A careful balancing of weighty and diverse factors

Netanyahu is pushing a bill allowing the forcible feeding of Palestinian prisoners (there is a major hunger-strike among prisoners being held indefinitely without trial).

The government’s proposal says, “A decision on this sensitive question, which requires a careful balancing of weighty and diverse factors, should not be taken by administrative or medical officials responsible for the well-being of a prisoner on hunger strike, but should rather be made by a court of law at the appropriate level.” This is an outright admission that forcible feeding is intended not as a medical treatment, if a violent and involuntary medical treatment, but a punishment.

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Today -100: June 3, 1914: Of legal strikes, dynamite, political pacification, lepers, and mayflowers

The House of Representatives accepts an amendment to the anti-trust bill legalizing peaceful strikes, picketing, and boycotts.

Two suffragettes chain themselves to the gates of Buckingham Palace. Others try to heckle Lloyd George in his Welsh constituency; when ejected from his outdoors meeting, they smash windows, as was the custom.

A bomb scare at the Department of Agriculture turns out to be a hoax perpetrated by the watchman who raised the alarm (and planted the very real dynamite), hoping for a reward and a better job.

Gen. Huerta informs the Niagara conference that he is willing to step down – when Mexico is “politically pacified.”

The talk of Paris is that opponents of President Raymond Poincaré are attempting to force him to resign by threatening to make public something about his wife’s personal life. I don’t know what Parisians knew, or thought they knew, at the time, and the NYT is being coy, but the Radicals, Caillaux’s supporters, were trying to track down rumors that she had bigamously married her second husband (Poincaré is her third), and had sent agents to America to look for her first husband, who they wrongly thought was still alive. In fact, they had definitely divorced. The real scandal, if the Radicals had but known it, was that while Raymond & Henriette had married in a civil ceremony in 1904, they had a secret religious ceremony in 1913, to please his parents, after her first husband died. Given Poincaré’s anti-clerical politics, that wouldn’t have looked good. France, huh?

The famous leper John Early is arrested for being a leper in Washington D.C., where he has been staying under an assumed name at the same hotel where Vice President Marshall and a bunch of senators live. He says he came to lobby on behalf of a federal leprosium (first problem: I don’t think that’s an actual word). In the two weeks since he escaped from his leper colony, he’s been to Toronto, Montreal and New York, where he took in a baseball double-header. (Update, if you can have an update to a 100-year-old story: the June 5th LA Times reports that Early’s efforts have resulted in the introduction of two bills in Congress for a national leprosarium [that’s the word; for fun, you can google the connection between James Carville and lepers]).

Although the Wilson administration had successfully suppressed the story in December, it comes out that a Navy assistant paymaster was fired for partying with two... ladies... on the presidential yacht, The Mayflower.

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Today -100: June 2, 1914: They do not seem to be aware of the fact that the Constitutionalists are conquerors

The ABC envoys tell the Constitutionalists that they’ll only be allowed to attend the Niagara conference if they have a cease-fire with the federales and agree to everything the negotiators have already decided.

The Constitutionalists respond to the conference’s proposed commission to run Mexico with a resounding, not to say contemptuous, no: “They do not seem to be aware of the fact that the Constitutionalists are conquerors, that they have inaugurated and carried almost to successful completion a revolution, and that this means the establishment of a government entitled to recognition by the rest of the world.”

The goal of the failed military mutiny against Huerta seems to have been to grab the dynamite stored at the Mexico City citadel, which Huerta intends to use to blow up city if it falls into the hands of the rebels. Swell.

Mexican government employees, told that they will be required to take up arms and go to the front, are fleeing Mexico City, hoping to get to Cuba or anywhere.

A private in the 19th Infantry, currently occupying Vera Cruz, marries a local girl. A couple of ensigns are punished for letting the couple use a Navy launch for the ceremony (so they could be married under the American flag).

