Today -100: July 29, 1926: There’s a sucker list born every minute

The Poincaré government postpones submitting the war debt agreements with the US and Britain to parliament until at least the fall.

Abyssinia (Ethiopia) protests to the League of Nations, of which it is a member, against the agreement between Britain and Italy dividing Abyssinia into spheres of influence, giving Britain the right to build a dam on Lake Tsana to divert water to the Sudan and Italy the right to build a railroad to connect its colonies in Somaliland and Eritrea. Abyssinia, which is a real country and everything, was not invited to participate in the negotiations.

Charles Greenhaus, the former “Boy Wizard of Wall Street,” is on trial for fraud, as his custom (and will be for decades to come, really he got caught so many times), with his partner Henry Griffin for a Florida land scheme. He solicited people on a “sucker list” he’d purchased containing 38,000 names, at 2¢ a name, of people who’d fallen for various fraudulent or at least failed stocks in the past. He offered to take their worthless stocks in exchange for Florida land, which would need just a little  extra cash to pay off its mortgage so it could be sold to eager buyers who were definitely real and willing to pay large amounts... Greenhaus & Griffen will be found guilty and sentenced to 2 years and 1 year respectively.

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Today -100: July 28, 1926: Americans in Paris

Gen. Lincoln Andrews, head of federal Prohibition enforcement, has been in Britain for a while working out an agreement, the terms of which are not known and may be a, shhh, secret, for Britain to help prevent liquor-smuggling by doing things like  making sure smuggling vessels don’t acquire British registry, allowing US patrol boats to wander around the Bahamas, and exchanging information.

Coolidge blames the hostility recently shown to American tourists in Paris and elsewhere partly on the Americans themselves. I KNOW, American tourists abroad being boorish and rude!

The Mexican government plans to seize any churches whose priests abandon them, on the theory that the property was only ever loaned to the Church by its real owner, the state.

Texas Gov. Miriam Ferguson’s opponents are trying to force her to keep her promise that she’d resign if she lost the D. primary. She is threatening that if they don’t shut up about it, she’ll also reverse her decision not to take part in a run-off primary.

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Today -100: July 27, 1926: Of shaws, assassination-magnets, and dark bread

At his 70th birthday dinner, George Bernard Shaw gives the speech which the postmaster general refused to let the BBC broadcast because Shaw wouldn’t promise not to be controversial. His subject: censorship.

He comes out in favor of the Labour Party for, I think, the first time.

Robert Todd Lincoln, eldest son of Honest Abe, dies at 82. He was secretary of war 1881-5 and ambassador to Great Britain 1889-93, later becoming president of the Pullman Company. He rejected many offers to run for higher office. While he was not, as the NYT asserts, at Ford’s Theatre during his father’s assassination, he was a witness to the assassination of Pres. Garfield and was close to McKinley at the Pan-American Exposition when he was assassinated. Dude was just bad luck, is what I’m saying. An amateur astronomer, he built his own personal observatory. 

Texas Gov. Miriam “Ma” Ferguson will keep her pledge to resign if she lost the Democratic primary, which she has. Or will she? I thought she was supposed to resign immediately, but she’s calling a special session of the Legislature in September and talking about maybe quitting Nov. 1 if she’s completed all her work. 

Headline of the Day -100:

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Today -100: July 26, 1926: Of militias, illegal fractional meetings, and controversy

The Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold, a pro-Weimar militia composed mostly of veterans, previously unarmed, will now arm its members with rifles, a few hundred thousand of them. The government says it has no objections. France might have some.

Grigory Zinoviev is also ousted from the Politburo, and Mikhail Lashevich is fired as assistant war minister for their “illegal conspirative” opposition campaign, including an “illegal fractional meeting” in the woods outside Moscow (which to be fair is exactly what they were engaged in).

George Bernard Shaw’s 70th birthday will be celebrated tomorrow by a dinner chaired by Ramsay MacDonald. It was supposed to be broadcast on the BBC, but Postmaster General Sir William Mitchell-Thomson refuses permission unless Shaw promises not to say anything “controversial.” Shaw responds that everything he says is highly controversial.

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Today -100: July 25, 1926: I will offer him a drink and take one with him even if it gags me

Grigory Zinoviev is ousted as chair of the Comintern after opposing Stalin. Who will have him executed in about a decade.

