Today -100: January 31, 1919: Of colonies, Posens, and Apaches

As the Peace Conference discusses the fate of Germany’s colonies, someone (the NYT does not say who) brings up the question of whether the US is violating its own alleged principles by continuing to treat Haiti and San Domingo as semi-colonies.

Australia objects to Britain’s assent to Wilson’s “internationalization” idea for the German colonies, because it might interfere with Australia’s plans to ban Japanese immigration into islands near it such as New Guinea (which it wants to annex). Prime Minister Hughes will later argue that not owning their new possessions outright would be a disincentive to invest. What’s the point of a colony if you can’t exploit it?

Poland and Czechoslovakia agree to allow the Peace Conference to decide who gets the Posen/Poznań district (55% Polish, says Poland; we want that coal, says Czech.; Germany still thinks Posen is part of Germany and is holding elections there for the Prussian Constitutional Convention). The Allies will occupy the area to keep the peace.

There have been reports of US soldiers committing assaults and murders and holdups in Paris. The AP claims these are “Apaches” – the pre-war name for Parisian street hoodlum types – in stolen uniforms, and that many of the alleged crimes never happened. Gen. William Harts says the reports of large numbers of murders by American soldiers are “untrue.” That is, he’s disputing the “large numbers” part, so I guess there are some murders by American soldiers in Paris. The Paris police chief points out that the US and Australian army uniforms really look a lot alike...

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Today -100: January 30, 1919: Of prohibition, mysterious recruiters, recognizing Poland, and lost colonies

New York and Vermont are the 43rd and 44th states to ratify the already ratified prohibition amendment. Only two states, Connecticut and Rhode Island, never will ratify. The New York Legislature’s vote is close. Some denounce prohibition as an idea of the Southern Democrats, “who are no more entitled to the name Democrat than the Bolsheviki.”

Rumor of the Day -100: Recruiters for an unknown foreign country (or countries), who might be Dutch but aren’t recruiting for the Netherlands, are said to have signed up hundreds of German sailors.

The US recognizes Poland. Which can use all the help it can get just now:

So the borders of the Poland that Wilson recognized are still very much up in the air.

Not literally up in the air, like “You have to be this tall to get into Poland.”

This complicates Poland’s appeals for help. The Allies are willing to supply them with weapons to kill Bolsheviks, but are worried they might be used against Czechs or Ukrainians. 

German newspapers are campaigning for the return of Germany’s colonies. 

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Today -100: January 29, 1919: Of Spanish Flu, colonies, and fighting Poles

The number of Spanish Flu cases in New York is increasing (228 deaths yesterday), but Health Commissioner Royal Copeland says it’s not an epidemic, because of course he does.

The Peace Conference argues about Germany’s colonies. Woodrow Wilson wants to “internationalize” them, turning over their administration to the League of Nations, which would in turn give a “mandate” over the colony to some country. Which is what will be done. It will be exactly like being a colony of Britain, France, Australia, South Africa, etc., but the mandatory power (that’s what they’ll be called) will supposedly operate the colonies on behalf of the natives and have to write reports. The US is arguing that the various secret arrangements Britain and France made during the war dividing up Germany’s colonies are null and void because of the 14 Points. France and Britain are willing to renege on their secret deal with Japan, which they feel didn’t do enough militarily to deserve the territorial loot with which they were bribed. India, by the way, which is present at the Conference as if it were an independent nation, has put in a claim for Tanganyika (Tanzania).

The White regime in Archangel refuses the Peace Conference’s suggestion that the Russian factions meet, because that would amount to giving a form of recognition to the Bolsheviks.

Headline of the Day -100:

You’d think the Peace Conference would have something to say about this, wouldn’t you?

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Today -100: January 28, 1919: Of small nations, cowardice and mawkish sentimentality, and old kaisers

The small nations give up their claims to greater representation at the Peace Conference (Serbia and Belgium especially made the case that as they suffered the most during the war they deserve more of a say than certain other countries they could name). Belgium would also like to annex Luxembourg.

The conference is discussing how to divvie up Germany’s colonies in the Far East and Africa.