The Free Speech League, an offshoot of the Wobblies, demands permits to speak in Tarrytown, NY. The village president says he will have none of the IWW’s brand of so-called free speech in Tarrytown. Leonard Abbott, president of the League, says they will fight to the finish. Tarrytown plans to turn firehoses on them, as was the custom. State Supreme Court Justice Arthur Thompkins says that the “guise of free speech” gives no men, “no professional agitators or mischief makers the right to encourage the vicious, idle, and lay to acts of violence. ... It gives no one the right to disturb the peace of the Sabbath day”.

British suffragettes burn a church in Wargrave built in 1538. The vicar, who I swear is named the Rev. Basil Batty, runs into the flames to rescue a few of the church’s ancient ornaments. A note is left: “Stop persecuting women.”

Congress agrees to exempt labor unions and farmers’ cooperatives from the new anti-trust bill, by a vote of 207-0.

Yet another French government resigns. Not for nothin’, but from the start of 1913 through the start of World War I, France had six foreign ministers.

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They’re heeeere!

The Church of England objects to a high speed rail plan because it would require the removal of three consecrated burial grounds.

Well, you certainly wouldn’t want to do that, you might be haunted by mildly perturbed Anglican ghosts, who start to mutter “Boo” under their breath but when you look at them turn away embarrassed and look around like it must have been some other incorporeal being and what is the world coming to these days.

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Today -100: June 1, 1914: Of tallying costs and playing football

The Colorado coal strike has a known death count of 66: 18 strikers, 10 mine guards, 19 scabs, 2 militiamen and various non-combatants, including the 12 children who died at Ludlow (historians estimate as high as 100). Costs from the strike include nearly $7 million for the union, millions for the coal companies, and $700,000 for the state militia. The strike is not over, but seems to be winding down.

Police in Tarrytown, NY, attack Wobblies & anarchists who came to denounce John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Afraid of attempts to pack their jails, a known IWW tactic, the police decide to “play football” with the activist instead of arresting them (after the first 15). “Playing football” means pretty much what it sounds like. The prisoners are charged with endangering the public health, blocking traffic and acting in a disorderly manner. Becky Edelson points out that the town doesn’t have any traffic to block.

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Today -100: May 31, 1914: Of surrenders, tango foot, black princes, paines, immigrants, and disgusted Germans

Headline of the Day -100 (LA Times): “Surrender of Wilson.” Woodrow Wilson gives a Memorial Day speech at Arlington Cemetery. He had turned down an invitation from the Grand Army of the Republic but came under criticism from GAR posts, especially when it was learned that he’d be unveiling a monument in Arlington to the Confederate dead next week. He receives a lukewarm reception. Only 126 Union soldiers from the Civil War made it.

American warships mark their territory Memorial Day in Vera Cruz, each ship firing 48 guns (that’s 1,152 all together), to which the French, German, British and Spanish warships respond in kind. How joyous the Mexicans must have found this!

A German doctor asserts the existence of a malady he calls “tango foot,” an affliction of the leg muscles caused by excessive dancing of the tango.

Headline of the Day -100: “Black Prince To Visit Us.” Prince Joseph Wolugembe of Uganda. And if you didn’t catch the subtle reference, he’s a gentleman of the negro persuasion.

Headline of the Day -100 (New York Times Sunday Magazine): “Paine’s Long Lost Remains Home By Parcel Post.” Actually just some hair and a wax cast of his face. The rest of Tom Paine... kind of went missing. It’s a long story.

Queen Mary’s servants are on strike. She keeps reducing their numbers and expecting them to accomplish the same work. They now have to get up at 5 a.m. instead of 6. When their afternoon break was reduced, they refused to work during that period.

The Jewish Immigrants’ Information Bureau will stop trying to redirect Jewish immigrants from New York City to Galveston. The problem was that Jewish immigrants didn’t want to go to Galveston and the immigration officials in Galveston were especially hostile to Jewish immigrants.

