Today -100: May 31, 1917: The first duty of a man is to be a man

In his Memorial Day address, Woodrow Wilson says “We did not set this government up in order that we might have a separate and selfish liberty”. “America will once more have an opportunity to show to the world that she was born to serve mankind.” (Warning to the world: It’s a cook book!).

At his own speech, Theodore Roosevelt tells young men not to wait to be drafted. “The first duty of a man is to be a man.”

What is it with race riots this week? A couple of hundred negroes in Harlem fight cops trying to arrest a man.

The Germans have evidently been asking Turkey not to expel Jews from Jerusalem, because it looks bad.

Anti-black violence continues in East St. Louis, although reduced by rain and the National Guard. Blacks are fleeing the city.

Some draft-age males are escaping to Cuba and Mexico to avoid registration. France plans to force expatriates to register, or something. Also, June 5, National Registration Day, doesn’t really work in Alaska, because ice, so they’ll need a later date. Attorney-General Thomas Watt Gregory orders stenographers to attend anti-draft meetings to take down speeches with a view to prosecution.

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Today -100: May 30, 1917: No evasive reply is acceptable

The Petrograd Workers’ and Soldiers’ Soviet says that its policy of “peace without annexations or indemnities” means there should be an immediate offer of peace negotiations. And if Russia’s allies don’t agree to make this offer, they “take equal responsibility on themselves with the Governments of Germany and Austria-Hungary for the continuance of the war. No evasive reply is acceptable.”

The Russian War Ministry orders all monks sent to the front lines to work in sanitation. Try not to think about how long Russian Orthodox monks’ beards are.

And in other news from Russia: vodka riots! Or, as they call that in Russia: Tuesday.

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Today -100: May 29, 1917: I think it would be a good thing if all our young Quakers should go to jail

Brazil’s Chamber of Deputies votes 136-3 in favor of war on Germany, or to be more precise, to revoke the decree of neutrality. Brazil won’t actually declare war until October.

The Justice Department arrests 9 men in Texas, claiming that a co-op had been infiltrated by German spies, or something, and turned into an anti-conscription action group, or something, with weapons and a secret oath and everything. And some others in the “feud region” of Virginia (including a McCoy) are arrested for plotting to murder draft officials and declare a rebellion. And 10 Detroit socialists are arrested for distributing anti-conscription literature.

There have been a lot of wild tales lately about forthcoming miracle weapons. The latest: a Brooklynite, Dr. Dayve De Waltoff claims to have invented a vastly superior explosive which he has named... wait for it... Terrorall. A mere five (5) grains of Terrorall would suffice to blow up the Woolworth Building, if that’s your idea of a good time.

Race war in East St. Louis, Illinois, with white mobs determined to force out the blacks who have been arriving from Mississippi to work, including in munitions factories.

Some Quakers are annoyed that the government so readily exempted them from the draft, depriving them of “their much cherished privilege of suffering for their convictions.” Says Isaac Sharpnell, president of Haverford College, “I think it would be a good thing if all our young Quakers should go to jail.” It would certainly make running an all-male Quaker college easier, huh Ike? The Quakers (at least at a NYC meeting) won’t admit any new members who are military-age males (which is irrelevant to the Draft Act, since the exemption doesn’t apply to those who joined after conscription was announced).

Russian monks want the vote.

Arthur Balfour, who was touring the US with great fanfare, has moved on to Canada, where he tells the Canadian Parliament “No greater miracle has ever happened in the history of civilisation than the way in which the co-ordinated British democracies worked together with a uniform spirit of self-sacrifice in the cause in which they believed not merely their own individual security, but the safety of the empire and the progress of civilisation and liberty itself were at stake,” which might have been more convincing if not for the anti-conscription riots a few days ago in Quebec.

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Today -100: May 28, 1917: Half the fun is saluting, ammiright?

Food dictator Herbert Hoover wants to “enlist” every housewife in the nation in his food administration and sign a pledge to carry out its culinary instructions. There will be serious pressure on women to do so.

The new censorship & propaganda czar George Creel releases proposed regulations of things newspapers should not write about. In addition to the obvious (troop movements, etc), it includes: disagreements between the Allies, speculation about peace, articles offensive to allies or neutral countries, etc. The idea was that if newspapers would agree to this voluntarily, there would be no need for the censorship law the administration is having trouble getting Congress to pass. There has been no such agreement.

Russian Minister of War Kerensky promulgates new rights for soldiers including freedom of opinion, no obligatory saluting, etc.

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Today -100: May 27, 1917: Of race riots, deadly pencils, and millionaire actors

There’s a race riot in NYC’s Upper East Side, following an incident where a bartender over-charged a black man that escalated thanks in part to some incompetent policing by National Defense Guards, who were covering for regular cops taking the sergeant’s exam. White and black men attack each other with razors and guns, and police shoot one black men dead.

