Today -100: March 31, 1912: Of conservative people, government by a representative part of the people, and women lawyers

Pres. Taft says “The American people are the most conservative people in the world.”

Roosevelt attacks the Senate’s decision to exonerate Sen. William Lorimer (R) of bribery in his election by the Illinois Legislature. He says it illustrates the working “in actual practice of the president’s theory of government of the people by what he calls a representative part of the people,” because the senators who voted to uphold Lorimer’s election were going against the wishes of their constituents. This proves the need for direct election of senators.

Headline of the Day -100: “Woman Lawyer for a Negro.” A Miss Lucille Pugh now represents some black dude accused of shooting some white dude over a game of craps (nothing of any special interest in itself). The NYT naturally describes Miss Pugh’s clothing in detail and for no particular reason I’ll repeat that description: “a black tailor-made suit with modified waistcoat and a high starched collar, such as men wear. A white carnation was stuck in the lapel of her coat, and a dainty white lace handkerchief peeped from her coat pocket. She wore a vivid red tie containing a scarab scarfpin. Her heavy brown hair was piled up under a stiff black derby hat of the latest model.”

Today -100: March 30, 1912: Of lynchings, buying colonies, wobblies, and hats

After the lynching of two black men who supposedly got a white man drunk for the purposes of robbing him, posses of the white population of the ironically named town of Blacksburg, SC are now patrolling because of rumors of an impending invasion of revenge-seeking blacks.

Secretary of State Philander Knox’s Latin America tour has taken him unexpectedly to St. Thomas, raising rumors that the US plans to buy the island (and its residents) from Denmark (a plan along these lines was rejected by the Danish parliament in 1902, but will be accepted in 1917).

Nearly 50 Wobblies are arrested in San Diego for plotting to overthrow the US government.

British suffragette Charlotte Despard, leader of the militant (but not as militant as the WSPU) suffrage group the Women’s Freedom League, calls for a boycott on buying hats (among other things, but that’s the one that’s fun to put in headlines, so everyone does).

Sorry

I had my camera battery charged and ready for some original reporting at a Rick Santorum rally at a jelly bean factory not too far from here, hoping for a picture of Ricky under the jelly bean portrait of Reagan, but I took a nap instead. My bad.

Today -100: March 29, 1912: Of rumps, incitement, women’s suffrage in Michigan and Britain, and late Scotts

The Taft people have discovered that the Roosevelt people have taken an option to rent a theater in Chicago during the week of the Republican convention in June, in other words that they’re making plans to bolt the party convention and hold a rump convention. TR’s people deny they have anything to do with the person who made the arrangements.

British trade unionist leader Tom Mann is out on bail pending trial for incitement to mutiny for publishing in his newspaper The Syndicalist an open letter to troops asking them to please not shoot strikers in the coal strike.

Mayor Harry Shriver of Rock Island, Illinois, set off a riot in which one person died, shot by police, by assaulting the editor of The Rock Island News, John Looney, who wrote something about him that the NYT annoyingly refrains from repeating. The mayor is now barricaded in his office, surrounded by soldiers, issuing threats to kill the editor like a dog (when he gets out of the hospital).

The Michigan Legislature passes a bill for a women’s suffrage referendum in November.

The British Parliament votes against a women’s suffrage bill 222-208. This is a decline in support since last year, when a similar bill passed its second reading but went no further. Some of the opposition this time around came from Irish Nationalists afraid that it would take time away from the Home Rule Bill and disrupt the Liberal cabinet (in the debate, Prime Minister Asquith spoke against the bill, Foreign Minister Grey for). Also, the coal strike meant that Labour MPs representing mining unions were busy elsewhere. Also, Anti sentiment has been strengthened by the increase in militant suffrage activities (Spoiler Alert: they ain’t seen nothing yet).