Headline of the Day -100: “Albania’s Ruler Disgusts Germans.” By his cowardice during the recent disturbances. Although I seem to remember reading just yesterday that Kaiser Wilhelm is afraid of elevators.

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Today -100: May 30, 1914: Of Irish empresses, beer, re-elections, and royal elevators

The ocean liner Empress of Ireland sinks in the Saint Lawrence River after colliding with a Norwegian coal ship in the fog (the captains of the two ships would each claim the other was at fault; the inquiry in Canada would blame the Norwegian while the inquiry in Norway blamed the Brit). Over 1,000 are lost and 465 rescued. The worst maritime disaster in Canadian history.

Unlike the Titanic, there were plenty of lifeboats, but the Empress went on her side so half of them couldn’t be used. Also it was nighttime and chaotic, and the ship went down quickly because passengers had left portholes open. And unlike the Titanic, the wireless brought rescue boats swiftly, but fog hampered the rescue.

167 of the dead were members of the Salvation Army on their way to a conference in London, including D.M. Rees, the head of the Salvation Army in Canada. Also dead: Laurence Irving, son of actor/manager Henry Irving and a not very successful actor-playwright, and his wife. The Empress’s captain, H.G. Kendall, who performed admirably in rescuing people from the water, was previously famous as the man who recognized a passenger as the fleeing murderer Dr. Crippen. This is not the first shipwreck Kendall survived, nor the last.

The Mexican rebels have seized the brewery in Monterrey and are selling beer to raise money for the war. I hear selling cookies door to door also works.

The Constitutionalists have finally sent a delegate, Juan Urquidi, to the Niagara Falls conference. The ABC mediators are now considering whether they want to allow into their talks someone who might bring a dose of reality to their fantasy “peace plan,” such as the sentiment expressed by Urquidi that the conference has no right to determine Mexico’s internal arrangements. The US is leaning towards allowing Urquidi to join in, because they’re sure that Carranza can be persuaded to accept the plan and give up his victory right before he grasps it.

The American occupation’s collector of the port of Vera Cruz imposes a $90,000 fine on the Bavaria, which delivered its cargo of ammunition to the Huertaists.

There may have been some sort of mutiny in Mexico City, in which Huerta’s home was attacked. Or not. All of Mexico is one giant rumor mill at this point.

Eleven-term Congresscritter Richard Bartholdt (R-Missouri) has set up a headquarters to campaign against being re-elected against his will.

Evidently Kaiser Wilhelm refuses to get into any elevator not in one of his palaces.

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Today -100: May 29, 1914: Of commissions, tea, and TeleVista

The Niagara conference will, after all, name a five-man commission to govern Mexico, which the US promises to give “moral support.” This will all be valid under the Mexican constitution, they say, because the man the conference picks as president (a member of the commission with no greater powers than the other four) will first be named foreign minister by Huerta, who will then resign so that he becomes president (there is currently no veep); he’ll then name the other four to his cabinet. (Actually, the rebels point out that this maneuver would only be constitutional if you recognize the legitimacy of Huerta in the first place, which they don’t and the US supposedly doesn’t either). Whoever this guy is will be someone sympathetic to the rebels, but not an active rebel. Since the representatives of Argentina, Brazil and Chile refuse to participate in naming members of the commission, the job will be left to... wait for it... the United States and the delegates representing Huerta, who is currently busy packing his bags and, I’d imagine, drinking heavily. I have difficulty believing that everybody at the conference really deluded themselves into believing that this plan has any chance of being accepted by the Constitutionalists.

Headline of the Day -100: “Huerta Takes Tea.” He also had a haircut, the story mentions. Why the tea and not the haircut was worth a headline on the front page, I do not know.

Misleading Headline of the Day -100: “Senators Would Accept Greece's Offer to Buy Mississippi and Idaho.” To be fair, that’s the sub-hed, but the NYT index page showed only that, leaving out the headline, which makes clear that we’re talking about battleships rather than states. That said, it’s hard to see the states of Mississippi or Idaho being anything but improved by being sold to the Greeks.