The War Dept releases 113 imprisoned conscientious objectors. Well, 111: 2 say it’s against their religious scruples to leave, it “would not be for the glory of God.” The Kansas Legislature passes a resolution against the release, which it calls “mischievous, unwise, unpatriotic, unAmerican and destructive of the morale of every person wearing the uniform of the United States army,” placing “a premium on slackerism, cowardice and mawkish sentimentality.”

Former kaiser Wilhelm turns 60. There was going to be a concert by a church choir, but it was cancelled after an outcry (Willy knows nothing of any of this; his servants censor the newspapers and mail he gets so his formerly royal eyes are not offended by the sight of anything that might displease him).

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Today -100: January 27, 1919: Of funerals and hanging reds

The funeral of Karl Liebknecht and 30 other murdered Spartacists passes off without violence, as soldiers with artillery and machine guns lock down Berlin.

Headline of the Day -100:

To be clear, he means American Bolsheviks who are “trying to precipitate riot”.

The NYT admits that Trotsky wasn’t captured by Estonians after all.

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Today -100: January 26, 1919: Of state socialism, civilized nations, and health bran

Headline of the Day -100: 

The North Dakota Non-Partisan League, which controls both houses of the state legislature and wants to create a state bank and flour mills and more equitable taxation. You know, “state socialism.”

The Peace Conference adopts a resolution to establish a League of Nations open to every “civilized nation which can be relied on to promote its objects.” The conference will also create commissions to 1) determine who started the war and how the Germans violated the rules of war and create a tribunal to try those responsible, 2) determine reparations.

Koreans appeal to Woodrow Wilson to help free them from the Japanese yoke. One of the signatories is Syngman Rhee, future president of South Korea, who has a PhD from Princeton, where Wilson was president.

Portugal remains a republic, as the monarchist forces are rather easily defeated.

If you were wondering how they said “this product makes you shit” in 1919:

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Today -100: January 25, 1919: Of Russian legions, prejudiced claims, prisoners, and extra meat

The War Dept says soldiers can stay in the army until they find jobs.

Former Tsarist Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Sazonov, in Paris (and in exile), asks for the Whites to be allowed to recruit volunteers from European countries to fight the Bolsheviks.

The council of the Allies warns that any country taking territory by force (this means you, Italy) would “seriously prejudice the claims of those who used such means and set up sovereignty by coercion.”

Rumor of the Day -100: Trotsky has been taken prisoner by the Estonians.

Bavarian Prime Minister Kurt Eisner orders that the extra ration of meat Duke Ludwig Wilhelm has been getting be stopped. What Eisner has against the 87-year-old unimportant member of the Wittelsbach family, who gave up his ducal rights long ago in order to marry the first of two actresses, is unclear.

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Today -100: January 24, 1919: Of sitting with assassins, evacuations, elections, and early recognitions

Former Tsarist Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Sazonov rejects the Peace Conference’s idea of a meeting between the contending (well, warring) Russian factions. He says he “will not sit with assassins” (that quote is in the banner headline but appears nowhere in the article).

The NYT reports that Minister of War Leon Trotsky and his forces are evacuating Petrograd and Trotsky has ordered the city surrendered without a fight.

The German federal election results are in. The Social Democrats have 163 out of the 421 seats, followed by the Zentrum (Catholic Center) Party, with 91 and the Democratic Party (DDP). The NYT’s headline focuses on the election of 34 women (women voted for the first time in this election), 15 of them SPD, the rest scattered among the other parties (except the dying National Liberals).

Headline of the Day -100:

Yup, that’s Poland alright, they’ll say.

Portuguese warships bombard the country’s second city, Porto. There are rumors (which the NYT reported as fact a day or two ago) that the deposed and exiled king Manuel is about to land.

There’s an uptick of anti-Semitism in Argentina and other South American countries.

And the Broomielaw Race Riot in Glasgow.

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Today -100: January 23, 1919: Leave Poles alone

The German government announces that the National Convention to draw up a new constitution will be held in Weimar instead of turbulent Berlin.