Today is believed to be the day Commander Scott died on his Antarctic expedition (Turner Classic Movies is playing “Scott of the Antarctic” tonight as part of a South Pole marathon, along with Ice Station Zebra, With Byrd at the South Pole, Frank Capra’s Dirigible and The Thing From Another World).

Today -100: March 28, 1912: Of Jewish homelands, criminal farces, and physiological emergencies

Portugal is considering establishing a Jewish colony in Portuguese Angola.

Theodore Roosevelt denounces the New York primaries, which he lost Tuesday by a 2:1 margin, as a “criminal farce.” The only inspectors allowed at polling stations were anti-Roosevelt; in some districts, the names of Roosevelt delegates didn’t appear on the ballots; in others ballot papers were not delivered or were late. In Indiana, TR says, 200 of his delegates were thrown out of the Republican state convention, “and the will of the people reversed.” Ditto Colorado.

Sir Almroth Wright, a famous British immunologist (who doesn’t believe in washing), has a long and soon to be infamous letter in today -100’s Times of London explaining that, when viewing the militant suffrage movement, “no doctor can ever lose sight of the fact that the mind of woman is always threatened with danger from the reverberations of her physiological emergencies. ... there is mixed up with the woman’s movement much mental disorder; and he cannot conceal from himself the physiological emergencies which lie behind.” A NYT editorial in tomorrow -100’s paper notes that Dr. Wright is “likely to meet several [physiological emergencies] as soon as the suffragettes get after him.”

Wright continues, “A conciliation with hysterical revolt is neither an act of peace nor will it bring peace.” Fortunately, “Peace will come again. It will come when woman ceases to believe and to teach all manner of evil of man despitefully. It will come when she ceases to impute to him as a crime her own natural disabilities, when she ceases to resent the fact that man cannot and does not wish to work side by side with her. And peace will return when every woman for whom there is no room in England seeks ‘rest’ beyond the sea, ‘each one in the house of her husband,’ and when the woman who remains in England comes to recognize that she can without sacrifice of dignity give a willing subordination to the husband or father, who, when all is said and done, earns and lays up money for her.”

Today -100: March 27, 1912: Of stolen primaries and crying prime ministers

Supporters of Roosevelt do indeed bolt the Indiana Republican convention after it instructs the delegates-at-large to the national convention in Chicago to vote for Taft. TR supporters claim he had the support of the actual majority of state delegates (some of the seats were contested) but that they were road-rollered. They hold a separate rump convention and name their own delegates-at-large to Chicago. One of the regular delegates is TR’s old vice president.

TR does badly in NY primaries. “They are stealing the primary elections from us,” he says of the party machine, noting that his poll-watchers were thrown out.

126 British suffragettes are put on trial for the window-breaking party in London early this month and given sentences of 4 to 6 months. The leaders of the Women’s Social and Political Union, at least the ones the authorities were able to find, will go on trial for conspiracy.

Headline of the Day -100: “Asquith in Tears; Strike Goes On.” A conference between the miners’ union and the owners broke down. Asquith tried to take it out of their hands by a bill which just passed the House of Commons establishing a minimum wage for miners. The king has had to cancel his plans to attend the Grand National (horsie races), so you know this shit is serious.

Comments

Blogger’s latest obnoxious innovation is that some in different countries are getting different domains for this blog: whateveritisimagainstit.blogspot.com.au in Australia, whateveritisimagainstit.blogspot.co.uk in Britain, and so on for New Zealand, France, Canada, Brazil, etc.

As a result, near as I can see it from here, everybody is now seeing only those comments posted from their own domain (although the Recent Comments in the right sidebar works everywhere), and I’m not sure anyone can post a comment except at
whateveritisimagainstit.blogspot.com (although clicking on an existing comment in Recent Comments brings everyone to a JS-Kit page where they can respond), so people outside the US might want to bookmark whateveritisimagainstit.blogspot.com and any other Blogspot blogs you comment in. You might also want to growl discontentedly.