Two suffragettes break windows at Buckingham Palace. The Master of the Royal Household refuses to prosecute. They’re also badgering the Archbishop of Canterbury, who refused to give sanctuary to Annie Kenney. Kenney returns to Lambeth Palace and says she’ll stay (still on hunger strike, lying on the pavement) unless the archbish speaks to her. She’s arrested again.

Dr. Archibald Low, a British inventor, says he’s invented a method of “seeing by wire,” which he calls TeleVista (a letter to the Times offers “teleseme”). He’s thinking of it as a videophone but what he’s actually got is a very crude, very early television. Or you could say early internet, in that he can send pictures over a telephone wire. Low admits his invention isn’t commercially viable yet, which just shows he didn’t think about the porn possibilities. He will soon be distracted by the Great War into pursuing other lines of mad science, including wireless-guided rockets.

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Today -100: May 28, 1914: Of recruiting, ypirangas, and mice

Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan tells a banquet of the National Foreign Trade Convention that the US government won’t necessarily interfere by force in other nations to protect American business interests. Yeah, right.

Huerta issues a decree allowing anyone to enter the militia with a rank dependent not on ability but on the number of recruits they bring in and equip: 100 recruits and you’re a major, 150 a lt. colonel, 200 a full colonel.

Huerta’s former interior minister Aureliano Urrutia has fled to Texas, a sure sign of desperation. He wants to become a US citizen. He says Huerta must resign and the US should establish a military protectorate over Mexico. The Constitutionalists claim, in a very detailed and highly unlikely story, that Urrutia, a doctor, once helped Huerta cut out the tongue of a senator, and is in the US on some secret mission.

The Ypiranga (and another German ship, the Bavaria) unload their cargo of rifles, machine guns and ammunition for the Huerta forces in Puerto Mexico, and there’s nothing the US can legally do about it.

Constitutionalists confiscate five coal mines owned by French and American firms.

Aaaaand Mrs. Pankhurst is out of prison again, like a militant yo-yo. She’s got them too scared to forcibly feed her when she goes on hunger strike.

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Longer than many Americans expected

Today Obama made a statement on Afghanistan. He plans to pull the last troops out a couple of weeks before leaving office, he says.



“The United States did not seek this fight.” And yet so many seemed really happy when we invaded Afghanistan. You know, you can accept Obama’s war of necessity/war of choice distinction or not, but after 12½ years, the “they started it” argument begins to wear thin, and it’s kind of our choice that it’s still going on.

“We went to war against al Qaeda and its extremist allies...” It’s interesting that he doesn’t use the word Taliban in this speech.

“...with the strong support of the American people and their representatives in Congress; with the international community and our NATO allies; and with the Afghan people, who welcomed the opportunity of a life free from the dark tyranny of extremism.” Really, the Afghan people supported the invasion and occupation. Was there a vote? A Gallup poll?



AND YEARS PAST THE TIME WHEN MOST AMERICANS THOUGHT WE’D ALREADY LEFT: “We have now been in Afghanistan longer than many Americans expected.”

THANK GOD IT DOESN’T HAVE FIJORDS OR WE’D BE THERE FOR-FUCKING-EVER: “We will no longer patrol Afghan cities or towns, mountains or valleys.”

IS IT? IS IT REALLY? “I think Americans have learned that it’s harder to end wars than it is to begin them.”

NOT A PERFECT PLACE, BUT A LOT MORE RUBBLEY AND CRATERY: “We have to recognize that Afghanistan will not be a perfect place, and it is not America’s responsibility to make it one.”

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Today -100: May 27, 1914: Of plans of pacification, unbroken heads, horses, the unfit, and rivers

More rumors about Huerta being about to resign and flee the country, possibly on the German ship Ypiranga, which still has a cargo full of weapons that the US occupation of Vera Cruz prevented being delivered to the Federal army (Spoiler Alert: but not for much longer). It is assumed he’d try to get to Vera Cruz, where the Americans would happily escort him aboard a ship, or a boat, or a dinghy, anything that would get him out of the country; the rebels are positioning troops along the way to capture him.

