Today -100: July 31, 1922: Of excommunications, Asia minors, and klandidates

Cardinal Michael Logue, the octogenarian primate of Ireland, threatens to put the town of Dundalk under excommunication for being all violent and shit.

Trotsky says Lenin’s health has improved and he’s at work again.

Vittorio Orlando gives up trying to form a government for Italy after the Socialists threaten a general strike if he includes the Nationalists, Conservatives or Fascists. Mussolini says a center-left government wouldn’t represent the will of the majority of Italians; he wants a new election.

Greece, having been told by the Allies that it won’t be allowed to occupy Constantinople, now says that areas it occupies in Asia Minor, Smyrna and environs won’t be given back to Turkey but will be turned into an autonomous state, or protectorate or something. Which is very much against the Allies’ idea of what peace should look like.

With the Oklahoma primaries coming soon, the Klan distributes model Democratic tickets to every Protestant church in Oklahoma City. The NYT only tells us their candidate for governor, but he will lose lose lose.

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Today -100: July 30, 1922: Of cockeys, unconvincing parades, and women candidates

The Italian Socialists may form the next Cabinet, everyone else having failed.

In Macon, Georgia, Deputy Sheriff Walter Byrd is shot by a black man named “Cockey” Glover, and all hell breaks loose, with lots of black people being shot at. Glover is still at large (but will be lynched).

Sarcastic Headline of the Day -100:  

Izetta Brown, former actress and widow of Democratic congresscritter William Gray Brown Jr, is running for the US Senate in West Virginia, the first such woman candidate in the South.

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Today -100: July 29, 1922: Of betrayed war ministers, hungry hungry intellectuals, lynchings in hope, assassination plans, and helicoplanes

The movie “How Kitchener Was Betrayed,” which portrays the sinking of War Secretary Earl Kitchener in 1916 as being the result of the nefarious actions of a German spy, female of course, rather than by his ship simply hitting a mine, is held up by US customs officials and will ultimately be banned at Britain’s request.

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The Fascists occupying Ravenna have taken over the federated labor unions’ building, burned a co-op and several Socialist and Republican clubs. But one Fascist gets shot in his car, and suddenly the Fasc are claiming to be the victims.

A quarrel between a black street-paver and his white boss in Hope, Arkansas, birthplace of Bill Clinton, leads to the former being lynched. The fight was over a drinking cup – possibly a whites-only drinking cup? unclear.

The French government claims that German monarchists (“Organization C,” presumably) are planning an assassination attempt on French Prime Minister Raymond Poincaré. Unclear if this is based on information passed to them by the German government. 

Anna Tynan’s claim for compensation for blood poisoning in her Brooklyn job as a hat-maker is rejected because her employer refuses to tell the Workmen’s Compensation Commission what chemicals it uses. Hat-making is notoriously dangerous.

A “helicoplane” which can supposedly rise vertically and hover is tested in Britain. It travels 5 yards and rises one (1) foot into the air (which is as high as its controls can be operated from the outside, because who would dare ride inside the thing).

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Today -100: July 28, 1922: Of crashes, jazz, pleasing and serving white people, and prison escapes

Two US army reserve aviators are arraigned for violating NYC’s minimum 2,000-feet limit for flying machines. They were actually flying their military plane at 0 feet at the time they crashed in Far Rockaway, but they were pretty low even before that. If they question the ability of cops to determine if they were flying at 2,000 feet, evidence will be introduced that people could see their faces.

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James Vardaman, the former governor and US senator from Mississippi, says Woodrow Wilson only opposes his run for senator because the last time he was senator, “I performed my duties... with the intention of pleasing and serving the white people of Mississippi and not to please or flatter the occupants of the White House.”

The IRA blow a hole in the wall of Dundalk Gaol in County Louth, and 105 prisoners, I think just IRAers, escape. Half are recaptured by evening.

Italian Fascists are pouring into Ravenna to fight Socialists & Communists. Several dead. The Fascists give Socialist, Communist & Republican leaders (all of them, or just in Ravenna?) 24 hours to leave the country.

