Today -100: July 31, 1921: Of prisoners and flags

Russia agrees to Hoover’s demand that it release American prisoners as a precondition for food aid.

Newly appointed Governor of Puerto Rico Emmet Montgomery Reily is inaugurated. He says the only flag for which there is room in Puerto Rico is the US flag, although possession or display of the Puerto Rican flag will only be made literally illegal in 1948.

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Today -100: July 30, 1921: Of wholesale disregard of law, cops gone amuck, hitchy koo, and bathing Germans

The head of the American Legion warns/threatens Pres. Harding against pardoning Eugene Debs, which would “license a wholesale disregard of law.”

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Raymond Hitchcock the comedian, but wouldn’t it be funny if it were Alfred Hitchcock? Also, the play Hitchy Koo, not actual, you know, hitchy koo.

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A Catholic newspaper disagrees with the Socialist Vorwärts, which says “Honest freemen will laugh at sham modesty and bathe naked or not, as they please.” Because nothing says “freeman” like a naked German.

I don’t get it. The perfect refreshment after a hard day chasing chickens?

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Today -100: July 29, 1921: A noble example of common sense

The French government accuses Britain of an “unfriendly attitude” about Upper Silesia. France wants enough troops in place before the Supreme Council decides on the border between Poland and Germany, to suppress any (by which they mean German, they always mean German) resistance. Britain thinks if anyone will be kicking up a fuss, it’ll be the Poles. France has asked Germany for permission to send a division through Germany, but Germany pointed out that under the Treaty of Versailles such a demand can only be made by all 3 Allies. The NYT says that British officials think French politicians are “obsessed by considerations which are not concerned with the practical realities of the age, but look to the future period, however remote, when powerful Germany will seek revenge.”

In other news, Adolf Hitler is elected chairman of the Nazi Party.

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Today -100: July 28, 1921: “Ah knows ev’y inch o’ Vaginny” is also the name of a 1921 porno, probably

A German court overturns the House of Hohenzollern laws, under which kaisers dictated the lives of members of their family. In this case, Prince Eitel Friedrich, current legal head of the former royal family, tried to keep Princess Marie-Auguste away from her son, 4-year-old Prince Karl, whose father Prince Joachim committed suicide a year ago. When the court rejected his authority to do so, Eitel attacked Marie-Auguste as an unfit mother who had run away from the family, and not alone if you know what I mean, but she made an emotional plea and got her kid back.

Some time back Secretary of Labor James Davis took a cab after his train failed to get him where he needed to be for a meeting, only for the cab to get lost, or something, and Davis gave up on the whole thing, telling the cabbie to collect from the railroad company. When they didn’t cough up, the cabbie gave up... until he saw a newspaper story about the whole thing which put negro dialect – “Ah knows ev’y inch o’ Vaginny, but this yer car can’t make mo’n thuty” – into his mouth, which infuriated him because he is not a negro, and now he’s going after Davis for that fare.

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They obviously realize this is another bullshit rumor, but does it stop them from printing it? No it does not.

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Today -100: July 27, 1921: Our governors are not born kings

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Southern politicians and newspapers indignantly reject the idea that famine and pellagra are running rampant in the cotton zone, which has been hit badly by declining cotton prices. They reject any aid from the federal government. (It doesn’t help that medical science is unsure – when not outright wrong – about the cause and treatment of pellagra.)

Sangamon County, Illinois Judge Ernest Smith rules that the governor is not immune from arrest. “Our governors are not born kings. They were not born with halos around them.” This is true: in Illinois they are born with handcuffs around them; it saves time. Judge Smith scoffs at Gov. Len Small’s threat to call out the militia to prevent his arrest, saying the militia can only be called out to help enforce the law, not break it. Small immediately leaves town.

I cannot move on without disclosing that the governor’s lawyer is a Mr. Fink.

The lower house of the Georgia Legislature votes to tax all bachelors over the age of 30 $5 a year. An amendment to tax all couples married three years who have yet to produce offspring $500 fails.

The small Upper Austrian town of Eferding issues an edict that no Jew may stay in the town longer than 24 hours.

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Today -100: July 26, 1921: Fascists gonna fasch

Fascists invade Roccastrada, a village in Tuscany and search houses, executing a dozen men found with Communist Party membership cards and burning 17 houses.

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Today -100: July 25, 1921: I cannot have my people killed in this manner

Italian Prime Minister Ivanoe Bonomi gets his largest majority vote in parliament, supporting his determination to put down violence. The Fascists and Communists vote in favor of violence, I guess. The Fascists issue a manifesto claiming victory in Sarzana over the “Bolshevist illusion” but say “Now, more than ever, we must watch lest the hydra-headed beast we have crushed lift its head again.” Heads, surely.