The exercise in irrelevancy that is the Niagara Falls conference continues swimmingly, working on what one of the US delegates, Supreme Court Justice Joseph Lamar, is pleased to call “the plan of pacification.” The US has dropped its demand for a detailed plan of land reform; the Huerta delegates insisted the peons were too ignorant to own land, or something.

Headline of the Day -100: “Not a Single Head Broken in Ulster.”

Germany’s Conservative Party leader calls for the vigorous repression of Danish nationalist sentiments in Northern Schleswig, which hope to reattach the province to Denmark if Germany is defeated in a war.

The Daily Express (London) claims there is a suffragette plot to kill the King’s horse in the Derby.

The annual meeting of the American Medico-Psychological Association recommends passing laws for the compulsory sterilization of the feeble-minded and banning marriage by the “unfit.”

Headline of the Day -100: “Roosevelt Shows His River On A Map.” To the National Geographic Society. Not a euphemism.

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Today -100: May 26, 1914: Let the curtain ring down on this contemptible farce

The Irish Home Rule Bill’s third reading passes the House of Commons 351-274. It will set up an Irish parliament and a senate, which will not have powers over foreign or military affairs, foreign trade, or the currency, and will not be able to establish or ban a religion. Irish representation in the UK Parliament will be reduced from 103 to 42.

There are no provisions to exclude Ulster, but Asquith has promised to bring in an amending bill later, although he won’t say what changes he plans, just vote for this now and, you know, trust him to make it better. An odd way to run a railroad, if you ask me. Tory leader Andrew Bonar Law uses that as an excuse to refuse to debate the bill, saying, “Let the curtain ring down on this contemptible farce. It is only the end of an act, and not of the play. The Government can carry the bill through Parliament, but the concluding act of the drama will be in the country, where an appeal to the people will not end in a farce.” That last sentence could mean the next general election – and no doubt if he were called out on it that’s what he would claim he meant – or it could mean violent resistance.

1,000 armed police have been moved into Northern Ireland, but things are quiet so far. Nationalist leader John Redmond says “the assembling of the Irish Parliament is as certain as the rising of tomorrow’s sun” and suggests that those Ulster Loyalists (who he pointedly calls “our fellow-countrymen”) who are “genuinely nervous as to their position will abandon unreasonable demands and enter into a conciliatory discussion with their fellow country-men upon the points of the bill upon which they would desire further safeguards.” Because nothing says Northern Ireland like “conciliatory discussion.”

Headline of the Day -100: “Militants Hiss the King.”

The European Powers are discussing sending an international military force into Albania.

The National Association for the Study of Epilepsy calls for the establishment of colonies for epileptics (on the leprosy model, I guess) in every state.

The US Supreme Court rules that lawsuits from the Titanic sinking may be filed in the US regardless of the nationality of claimants, but the White Star Line’s liability will be limited to $91,000 – total. The law reaches that figure by adding the total value of the ship AFTER it crashed into the iceberg (which amounts to the total value of the lifeboats) plus the amount of the fares and freight money for the voyage.

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Today -100: May 25, 1914: Of chains, free love, returning princes, wider religions (whatever that means), and whistling

Headline of the Day -100: “Sylvia Pankhurst Marches in Chains.” Just out for a little Sunday stroll, chained to 15 other women. Other suffragists protested in Westminster Abbey and Newcastle Cathedral at the Church of England’s indifference to forcible feeding. Also, some windows were broken in West End shops and someone tried to wreck the Glasgow aqueduct.

Entrance for women to the British Museum now requires a written recommendation; the Tate is closed altogether. However, the Palace denies reports that the king and queen will forgo public engagements.

In the US, the National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage is claiming that what suffragists really want is free love.