Col. Ned Green, Prohibition Administrator for Northern California and Nevada, is suspended for, among other things, holding parties in his office in which seized alcohol was served. Government agents go to his hotel room to seize his alcohol, although he points out that some of it is pre-Volstead and it isn’t illegal to have booze in your home and offer it to your guests. In fact, he claims not to know who keeps sending him all that liquor, it just kinda shows up. “If any friend or stranger calls on me I will offer him a drink and take one with him even if it gags me.” US Attorney George Hatfield says he’ll indict Green.

The new Poincaré Cabinet unveils its secret plan to stabilize French government finances: ask people to pay their taxes a bit before they’re actually due.

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Today -100: July 24, 1926: Unexcessive aspirations are the best kind of aspirations

Mussolini says Italy must expand “culturally and economically beyond her borders,” “but our imperialism presents no threat to the world’s peace” because surely no nation “would want to assume the grave responsibility of obstructing the achievement of such legitimate and, in reality, such unexcessive aspirations.”  “Our colonial aspirations do not constitute a menace for any one.” He plans to fulfill these aspirations through deals with other European colonial nations; he makes literally no references to the natives of these potential colonies and whatever their aspirations might be. He says the US resembles the Fascist State more than liberal democratic European nations: “Popular sovereignty is tempered by strong governmental authority. Universal suffrage elects the Government, but cannot interfere with its work”.

Raymond Poincaré succeeds in forming what could be called a government of national union. His cabinet includes 6 former primes minister and a broad range of parties; tomorrow the NYT will describe it as “largely composed of men who have in turn thrown each other out of office because of their opposition to the other’s proposals.”

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Today -100: July 23, 1926: Of tourists, free rides, beating roulette, and fly balls

French resentment against having to pay war debts is being taken out in Paris on British and American tourists, with jeering and the occasional beating. I KNOW, Parisians being rude to tourists!

The French deputies who yesterday asked Pres. Doumergue for a government of national union tell the man he chose to lead that government, Raymond Poincaré, no, not you, we didn’t mean you. The largest party in the Chamber, the Radical Socialists, thinks one of their own should be PM. Poincaré wants to reduce the size of the cabinet from something like 19 to something like 8 so that it can maybe get some things done for a change.

The Italian Fascist regime wants to popularize civil aviation, so it’s offering anyone who hasn’t previously ridden in an aeroplane a free ride.

Margaret Bondfield (Labour), who has been an MP before, is elected in the Wallsend by-election. Parliament now has 6 women MPs.

Prince Nikolai Massalski of Russia, in prison in Berlin awaiting trial for passing bad checks, has not wasted his time behind bars, inventing a sure-fire system for beating roulette, but the judges won’t let him out to use it to win enough money to cover his checks.

Babe Ruth catches a ball dropped from an airplane, which is a first. It takes a few tries before a ball isn’t blown off course on its way down.

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Today -100: July 22, 1926: It didn’t.

Édouard Herriot is defeated in the Chamber of Deputies, his government having lasted, what, 2 days? After he hands in his notice, 302 deputies petition Pres. Gaston Doumergue to form a government of national union, which they promise to actually support for once. So he asks Raymond Poincaré to do that. The government is seriously running out of funds and the condition of the franc is such that stores are closing rather than have to sell stuff for them.

Stephen Golombo of Paterson, NJ hangs himself because he thought his death would bring the end of the world.

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Today -100: July 21, 1926: Live your life so your obituary doesn’t contain the words “monster of iniquity”

Felix Dzerzhinsky, 48, head of the Soviet secret police under its various names, dies of a heart attack after giving a long speech to the Bolshevik Central Committee. He died doing what he loved, denouncing enemies of the state.

An unsigned Chicago Tribune editorial alliteratively titled “Pink Powder Puffs,” complains that the men’s room of a public ballroom has a face powder dispenser. “In a men’s washroom! Homo Americanus! Why didn’t someone quietly drown Rudolph Guglielmo, alias Valentino, years ago? ... It is time for a matriarchy if the male of the species allows such a thing to persist. Better a rule by masculine women than by effeminate men.” Valentino, who is genuinely deeply upset, challenges the author to a duel, maybe boxing or wrestling, since more lethal forms of dueling are sadly illegal in the US. The author will not respond.

