Whatever It Is, I’m Against It

Today -100: October 11, 1926: Of baseball, illegal uniforms, and gas

2026-10-11T00:00:00.000-07:00

The St. Louis Cards win the World Series over the Yankees. I’m reliably informed that this story is about baseball.

During the game, baseball fans in Emporia, Kansas gather outside the Emporia Gazette offices to watch the scores change on a magnetic score board, which sounds super-exciting. Clergy complain about this Sunday activity, although the Gazette, which started doing this with last Sunday’s game, pointed out that the game began 30 minutes after services.

The German League for the Rights of Man charges former prince Wilhelm (grandson of former kaiser Wilhelm) with wearing the uniform of an army lieutenant during maneuvers (he was made a lt. before the war, when he was 10, probably on merit, right?). Gen. von Seeckt was fired as Army Chief for allowing Willy to do this.

The American Legion opposes the ratification of the Geneva protocol banning the use of poison gas in war. It says gas is humane and effective. The opposition to poison gas, according to John Thomas Taylor, chair of the Legion’s Legislative Committee, comes from pacifists, not practical soldiers.

Today -100: October 10, 1926: Of prospective wars, lynchings, and weddings

2026-10-10T00:00:00.000-07:00

The Daily Express (UK) claims that Mussolini is planning to go to war with Turkey to gain “influence” on the Aegean coast.

A mob in Doyer, Tennessee seizes and lynches a black man, Rip Bell, who supposedly killed a farmer during a fight over a craps game (or “‘crap’ game,” as the NYT puts it, which is not what it was called then or ever).

The world’s first Esperanto-language wedding takes place in London. He’s British and she’s Austrian. There’s a Reuters newsreel of it on YouTube, obviously silent so what’s the point of that?

Today -100: October 9, 1926: Of lynchings

2026-10-09T00:00:00.000-07:00

In Aiken, South Carolina, a lynch mob of 100 to 150 assholes break into the county jail and abduct (almost certainly with the connivance of the sheriff, as opposed to the bullshit version given in this article) 3 negroes, one of them a woman, charged with murdering the kluxer sheriff last year in a shoot-out when he raided their farm looking for illegal liquor. They’d been convicted but the state Supreme Court overturned the verdict and ordered a new trial; yesterday the judge directed a not guilty verdict for... wait for it... Demon Lowman. The verdicts for the other two, Lowman’s sister & cousin, had not yet been delivered when the mob jumped the gun, as it were. Judge Lanham convenes the Grand Jury to do “the most searching inquiry possible” and says the lynchings were a disgrace to civilization and the white race. You can guess how effective the most searching inquiry possible will be.

The NYT says the lynchings were “a wanton act of savagery,” which is the worst kind of acts of savagery. It notes that the prisoners were let loose and then gunned down “in Mexican style” as they ran.

Today -100: October 8, 1926: Religious war? OK!

2026-10-08T00:00:00.000-07:00

George Key, chair of the Oklahoma Democratic State Committee, says Republican activities are “peculiarly calculated to produce a religious war in Oklahoma.” I think that’s about Johnston backing Al Smith for president in ‘28. The D’s candidate for governor, Henry Johnston, is an open member of the Ku Klux Klan; Republican candidate Omer Benedict admits to having been a kluxer in the past.

The Texas House of Representatives demands that Gov. Miriam Ferguson fulfil her promise to resign if she lost the D. primary, as she did. The State Senate then kills the measure as not coming under the terms of Ferguson’s call for the special session.

At former attorney general Harry Daugherty’s trial, his lawyer explains that when he burnt all his bank records, it was “in some mad, lone moment”. The lawyer blames the whole bribe-taking thing on Dirty Harry’s friend Jess Smith, who conveniently committed suicide 3 years ago.

Today -100: October 7, 1926: Without they first have the endorsement

2026-10-07T00:00:00.000-07:00

Lamartine Griffin Hardman, 71, described as a “banker, cotton mill owner and practising physician,” wins the Democratic run-off primary for Georgia governor, one of many Georgia elections this year where Klan-backed candidates lose big time.