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Today -100: July 27, 1922: Of shipwrecks and Italian governments (but I repeat myself)

A British company will try to salvage gold from the wreck of the Lusitania. An American company that wanted to do the same asked the US government to protect its plans, since the ship was sunk in international waters, but the government says no.

While the German federal government has yet to use its brand new Republic Defense Act, Bavaria has used its version (which the German Cabinet calls “illegal and unconstitutional”) to ban two anti-Semitic newspapers. I guess this is in aid of the claim that Bavaria’s rejection of the federal act is about some sort of state’s rights principle rather than an attempt to protect monarchists and far-right terrorists.

In Italy, political leaders (Vittorio Orlando, Ivanoe Bonomi) are either refusing or failing to form a government. Outgoing premier Luigi Facta suggests the king get Catholic Party leader Filippo Meda, who brought down Facta’s coalition, to do it.

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Today -100: July 26, 1922: Of putting the people to work, defying Berlin, and fish civil wars

Henry Ford has a cunning plan to end civil strife in Mexico by opening motor assembly factories and “putting the people to work.”

Headline of the Day -100:  

Bavaria has passed its own version of the central government’s Republic Defense Act and will reject any enforcement inside Bavaria of the federal law by the courts and police set up by that law. But it’s their justification that’s most startling: the Weimar constitution allows states to promulgate extraordinary measures if there’s danger coming. In this case, Bavaria is saying that that danger would be the furious reaction of Bavarians to implementation of a federal law to protect the republic from terrorists.

Former kaiser Wilhelm is suing the author Emil Ludwig in a Berlin court to prevent the publication or performance of his play Bismarck’s Dismissal, not because it’s libelous, but on the principle that there should be no portrayal of his ex-highness during his lifetime. Willy’s real complaint is that Ludwig makes Bismarck look better than him (his lawyer is named Dr. Frankfurter, by the way).  (Willy will win the case).

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Today -100: July 25, 1922: Of independence, republic defense, and rum-running

The Philippines now has three political parties, the latest being the Collectivist Party (Partido Nacionalista-Colectivista) of Manuel Quezon, president of the Senate and future president of the country. All 3 parties want independence.

The German state of Bavaria is resisting implementation within its borders of the federal Republic Defense Act (Republikschutzgesetz) which was just passed in response to the assassination of Walther Rathenau and is aimed at terrorist groups. The Bavarian governing coalition breaks up over this stance, and the left is threatening a general strike. The ability of the central government to get the Bavarian military to enforce the law is questionable.

The US asks Britain to help suppress rum-running from its Caribbean colonies. Britain has no treaty obligation to do so, and I’m not sure any non-US law is being broken.

And isn’t “rum-running” a rather delightful phrase? Say it out loud: rum-running rum-running rum-running.

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Today -100: July 24, 1922: Of klandidates and hearses

The big winners in the Texas Democratic Party primary (votes not all counted yet): the Ku Klux Klan and the candidates it supports. Among the latter: Earle Mayfield, who is well ahead of former impeached governor James Ferguson and will indeed be the next US senator; incumbent Gov. Pat Neff; and many down-ballot races.

After some act(s) of violence, Britain is already threatening to take back control of Egypt.

A hearse transporting a corpse from Long Island to Manhattan is stopped five separate times by prohibition agents sure it was carrying booze.

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Today -100: July 23, 1922: Of flatheads, wool battles, masks, and radio

Headline of the Day -100:  

What the hell is going on in the Senate?

KKK “Acting Wizard” E.Y. Clarke orders klansmen to refrain from wearing masks, except in their lodge rooms. This is in response to Gov. Thomas Hardwick of Georgia’s threat to ban masks.

The German Reichstag passes laws allowing women into the legal profession and exempting women employees of the federal government from disciplinary measures because of unwed motherhood.

In May, NYC metropolitan area radio stations agreed to divide up daily broadcasting hours between them. The popular (and high-wattage) WJZ, Newark refused to go along, and the other stations are demanding it be forced off the air. This wouldn’t be an issue if the Commerce Dept didn’t restrict radio stations to 360-meter waves.