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Today -100: July 20, 1926: Doing the best with the material left

Édouard Herriot succeeds in forming a cabinet, the 14th since 1920, which will surely last a super-long time. It’s not the government of aaalllll the parties he promised (not all deputies from even his own Radical Party back it), and most of the major French leaders remain outside. The NYT’s very sceptical Edwin James notes that Herriot’s invitation was refused by Poincaré, Briand, Tardieu, Marin, and Barthou: “Therefore Herriot has probably done the best he could with the material left.”  It doesn’t inspire confidence in the financial sector and the franc continues its plunge. Radio stations are prohibited from broadcasting exchange rates and market prices, to prevent the spreading of panic.

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Today -100: July 19, 1926: In which is revealed what is the greatest threat to the republic

Sen. William Borah (R-Idaho), hoping to ride a dry wave into the White House (to use a terrible metaphor), says the only way to take Prohibition out of politics is to enforce it. Attempts to repeal it, he says, are really attacks on the Constitution and nullification and are the greatest threat to the republic.

Édouard Herriot will attempt to form a government consisting of aaalllll the parties. He’s having some difficulty accomplishing that.

Texas Gov. Miriam “Ma” Ferguson is still leaving almost all her campaigning for re-election to her husband, impeached former governor James F., who is giving her credit for removing evolution from school textbooks and says Attorney Gen. Dan Moody “runs with the Ku Klux Klan at night” (he does not, but James wants to keep the Klan issue before the public so he can use it as a cudgel when he runs for US senator).

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Today -100: July 18, 1926: Boycotting ice cream? Ice cream?

The French Chamber of Deputies refuses Finance Minister Joseph Caillaux’s demand for fiscal dictatorial powers, 288-243. Aristide Briand’s Cabinet resigns. After formally resigning at the Presidential Palace, Briand says “Now I am a free man and I am going fishing tomorrow.”

The archbishop of Mexico City and others call for an economic boycott to start when the Calles decree comes into effect on the 31st. They are to refrain from coaches, fruit, ice cream, movies, lottery tickets, and non-religious schools, use as little electricity as possible, etc. etc.

Lithuania’s newish Populist-Socialist government lifts the 4-year-old state of siege, ends censorship of the mails, and releases all political prisoners.

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Today -100: July 17, 1926: Of rapes and marbles

Italy’s Fascist press is pointing to the demands of French Finance Minister Joseph Caillaux and Belgium’s King Albert for dictatorial powers to deal with the fall of their respective francs as demonstrating the failure of parliamentarism and the rise of fascist methods.

The Kenya Legislative Council passes a law imposing the death penalty for assaults on white women by native men. Black men can still rape black women with close to impunity, the Archdeacon of Kavirondo notes in letter to the London Times; last year a magistrate refused to convict in one case, saying rape was so common it was almost a tribal custom.

Alexander Philadelpheus, the most prominent Greek archaeologist, is campaigning for the British Museum to return the Elgin Marbles.

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Today -100: July 16, 1926: Which is the best kind of dictator

Albert, King of the Belgians, is “expected to be a good-natured dictator”.

The Aimee Semple McPherson grand jury hearings figure it out:  a gas station attendant in Salinas identifies her and Kenneth Ormiston, a former operator for her temple’s radio station, as having gotten gas 11 days after her alleged kidnapping. From there, they checked into a San Luis Obispo hotel (no, not the Madonna Inn, that didn’t exist yet) under false names. Other witnesses place her at locations that don’t fit her narrative.

I.F. Andrews, who was the drummer boy who played taps at Lincoln’s funeral, dies. After the war, he became a professional musician.

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Today -100: July 15, 1926: Duels!

The number of duels has been increasing in Fascist Italy. Yesterday or the day before, Mussolini’s brother Arnoldo challenged some general. Today, Luigi de Alfonso, honorary consul-general of the Fascist militia, which is a rather odd title, fights former under-secretary to the Ministry of Posts and Telegraphs Giuseppe Caradonna with sabers, getting rather slashed up.

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Today -100: July 14, 1926: Of war debt and foolish notions

A new dictator I was not expecting: Albert, King of the Belgians, is granted powers by the Chamber of Representatives to legislate by decree to deal with inflation, taxes, really anything economy-related, for six months. Even Socialist senators support this.