It isn’t.

What they really want is the suffrage.

It’s right there in the name.

Evidently the plan for a mixed commission to run Mexico was William Jennings Bryan’s, not that of the Argentinian, Brazilian and Chilean ambassadors, who refuse to accept their assigned role in the plan, to name one of the three commissioners.

Huerta claims to have suppressed a planned military revolt. Gen. Eugenio Rascon, who has just died, is rumored to have been executed.

The Irish Home Rule Bill is about to pass its Third Reading in Parliament, so everyone’s preparing for civil war. Sir Edward Carson is expected to proclaim a provisional government for Ulster.

Prince William is back ashore in Albania, but his hasty retreat to the safety of an Italian warship at the first sign of trouble while leaving regular Albanians to the mercy of the rebels is not going over especially well.

Vice President Thomas Marshall says labor evils can be solved only by “a wider religion.”

Theodore Roosevelt rejects Bull Moose attempts to get him to run for governor of NY.

Headline of the Day -100: “He Whistled To The Queen.” Evidently the queen and Princess Mary went for a walk in a park with so little security that when the princess dropped a handkerchief, a man could pick it up and whistle to alert her without being aware she was anyone special. He soon found out. He will be missed. Kidding.

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Today -100: May 24, 1914: Of con artists, fleeing princes, panaceas, mummies, and Paris trends

Two con men are arrested for raising funds ostensibly for a orphanage in Syria. The interesting thing is that the first people they scammed were Woodrow Wilson, Sen. William Stone, and Secretary of War Garrison, who provided letters of recommendation the men used to con people out of donations.

Albania: Essad Pasha’s supporters (I was beginning to wonder if he had any) attack Durrës, forcing Prince William to seek sanctuary on an Italian warship.

There have been a series of letters to the NYT about why twenty years of women’s suffrage in Colorado didn’t prevent the coal wars. Today, Alice Stone Blackwell admits that woman suffrage has not prevented labor troubles, but “If this proves it to be a failure it must be on the principle that ‘only panaceas need apply.’”

London police raid the offices of the Women’s Social and Political Union. In response, a few paintings are slashed at the National Portrait Gallery and a case in the mummy room of the British Museum is smashed, as was the custom.

Headline of the Day -100 (L.A. Times): “Norway Women Equal With Men.” Not only do they have the vote, but can enter any profession except the army and of course the priesthood. There is even a lady judge.

The Niagara Falls conference is happily negotiating away in its little bubble. Talks are going so well that they may be wrapped up early. Right now they’re working on solving the Mexican land problem as the Constitutionalists come closer and closer to Mexico City. The NYT says that the mediators “are almost convinced that the rebel leaders will be virtually obliged by the opinion of the great nations of the world to accept any plan of settlement which is brought forward by the Ambassador of Brazil and the Ministers of Argentina and Chile and is assented to by the representatives of President Wilson and Gen. Huerta.”

St. Louis businessman and amateur aviator Albert Lambert volunteers to help the Navy develop its aviation wing. Lambert already organized a “reserve corps.”

When she shot the editor of Le Figaro, Henriette Caillaux started a fashion: pistol shooting. Shooting ranges have been crowded all over Paris and new ones have been started. The place where Madame Caillaux bought and test-drove her pistol on that fatal day is now a chic spot for women.

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Today -100: May 23, 1914: I think women are angels

The British government acquires a large stake in the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, to secure a large supply of oil for the Royal Navy. Oil and imperialism, two great tastes that taste great together.

The ABC negotiators are evidently proposing a commission to run Mexico, consisting of three people named by Huerta, Carranza, and the ABC countries (or maybe 5: 2, 2 and 1). This is obviously a non-starter, as the Constitutionalists are clearly winning militarily. Also, the rebels point out that they call themselves the Constitutionalists and do you really think we’d agree to something that so blatantly violates the Mexican Constitution?

