Today -100: October 31, 1923: Of fords, saxons, and reparations

Henry Ford’s secretary writes to the Ford Presidential Club saying Ford won’t accept any nomination.

The German Socialists in the Reichstag seem to be wimping out on opposing Stresemann’s deposition of the Saxon government. 

The European countries and the US will participate in an inquiry by a commission of experts into how much reparations Germany can afford, subject only to the French conditions that it not change anything in any way. Britain evidently thinks that the results will be so clear that France will be forced to accept them by the power of reasonableness.

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Today -100: October 30, 1923: Of saxons, expulsions, and angorra

Former British Prime Minister Andrew Bonar Law dies.

The Rhenish Republic says it will pay its share of reparations and blames the Great War on those fucking Prussians.

German troops are sent in to depose Saxony’s government, arrest Prime Minister Erich Zeigner and other members of his cabinet, and occupy public buildings in Dresden. Federal Chancellor Gustav Stresemann appoints Carl Heinze to rule Saxony. The Saxon State Assembly is ordered suspended. Communist newspapers are suppressed.

Bavaria’s dictator Gustav von Kahr orders the expulsion of 200 Jewish families who are German but not Bavarian. Their houses will be seized, ostensibly for refugees from the Ruhr. Hitler’s newspaper is publishing names of Jews who have yet to be expelled.

Turkey is now officially a republic, and its capital will be moved from Constantinople to Ankara (Angora).

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Today -100: October 29, 1923: Our government will last because we recognize the influence of will power in history

Saxony’s cabinet refuses Chancellor Gustav Stresemann’s demand that it resign, saying only the Saxon Diet can dismiss it.

Italy celebrates one year of Fascist rule. Mussolini: “Our government will last because we recognize the influence of will power in history, because we wish it to last, because we are ready to do anything to make it last, because we will systematically rout all our enemies, because our government is not merely the triumph of one party, but is the resurrection of our race.”

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Today -100: October 28, 1923: Germany is kind of a mess right now

Britain will oppose any attempt to establish the Rhineland Republic in its occupation zone (Cologne etc). Reuters reports that the French will officially recognize the separatist movement as lawful.

German Chancellor Gustav Stresemann demands the resignation of Saxony’s government (does he have any authority to do that?) and a new cabinet with no Communists. And oh-so-politely requests that Bavaria’s government stop asserting control over federal troops. Saxony’s is an elected but left-wing government while Bavaria’s is far-right, run by a “dictator,” bellicose towards neighboring Saxony and contemptuous of the central German government. 

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Today -100: October 27, 1923: Of republics

French and Belgian troops actively prevent authorities in the Rhine doing anything to stop separatists seizing buildings (and early in the occupation they disarmed the police). Coblenz is now the capital of the “Rhineland Republic,” its public buildings occupied by the separatists while the French enforced a curfew (and gun restrictions) on everyone else.

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Today -100: October 26, 1923: Of Fords

Henry Ford says he’s for Coolidge if he enforces prohibition.

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Today -100: October 25, 1923: Of palatinates and tasty evidence

Another day, another German separatist coup attempt. In this case a provisional government for a Palatinate Republic is set up, even as the Rhineland Republic effort is failing, mostly because no one in the Rhineland wants it.

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Today -100: October 24, 1923: Yeah, we all get older

The Oklahoma State Senate votes 36 to 1 to suspend Gov. Jack Walton pending impeachment.

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Today -100: October 23, 1923: Of separatists, oaths, and bears

Several more small Rhineland towns have been seized by separatists.

German army (Reichswehr) troops in Bavaria take an oath to Bavaria (rather than the Reich). Rumors say Bavaria will shortly attack Saxony.

The University of Bologna wants to give PM Mussolini an honorary degree as doctor of laws, but he insists he’ll sit the exam.

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Today -100: October 22, 1923: All resistance will be pitilessly suppressed

The ACLU protests Boston Mayor James Curley’s ban on Ku Klux Klan meetings.

An independent Rhineland Republic is declared in Aix-la-Chapelle after a coup. “All resistance will be pitilessly suppressed,” the proclamation says, but there isn’t any. This is the Belgian zone of occupation and Belgian soldiers are of course doing nothing.

Bavaria’s military dictator Gustav von Kahr justifies illegally overturning the federal government’s firing of Gen. Otto von Lossow as commander-in-chief of the Reichswehr (military) in Bavaria. Something about internationalism and Marxism, presumably including the federal government.  “Bavaria considers it her holy duty in this hour to be the stronghold of threatened Germandom.”

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Today -100: October 21, 1923: Of bread and hajjis

More bread riots in Berlin.

The 5th Baron Headley, a convert to Islam, returns from the Haaj, supposedly the first European Muslim ever to go on the Haaj.

