Today -100: December 31, 1921: But the Brits are too smart to fall into that trap, right?

The Indian National Congress fails to declare independence as some expected. It wants the blame for starting warfare to fall on the British.

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Today -100: December 30, 1921: To be fair, are we sure Gandhi couldn’t do those things?

Headline of the Day -100:  

France’s refusal to go along with limits on submarines (indeed, France plans to triple its sub tonnage) was thoroughly predictable, but Britain in particular was sure it could be browbeaten into accepting limits for some reason. There’s some hope remaining that France will join an agreement not to use submarines against civilian commercial ships. France would also have blocked any attempt to limit land forces, so no one tried. So the only thing the Washington Conference has accomplished is to limit the number of capital ships, which is disappointing but not nothing. Anyway, everyone hates France now, as is the custom.

The embezzlement charges against Illinois Gov. Len Small are dropped, along with the charge of operating a confidence game, but the charge of conspiracy to defraud the state of $2m remains. The embezzlement charge is gone only because the foreman of the grand jury signed the indictment in the wrong place; the con game charge is quashed because a typist left out a word. Pretty sure some money changed hands to ensure those mistakes. Other charges were dropped because prosecutors failed to prove an element of the crime.

The Indian National Congress gives Gandhi sole executive authority. He says “If non-violence is given up India will never attain her liberty.” That’s about it for quotes from Gandhi in the NYT, but they do give plenty of space to the Westminster Gazette account of ignorant Indian villagers who believe Gandhi is magic and can stop bullets, heal illnesses, re-grow severed limbs, and cause cotton to grow on trees.

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Today -100: December 29, 1921: Prison and Presidents can’t scare me

A huge crowd welcomes Eugene Debs back to Terre Haute. Placards include “Everybody smiles now” and “Prison and Presidents can’t scare me.” He’s even greeted by the (Republican) mayor, who kisses him on the cheek.

His house is still around, by the way (4 bedrooms, 1 bath), but not currently for sale. Update after some more googling, during which I discover that residents of Terra Haute are called Terra Hautians, which seems a little fancy for Indiana: Oh, wait, it’s a museum now.

Russian Rumor of the Day -100:  Cannibalism. Lots of cannibalism. And infanticide. Lots of infanticide.

The Indian National Congress re-affirms the non-violent policy championed by Gandhi. Opponents had tried to get the call for “legitimate and peaceful means” changed to “possible and proper means.”

Four San Francisco-based federal prohibition agents have recently gotten sick from bad brandy, which they totally had to drink to check evidence.

A man in Ontario breaks 21 windows in order to get a nice warm jail cell for the winter. The magistrate sentences him to a nice warm jail cell for the next 40 winters.

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Today -100: December 28, 1921: Of air attacks, Chicago-style murders (deep-dish, I guess), and storm orphans

The British authorities in Egypt threaten that if nationalist crowds form in Suez, they will be attacked from the air, first with smoke bombs, then shells and machine guns.

The Irish Horse Breeders’ Association adopts a resolution in favor of ratification of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, so that should pretty much settle that.

The Chicago murder rate is up to almost one per day. And on Christmas the city set a record for the most hospitalizations due to alcohol poisoning. Deaths from alcohol are also way up.

Mexican Pres. Obregón denies spreading anti-US propaganda in Central America.

Premiering today: Orphans of the Storm. Gishes! All the Gishes! Will Lillian be guillotined during the French Revolution? Will Dorothy regain her eyesight?

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Today -100: December 27, 1921: I trust that the notoriety he has received may not be commercialized

Eugene Debs arrives in DC. After he talks with Attorney General Harry Daugherty (“I volunteered no advice to him and he asked none,” says Daugherty; “I trust that the notoriety he has received may not be commercialized”), he hops over to the White House and speaks with Pres. Harding for half an hour, about what we do not know. Debs says he’ll work for “the freedom of political prisoners and the cause of all prisoners,” although for how long depends “entirely on how long I will be out.”

There’s a lynching in Key West with some backstory we’re not getting: coffee shop owner Manuel Head is beaten by a group of masked men (Klan?); some time afterwards he shoots and kills a “prominent resident.” He holds off a mob until the authorities arrest him, only for deputies to lose him to another mob (lots of mobs in this story), who tie him to a telephone pole and shoot him to death.

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Today -100: December 26, 1921: A shallow, howling, whining minority has had its way

France will stop branding its conscripted Vietnamese soldiers, a practice supposedly resulting from the soldiers taking “advantage of their baffling similarity in appearance” to go AWOL.