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Baron von Rosen of Sweden is arrested in Norway with “an amazing collection of bombs, poisons, and deadly bacilli”. And exploding pencils! Which blow up whoever tries to sharpen them. But evidently the good baron is breaking no Norwegian law, so they let him go and tell him to leave the country.

The film industry has stopped blabbing about how much it’s paying its stars now that Congress is looking for sectors of the economy to soak in order to pay for the war, but three stars are evidently making more than $1,000,000 a year. And yes, they’re Charles Chaplin, Mary Pickford (the Bank of America’s sweetheart), and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.

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Today -100: May 26, 1917: Base instruments have begun to speak of the preservation of each soldier’s life

Rear Admiral William Sims, in charge of the US destroyers off Europe, complains that “the German spy system” informed Berlin that the destroyers were coming four days before they arrived (how he knows this is unclear).

The Petrograd Workers’ and Soldiers’ Soviet “menaces” Gen. Mikhail Alexiev, telling him to shut up after he gives a speech denigrating the notion of a peace without annexations or indemnities and complaining about the tendency among soldiers “to peace and ease instead of activity” while “base instruments have begun to speak of the preservation of each soldier’s life.”

New Jersey socialist Frederick Superior (!) has been posting circulars saying “Impeach Wilson” and “Free Speech Denied.” The police rather make his point by arresting him for sedition.

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Today -100: May 25, 1917: I do not think I should have enjoyed my luncheon if I had known I was eating off a German plate

It is now illegal in the US to sell booze to members of the Army in uniform. Sailors and marines seem not to come under this law.

The Washington Herald complains that after it wrote about the fatally defective shells supplied by the Navy to the Mongolia, the new chief propagandist George Creel called them up, “questioning the spirit and correctness” of the editorial. The Herald warns of censorship. Creel denies attempting to control them. He was totally attempting to control them.

Sinn Fein officially rejects Lloyd George’s proposed Irish convention unless it is elected by universal suffrage (unclear if this includes women), has the power to declare independence, and can’t have its decisions vetoed by the British government.

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Baseball’s National Commission bans the bean ball.

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Today -100: May 24, 1917: Of passports, tiszas, and potatoes

The US refuses passports to socialists who had intended to travel to the Stockholm peace congress, and threatens to prosecute any Americans who manage to attend it anyway.

Hungarian Prime Minister Count István Tisza and his cabinet resign. Tisza has been increasingly at odds with the Empire’s central government since the accession of Emperor Karl, and he especially opposes moves to expand Hungary’s very limited franchise (although he was willing to grant it to soldiers... if they had medals of courage).

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Pretty sure these are euphemisms for sex acts which commoners are forbidden from engaging in upon pain of death (see also “eating a swan”).

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Today -100: May 23, 1917: Of censorship, deserters, dissolving empires, black empire menaces, and lynchings

The Republican caucus votes to oppose press censorship being reintroduced in the Espionage Bill’s reconciliation process. Pres. Wilson, however, demands censorship.

Russian War Minister Kerensky orders an operation that captures 30 army deserters. Since the Revolution, soldiers have been deserting with impunity.

Finland would like to be independent of Russia now, please and thank you.

And Hungary, whose equivocal commitment to the Austro-Hungarian Empire was based in part on a fear of Russian territorial acquisitiveness which is now assuaged by the Russian Revolution, is also thinking seriously about independence.

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South African Gen. Jan Smuts says Germany wants a large empire (citing a captured map) in central and southern Africa so that it can use Africa’s “huge population” to create “the most powerful army the world had ever known,” a black army that would threaten South Africa and of course “the whole of the civilized world.” He hopes that the future League of Nations will ban the military training of African colonial populations (perhaps unaware of the role of Senegalese Tirailleurs, among others, in the French Army).

Wisconsin Governor Emanuel Philipp vetoes a bill for a referendum on prohibition.

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She did, however, decline an offer to apply the match herself. Southern ladies do not do such things themselves, they have baying mobs for that.

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Today -100: May 22, 1917: Lenin always did love a good balcony

The US steamship Mongolia, which last month sunk a u-boat, limps back into port after a shell explodes (or something like that) during target practice, killing a couple of nurses who were on their way to the war. Evidently there have been two other such incidents on the commercial vessels which Pres. Wilson ordered armed, suggesting the Navy is supplying them with defective ammunition. The St. Louis found, when practicing targeting by shooting at glaciers, that 14 of 48 shells fired were duds.

Atlanta, or at any rate 73 blocks of it, burns down. The fire started in “an obscure negro section” of the city. Dynamite is used (ineffectively) in a 10-hour struggle to put the fire out.