Today -100: March 26, 1912: Take a tip from father

The governor of Indiana and his wife were refused a room at a Chicago hotel because of police regulations against registering couples without baggage. And the governor of Arizona spent a night in the penitentiary, just to see what it’s like. He had mush and beans for breakfast.

Theodore Roosevelt holds a bunch of campaign rallies in NYC, several of them in casinos, prior to the NY primaries (the ballot is 14 feet long). At the New Star Casino, Maud Malone, the president of the Harlem Equal Rights League, interrupts his speech to ask about votes for women. He says he would support “some sort of a referendum” of women. She continued to pepper him with questions, and he stopped her being thrown out – for a while. Then the band struck up “Take a tip from father,” then TR begged her to let him finish, she told him he wanted women to have babies but not votes, he told her that this “exhibition” showed that he has more respect for “your sex” than she has, and finally she was dragged out. When she was out, he claimed she’d been put up to it by the opposition, although he must have known who Maud Malone was.

Today -100: March 25, 1912: Of final tests, nominations, assassinations, and governors in sombreros on horses

Foreshadowing Headline of the Day -100: “Final Tests for Titanic.” I believe it failed the math portion of the tests: 3,000 passengers and crew divided by 20 lifeboats...

The Montana Republican state committee rejects the Rooseveltian proposal for a primary and will just go ahead and endorse Taft without asking the voters.

Taft wins delegate conventions and primaries in Indiana. A rumor which is “generally believed” holds that Roosevelt’s managers in the state received $15,000 in soft money (hey, that was a lot of money then), part of which they spent on newspaper ads warning of fraud in the primaries and conventions. The Rooseveltians will contest all of Taft’s wins at the state convention, possibly planning to bolt and hold a separate convention if the decisions go against them. In other words, the Taft people hold the levers of the party, here and in other states as well as nationally, and are using them ruthlessly against Roosevelt. TR’s supporters, who aren’t averse to pulling the same tricks where they have the power to do so, are establishing a narrative of a party machine using trickery to suppress the wishes of the majority of party members.

The Ottoman Empire’s prince-governor of the Aegean island of Samos is assassinated by a Greek.

Oregon Governor Oswald West has exhausted his travel budget and must now travel by horse instead of train to the convention of Western governors, 500 miles away in Boise. He will wear a sombrero.

Today -100: March 24, 1912: Of collapsing platforms, strikes, kintopps, and invisible airships

In Portland, Maine, a platform on which Theodore Roosevelt was standing collapses. TR fell, but was not hurt. “It was the weight of intellect” that caused the collapse, the tubby former president tells the audience, before giving his speech as planned. He’d probably give his speech as planned even if someone shot him in the chest or something...

The coal strike in Britain has put 3 million people out of work, shutting down railroads, cotton mills, etc. Even worse, there will be no special trains for the start of the flat racing season next week.

In Berlin, a conference of the National Association of Managers, Actors and Playwrights comes to the conclusion that the number of movie theaters (kintopps, they were called at the time) should be limited so as not to compete with proper theatres, and movies’ subject matter should be confined to science and education and absolutely not drama.

Baron Adam Roenne has patented (in Britain) an “invisible” airship. It will be covered in chromium, which will make it reflective, rendering it invisible above 2,500 feet. In fact, there’s one above you right now, probably.

Proquest Typo of the Day (LAT story): “HOW THE COMPASS SHITS ABOUT.: CHANGES FROM 1750 TO 1910 NOTED BY UNCLE SAM”.

Today -100: March 23, 1912: Of loans, Chinese suffragettes, and explosions

Rep. Charles Lindbergh (R-Minn.), father of the aviator/fascist, proposes a constitutional amendment to eliminate the Senate and have a unicameral Congress of 315 members, 300 elected for 7 years + 15 members-at-large elected for 15 years with veto powers over the rest of the members.

The Great Powers propose a $300m loan to China, $240m for railroads, $60m for arms. Russia is not best pleased, sees an American plot.

