.

Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, the, I don’t know, chief Jew in the US, says the anti-Semitic protests at the World Zionist Congress in Vienna, with the goose-stepping and rioting and so on, were less disturbing than the disputes among the delegates. He says of the half-hearted Zionism of the English Jews, who sent few delegates, “they are poor Jews and worse Englishmen.”

c.30 Fascists take part in the New Haven Columbus Day parade in uniform (black shirts, skull & bones, etc). “Their appearance created a general stir”. Anti-Fascists counter-demonstrate and 3 are arrested, one of whom is carrying a blackjack.

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Today -100: October 12, 1925: I do not look upon myself as a stunt

Lady Cynthia Mosley, newly adopted Labour parliamentary candidate for Stoke-on-Trent, says “I do not look upon myself as a stunt, as I happen to be very much in earnest, and I do not think it at all odd that I should belong to Labour.” She says there is more culture among the “Red” men from the Clyde than in any Mayfair drawing room. “To attack [her and her husband, future British Union of Fascists leader Sir Oswald Mosley] is only snobbishness the other way round.”

Oxford and Cambridge already ban freshmen having automobiles (not clear when this was implemented) and are considering expanding that to all undergrads. Oxford Vice Chancellor Joseph Wells recently complained about student cars and the speeds at which they are driven in his annual address. In Latin. IN LATIN. Cambridge’s Vice Chancellor Albert Seward recently told the Cambridge Senate (in which ancient language is not revealed) that “The motor habit, when it becomes an obsession, induces a state of mind out of harmony with the best traditions of Cambridge.”

British Labour leader Ramsay MacDonald complains in the London Times about the new Organisation for Maintenance of Supplies, created by the rich and powerful to provide volunteer scabs during any future general strike. MacD calls them “fussy, egotistical private enterprises of a police kind inspired by class and police minds.”

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Today -100: October 11, 1925: Of Masons and bicycles

After the recent lethal clashes with Fascists in Florence, the Masonic order suspends all activities.

In France, one person in 7 owns a bicycle, according to license figures. In other news, you evidently have to have a license to own a bike in France, possibly because of the skill involved in balancing that baguette which French bicyclists are required by law to carry.

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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

Headline of the Day -100:

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

Headline of the Day -100:

Exchange students, presumably.

Headline of the Day -100:

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.

Headline of the Day -100:

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. 

Headline of the Day -100:

Headline of the Day -100:

Headline of the Day -100:

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