The Indiana Republican newspaper editors’ organization releases a photostat of a contract signed in February 1925 by John L. Duvall, promising that if he is elected mayor of Indianapolis with Grand Dragon D.C. Stephenson’s support (which he was), “I promise not to appoint any person as member of the Board of Public Works without they first have the endorsement of D.C. Stephenson” and to appoint Claude Worley chief of police. Duvall says it’s a forgery. It will be the basis of his corruption conviction a year from now.

Today -100: October 6, 1926: Of endorsements and royal property

2026-10-06T00:00:00.000-07:00

In the New York elections, William Randolph Hearst comes out for Ogden Mills (R) for governor and Robert F. Wagner (D) for senator. Neither of them seem to be especially thrilled by the endorsement.

Prussia settles former kaiser Wilhelm’s claims to get his shit back. The Hohenzollerns will get 20 million marks – which is the equivalent of some money – in cash, 280,000 acres of land, a few castles, etc. Willy rejected a better deal a while back but complete expropriation has been getting more and more popular, so... He still lives in the Netherlands, banned from returning, but the princes have drifted back to Germany. Communists want them expelled.

Today -100: October 5, 1926: Of milk rings and baneful violators

2026-10-05T00:00:00.000-07:00

Republican candidate for NY governor Rep. Ogden Mills attacks Gov. Al Smith for failing to bring down the bootleg milk ring, with its associated milk graft, and warns that a Smith victory would complete Tammany Hall’s control of state government.

Democratic nominee for the New York US Senate seat Robert Wagner challenges James Wadsworth Jr. to say whether he advises, as Wagner does, a yes vote on the Prohibition reform referendum. Wadsworth would of course prefer to straddle the fence on this one.

Trotsky, Zinoviev, etc complained about Stalin’s crackdown within the Communist Party, including banning opposition members elected to the party conference, which has now been postponed 10 days. The Moscow party committee demands that the Central Committee repress “these bankrupt leaders, these baneful violators of party discipline” (baneful violators of party discipline are the worst kind of violators of party discipline, because of the bane).

Today -100: October 4, 1926: As such

2026-10-04T00:00:00.000-07:00

Headline of the Day -100:

British Foreign Sec. Austen Chamberlain visited Italy last week, and Italy got super-excited at what they assumed was a sign that it was finally taking its place among the big dogs and that an alliance would be formed with Britain to offset Franco-German cooperation. Chamberlain says there are no such plans. He says Fascism would not suit Britain, but that he admires Mussolini personally. “He is a man of great force of character, great shrewdness, and great charm and simplicity in his personal conduct, and however you may judge his policy he is a great patriot.”

Baron Maurice de Rothschild of the Rich-Fuck Rothschilds, is elected to the French Chamber of Deputies for the Hautes-Alpes Department by a large majority. He was elected before but that election was not validated due to some Rothschild-level bribery. While the Chamber was debating this, he sent every deputy a brace of partridges; they kept the partridges and voted against him.

Oh noes! “European royalty is facing a crisis”! It seems that more princesses are coming of age than princes to marry them. Some have been resorting to marrying mere nobles instead.

In Constantinople, Turkey shows how post-Islamic it is now by erecting its first statue depicting a human. Kemal Atatürk, naturally.

An image search suggests that most subsequent statues of Atatürk portray him on a horse.

Today -100: October 3, 1926: Of dragons, pleasant little trifles, and chapels

2026-10-03T00:00:00.000-07:00

A group of Indiana Republican editors turns over evidence to the Indiana State Senate on the massive corruption and general shittery in the state government when it was under the control of Ku Klux Klan Grand Dragon D.C. Stephenson. One person who really wants this information to come out: D.C. Stephenson, now in prison for second-degree murder and pissed that his friends in government didn’t get him out of trouble (and who have made sure he’s had no contact with the outside world whilst in prison).