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Today -100: July 22, 1922: Of aerial traffic cops, arsenic, and limericks

The NYPD’s aviation dept will start sending up planes to pull over private planes violating the new minimum flying height of 2,000 feet, “using force if necessary.”

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They say it’s so they can poison boll weevils cheaply. A likely story.

The Irish Free State captures Limerick & Waterford from the rebels.

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Today -100: July 21, 1922: To any reaction we will answer with insurrection

Two men are executed in Sing Sing. One of the official witnesses is a blind man who wants to “sense the feeling” of an execution.

In the Italian Chamber of Deputies, Mussolini says of the prospective new Cabinet, “Soon the Fascisti will have to decide whether to continue their struggle in a legal or insurrectionary form.” He says no government will be able to govern Italy “should machine guns against the Fascisti figure in its program. We have numerous disciplined well-organized forces. We will react with extreme violence against any attempt to oppress us.” “To any reaction we will answer with insurrection.”

The NYT thinks the next Italian government may not have the same problem with violence: “Communists and Fascisti fight hard enough, but their energies are usually exhausted after a few days and they go home till the next inspiration moves them.” So much New York Timesiosity in that combination of ethnic stereotype and both-sidesism.

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Today -100: July 20, 1922: Of domestic peace and shylocks

Italian PM Luigi Facta loses a vote of confidence in the Chamber of Deputies when the Catholic party turns against him. Evidently he’s failed to secure domestic peace. Mostly because he hasn’t tried.

Russian delegate to the Hague Conference Maxim Litvinov tells an AP reporter between acts of a gala performance put on for the conference of “Shylock,” which... yeah, that Russia won’t attend any more conferences.

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Today -100: July 19, 1922: We die for our ideals

Two of the 3 assassins of German Foreign Minister Walther Rathenau (the other is in custody) are cornered by police in the tower of a ruined castle – I’m telling you, silent films are really documentaries – after being spotted by two clerks on a walking holiday. They shoot themselves, yelling “We die for our ideals!”

They also shout “Long live Ehrhardt,” a leader of the Kapp Putsch. Although himself on the run, Hermann Ehrhardt takes the time to deny any involvement in the assassination by Organization C, which he explains has been dissolved, and which only existed to combat Bolshevism, international Socialism, and – of course – the Jews.

A black man is lynched at Lake Jennie Jewel, Florida.

Things have more or less calmed down in Cremona, Italy, as the Fascists who invaded the town have taken their rampages on the road. It’s unclear if Luigi Facta’s government will survive the current political turmoil. In his newspaper, Benito Mussolini complains that Socialists use the Chamber of Deputies to spread “the most infamous propaganda, aiming to rouse passions and keep up hatred.” And if there’s one thing Mussolini hates, it’s rousing passions and keeping up hatred.

Russia officially denies that Lenin was poisoned on a train a couple of weeks ago and his body thrown into the Don River, and that he is now being impersonated etc etc.

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Today -100: July 18, 1922: I therefore invite you to return to your mine properties and resume operation

The coal strike in West Virginia leads, as was the custom, to a battle that left the sheriff of Brooke County and some others dead.

Pres. Harding meets coal company owners at the White House and explains to them that coal is jolly important to the country and “I therefore invite you to return to your mine properties and resume operation.” Who knew it could be so simple? He doesn’t seem to ask them not to cut miners’ pay. Probably slipped his mind.

The British Parliament debates how honors, peerages etc are awarded, which is that Lloyd George sells them, and pretty openly too. The MP introducing a motion for a joint committee to investigate is named Godfrey Loocker-Lampson, which is a name to conjure with (Update: dammit, that’s a NYT typo, he’s actually called Godfrey Locker-Lampson, which is about a third as funny).

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Today -100: July 17, 1922: Of dealers in air

Lenin is supposedly slowly resuming his leadership tasks. Or they’re lying. One or the other.