Headline of the Day -100: 

Germany responds to Britain’s complaint by saying that the British government is ill-informed about events in the East and anyway the Poles started it.

The Peace Conference adopts Woodrow Wilson’s proposal that all factions in Russia be invited to meet representatives of the Allies next month to sort Russia out. And there should be a cease-fire first. The communique assures the Russians that the Allies are not trying for a counter-revolution.

The Allies are totally trying for a counter-revolution. 

The smaller countries at the Peace Conference are beginning to realize that the Big Five intend to shut them out of significant decision-making.

The meeting of the Irish Dáil Éireann comes off without a hitch (or a police raid), and chooses an Irish Cabinet. Censors prevent the Dublin newspapers from publishing the declaration of independence.

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Today -100: January 22, 1919: Why should we not be masters in our own house?

Headline of the Day -100:

Good luck with that, guys. Prince Faisal of the Kingdom of Hejaz says the Arabs have an even greater right to independence than the new states in Europe “since we are the oldest democracy in the world.” That’s Prince Faisal saying that. “Why should we not be masters in our own house?” he asks.

Also looking for independence, 25 of the people elected to the British Parliament from Ireland (the rest being in prison or exile) constitute themselves as an Irish Parliament (Dáil Éireann), declare Irish independence, adopt a provisional constitution, and appoint a delegation to present Irish claims to the Peace Conference. 2/3 of that delegation are currently in prison, leaving only Count Plunkett, a name I will never stop finding amusing. The TDs (that’s the term in 2019, I’m not sure what this group called themselves) have some difficulties trying to conduct the meeting in Gaelic.

Ex-king Manuel of Portugal changes his mind and says he’d be willing to take back the throne after all, now that the war is over and with the assassination of President Sidónio Pais last month and everything.

In the US Senate, Sen. Warren G. Harding says things are “drifting into chaos” in terms of reconstruction in the US and Wilson and his administration should “give up their idealism.” Evidently the first step in his campaign to become president is taking a firm anti-idealism stand. He thinks Wilson should have formalized a peace deal first thing, before he went around Europe being adored by the masses. Also, because Wilson kept talking about making the world safe for democracy, Harding thinks he’s personally responsible for Bolshevism, because logic. He says that in Europe, “If we must have anarchy on the one hand or hateful autocracy on the other, I choose autocracy.”

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Today -100: January 21, 1919: Of monarchists, trustworthy nations, resentful kings, and IQ

The Austrian government tells former Emperor Charles that unless the monarchist movements at home and abroad cease to agitate for his return, he will be banished from Vienna.

Lord Robert Cecil, the British foreign secretary until earlier this month and now in charge of League of Nation policy for Britain, says only “trustworthy” nations should be admitted to the League. Germany, Austria, Turkey and Bulgaria will be deemed trustworthy when their governments are not dominated by the military and no doubt a whole bunch of other criteria, and in Germany’s case when the present disorder is resolved.

Headline of the Day -100: 

Former Portuguese King Manuel II, deposed in 1910 when a republic was proclaimed, objects to the movement of soldiers who just occupied Porto and proclaimed the Monarchy of the North in his name without even asking him, which is just bad manners.

Columbia University will replace entrance exams with IQ tests.

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Today -100: January 20, 1919: Of radio aliens, bells, epilepsy, and roofs

In an interview, radio dude Guglielmo Marconi says he hopes to communicate with life on other planets. Indeed, he’s often received odd signals which just might be....

German National Assembly elections are held amidst riots and the occasional general strike. Spartacists, none too pleased about the murder of their leaders, seize bourgeois newspapers and disrupt voting.

Erich Ludendorff (who fled Germany at the end of the war) says he’s writing a completely impartial book that will totally exonerate him.

Italians in the regions of Italy which were occupied during the war ask to be given Austrian cannons to melt and make new church bells to replace the ones that were taken away by the Austrians to be made into cannons.

Prince John of England, King George V’s 6th kid, dies of epilepsy at 13. The official notice of his death is the first time his medical condition is revealed to the public.