Chinese “suffragettes” force their way into the National Assembly and break some windows. Possibly the equal suffrage measure wasn’t quite as good as reported yesterday?

It seems that the explosion that killed the 28 Southern Pacific scabs in San Antonio was not nitro, but a common or garden variety steam-engine explosion.

News Quiz USA

BBC Radio 4 is trying an American pilot version of its venerable news comedy show the News Quiz. With Lewis Black, Andy Borowitz, Kathleen Madigan, Todd Barry and Ted Alexandro. It’s not quite the same without short lesbians and funny English, Scottish and Danish accents, but whaddayagonnado?

Listen here for the next week. We should all encourage this attempt to bring Radio 4 comedy formats to America (I think the idea here is to sell this show to NPR), if only because of the ancient Mayan prediction that if Charlie Brooker and Lewis Black are ever in the same place at the same time, the world will end.

Today -100: March 22, 1912: Of suffrage and patronage

The Chinese parliament gives women the vote on the same terms as men (literacy tests, age 20, property owners). A woman, Yik Yug-Ying, is immediately elected to parliament from Canton.

The Senate Committee on Contingent Expenses will provide funds for an investigation (if one is ordered) into whether the Taft administration has been sending post office inspectors around the country to pressure postmasters to work for Taft’s re-election, which it has (and firing a lot of Roosevelt loyalists). In those days of a smaller federal government presence beyond Washington, the post office was a major source of political patronage. This was most important in this election in the South, where the Republican Party had a tiny presence, allowing postmasters to dominate the process of selecting delegates to the national convention. With so few states having popular primaries, the party nomination process was a dirty, dirty business. Unlike now, of course.

Today -100: March 21, 1912: Are the American people fit to govern themselves?

Emil Seidel, Socialist mayor of Milwaukee, is defeated in his bid for re-election, the D’s & R’s uniting behind a unity candidate.

Gov. Woodrow Wilson denies rumors that he failed to vote for William Jennings Bryan in 1908 or that he ever said that he prefers Chinese to Polish immigrants.

Speaking at Carnegie Hall, Theodore Roosevelt defends his position on recalls, initiative, direct primaries and the like, saying that the fundamental issue before the Republican Party is “Are the American people fit to govern themselves, to rule themselves, to control themselves?” Good question. He disagrees with the view of some (i.e., Taft) that the Constitution is a “strait jacket to be used for the control of an unruly patient – the people”. He notes that the country is “suffering from the tyranny of minorities” which own all the coal and water power, profit from adulterated drugs and food, control the monopolies and trusts and sweatshops – and the Republican convention.

The Massachusetts State Senate rejects women’s suffrage 17-14 and the direct election of US senators 19-14.

Democrats in Congress offer a plan to give the Philippines independence in 1921 (July 4th, naturally) after eight years of “probationary independence” during which the Filipinos would elect a congress (some Filipinos; there’d be a property franchise and a literacy test), whose legislation could be vetoed by the US president. A Philippines president would be nominated by the US president and confirmed by the US Senate. Polygamy would be outlawed.

Nalle

Newt Gingrich 1) attacks Robert De Niro for making a joke about America not being ready for a white First Lady, 2) surreptitiously asks aide to get Halle Berry’s phone number.

Today -100: March 20, 1912: Of warships and primaries

First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill gives a speech in Parliament saying that Britain plans to keep building warships at a faster rate than any of its competitors, and this means you, Germany (specifically, he wants to build 60% more ships than Germany does).

A couple of days ago, President Taft claimed to support presidential primaries, such as those just set up by the Massachusetts Legislature (only 6 states had provisions for them at the start of the year), but with lots of caveats and, as Roosevelt points out, only several days after Massachusetts had already enacted them. But what about Maryland, Michigan and elsewhere, TR asks, where Taft’s people are fighting primary legislation tooth and nail?

