Today -100: April 24, 1917: Of turkeys, plots, and glass bullets

Turkey breaks diplomatic relations with the United States because the US is now at war with its ally, though it refrains from declaring war at this time (and indeed for the rest of the war). US Ambassador Abram Elkus is too sick (with typhus) to leave Ankara at the moment.

The NYT hears from “sources intimately familiar with Central American men and affairs” that the Germans plotted to start revolutions in Honduras, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Guatemala, and El Salvador and create a united country under Julián Irías of Nicaragua, and maybe get Colombia to join in with the promise of getting Panama back. But the plot was thwarted last December by “countermeasures.” Yeah, no.

Germany is using glass bullets on the Russian front. Yeah, no.

(I made a late addition to yesterday's post: Buster Keaton's first movie).

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Today -100: April 23, 1917: Of commissions and war-mad pastors

A British “commission” headed by Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour arrives in the US for consultations.

Headline of the Day -100: 



The Rev. Dr. Robert Berry of the Armour Villa Park Chapel in Yonkers decides that God wants all Prussians killed. Including his wife. Especially his wife.

Now playing: The Fatty Arbuckle movie “The Butcher Boy,” featuring one Joseph Frank “Buster” Keaton in his first role.

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Today -100: April 22, 1917: Of khaki, neutrality, and German food talk

Sen. Frank Kellogg (R-Minnesota) pressures Canada into ending its advertisements in US newspapers for farm laborers which promised high wages (and escape from the US draft) if they came to Canada.

Before the war, Germany led the world in chemical-based industries like dyes. US companies have had to step in, which is just as well now that it’s going to war, as the only pre-war source of khaki dye was German.

Spain has a new government, and it will maintain the country’s neutrality too.

Greece’s King Constantine is cajoling/threatening the Allies: he’ll allow the formation of a pro-Entente government only if they agree to let him keep being king and not invade Greece. If not, he’ll take Greece into the war on the other side.

Argentina threatens that if Germany doesn’t take responsibility for sinking a sailing ship, it will break off relations and arm its ships.

Headline of the Day -100: 

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Today -100: April 21, 1917: Of reasonable censorship and outrageous monarchies

After days of pissing off every newspaper in the country by persisting with provisions in the Espionage Bill so broad and so vague as to put every reporter covering military matters in jeopardy of prosecution, the White House backs off a bit, and the bill is altered so that the president’s regulations must be “reasonable.” And rules against gathering information or asking questions about national defenses are removed. The bill now specifically says public discussion and criticism of government policies won’t be illegal. So that’s good.

H.G. Wells writes to the London Times suggesting it is time to dump the monarchy and establish a republic to set a good example for other countries, He is especially thinking of Greece, joining the chorus of Allies trying to get rid of King Constantine. “A King has always been an outrage upon the ancient Republican traditions of Athens,” Wells says. The Times does not agree with Wells’s support of republicanism in Britain, nor will it publish George Bernard Shaw’s letter noting that “The fundamental case against monarchy is that it rests on a basis of idolatry that can no longer be maintained.”

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Today -100: April 20, 1917: It is a marvel you were not lynched

Congressional Democrats will block consideration of prohibition (for the duration of the war) in the extra session, unless Wilson declares it a war measure.

Woodrow Wilson explains to Congress the need for selective service: there are all sorts of patriotic service, and the military “was by no means the only part, and perhaps, all things considered, not the most vital part.” If people are allowed to volunteer for the military, they may be taking themselves away from other tasks which the country needs.

Meanwhile, reserve officers and officer candidates are expected to train – for three months – without pay.

Those men who hurriedly got married to avoid the draft will be drafted anyway if they married after the declaration of war, the War Department says.

Since the US declared war, the NYT has been full of stories, possibly true but not very well sourced, about how Germans are all starving and the German army, or at the very least its morale, is close to collapse.

The NYT is now spelling Lenin “Lenine.” In a reprint from the London Daily Chronicle which says Russians are indignant at his accepting passage from Germany (the famous closed carriage) on his trip from Switzerland to Russia. It says he has no supporters, even among Social Democrats.

The New York Yacht Club drops Kaiser Wilhelm and his brother Prince Heinrich of Prussia as honorary members.

This may not be his actual birth-name, but someone who wrote an anti-war pamphlet entitled “War At Any Price - A Sacrifice of Greed” and signs himself “Shiloh the Theocrat – One With Infinite Authority and Power,” is arrested for distributing that pamphlet at a patriotic parade in New York and sentenced to 6 months for disorderly conduct, which conduct seems to consist entirely of handing out his pamphlet. The magistrate tells him “It is a marvel you were not lynched. And if you had been you would have been receiving your just deserts.”