Noël Coward’s play “This Was a Man” is banned by the Lord Chamberlain because it depicts adultery, so much adultery. Coward says that in future he’ll concentrate his serious plays on Broadway; “I shall from time to time write a pleasant little trifle for London.” “This Was a Man” won’t have a commercial run in Britain until 2014.

Italy’s Cabinet Council approves restoring capital punishment, which was abolished in 1888, for assassination attempts against Mussolini and the royal family.

Yale makes student chapel-attendance optional.

Today -100: October 2, 1926: Of political hypocrisy & relief

2026-10-02T00:00:00.000-07:00

Democratic nominee for US Senate from NY Robert F. Wagner accuses Sen. James Wadsworth Jr. of “political hypocrisy” in changing from a dry to a wet position. Isn’t it surprising how Prohibition has turned into such a major issue in this election cycle, so many years into the great beverage experiment? There are just no other major issues this year.

Florida Gov. John Martin (D) is accused by the American Red Cross, among others, of sabotaging attempts to raise money for hurricane relief by downplaying the damage so as not to scare away tourists or burst the real estate bubble.

Today -100: October 1, 1926: Of early beatings, expenses, steel trusts, and flying cork

2026-10-01T00:00:00.000-07:00

The theme of New York Republicans in the gubernatorial race will be “Beat Smith this year and you will not have to beat him in 1928,” that is, for president. To be fair, Al Smith is certainly using the governor’s office as a stepping-stone to the White House.

Rep. Ernest Willard Gibson (R-Vermont) spent 36¢ on his unopposed re-election primary, but on what? This is infuriatingly undisclosed.

France, Germany, Belgium and Luxemburg form an iron and steel trust to limit production, fix prices, and exclude US and British steel.

Headline of the Day -100:

Today -100: September 30, 1926: Of prohibition, forgotten crimes, and climbing popes

2026-09-30T00:00:00.000-07:00

The New Hampshire Democratic Convention, unlike the NY and Massachusetts ones, supports Prohibition, blaming the Republicans for laxness for enforcement.

The NYT complains about the slowness of justice in the Teapot Dome case: “If the guilty men are ever convicted and punished, it will be only after the great majority of the people have forgotten with what crime they were charged.”

Headline of the Day -100:

Today -100: September 29, 1926: I am going to put on my fighting clothes

2026-09-29T00:00:00.000-07:00

The New York Democratic Convention picks NY Supreme Court Justice Robert F. Wagner as its candidate for US Senate. He says “I have been a judge and I am going to put on my fighting clothes.”

The New York Republican Convention picks Congresscritter Ogden Mills for governor and James W. Wadsworth Jr. for re-election to the US Senate, the latter over strong objections from the Drys. Pro-Wadsworth speeches say he should be nominated because Coolidge wants him in the Senate.

The Massachusetts Democratic Convention votes unanimously for repeal of the prohibition laws. However, like their senatorial candidate David Walsh, they are “not in favor of the return of the saloon, with its saturnalia of evils.” A saturnalia of evils is the worst kind of saturnalia.

Today -100: September 28, 1926: The gunman in place of the barman

2026-09-28T00:00:00.000-07:00

At the preliminary hearing of Aimee Semple McPherson et al, a witness who saw Sister Aimee in Carmel during the time she claims she was being held hostage in Mexico, is interrogated thus: “What is your religion, if any?” “Do you believe all the trash you read in the newspapers?” “I see I am talking to one of those boys who spots the women on the street when he drives by.”

Wayne Wheeler, the alliterative general-counsel for the Anti-Saloon League, complains about the New York Republican Party’s plan to abide by the results of the referendum on prohibition. See, the drys intend to boycott the vote, so I guess it shouldn’t count.

Former Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin Delano Roosevelt addresses the New York Democratic Convention as its temporary chair, speaking more about national Republicans than New York ones. He says that by claiming credit for economic prosperity, the Coolidge Admin is guilty of the common-law offence of seeking to obtain by false pretenses something actually belonging to others (economic laws + the efficiency and good sense of businessmen and workers). He attacks Republican tariffs. He says the way prohibition has been enforced has “given us the bootlegger in place of the saloonkeeper and the gunman in place of the barman.”