A condition of Eugene Debs’s release is that he has to “confer” with Attorney General Daugherty, for some reason, so he’s taking the train to Washington (update: the warden gave him a railroad ticket to DC; he had been intending to go to his home. He exchanged the Pullman ticket for a day coach and donated the difference to Russian relief). He has no comment for the reporters waiting for him at the prison gates except that the 2,300 political prisoners still in prison should also be released.

The NYT seems a tad upset about Debs’ release. After all, “He sought to murder the State.” “A shallow, howling, whining minority has had its way.”

Knight Dunlap, professor of experimental psych at Johns Hopkins, “invents” the chronoscope, which can measure intelligence and tell if people are guilty of crimes.

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Today -100: December 25, 1921: Only mildly merry

There are nationalist uprisings in Egypt against British rule, the Egyptian government has resigned, revolutionary leader (and future prime minister) Zaghlûl Pasha has been forcibly deported, and the British are preparing to slaughter whoever they need to slaughter to restore “peace.” As was the custom.

Colombia ratifies the treaty with the US giving them $25m in compensation for the US stealing Panama.

Headline of the Day -100:  

Because isn’t it always.

Headline of the Day -100:  

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Today -100: December 24, 1921: Of mock Santas, debses, and fermented wines

Pres. Harding commutes the sentences of 24 political prisoners, including Eugene Debs. He also pardons 5 soldiers who killed a former British officer in Germany. The pardon statement cites Debs’ age (66) and poor health and says he wasn’t as “rabid” in his expressions as some others, but probably got a harsh sentence because of his prominence. Some of the 24 are Wobblies who “have either expressed full penitence or are booked for deportation”. Many political prisoners remain in prison.

And Labor Secretary J.J. Davis orders the release of 1,100 immigrants being held for deportation at Ellis Island. However they’re only being released for 90 days, with no idea what happens to them after that. Half of them are Hungarian. Most or all were detained not for anything they’d done wrong but because their national quotas had been filled (the US is still blaming unscrupulous steamship companies).

Rumor of the Day -100:  Ex-kaiser Wilhelm, whose wife died in April, is going to marry the widow of an officer killed in the war. He won’t. I gather his courtiers are parading many possible brides in front of him.

Xmas-y Headline of the Day -100:  

Prohibition authorities are considering banning fermented wines from Christian and Jewish religious ceremonies, which they claim don’t require them, and substituting fruit juice or maybe a Snapple. This is mostly aimed at Jews, as there has been a bit of abuse of the regs allowing Jewish families 10 gallons of wine a year.

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Today -100: December 23, 1921: We do not care to assist in obtaining cheap notoriety for anybody

At the Washington Conference, Britain makes its case for banning submarines, saying 1) they’re ineffective as defensive weapons, 2) their chief value is against unarmed merchant ships, which is like totally inhumane. No one else agrees that subs have no legitimate uses, especially France.

The Theatre Owners’ Chamber of Commerce decides that none of the 600 movie theaters it controls will show “The Lonely Trail,” a movie actor Fred Beauvais wrote and stars in, because Beauvais was co-respondent in a divorce suit. Says the Chamber’s secretary, S.A. Morrass, “We do not care to assist in obtaining cheap notoriety for anybody.” Cheap notoriety is the worst kind.

Rep. James Aswell (D-Louisiana), last seen here 3 days ago defending lynching, demands that negroes be banned from the Congressional restaurant, after 4 are seen eating in the presence of their betters. The restaurant agrees to the ban.

The Dáil Éireann debates some more about the treaty before adjourning until 1922. What strikes me is that the debate is entirely about whether Ireland is getting powers demanded by the oath to the republic that so many took and what powers the king can exercise and so forth, and barely a word, at least in the NYT accounts, about Ulster and the division of Ireland.

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Today -100: December 22, 1921: Of candles, armies, raids, and dimes

The Hardings planned to put lighted candles in the White House’s windows for Xmas, but the general agent of the Underwriters’ Laboratories telegrammed that that would be fraught with danger, so they gave up the idea.

The new Lord Chamberlain, the Duke of Atholl, is the only person in Britain allowed to keep his own private army. This is still true in 2021, although the last couple of dukes have actually been South African. Queen Victoria gave the dukedom this right for some reason.

The Dry Police raid a hotel where a dinner is being given to Massachusetts Gov. Channing Cox to informally announce his candidacy for governor (not re-election, NYT, he’s governor now because Calvin Coolidge left the office), even though the federal prohibition director for New England, who is at the dinner, had authorized the liquor to be transported for the “personal use” of someone who claimed to live in a room in the hotel, a room which guests of the dinner kept slipping up to for some reason. The raid seems to be part of a power struggle within the prohibition office.

A local reporter briefly interviews John D. Rockefeller at a railway station in Savannah, Georgia. At the end, Rockefeller asks him if he’s married, because he wants to give him something to remember him by, then gifts him with six shiny new dimes, one for the reporter, one for his wife, and one each for his parents and parents-in-law.