Today -100: March 19, 1912: Of bribery, presidential smooches, explosions, and married women

New Mexico has been a state for, what, a minute and a half? Four legislators are arrested for soliciting bribes, asking $5,000 each to vote for A.B. Fall for US senator. A sting operation was set up, with the cooperation of Fall, who will be one of NM’s first two senators and (spoiler alert) will go to prison for his role in the Teapot Dome scandal as President Harding’s Interior secretary.

President Taft kisses the first child of the re-election campaign season, one Mary Irene Barter, 11, in Boston. “It didn’t feel different from other kisses I have had, except it was before all those people,” Mary said on Yelp.com.

New war scare in Europe: Russia v. Turkey over Persia.

32 strikebreakers working for the Southern Pacific Railroad in San Antonio die in an explosion believed to have been caused by nitroglycerine. The NYT lists some of the identified bodies by name, adding at the bottom of the list “five negro helpers,” who I guess didn’t have names. Also, an 82-year-old woman was killed seven blocks away when the front end of a locomotive crashed into the roof of her house.

The Continental and Commercial Bank of Chicago will require the “resignation” of all female employees who get married. A bank vice president says the bank would prefer not to have to hire women at all, but needs must.

Today -100: March 18, 1912: Of insane aliens, members for aviation, and shaving Chinese

Alarming Headline of the Day -100: “Too Many Insane Aliens.” A report from the NY State Lunacy Commission to Gov. Dix complains about the cost and wants them deported. The report says that 1/6 of NY’s revenues goes to taking care of the insane.

While many of the Republican convention delegates have already been chosen, by fair means and foul, Roosevelt wins his first state convention, that of North Carolina.

French aviator Jules Vedrines, who earlier this month became the first man to fly a plane faster than 100 miles per hour, loses election to the French parliament, to which he was running as “member for aviation.” He flew to his rallies, speaking of the need for a large air force.

Headline of the Day -100: “All China is Shaving.”

I’m not somebody who believes that women are going to be single-issue voters

A week and a half ago, Obama held a press conference. I wrote up a post, decided it was sub-par, and deleted it. But there was one answer of his that I don’t want to let go. Asked about the “war on women,” he politely declined the opportunity to declare himself and the Democratic Party to be on the side of the women: “Women are going to make up their own mind in this election about who is advancing the issues that they care most deeply about.”

He went on:

there are millions of strong women around the country who are going to make their own determination about a whole range of issues. It’s not going to be narrowly focused just on contraception. It’s not going to be driven by one statement by one radio announcer. It is going to be driven by their view of what’s most likely to make sure they can help support their families, make their mortgage payments; who’s got a plan to ensure that middle-class families are secure over the long term; what’s most likely to result in their kids being able to get the education they need to compete. ... So I’m not somebody who believes that women are going to be single-issue voters.

Notice how quickly he moved to non-gender-specific issues like mortgages and education. He’s just not comfortable with the notion that women might vote based on their interests as women. He’d rather talk to them about mortgages and “a whole range of issues” than reassure them about their reproductive autonomy.

Of course women are interested in a whole range of non-vagina-related issues (unlike Rick Santorum), but it doesn’t make them (gasp) single-issue voters if they draw a line in the sand and say that, other issues aside, they will not vote for someone who attacks their right to control their own body. To suggest that such voters are “narrowly focused” is an insult to them and to the principle itself.

Today -100: March 17, 1912: Define “enlightened”

The NYT editor replies to a letter to the editor from James H. Hubert (an actual black dude, although the NYT may not know that, lacking Ye Olde Google), who says that Taft has not been as good for the blacks as Roosevelt was, having fired negro federal officeholders in the South. The editor responds, and I’ll quote in full: “The enlightened friends of the colored people in the South believe that their salvation can best be worked out in business and the industries and that the worst possible disservice to them would be to lead them into politics.”

Lawrence Oates of the Scott Antarctic expedition goes outside. He may be some time.