Today -100: September 27, 1926: Of guilt, throngs, crown princes, bunny hats, and umpires

2026-09-27T00:00:00.000-07:00

French PM Raymond Poincaré calls on German Foreign Minister Gustav Stresemann to acknowledge, indeed to embrace, German’s guilt for starting the Great War.

Allen Dulles, the future CIA director, resigns from the Foreign Service because any further promotions (he was just named counselor to the legation at Peking) would entail expenses beyond his salary ($8,000 a year for the Peking gig) and he just can’t afford to supplement his little diplomacy hobby out of his own pocket.

Headline of the Day -100:

THRONG. With an R.

German newspapers claim that former crown prince Wilhelm, grandson of former kaiser Wilhelm, has enlisted in the German army as a private. He did not. They wouldn’t let him, of course, but he is also barred because he was made a lieutenant of the First Prussian Footguards during the war at the age of 10.

Headline of the Day -100:

The overseas soldier hat is made of Australian rabbit fur. The army is looking for a substitute.

Especially in New York, you often hear “Kill the ump,” but instances of umpicide are surprisingly rare. Anyway, at a game on Long Island between the Centuries and the Cubs, the brother of the Centuries’ catcher objects to a call of “out” and slugs the umpire, fatally.

Today -100: September 26, 1926: Of shorter weeks and radio wars

2026-09-26T00:00:00.000-07:00

Henry Ford establishes a 5-day work week as permanent policy, after it was trialed in some plants in July. But only those workers who “deserve” it will get the same pay as they did for 6 days.

Russia is engaging in a “radio war,” supposedly the first, with Romania, broadcasting propaganda into that country. Romanian military stations are trying to block it by broadcasting buzzing. You need a license to own a radio set in Romania, and none are allowed near the border. The first Romanian radio station opened this month, playing phonograph records.

Today -100: September 25, 1926: ...and prosperity

2026-09-25T00:00:00.000-07:00

The Republicans have a slogan for 1926: “Coolidge and prosperity.”

Ross Gilmore Marvin, part of Robert Peary’s Arctic expeditions, was reported drowned in 1909. Now, Kudlooktoo, an Inuit attached to that expedition, who recently converted to Christianity, admits having shot him when Marvin tried to fire another Inuit and send him off without any supplies.

Black people, who know slavery when they see it, resist being conscripted to clean up after the hurricane in Florida, getting in a gunfight with marines in Miami.

And 3 black men are rumored, probably maybe falsely, to have been lynched for looting dead bodies near Miami, shot and then burned.

Today -100: September 24, 1926: Of boxers, hurricanes, and petitions

2026-09-24T00:00:00.000-07:00

Gene Tunney beats Jack Dempsey to become heavyweight champeen, but Dempsey makes a lot more money out of the fight.

Florida police and militia and specially deputized American Legionnaires round up anyone who can’t prove they have a job and force them to help in hurricane cleanup. No mention of paying them anything.

Anti-typhoid serum and “medicinal” whiskey are being widely distributed.

It will be impossible to determine how many people died in the hurricane because many were buried without any record being kept, especially in Miami and Miami Beach. People who ask the cops for information are directed to the newspaper offices.

Charles Ponzi, in jail in Texas awaiting extradition to Massachusetts, offers Houston Mayor Oscar Holcombe the deeds to his Florida properties to sell for hurricane relief. Holcombe says no, calling it “an attempt to gain publicity at the expense” of hurricane victims.

The Mexican Congress rejects the Episcopate’s petition to drop the anti-Church bits of the Constitution and related legislation. Also, the Petitions Committee noticed that many of the signatures came from non-Mexican-citizens. Since Coolidge declared all this none of our business, the Church’s hope that outside nations would overawe the Mexican government is fading.