Bavaria’s military dictator Gustav von Kahr, who does not have the power to do this, appoints Gen. Otto von Lossow as commander-in-chief of the Reichswehr (military) in the Bavarian region after federal Pres. Ebert had fired him. The worry is that Bavaria’s gonna invade Saxony.

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Today -100: October 20, 1923: Of the greatest issue in America today, reparations, and parade-stopping

A conference of all 52 state and territorial governors endorses Prohibition. Louisiana Gov. John Parker resigns in protest, saying “The Ku Klux Klan is the greatest issue in America today.”

German Chancellor Gustav Stresemann says Germany will stop paying reparations now that it has been shown from Poincaré’s refusal to negotiate that his real objective is the destruction of the German Reich. The London Times points out that France said it would negotiate only when passive resistance ended but it didn’t negotiate when passive resistance ended.

A plot by Romanian Fascists to assassinate government ministers is uncovered, leading to the resignation of the interior minister and others.

The Youngstown, Ohio chief of police says he will stop a planned KKK parade, shooting to kill if need be.

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Today -100: October 19, 1923: How is “diplomatic relations” even a thing here?

Bavaria and Saxony break diplomatic relations.

Pres. Coolidge joins the First Congregational Church in DC.

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Today -100: October 18, 1923: Of funereal foxtrots

The federal German government is, allegedly, preparing to militarily invade Saxony. Excuse me, “Soviet Saxony.” They would do this to prevent far-right Bavaria (excuse me, “Blue Bavaria”) invading Saxony. Excuse me, “Red Saxony.” Gen. Mueller demands the Saxon government repudiate a speech by Finance Minister Paul Böttcher (Communist) saying it might come down to a fight with counter-revolution. Mueller’s threat rather seems to make his point.

The Oklahoma House reverses itself, voting to investigate whether the Ku Klux Klan controls the Legislature and renders city and county governments impotent.

The Philippines Legislature calls for the recall of Gov. Gen. Leonard Wood.

Police in Udine, France, stop a jazz band playing at a funeral. It wasn’t the jazz they object to, per se, but the dancing (foxtrotting) that broke out.

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Today -100: October 17, 1923: A question of the very existence of the state

Henry Ford has no objection to the formation of Ford-for-president clubs in South Dakota.

In an interview with Italian Fascist newspaper Corriere Italiano, Hitler says the fundamental principle of the National Socialists is anti-Semitism: “the Jewish question in Germany is a question of the very existence of the State.”

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Today -100: October 16, 1923: Of worthless marks and worthless masked legislators

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The Oklahoma House of Reps refuses to investigate Gov. Jack Walton’s claim that a majority of its members are kluxers.

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Today -100: October 15, 1923: Of recalls

The Ku Klux Klan is supporting a recall petition for Oregon Gov. Walter Pierce (D), although they supported his election last year.

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Today -100: October 14, 1923: Of dictators and lynchings

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Wish: granted.

That’s the Reichsermächtigungsgesetz, transferring powers to the government regardless of whether they violate the Constitution. 

A lynch mob shoots a black man in Virginia.

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Today -100: October 13, 1923: Of Fords and red saxonies

Henry Ford lets Nebraskaites put his name on the presidential primary ballot for the Neb. Progressive Party, possibly out of pique at losing his bid for the nitrate plant at Muscle Shoals. Does he actually want to run for president? His personal secretary says he doesn’t wish to say.

Saxony, or “Red Saxony” as it will evidently now be known, has a new Socialist-Communist Cabinet (the Communist part is new), which the federal government is not thrilled about. To be fair, they’re not happy about Bavaria’s far-right dictator Von Kahr either. Bavaria will stall and passively resist implementation in the state of federal measures under the emergency act.

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Today -100: October 12, 1923: Of special sessions, black shirts, and executioners

The Oklahoma Legislature meets in special session. It changes its mind and allows Gov. Walton’s message to be read (Walton stays away). The message calls for anti-Klan legislation to end the war between the invisible and all-too-visible governments. The Lege leaps into action and ignores his proposals, moving instead to appoint a committee of investigation and impeachment. Walton declares an end to martial law.

Switzerland bans black-colored shirts. Italian Fascists have been making themselves obnoxious lately.

Ahead of the Reichstag vote on giving dictatorial powers to the government (the Reichsermächtigungsgesetz), Chancellor Gustav Stresemann gets authorization from Pres. Ebert to dissolve the Reichstag if it fails to do his bidding.

Isidore Hespel used to be the official executioner in French Guiana, which used prisoners for the job; he was sent there for 2 murders during a robbery committed in France. Now he is to be executed for killing a fellow prisoner who berated him for all the, you know, executions. He wants to erect his own guillotine. Which he will be allowed to do.

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