Hatred, coming in 1922!

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Today -100: December 21, 1921: Speaking of insular

Pres. Harding evidently doesn’t know what his negotiators are up to, saying that the Four Power treaty (US, Britain, France, Japan) guaranteeing everyone’s ownership of colonies (“insular possessions and insular dominions”) in the Pacific does not also apply to the islands of Japan proper. He subsequently learns that his negotiators did agree to that interpretation, and says he’s okay with it.

Or maybe there wasn’t a revolution in Portugal.

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Today -100: December 20, 1921: I broke my oath of allegiance to the republic because I believed it to be the lesser evil

Headline of the Day -100:  

Someone sent an anonymous note, so lots of people gathered to see the possible explosion, because they hadn’t invented Netflix yet. This comes just after the arrest in Warsaw of a suspect in the September 1920 Wall Street bombing (who didn’t do it).

There’s a revolution in Portugal, as was the custom.

The Dáil finally debates the Anglo-Irish Treaty not behind closed doors. Arthur Griffith defends the treaty as “good enough.” Éamon de Valera accuses him and Collins of “subverting the republic.” Erskine Childers points out that the Irish Constitution would depend on an act of the British Parliament and that the king could veto Irish legislation. Robert Barton says he and Gavan Duffy, members of the delegation, only signed because Lloyd George threatened war unless every member signed and recommended passage by the Dáil; “I broke my oath of allegiance to the republic because I believed it to be the lesser evil.” Michael Collins denies having been bluffed into signing by the British.

Southern Democratic congresscritters filibuster a rule to limit debate on the anti-lynching bill. They claim the bill violates states’ police powers and would actually increase lynching and assault. James Aswell (D-Louisiana) says “The bill will protect the assaulters of women from the mob. ... It will encourage the criminal by making him think the danger of speedy death is removed.” More than one speaker uses the phrase “black beasts.”

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Today -100: December 19, 1921: I’m just gonna leave this one right here

Headline of the Day -100:  

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Today -100: December 18, 1921: Of pugsleys, kings, certain amendments, freer and more indulgent conduct, and a bigamy fat joke that’s just sitting there

Alliterative high school student Pearl Pugsley of Knobel, Arkansas sues the school board over its ban on cosmetics.

The Albanian commissioner to the US denies having asked Jerome Napoleon Bonaparte to become king of Albania.

The Dáil Éireann is debating the Anglo-Irish treaty behind closed doors. So we hear that Éamon de Valera has “suggested certain amendments” without hearing what they are.

NY Archbishop Patrick Hayes, the guy who sicced the cops on Margaret Sanger last month, issues a Christmas pastoral to be read at all 300 Catholic churches in New York denouncing birth control and “the freer and more indulgent conduct, more particularly amongst the younger members of the female sex.” Particularly. Pagan philosophy blah blah Herod blah blah unclean abomination blah blah. He also doesn’t like divorce, and says women should measure their lives by the number of their offspring, not the number of husbands.

A long letter to the NYT from Eugene O’Neill responds to complaints about the happy ending of Anna Christie. But are there really ever endings? he asks.

A possible explanation for why Bambina Maude Delmont, who swore out the initial complaint against Fatty Arbuckle, wasn’t a witness at his trial: she has now plead guilty on a charge of bigamy, and received a year’s probation.

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Today -100: December 17, 1921: Of ratios, crowns, twangs, fake gold, peelers, and old old old lawsuits

France wants more warships than the 5:5:3:3:3 ratio would give it, 3.5 say. It doesn’t have nearly that many ships now, and isn’t in financial shape to build them, but it might be able to in the future and it doesn’t want a lower limit than Japan has (it might also be using this as leverage for it to keep submarines, which it considers the little guy’s weapon of defense; Britain wants to ban submarines altogether). Also, it has all these colonies all over the world and needs a bunch of ships to keep them in line. Italy of course wants whatever France gets. And Britain says if France and Italy get more ships, it wants more ships.

Albania tentatively offers Jerome Napoleon Bonaparte, great-grand-nephew of Napoleon I, who lives in New York, the Albanian crown. He’s unsure whether he wants it, because Albania is kind of a mess.

VP Coolidge has an operation on his nose to relieve his breathing, and it has removed his Yankee “twang.”

The Houses of Commons and Lords easily approve the Anglo-Irish treaty.

Prof. Irving Fisher of Yale, an economist, thinks Germany might pay off reparations by having its chemists make artificial gold out of baser metals. So.... alchemy?

19 Klansmen, some of them prominent Austin, Texas businessmen, are arrested for murder of one Peeler Clayton, stockman. It’s unclear what they had against Ol’ Peeler.