Gen. Pasqual Orozco, who led a minor short-lived rebellion against Madero and then Huerta a couple of years ago, is now besieged by a larger force of Constitutionalists.

The NYT helpfully explains, “Human life counts for nothing in Mexico.”

In an interview with the Saturday Evening Post, Woodrow Wilson says, “I hold this to be a wonderful opportunity to prove to the world that the United States of America is not only human but humane; that we are actuated by no other motives than the betterment of the conditions of our unfortunate neighbor, and by the sincere desire to advance the cause of human liberty. ... They say the Mexicans are not fitted for self-government; and to this I reply that, when properly directed, there is no people not fitted for self-government.”

British suffragettes try to set fire to Stoughton Hall in Leicester and blow up the Rosehall United Free Church in Edinburgh, both unsuccessfully. Just as well, since the former was occupied.

Headline of the Day -100: “Suffragists Insult the King and Queen.” During a play a woman calls the king “a Russian Tsar.” (It’s going to be a little awkward that the byword for awful governance will, in a few months, be the UK’s ally in the Great War). Cops tried to grab her, only to find that she had chained herself to the seat. Other women made similar demonstrations every few minutes. One reached the stage and tried to speak, only to be struck by stage fright. As the play (“The Silver King”) continued, the line “I think women are angels” was received with laughter.

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Today -100: May 22, 1914: Of mud, arsenals, non-ritual murders, and non-vice-presidents

Headline of the Day -100 (LA Times): “Militants Roll Police in Mud.” British suffragists attempt to present a petition to the king at Buckingham Palace. There’s a fracas with the police, as was the custom (I don’t use the word fracas often enough). The 1,500 (!) police surrounding the palace outnumbered the suffragettes. There were 58 arrests, including 3 male supporters and Emmeline Pankhurst, resulting in this famous photograph of her being hauled off (note her feet are not touching the ground) while a by-stander berates her:



Competing Headlines of the Day -100 (London Times): 1) “Suffragist Arsenal Raided” (well, the arsenal mostly consisted of some stones, wrapped in tissue paper, presumably for throwing through windows, and some hammers). 2) and, on the same page, “Bayonets Seized in Dublin” (intended for the National Volunteers; somehow the cops can find those but never can manage to intercept guns smuggled in by the Ulster Loyalists).

The five suffragists found with the “arsenal” in a West End flat will be tried as “loose, idle, and disorderly persons” who have committed or are about to commit a crime.

Flora “General” Drummond of the Women’s Social and Political Union is released from prison in an ambulance on the grounds that further imprisonment would endanger her life. Three hours later she’s arrested protesting outside Home Secretary Reginald McKenna’s house.

“General” Coxey’s army of the unemployed finally arrives in Washington. All nine of them.

The Constitutionalists will send a delegate to the Niagara Falls conference after all, but to observe and present the rebels’ views, not to negotiate with the Huertaist and American delegates.

Authorities in Ukraine drop ritual murder charges against a Jew after deciding a killing in Fastiv in December was just a plain old murder.

Sen. William O’Connell Bradley (R-Kentucky) dies. He was also a governor of the state in the ‘90s, but his obit in the LAT contains the saddest words which may be said about any politician: “Was once mentioned for vice-presidency.” Just last week he announced that he wasn’t running for re-election because of declining health – then he ran to catch a streetcar and fell down, sustaining injuries from which he died 9 days later.

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Today -100: May 21, 1914: Of prohibition, certified babies, arson, and evil postcards

Supporters of a prohibition amendment to the Constitution give up for this session, unable to overcome states’ rights objections.

Pancho Villa executes a captured general and 31 other officers, as was the custom.

The Chicago Morals Court’s psychopathic laboratory will now “certify” adoptive babies: “Foster parents will receive certificates guaranteeing that the child turned over to them is ‘free from organic disease, insanity, or constitutional weakness.’ A scientific inventory of the infant’s traits and possibilities will accompany the certificate.” They haven’t quite decided what to do with the “sub-normal and degenerate” babies. I’m sure they’ll think of something.