Headline of the Day -100:

Jules Védrine wins a 25,000 franc prize for landing on a roof (offered before the war), which seems oddly specific. He lands on a department store roof in Paris. His plane is 36 feet wide, the roof 52 feet wide & 75 feet long. Védrine, who has the first pilot to beat 100 mph and hopes to fly around the world, will die in a crash in 3 months.

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Today -100: January 19, 1919: Good luck with that, guys.

The Peace Conference opens. The Germans, whenever they arrive, will oppose any terms that go beyond Wilson’s 14 Points.

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Today -100: January 18, 1919: Summary, if irregular, justice

The armistice is extended for another month.

Karl Liebknicht is reportedly shot dead while “attempting to escape.” And Rosa Luxemburg is reportedly beaten by a mob and shot dead by some rando and thrown in the canal. Both stories are, of course, bullshit (except for the canal part; it will be months before her body, um, surfaces): the two were tortured and then executed by the soldiers who held them, under orders from their commanding officer. Pre-meditated, in other words. The German press mostly blames her for her supposed mob lynching, for having aroused “the basest passions.” And so does the NYT, which calls their murders “a summary, if irregular, justice to the fomenters of robbery, murder, and anarchy.” It blames the thriving of the Spartacists on the hesitance of the Socialist government “to make the final test.” “These two leaders, the man violent but weak, the woman a termagant of the familiar revolutionary type, have perished miserably by the sword they drew.”

The press protest their exclusion from the peace negotiations, demanding the admittance of 5 journalists from each major country. The French newspapermen don’t join the protest, they’re not fussed. The Supreme War Council backs down and will allow in 3 reporters from each country, except when they don’t.

Another rumor of a counter-revolution breaking out in Petrograd. Lenin is evidently now in exile in... Barcelona.

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Today -100: January 17, 1919: They would drag us all down to the level of the lowest man

Nebraska is the 36th state to ratify the prohibition amendment, which means it is now the 18th Amendment to the Constitution. It will come into effect in a year. It will require Congress to pass enacting legislation, defining “intoxicating liquors” and setting up enforcement (the states also have enforcement powers).

Rosa Luxemburg has been “murdered,” according to a correct but sparse report. And Karl Liebknecht is reported captured by troops.

Some Montenegrins don’t want to be folded into Yugoslavia and are resisting Serb troops.

The Senate votes 50-21 to exonerate Robert La Follette of disloyalty for a 1917 speech in which he said that the sinking of the Lusitania was not a sufficient reason to go to war.

The Ebert government issues a draft constitution for Germany. Provisions include a 10-year term for an elected president and the partition of the country – and more importantly, Prussia – into entirely new states.

Spartacists are declaring separatist republics in Bremen and Brunswick.

46 members of the IWW are convicted of conspiracy to violate the Conscription Act. Federal prosecutor Robert Duncan told the jury, “They would drag us all down to the level of the lowest man. They do not recognize difference of ability in man, but would give the unworthy the same privileges for which the worthy have to strive so hard.” 43 of the Wobblies refused to speak or put on any defense. They will be sentenced to terms ranging from 1 to 10 years.

Headline of the Day -100: 

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Today -100: January 16, 1919: Of molasses. Sweet, murderous molasses.

Headline of the Day -100: 

This is the Great Molasses Flood, in which 21 Bostonians come to a sticky end as 2 million gallons of molasses run through the streets at 35 miles per hour, drowning people and horses, destroying buildings and crumpling elevated train tracks. There’s a book about this.

After all the talk about “open covenants of peace, openly arrived at,” the five Powers decide (supposedly over US and British objections) to keep the Versailles deliberations secret.

The NYT prints another story about how the Romanovs are totally still alive, at a monastery in the Urals.

You know who’s (also) not alive? Karl Liebknicht and Rosa Luxemburg. I think it’ll take a few days for their bodies to be discovered.

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Today -100: January 15, 1919: Where is the enemy?

Sen. William Borah (R-Idaho) attacks the idea of a League of Nations as requiring the maintenance of large militaries, including peace-time conscription in the US (actually the Peace Conference is talking about banning conscription. Oh, or maybe that hasn’t come up yet). Borah is also not fond of Navy Secretary Josephus Daniels’ plan for a huge navy, asking “Where is the enemy?”