Herbert Hoover, who while Secretary of Commerce is also still head of the non-official American Relief Administration, tells Russia that sure he’ll help with their little mass starvation problem, but they have to release American prisoners first.

H. Wickham Steed, editor of the London Times, says King George had a lot to do with settling the Ireland question. For example, he asked Lloyd George, “Are you going to shoot all the people in Ireland,” to which LG replied, “No, your majesty.” The king responded that then there must be some agreement; “I cannot have my people killed in this manner.” This story will be denied by the king five days – suspiciously long, I say – from now. Steed says simply that some of it shouldn’t have been printed, without admitting making it all up. The Daily Mail, falsely reports that it was Northcliffe rather than Steed who gave this interviewed; the Mail is owned by Northcliffe.

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Today -100: July 24, 1921: Let me get at that dirty flag-hating —

At a Congressional committee investigating the escape of convicted draft evader Grover Cleveland Bergdoll and whether he’d bribed an Army major, Rep. Ben Johnson (D-Ky) pulls a gun and threatens to shoot a witness, Bergdoll’s brother, who accused Johnson of lying when he said that he was lying. Johnson is restrained by his wife and others. “Let me get at that dirty flag-hating —” Johnson bellowed.

The Yugoslav minister of interior is assassinated, and authorities round up 600 of the usual Communist suspects.

The Ku Klux Klan finally takes responsibility for two of the recent rash of tar-and-featherings, sending a manifesto to the two Beaumont, Texas newspapers. The NYT doesn’t recount their explanations for targeting these two men, one of them a doctor, the other a Marine Corps veteran, but it does reproduce their quotation from Josiah Gilbert Holland’s poem God Give Us Men.

A white man, Casey Jones, is lynched in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. He’d been convicted of murder and was sentenced to hang, but his case was under appeal. A mob had tried to lynch him the day after the murder but were thwarted by a preacher with a gun.

The Calcutta board of film censors complains that imported films mostly have all-white casts, and therefore feature white bad guys, drunks, etc., which “does not tend to uplift the prestige of the British race in India.”

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Today -100: July 23, 1921: Of Italian violence, spinsters, and Jewish cities

More Fascist-Communist-carabineer violence, in Sarzana, Italy. Something over 25 people are killed, but as some of the bodies were tossed into the sea, an accurate count is not possible.

The Sheppard Maternity Bill passes the House of Representatives 63-7. James Reed (D-Missouri)’s amendment to change the title of the bill to “A Bill to organize a board of spinsters to teach mothers how to raise babies” was rejected by voice vote.

Max Schallman, who may or not be a trade agent for Russia, as he claimed he was while negotiating contracts, especially for shoes, was just arrested in Chicago. He planned to build a city of 20,000 Jews near Niles, Michigan.

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Today -100: July 22, 1921: Of American bread, immunity, and klans

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As proof that half of Russians have “returned to the mental and physical level of the Middle Ages,” the NYT claims millions of Russian peasants are moving to Moscow where “American bread” is said to be being distributed, while other hordes are moving East to meet with a rumored new Tsar.

Illinois Gov. Len Small fails to show up in court to give bail, saying he’s immune from arrest because the state constitution makes the 3 branches of government equal, so for him to go on trial for his many crimes would be to subordinate the executive branch to the judicial. Two consecutive Illinois governors in the 1890s also refused to be arrested.

49 members of the Texas Legislature request a bill aimed at the Ku Klux Klan (presumably the disguised men in white behind recent tar-and-featherings. The NYT has reported several incidents without offering any hint about what the victims’ offenses may have been. It also it hasn’t specified their race, which means they’re white). The proposed bill would ban people in disguise punishing people against whom no legal complaint has been filed.

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Today -100: July 21, 1921: The most Illinois story ever

Massachusetts Attorney General J. Weston Allen rules that the 19th Amendment didn’t overturn the state’s ban on women holding office.

Illinois Gov. Lennington “Len” Small and Lt Gov. Fred Sterling are indicted on charges of embezzling public funds, conspiracy to defraud the state, and running a con game. Small is accused of defrauding the state of $2 million and embezzling $1.2 million (some of those acts in conjunction with Sterling and/or other officials). These alleged crimes occurred during the periods Small and Sterling were state treasurer. They used a bank which had actually gone out of existence years before to deposit the state’s daily balances, which were then used to buy short-term notes issued by two meat-packing companies, resulting in profits that Small and Sterling kept. Small says the attorney general only came after him because Small didn’t let him use public money for his political machine. Small’s enemies point out that if he committed crimes before the November 1920 election, he wasn’t qualified for office and hence isn’t actually governor. Anyway, Small will be acquitted after using the age-old defense tactic of giving most of the jury jobs with the state. Both Small and Sterling will be re-elected.

Members of a farmworkers union round up and expel 58 Japanese field workers in Turlock, California.