Today -100: September 23, 1926: Of poor devils, occupations, and radio fads

2026-09-23T00:00:00.000-07:00

Gen. Lincoln Andrews, the head of federal prohibition enforcement, says prohibition agents will be fired if they drink and future hires will be required to take a pledge of total abstinence. One exception: agents who have to testify in court that they tasted the evidence and, yup, it’s whisky alright. Andrews calls those agents “poor devils” because “the product now available is of the most atrocious quality.”

Relief workers helping survivors of the Miami hurricane ask for medicinal whisky and are informed fuck you.

France (finally) begins to withdraw its troops from the Rhineland. 7,000 of them anyway.

Thomas Edison says radios should not be used for music because of distortion. Once the “radio fad” passes, he says, people will return to the phonograph. Radio dealers are finding them unprofitable.

Speaking of the radio fad, the BBC says it will only employ men as radio announcers, because of the heavy physical strain involved.

Today -100: September 22, 1926: Of mikados

2026-09-22T00:00:00.000-07:00

A London revival of “The Mikado” elicits complaints by using actual Japanese garb or modern Japanese garb, whatever “Oriental Oxford bags” might be. Loose pants, I guess.

Today -100: September 21, 1926: Of reservations, degeneracy, and machine guns

2026-09-21T00:00:00.000-07:00

The US has been negotiating to join the World Court, provided it be given equal status despite requiring certain “reservations,” such as not allowing League of Nations advisory opinions in any case involving the US.

Former prince Eitel Friedrich of Prussia, the second son of former kaiser Wilhelm, is divorcing ex-princess Sophie Charlotte for the crime of... auditioning to be in movies, which is just plain embarrassing to the good name of Hohenzollern. She will bring counter-charges of degeneracy. Next month the court will declare him the guilty party, or the more guilty party.

Gunmen with machine guns do a drive-by at Al Capone’s Hawthorne Inn in Cicero, Illinois. This article is wrong that Capone was next door during the attack. He was in fact hiding under a table. Over 1,000 rounds are fired from seven cars into the Hawthorne & the neighboring Anton Hotel, which is also Capone-owned (Capowned?), but no one is killed. A family in a car experiences some injuries; Capone comes out and promises to pay their medical and presumably car-repair expenses, which will amount to $10,000.

Today -100: September 20, 1926: Zeal!

2026-09-20T00:00:00.000-07:00

The corpses of the bandits who kidnapped & killed Jacob Rosenthal are still hanging from trees or, as the NYT puts it,

Today -100: September 19, 1926: Miami is in ruins

2026-09-19T00:00:00.000-07:00

A hurricane hits Miami and Palm Beach, killing several hundred people and doing $100 million of damage to Miami. Tropical Radio station reports “Miami is in ruins”.

Cuba is negotiating with Italy to take some of the latter’s excess population.

Today -100: September 18, 1926: Of bandits & citizenship

2026-09-18T00:00:00.000-07:00

A day or two after bandits kill Jacob Rosenthal, Mexico executes 7 of them, all Indios, with more to come. Their bodies will be left hanging from trees, as was the custom. 3 more are killed when their compadres attempt to rescue them.

France has been arresting naturalized US citizens who were born French for evading military service to their former country. Also, American citizens born in France to American parents.

Today -100: September 17, 1926: We oppose the return of the saloon

2026-09-17T00:00:00.000-07:00

The Connecticut Democratic State Convention calls for repeal of the 18th Amendment, calling it “an indefensible curtailment of personal liberty.” But it says as long as the indefensible curtailment of personal liberty remains the law of the land it should be enforced, and “We oppose the return of the saloon.”

The L.A. County orders the arrest of Aimee Semple McPherson, her mother, and three others involved in her disappearance last May. The charge: conspiracy to defeat justice, including paying a woman to pretend it was she rather than Sister Aimee who inhabited the love shack in Carmel.

Mexican bandits who kidnapped Jacob Rosenthal of Long Island kill him when the Mexican authorities refuse to allow his family to pay the 20,000 peso (c.$10,000) ransom and send soldiers in not-very-good disguise to the drop-off point.