Theodore Roosevelt speaks about everything that’s been going on in the US in his long absence (he especially doesn’t like the idea of compensating Colombia for his role in fomenting the Panama revolt and secession) and about his trip up the Amazon (he really didn’t enjoy having to eat monkeys).

In the German Reichstag, the Social Democratic deputies, instead of following their usual practice of leaving the chamber before the traditional call for cheers for the kaiser, stayed – and remained seated.

A brushfire in Aldershot is believed to have been started by suffragettes as a way to welcome the royal family, who were in residence at the royal pavilion there. Cavalrymen cut down the burning undergrowth with their swords, as was the custom.

Supposedly, Princess Mary, daughter of the king and queen of England, was recently arrested. She was taking a picture at the army airplane base at Aldershot and a sentry decided she must be a militant suffragist planning to burn down the hangars. As he was marching her off, despite her protestations of her royalness, she was recognized and let go. The sentry was told “to keep his mouth shut – and it is said he has rarely opened it since, but to swear at the suffragettes.”

Headline of the Day -100: “Ratify Treaty on Evil Postcards.”

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Today -100: May 20, 1914: Of opera houses, contributions, revolting Albanians, and sewing queens

The Prussian Diet is discussing Kaiser Wilhelm’s demand for money for his new Royal Court Opera, which is funny because when the Diet originally asked for a say in its design, he said that since he was paying for it, he’d do whatever he wanted. Anyway, during the course of the debate, Karl Liebknecht says he hopes the opera house will outlive the monarchy; hilarity ensues.

Oh: it did survive the monarchy, but not the RAF.

Germany insists that what it called a “war tax” when it was voted on is not a war tax when foreign countries complain that it violates various treaties by taxing their citizens living in Germany for military purposes. Germany claims it’s not a “war tax” but a “contribution.”

Mexico’s Constitutionalists say it will not be bound by anything which the Niagara Falls conference, which they refused to attend, decides and they reject the United States having any say in Mexico’s internal issues.

The international fleet representing the Great Powers off of Albania puts marines ashore to protect Prince William from a revolt led by Essad Pasha, who is arrested by I guess the Austrians. (He will be sent to Italy if he signs a promise not to return to Albania without William’s permission).

Queen Mary of Britain tried to organize sewing parties to make clothes for the survivors of the Sicily earthquake, but everyone turned down her invitations, so she gave up.

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Today -100: May 19, 1914: Of oil taxes, secret elections, looting and looping

Huerta has supposedly authorized his delegates to the talks at Niagara to negotiate his resignation. But only if it’s absolutely necessary. And he has conditions: large loans to Mexico, a say in naming his successor (and certain others barred from the post), etc etc. Non-starters, in other words.

Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan tells the Constitutionalists not to impose excessive war taxes on Tampico, especially their 8¢ a barrel tax on oil exports (which is actually the same as the Huerta junta imposed when it was in control of Tampico).

Remember how three days ago the Peruvian Congress supposedly elected coup leader Col. Oscar Benavides president? Well now former First Vice President Roberto Leguia claims that he was elected president. In a secret session. At his house. Leguia is currently hiding out in the Italian Legation.

At the Colorado state militia court-martial, a captain admits that troops looted the Ludlow tent camp as it burned.

Winston Churchill denies reports that he looped the loop.

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Today -100: May 18, 1914: Of pacification in Mexico and Colorado, and grandstanding

The talk in Washington is that America’s little sojourn in Mexico won’t be over when Huerta is overthrown, but that its forces will need to stick around to help the Constitutionalists “pacify” the country, whether they want that help or not.

Gov. Ammons reassures Woodrow Wilson that the state of Colorado can now dispense with federal troops. In other words, he plans to send the state militia back into the coal regions. The striking miners are not best pleased.

Suffragettes burn the grand stand at the Bromwich race track.

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