Pravda says the Soviet delegation to the Hague Conference arrived with concrete proposals, but the allies are “merely dealers in air.”

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Today -100: July 16, 1922: Of overbearing attitudes, Edison Bucks, and ukelele riots

Italian Fascist bands occupy several towns, including Viterbo, Cremona, and Alatri, complaining of the Communists’ “overbearing attitude” in those places. And if there’s one thing followers of Mussolini hate, it’s an overbearing attitude.

Thomas Edison suggests an alternative form of money based on products held in a government warehouse, or something. Because “tech guy endorses a new type of currency” always works out so well.

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I feel like this story is missing a few steps. A Jeremiah Goldringer is seen by railroad cops in the Penn. Railroad Yards in Chicago, carrying the ukelele. Naturally they chase him, and send him to the loony bin for examination.

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Today -100: July 15, 1922: My voice is too feeble to be heard, so I used the gun

Another day etc.: At the Bastille Day military review in Paris, Gustave Bouvet – “a pale, emaciated youth of the type so common among militant anarchists” – takes a couple of shots at President Alexandre Millerand’s carriage. Well, the carriage he thought was carrying President Alexandre Millerand. It was actually the police prefect’s carriage, but the assassin missed him too. One bystander’s arm was slightly burned. Bouvet, who is subdued by the crowd, first admits trying to kill Millerand, then says he wasn’t really trying to kill anyone, just to “make a demonstration that would attract attention to the condition of the proletariat.” “My voice is too feeble to be heard, so I used the gun.” He’ll be sentenced to 5 years in prison plus 10 years’ banishment, but will only serve 25 months, released partially paralyzed. He will die in 1984.

Armed men on horseback invade Radin/Radun in Poland (now Belarus), round up the Jews, flog and rob them. It’s a famously Jewish town, at least for the next 20 years; now it has no Jews.

The Hague Conference ends (give or take a few more recriminations) with a failure of the Western powers and Russia to come to any agreement. Russia refuses to restore nationalized foreign-owned property and everyone else refuses to offer credits to Russia.

H.G. Wells will accept an invitation to run for Parliament as a Labour candidate for the University of London seat (voted for by graduates of the university).

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Today -100: July 14, 1922: Of crowns and bowler hats

No one wants to be king of Albania. The crown’s been offered to a Bonaparte, to an Italian duke, and to a Bulgarian prince. Now they’re thinking about finding some rich American.

Making front-page news, King George wears a bowler hat to the races rather than the traditional top hat. The 1920s have fully arrived.

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Today -100: July 13, 1922: Of reparations, dropping gas, and seltzer

Germany, facing a financial crisis, as was the custom, asks for a halt to cash reparations payments through 1924.

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Same.

Actually, the US Army will no longer produce poison gas. Well, except for “research” and for developing defenses against poison gas.

The negroes of Harlem, increasingly annoyed about being excluded from Republican Party decision-making in the district, say they will run a black candidate against sitting Republican US Rep. Martin Ansorge, who has actually been working quite hard on the doomed anti-lynching legislation and who took a lot of shit for nominating a black man to Annapolis. They haven’t chosen their black challenger yet, maybe William Ferris, editor of Negro World and author of Typical Negro Traits.

Headline of the Day -100:  

Sadly not one of those times where silent comedies are revealed as documentaries, with a court case degenerating into a seltzer fight. Rather, publisher Thomas Seltzer is being sued by the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice for putting out D.H. Lawrence’s Women in Love, Arthur Schnitzler’s Casanova’s Homecoming, and A Young Girl’s Diary, anonymously published by Hermine Hug-Hellmuth, an Austrian Freudian psychoanalyst who performed some sort of psychoanalytic experiments on her nephew, who murdered her in 1924.

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Today -100: July 12, 1922: Of railroad strikes

Pres. Harding issues a Proclamation demanding that railway workers accept the reduced wages decreed for them by the Railroad Labor Board, and he “directs” everyone to refrain from interfering with interstate transportation and the carrying of mail.

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