The peace talkers have almost decided on whether the talks will be conducted wholly in French. They have allocated representation: 5 delegates for France, Britain, the US, Italy and Japan, 3 for Brazil for some reason, 2 for Belgium, Serbia (just Serbia, not the United Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes) no decision yet about the Croats and Slovenes), Greece, Poland, Romania, Czechoslovakia, China, Canada, Australia, South Africa and India. 1 for New Zealand and Newfoundland. States which broke off diplomatic relations with Germany but didn’t declare war, like Portugal, get 1.  Decisions will have to be unanimous.

The Senate votes for a $5,000 pension (and franking privileges) for Theodore Roosevelt’s widow Edith.

The remnants of the Spartacists, having lost their revolution, are turning to looting and holding up casinos frequented by war profiteers, the NYT reports.

Former Kaiser Wilhelm now has a beard. It’s grey.

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Today -100: January 14, 1919: We have no policy in Russia

Sen. Hiram Johnson (R-CA) is frustrated that the Foreign Relations Committee is delaying action on his resolution asking the government for its rationale for keeping troops in Russia and he is frustrated at the White House for not responding. He says this shows “that we have no policy in Russia.” Troops yes, policy no.

Britain has tentatively suggested that the Bolshevik government be invited to the peace talks, along with the various competing White governments. No one else seems too keen.

The Japanese delegation arrives. The only non-whites at the conference presently, I believe. It’s still being worked out which countries will be represented and by how many delegates each, but China will be there and won’t be represented by Japan, which I can’t believe was ever seriously proposed but I guess it was.

That the peace talks seem to have accomplished so little is in part due to the powers spending more time talking about out how to remove the Bolsheviks from power in Russia.

Using heavy artillery, the German government defeats the Spartacists in Berlin. Prisoners are being executed, which is a first since the Revolution began in November. It won’t be the last time. Rosa Luxemburg writes, in what will be her last article, “the government’s rampaging troops massacred the mediators who had tried to negotiate the surrender of the Vorwärts building, using their rifle butts to beat them beyond recognition. Prisoners were lined up against the wall and butchered so violently that skull and brain tissue splattered everywhere.”

California is the 24th state to ratify the prohibition amendment. In so voting, the Legislature chooses to defy the results of the prohibition referenda held last November.

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Today -100: January 13, 1919: I would rather die than be forced to admit that civil war is prevailing

In the midst of trying to form a coalition government for Poland, Ignacy Jan Paderewski is shot, but not seriously injured.

Uruguayan police supposedly foil a Bolshevik plot for simultaneous revolutions there and in Argentina.

Grand Duchess Marie-Adélaïde announces her abdication; Luxembourg is now a republic, says the NYT, a bit prematurely.

Headline of the Day -100: 

Willing to shoot down their fellow countrymen, you know, “dependable.” Troops recapture the Vorwärts building (well, set it on fire after bombarding it. Not sure how useful it will be for putting out a newspaper now). This is followed by a parade of soldiers through Berlin to show who’s in charge. The Spartacist uprising spreads to Düsseldorf and...

“Infection.” Bavaria’s socialist Prime Minister Kurt Eisner says “I would rather die than be forced to admit that civil war is prevailing in Munich.”

The French General Staff is reportedly going to propose exiling ex-kaiser Wilhelm and all the male members of the Hohenzollern family to (French) Algeria.

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Today -100: January 12, 1919: Did you win the war in order to knit Ireland’s chains?

The NYT is pretty sure Karl Liebknecht has been machine-gunned to death. Nope.

I’ve been wondering: when did the NYT first have a corrections section? Does anyone know?

Headline of the Day -100: 

Not really a significant headline, just worth noting that Germany still has POWs, presumably darned pissed-off POWs, it hasn’t released 2 months after the armistice.

Sinn Féin hq in Dublin is raided. The police find pamphlets addressed to US soldiers asking “Did you win the war in order to knit Ireland’s chains?” and “We helped to win your independence. Will you help us to win ours?”

Knit?

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