A Russian court orders Lenin and his followers to vacate the expropriated palace of ballet dancer (and former mistress of Tsar Nicholas II) Mathilde Kschessinskaya, who skedaddled for Paris. Presumably the government wants him out because he’s been using the balcony to make incendiary speeches.

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The NYT scoffs at a new California law requiring windows in hotel rooms.

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Today -100: May 21, 1917: Of Belgians, compulsory labor, and anti-coup coups

Germany is deporting Belgian officials who oppose the splitting of Belgium into Flemish & Walloon units.

Theodore Roosevelt gives up on leading troops into battle, but takes credit for the US sending troops to France earlier than Wilson had planned.

West Virginia enacts a law requiring able-bodied men aged 16 to 60 to work at least 36 hours a week or be forced to work for city or county governments.

Costa Rica has uncovered a plot to reverse the coup that put Federico Tinoco into power in January. Tinoco is portraying the plot as instigated and funded by Germans in the United States.

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Today -100: May 20, 1917: Eat Plenty, Wisely, and Without Waste

The new Russian Cabinet declares against a separate peace and for a peace without annexations or indemnities, based on national self-determination. Aleksandr Kerensky, promoted from Justice Minister to War Minister, says he will enforce discipline in the army. Good luck with that, Alex.

Pres. Wilson asks Congress for extensive powers over food production and appoints Herbert Hoover as his Food Administrator, rejecting the titles “food dictator” or “food controller.” Hoover has a motto and everything: “Eat Plenty, Wisely, and Without Waste. Also, Pineapple on Pizza is Just Wrong.”

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Today -100: May 19, 1917: The business now at hand is undramatic, practical, and of scientific directness and precision

Pres. Wilson sets June 5th as Registration Day, when 10 million men aged 21 to 30 are required to register for the draft. They will be chosen and sent (in a few months) to train in 32, um, concentration camps. Man, Hitler just ruined that phrase for everyone, didn’t he?

Fun fact: the term concentration camp was coined by the British during the Boer War for the places they stuck Boer women and children, some of whom starved to death.

But Roosevelt won’t be going, the White House says. Wilson dismisses the argument that TR would rally morale, saying “The business now at hand is undramatic, practical, and of scientific directness [or definiteness; the story uses both in different places] and precision.” Dude should totally write motivational posters.

Sinn Fein says it will boycott the proposed Irish convention and ignore any constitution it comes up with.

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Today -100: May 18, 1917: When was this ever denied to any man?

The Army Draft bill passes the Senate 65 to 8. The amendment allowing Roosevelt’s volunteer divisions is put back in after a debate in which William Stone (D-Missouri) attacks TR’s temperament and military competence, noting that he led the Rough Riders into a hole from which they had to be rescued... by a negro regiment. TR is defended by his former running mate Hiram Johnson, who says “This privilege is asked by a man who is in the twilight of life [He’s 58!], so that he may lay down his life for his country. ... When was this ever denied to any man?” Ominously, the Senate rejects a clause that would have ended conscription when the war is over. The good news: Registration Day will be a holiday! With parades and speeches and mandatory signing up for possible death and everything!

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Army commanders complain that the soldiers have heard the phrase “peace without annexations” and are interpreting it as a reason not to engage in offensive warfare. Which seems like as good an excuse as any, actually.

There’s some agitation in Russia for the publication of secret treaties.

The Irish Nationalist Party rejects Lloyd George’s nice offer of Home Rule plus partition. They do accept the “well if you don’t like my idea just hold a convention of Irish people” part, but of course the Ulsterites reject that. As will Sinn Fein.

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I’m not a beer drinker, but I understand they have a lot to answer for here. Kennedy Jones, the Daily Mail editor who was just appointed director-general of Food Economy, explains (to people who wonder why they should ration their bread intake while others are drinking beer) that barley will no longer be malted. He says science proves that beer is nutritious and “beer has been, for centuries, a part of the daily diet of our working classes” and men who work at heavy manual labor “must drink considerable malty liquid. ... It is a scientific fact.” Can’t argue with science.

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Today -100: May 17, 1917: He is the very model...

New York Gov. Charles Whitman offers Theodore Roosevelt the rank of major general in the state militia.

British Prime Minister Lloyd George proposes Home Rule for Ireland that excludes Northern Ireland for at least 5 years. Or alternately, the Irish might hold a convention and work it out for themselves. Basically, he wants this issue out of the way because of its effect on the US.

US destroyers join the British fleet on anti-u-boat patrol.

The Senate holds a closed-door session on war appropriations, during which the Wilson administration is assailed for failing to explain much of anything about how it plans to spend all that money. Every single detail of the closed-door session leaks to the press, as is the custom.