France and Britain come to an agreement on the former’s war debt to the latter. It’s quite lenient, cancelling 3/5 of France’s nominal debt, possibly Chancellor Winston Churchill setting an example for the US to follow with respect to Britain’s war debt to it. Britain did reject France’s attempt to link its annual payments (for 62 years) to the reparations it receives from Germany, though Churchill does say that if Germany defaults, he’ll reconsider France’s payments.

John D. Rockefeller Jr. refuses to let press photographers take pictures of his sons for fear it would put “foolish notions into their heads.”

Germany bans The Battleship Potemkin for being historically inaccurate in portraying Tsarist forces shooting innocent civilians during the 1905 Revolution. 

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Today -100: July 13, 1926: Of shells and Bells

In Dover, NJ, near the area affected by the ammunition depot explosions, a man allowed to return to his home (thought to be outside the danger zone) to pick up clothing finds a 60-pound shell which fell down the chimney and came to rest, without exploding, in his stove.

Elvia Carrillo Puerto stands for the Mexican Congress, loses. It seems likely that women aren’t legally allowed to hold office anyway. She had been elected to the Yucatán Congress in 1923, where women’s suffrage was enacted that year, but left the state in a bit of a hurry after her brother, the governor, was assassinated in 1924. Women got the vote national elections in 1953 (effective with the 1955 elections).

Chief movie censor Will Hays introduces a policy that no movie shall encourage “the slightest disrespect for law,” especially, well you can guess which law in particular. So, no scenes of drinking or liquor-manufacturing, and scenes of intoxication only if absolutely necessary for the plot.

Gertrude Bell,  archaeologist, “Orientalist,” adviser to British governments on Arab matters, mountain-climber, adviser to King Faisal, and a founder of the Women’s National Anti-Suffrage League, dies in Baghdad at 57 of an overdose of sleeping pills. Here’s a passage in her obit I could have done without: “Despite her adventuresome life, she remained charmingly feminine and old-fashioned and avoided publicity. No matter how strenuous her days of exploring were, it was said of her that she always dressed for dinner in a Rue de la Paix gown.”

Publisher Henry Holt & Co. admits removing chapters on evolution from the textbook Biology for Beginners in editions sent to Texas, in compliance with state rules.

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Today -100: July 12, 1926: Of boom booms and the ruin of France

Secretary of War Dwight Davis inspects the Lake Denmark, NJ ammunition depot, occasionally taking cover during ongoing explosions and wandering closer than seems prudent to unexploded shells near raging fires. He opines that when they rebuild (and locals have some opinions about that), depot buildings should be a little further apart.

In Paris 20,000 veterans of the Great War, led by cripples and the blind, march to protest the war debt settlement with the US, laying a marble plaque at the statue of George Washington in a subtle reminder of all the aid the French gave the US back in the day. The plaque reads in part, “After the deceptions of peace the proposed debt settlement would consecrate the ruin of France and the loss of her independence.” The government forbade the parade but couldn’t stop it.

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Today -100: July 11, 1926: A little song, a little dance...

Someone poisoned VP Charles Dawes’s new dog Merigo in Evanston. Not directed at him personally but part of a rash of dog-poisonings.

The Lake Denmark, NJ ammunition depot, the Navy’s largest, blows up real good. A lightning strike sets off millions of pounds of explosives, killing 19. The fire, which also destroys many buildings, is ongoing and the explosions, armor-piercing shells and the like, will continue for days. Windows were blown out miles away.

Similarly, a soda fountain explodes in Binghamton in a freak carbonation accident; two may die.

A Ku Klux Klan children’s home opens in Mannsville, NY.

Headline of the Day -100 For a Story I Definitely Won’t Be Reading:

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Today -100: July 10, 1926: Coup coup coup

Portugal has a coup against the coup government which came to power in the coup in May. President Gen. Gomes da Costa is arrested and will be banished to the Azores. He precipitated this coup by firing his ministers of foreign affairs, the colonies, and the interior; and several other ministers resigned in sympathy.

Some dude in clerical garb has been selling tickets to the Aimee Semple McPherson grand jury hearings for two bucks. There is, of course, no such thing as a ticket to a grand jury hearing.

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