New York Gov. Nathan Miller appoints the heads of the new film censorship commission.  Former lt. gov. George Cobb will be head, Joseph Levenson secretary, and a Mrs Eli Hosmer, noted Buffalo clubwoman, will be a commission member. Levenson says films should promote “Americanization” of immigrants to counter the “pernicious influence” of the foreign press, which is “socialistic, communistic and Bolshevistic.” Ic. The NYT notes that none of the 3 have any particular expertise in the movie industry and are basically political appointments (they’re all Republican, for a start).

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Today -100: July 20, 1921: Of highly improper and revolting methods, tear gas, and carrion crows

The Senate Naval Affairs Committee criticizes former Navy Secretary Josephus Daniels and, especially, former Assistant Secretary Franklin Delano Roosevelt for using sailors in undercover sting operations in Newport, Rhode Island, in which they fucked townie men. The NYT is a little shy about printing the details, but it wouldn’t have been hard to figure out what “performed upon them immoral acts” meant. FDR complains that he was never called to testify before the report was issued, despite promises. He denies that the undercover sailor-rentboys were under his direct supervision and claims it was quite late before he learned that they “used highly improper and revolting methods in getting evidence.” He says people are “tired of partisan discussion of dead history,” which was as lame an argument then as it is now.

The Philadelphia Police Dept tests tear gas out on 200 cops. Who volunteered, I hasten to add. In the test, the cops are instructed to attempt to arrest 6 men who have 150 tear-gas bombs; they fail to do so. The inventor of this particular gas, a Maj. Stephen Delanoy of the Army’s Chemical Warfare Division, tells them beforehand that it’s “absolutely not dangerous” but not to swallow too much. During the test, “a rotund policeman spectator unintentionally sat down on a loaded grenade that had slipped into the side lines. His weight exploded the missile” and sent him flying into a pond, more proof, if more proof were needed, that life in the 1920s was EXACTLY as it was portrayed in silent films.

Edmund Downey, editor of the Waterford (Ireland) News, is bound over, and may face a 6-month prison term for referring to Northern Ireland PM Sir James Craig’s return from London as “The Carrion Crow on the Wing.” The judge says the fact that he lifted that phrase from former Chief Irish Secretary Augustine Birrell is no excuse.

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Today -100: July 19, 1921: Of near misses and cheese fires

Irish President Éamon de Valera and Northern Irish PM Sir James Craig have separate meetings at 10 Downing Street with Lloyd George and are even in the building at the same time for seven full minutes, but don’t meet. Craig is going to leave London to make sure they don’t. He says Southern Ireland can come to whatever agreement it wants with London, it’s nuffing to do with us, mate. Craig rejects the idea of a unified Ireland, even with great autonomy (de Valera treating the six counties as a distinct political entity is already a considerable compromise). In 2021, we “celebrated” the centenary of the division of Ireland, but in 1921 they’re only just beginning to realize that that was what happened, that the two parts of Ireland will be governed as if they were separate entities.

I haven’t been reading the stories, but the trial of the “Black Sox” baseball players for throwing the 1919 World Series is going on.

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Today -100: July 18, 1921: Of letters, no demands but one, and non-helpful policies

The Harding administration hasn’t answered any mail from the League of Nations since taking office. Rude. Letters on opium suppression, sex trafficking, starving populations, all ignored. After a while, the League started sending them by registered mail.

The NYT says that (according to unconfirmed reports) Sinn Féin abandoning the demand for an Irish Republic is a “sign that Sinn Fein has come to a better and more sensible mind”. De Valera denies making any compromises: “I have made no demand but one – the only one I am entitled to make – that is that the self-determination of the Irish nation be recognized.”

A Senate sub-committee investigating charges by Admiral William Sims, who commanded US naval forces in Europe during the war, about mismanagement of the Navy during the war and lack of preparation between 1914 and 1917, divides on partisan lines, with Democrats siding with former Secretary Josephus Daniels and the Republican majority insisting that the US, rather than putting everything into winning the war, held back in case the Allies lost, implementing a “self-defensive, non-aggressive and non-helpful policy”.

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Today -100: July 17, 1921: The impulse of the moment

The German war crimes court in Leipzig convicts two U-boat lieutenants for firing on lifeboats and survivors after sinking a Canadian hospital ship, the Llandovery Castle, in 1918. They’re convicted for manslaughter rather than murder because they “acted on the impulse of the moment,” and are sentenced to 4 years, without hard labor. The actual commander of the boat, Helmut Patzig, fled Germany and is therefore not being tried.