Wilson gives up on getting Congress to pass a censorship law. For now.

Germany seems to be considering a compromise on the future of Alsace-Lorraine, but not the one you’d think. They might split it between Prussia and Bavaria. Evidently this is a bribe to get the Catholic Zentrum party, which is strong in heavily Catholic Bavaria, to continue supporting Chancellor Bethmann-Hollweg.

In solidarity with the food economy being practiced by his subjects, the food served by King George V has been reduced to “the utmost simplicity” and guests must cut their own bread. And no toast.

CUT THEIR OWN BREAD!

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Today -100: May 16, 1917: A program of conquest helps us as little as a program of reconciliation to win victory and the war

Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg tells the Reichstag that he rejects demands that he express Germany’s war aims coming from both the left (no annexations or indemnities) and the right (big-ass annexations and indemnities). To declare what Germany is fighting for, he says, “would not serve the country’s interests.” He says if he renounced annexations, the enemy could continue to fight without risk. And he has the kaiser on his side, so suck it.

He does make an exception for Russia, which he tells that there is a No Annexations deal to be made which “excludes every thought of oppression and which would leave behind no sting and no discord.”

The Petrograd Workers’ and Soldiers’ Soviet agrees to join a coalition government. Meanwhile, several commanding generals have resigned over the new policy allowing soldiers to vote on whether to obey orders. The Petrograd Soviet’s main strategy seems to be encouraging Socialists in Germany and Austria to prevent their armies being used as “the executioners of Russian liberty.”

The Turks are supposedly deporting the Jewish population of Jaffa. During Passover, no less.

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You’d think he’d have more important things to do than stand in an intersection in a yellow rain jacket and wave cars through, but...

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Today -100: May 15, 1917: Of espionage, choates, and purely destructive

The Senate passes the Espionage Bill, with the censorship (and prohibition) provisions stripped out.

Famous lawyer (and former US ambassador to Britain) Joseph Choate, dies.

The NYT calls the Petrograd Workers’ and Soldiers’ Soviet “a purely destructive force.” In general, the Times is soooo over the Russian Revolution.

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Today -100: May 14, 1917: Ours is not a true democracy

Carrie Chapman Catt points out that the US can’t talk about making the world safe for democracy until it gives all women the vote: “There is nothing more illogical than to insist that men have the divine right to rule over women and say at the same time that kings haven’t divine right to rule over men.”

Gen. Lavr Kornilov reportedly resigns as commander of the Petrograd Military District, unwilling to continue to tolerate the interference of the Workers’ and Soldiers’ Soviet. I know he didn’t resign at this time, so I guess he’ll change his mind.

Germany allows (and indeed encourages) another 280 Russian “agitators” to return to Russia from exile in Switzerland, including future secretary of the Comintern Angelica Balabanov.

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Today -100: May 13, 1917: This is no war for mere spontaneous impulse

The House is delaying the conscription bill, in part to try to force Theodore Roosevelt’s volunteer divisions into it. That amendment is sponsored in the Senate by Warren G. Harding, by the way. Says former Speaker of the House Uncle Joe Cannon, “I want Theodore Roosevelt to carry the heart of America to the trenches of France”. Walter Chandler (R-NY) says “Roosevelt will fight, and everybody knows it. He is the fighter of the age”.

At a Red Cross event, Woodrow Wilson says, “This is no war for amateurs.” I wonder who he could mean? “This is no war for mere spontaneous impulse. It means grim business on every side of it.” But he finds a bright side too: it will heal the last division between North and South, “and when effort and suffering and sacrifice have completed the union, men will no longer speak of any lines either of race or association cutting athwart the great body of the nation.”

Rep. J. Thomas Heflin (D-Land of Cotton) suggests that ships could survive a u-boat torpedo if bales of cotton were placed along the sides so if the ship is holed it will still float. And when the submarine surfaces to check out the damage, you could just shoot it.

It is quite possible that Rep. Heflin is 6 years old.

The Virgin Mary appears to 10-year-old Lúcia Santos and her younger cousins Francisco and Jacinta Marto in Fátima, Portugal, tells them secrets and promises to appear again. A Felliniesque carnival will grow up around the subsequent appearances. There will be an official cult and everything. And today, Pope Francis is going to canonize the girls, unjustly spurning the girls in Cottingley who just about the same time took pictures of fairies that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle thought were real.

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Today -100: May 12, 1917: Of strikes and Romanovs

The British gov warns munitions workers not to strike and that anyone inciting strikes is liable to imprisonment for life.

The Russian provisional government reportedly had plans to deport the czar and his family, but they were vetoed by the Petrograd Workers’ and Soldiers’ Soviet, which want to make sure all of the Romanov’s money is seized.

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