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Today -100: April 19, 1917: Of loyal obedience and patriotic service, selective service, churches, and lenses

NY Mayor John Purroy Mitchel says any teacher who doesn’t sign a pledge to teach children the duty of “loyal obedience and patriotic service” should be fired.

The House Military Committee decides to merely “authorize” the president to implement conscription if he thinks a voluntary system of recruitment won’t work, which is of course Congress’s way of avoiding taking blame for a potentially unpopular decision. They know damned well Wilson has no intention of even trying a voluntary system.

Meanwhile, Theodore Roosevelt, realizing that the War Department has been stalling and evading his request to lead a division to France immediately if not sooner (Rough Riders II: This Time It’s Personal), has been secretly lobbying Congress to end-run the White House veto. TR has also been offered a commission in the New York National Guard. He says he might accept if the other thing falls through.

Congress passes a bill allowing Allied countries to recruit their citizens living in the United States. There is some push-back over fears that those countries would use coercion, including from new congresscritter Fiorello La Guardia, who is worried about Italians, pointing out that Italy doesn’t recognize the American naturalizations of Italian citizens.

Anti-German rioting in Brazil, with buildings burned in Porto Alegre.

Emperor Karl of Austria promises God that if He grants Austria an early peace, he will build a really nice church for Him.

Headline of the Day -100: 

“I SAID watch where you step, I dropped my contact lens!”

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Today -100: April 18, 1917: Of selective service, war ag, and dangerous magazines

Pres. Wilson consults with members of Congress about selective service. And by “consult,” I mean demand his own way in every detail, shooting down the idea of trying a volunteer military before implementing conscription.

The Pennsylvania Legislature defeats a women’s suffrage amendment to the state constitution.

White House staff are being encouraged to grow food on a vacant bit of government-owned land opposite the White House (where a new Justice Dept building was supposed to be built, but it’s been delayed) to set an example.

The British government has banned the export of copies of The Nation magazine (the British magazine of that name, not the American one) because of “dangerous” articles that could be used in German propaganda. In Parliament, Bonar Law refuses to explain which articles caused the ban or what the objectionable material was, although it was probably an article in the March 3rd issue which said that the Germans were performing well on the Western Front and in their submarine warfare. Churchill notes that Lloyd George himself has made more pessimistic assessments of the military situation than anything the Nation published.

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Today -100: April 17, 1917: Of allegiance, cadavers, and soviets

Woodrow Wilson issues a proclamation telling people not to commit treason, including aliens who, he says, owe “allegiance” to the United States. Do they, though?

Fog of War (Rumors, Propaganda and Just Plain Bullshit) of the Day -100: The Times of London and the Daily Mail report that Germany is producing glycerine by boiling down the corpses of dead soldiers.  British Military Intelligence propagandists are responsible for planting this particular story. The basis for it is that glycerine was generated in Kadaververwertungsanstalt, which the Northcliffe papers choose to translate as Corpse-Exploitation Establishment, pretending that the “kadavers” in question are human rather than horse (the word for human cadavers is leichman).

The Petrograd Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies demands that it retain the power of oversight and control over the provisional government because only it can counteract any counter-revolutionary moves.

Raimes & Co., whatever they might be, tries to screw over Fritz Schultz, Jr., Company Inc., whatever that might be, arguing that the latter’s lawsuits demanding payment from the former for goods received be thrown out because it’s an Enemy Corporation now. The judge says Germans can still sue.

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Today -100: April 16, 1917: We must all speak, act, and serve together

Woodrow Wilson issues a proclamation about what he expects everyone to do to win “the grim and terrible war for democracy and human rights” (hey, the war finally has a name!) He continues to portray this as some sort of violent social work: “There is not a single selfish element, so far as I can see, in the cause we are fighting for.” He says “we must devote ourselves to the service without regard to profit or material advantage”. Spoiler Alert: US manufacturing is going to get a buttload of profit and material advantage out of the war.

He issues marching orders to every segment of society: “Upon the farmers of this country, therefore, in large measure rests the fate of the war and the fate of the nations.” “there shall be no unwarranted manipulation of the nation's food supply by those who handle it on its way to the consumer.” He asks middlemen to make no “unusual profits” and “suggests” to merchants the motto “small profits and quick service.” He asks housewives to practice strict economy. “This is the time for America to correct her unpardonable fault of wastefulness and extravagance.”

He concludes, “We must all speak, act, and serve together.”

Carranza, speaking  at the opening of the first Mexican Congress in 3 years, says that Mexico won’t abandon its neutrality.

Ludwig Zamenhof, creator of the alt-language Esperanto, dies. Zamenhof was a Polish Jew who thought a universal language would end war so, um, yeah. Ripozu en paco, Dr. Zamenhof.

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