The court of Nancy, France, settles a lawsuit between the towns of Charcillat and Meussia over ownership of a wood, dividing it between them. The lawsuit began in 1230.

Composer Camille Saint-Saëns, dies at 86.

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Today -100: December 16, 1921: Of treaties, chains of circumstance that spell ruin, and prohibition

Éamon de Valera wants the treaty to go to a referendum, which treaty supporters do not want.

Rep. John Elston (R-California) commits suicide, drowning himself in the Potomac. He left a note saying “I am in a chain of circumstances that spell ruin, although my offense was innocently made in the beginning.” Don’t know what that all means, although his friends will claim it really read “although my offer was unconditionally made” and that his suicide was because of depression after failing to get Congress to authorize a naval base for Alameda.

Chicago Police Chief Charles Fitzmorris orders the police to enforce Prohibition, you know, really enforce it this time.

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Today -100: December 15, 1921: Of treaties, ratios, and lynching trees

Éamon de Valera explains that the Irish negotiators of the treaty failed to submit it to the Dáil before signing it, as their instructions required. I’m still not hearing his specific objections to the treaty.

René Maran, from French Martinique, wins the Prix Goncourt for his novel Batouala, set in French Equatorial Africa. Maran is the first black person to win the award. Its criticism of French colonialism will lead to it being banned, as was the custom. And the NYT spells his name wrong, as was the custom.

Japan accepts the 5:5:3 naval ratio, after some fiddling to allow it to keep the destroyer Matsu, which the Japanese are very fond of for some reason.

Tarrant County, Texas orders the “lynching tree” near the county jail in Forth Worth cut down following two lynchings in the last year in which people were hanged from it.

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Today -100: December 14, 1921: Of bad government, wildcats, juries, and censuses

Former Boston Mayor James Curley is elected mayor again, defeating the “good government” candidate. Curley is the corrupt government candidate.

A white man who attacked an 8-year-old girl is lynched in Waco, Texas.

Marshal Foch really is taking that wildcat he was given by the Montana branch of the American Legion back to France with him. Her name is Theodora, which is a delightful name for a wildcat.

The Iowa Supreme Court upholds women’s right to serve on juries. (The one-sentence story doesn’t make clear if that means they’ll be obligated to serve on the same terms as men. In New York, for instance, women could volunteer but could not be forced onto juries until the 1970s, which explains Twelve Angry Men.)

Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover approves the idea of a new census in 1925, saying 1920’s census reflected an “abnormal” population shift into cities, affecting reapportionment, which he claims is now reversing itself. Don’t know how a new census would change that. Also, the census didn’t affect reapportionment because there hasn’t been a reapportionment, and won’t be.

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Today -100: December 13, 1921: Of borahs, ratios, and citizenship

Sen. William Borah (R-Idaho) starts a debate in the Senate over the not-yet-signed Four Power treaty on the Pacific, claiming that even though it doesn’t require the four imperial powers to come to each other’s aid militarily in case of aggression, the US would be bound “morally” to do so, and that’s not okay with him. Borah will also oppose the naval reduction treaty if it doesn’t ban submarines and poison gas.

The Washington Conference adds France and Italy to the naval limitation thingy. So the ratio is now 5:5:3:3:3.

Despite mass arrests of anyone who might mar the Prince of Wales’s tour of India, almost everyone (natives anyway) boycotts his parade/procession/whatever in Allahabad.

Pres. Harding refuses to see the delegation which came from Porto Rico to demand the recall of Gov. E. Mont Reily.

In 1918 Congress extended to Asians the practice of granting citizenship to members of the military. Now, the Harding Administration, looking for a test case, cancels the citizenship of a Japanese Coast Guard steward who has served for 8 years.

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Today -100: December 12, 1921: Of disarmed nations, lynchings, and male and female degenerates

Headline of the Day -100:  

Yay! Germany will never be a military threat again!

G.A. Rau, the Columbia student reported missing after he went to a KKK meeting, turns up, claiming that four men in masks tied him to a tree and whipped him. He displays some torn clothing but not the actual alleged injuries.

Prof. Lawrence Morris of the Allegheny Vocational School for veterans is found dead, shot in the chest with, mysteriously, a filled-in application form for the KKK in his pocket.

A black strikebreaker in the San Antonio stockyards who shot two striking picketers last week and was then beaten up by strikers, is seized by a mob from the hospital and lynched.

The new Archbishop of Baltimore, Michael Curley, has some shit to say (at a confirmation, no less) about birth control, and while Catholic officials a hundred years later still oppose birth control, do they call its advocates “male and female degenerates who would fly in the face of God the Creator and make life one great sin and orgy of passion”?

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