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Today -100: July 16, 1921: Of bonuses and blackguards

The Senate accedes to Harding’s insistence that they delay passing a bonus for WW I veterans. Republican leaders say it will be reconsidered... just as soon as conditions permit. Porter McCumber (R-ND), who was in charge of the bill, says those conditions include, but are no doubt not limited to, the passage of tariff and tax legislation, and all the Allies paying off their war debts to the US. He then offers to go outside and fight James Reed (D-Missouri) after the latter, who didn’t even call him Mr McCucumber, which how could you resist, points out that the administration expects debt repayment to take at least five years. He adds that only blackguards offer to settle things “outside.” All this will be censored from the Congressional Record.

No one ever says “blackguard” anymore. They don’t even know how to pronounce it.

The German Federal Council, in a tie vote, rejects the government’s proposal to allow women to serve as judges and jurors in accordance with the Weimar Constitution’s provision for equal rights and responsibilities. Voting no, Bavaria’s rep says “The admission of women would result in a softening of justice, which is most undesirable just at this time.”

“Citzens’ posses” in Aberdeen, South Dakota, in conjunction with the sheriff, round up and eject 130 supposed Wobblies. “Other towns in the vicinity were notified to keep the men moving.”

In his talks with Lloyd George, Éamon de Valera is reportedly insisting that while he’s willing to grant a Northern Irish assembly a great deal of autonomy, it must be subordinate to the all-Ireland parliament. That is, its powers must derive from Dublin, not London.

Lloyd George is mispronouncing de Valera’s name.

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Today -100: July 15, 1921: Of Jim Crow conventions and a president and a prime minister meet

The Virginia State Republican convention bars all but 3 black delegates. What happened was Republicans decided that the adherence of black people to their party was a major obstacle to its success in Virginia, so they held secret local conventions to name delegates. When black Republicans found out about them afterwards, they held their own meetings and elected alternative delegates, all of whom have now been told to fuck off.

Éamon de Valera and Lloyd George meet. For two hours. Nothing is revealed of what they discussed, but you will be shocked to hear that they drank some tea.

Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti are convicted of murder in Dedham, Massachusetts for killing a paymaster and a guard during a robbery a year ago. The judge had told the jury to ignore the fact that they’re Italians.

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Today -100: July 14, 1921: Of masses of anarchy and ruin, earls, and conspicuous straightforwardness and honesty

A Southern Methodist group demands a national Blue Law banning Sunday newspapers and closing movie theaters, businesses and trains on the sabbath. It warns about “a mass of anarchy and ruin” in 25 years if this isn’t done.

German Minister of Justice Eugen Schiffer responds to French attacks on the German war crimes court by bringing up the Dreyfus Affair.

The Earl of Bandon, abducted by the IRA 3 weeks ago, is released.

The London Times says neither Prime Minister Lloyd George nor Foreign Secretary Lord Curzon should go to the Washington disarmament conference, because the British Empire’s reps should have “conspicuous straightforwardness and honesty” and LG lacks these things. It’s funny cuz it’s true. It also attacks Curzon’s “pompous and pretentious manner and incapacity for business”. 10 Downing Street and the Foreign Office respond by banning all Northcliffe papers from receiving press releases and other official information.

Every invited nation except, so far, Japan, have responded positively to the call, and Belgium and the Netherlands are grumbling about not being invited, the latter pointing out that the conference is also supposed to deal with the Far East and they own rather a large chunk of that.

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Today -100: July 13, 1921: With every breath you take

Éamon de Valera arrives in London with his party, to a large greeting by presumably Irish people at Euston Station.

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Save the type on this one, NYT, you’ll be using it again.

The Prince of Wales has a cold.

Harding’s call for disarmament talks has elicited positive responses from most foreign governments (well, France says it won’t be cutting its army no matter what). He now offers a tentative date: November 11, Armistice Day, in D.C. He also plans to bring up his stupid idea of an “association of nations” to replace the League of Nations.  

France threatens to continue the occupation of the Rhine until the German war crimes court in Leipzig starts punishing the Germans France thinks it should be punishing.

A Dr. Maingot of Paris is pushing phrenoscopy, which is the science of deducing a person’s character by seeing how they breathe. Sez Maingot, “With his first breath the infant shows the traits that will mark him for life, and with his last breath man shows what sort of person he was in his life.”

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Today -100: July 12, 1921: And now I want an ice cream soda again

Éamon de Valera will meet Lloyd George Thursday, just the two of them.

Wisconsin is the first state to enact full legal equality for women. This includes sitting on juries, care & custody of children, holding office, property, and – the only specific rights mentioned in the article – the right to wear trousers and chew tobacco.

Daniel O’Callaghan, the Lord Mayor of Cork who arrived in the US as a stowaway 6 months ago, sneaks back into Ireland, evidently as a stowaway again, since US immigration officials have no record of him leaving the country.

The Bronx Confectioners’ Association caves and will reduce the price of ice cream sodas from 15 to 10¢ (plus the 1¢ war tax). Whether that will appease the children who have been marching for 5¢, we shall see.

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