Whatever It Is, I’m Against It

Today -100: August 31, 1926: Of lynchings and responding readily to modern conditions

2026-08-31T00:00:00.000-07:00

Local elections in Italy are abolished in favor of officials being appointed by the central government, the Podesta system, “which responds more readily to modern conditions.”

A white mob in Coffee County, Georgia lynches... a white dude.

Today -100: August 30, 1926: We will never have another proxy governor

2026-08-30T00:00:00.000-07:00

There’s a German Nationalist/Monarchist parade through Nuremberg, reviewed by former Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria, wearing a field marshal uniform, former Prince Oskar of Prussia, and miscellaneous princes, admirals, and field marshals.

All of Nepal’s slaves are now free, mostly through government compensation to their owners.

Headline of the Day -100:

Then Negri, who has traveled from LA to NY by train, “recovered herself long enough to say it was true she had been engaged to marry him.” Then she swoons again.

Dan Moody says of his Democratic primary victory for Texas governor, “There was only one issue and that was Fergusonism,” that is, his victory was over “Pa” rather than “Ma” Ferguson. Which, fair. “We will never have another proxy governor”.

Pa Ferguson says his wife’s “not worried and you needn’t be worried about her either,” adding, “We are just trying to decide which calf the train ran over,” whatever the hell that means.

Today -100: August 29, 1926: Of military interventions, collective madnesses, overnight uncrowned dictators, shrines, and flag exercises

2026-08-29T00:00:00.000-07:00

Texas Attorney General Dan Moody defeats Gov. Miriam “Ma” Ferguson in the Democratic run-off primary with 64% of the vote. Moody is 33 and, as the NYT feels obligated to say over and over, red-headed. (Michigan’s first governor, in the 19th century, was 23, by the way. Couldn’t tell you how many ginger governors there’ve been). Moody will have an even larger majority against the Republican candidate in November.

The US lands troops in Nicaragua to protect Americans and their property, supposedly invited by the governor of Bluefields.

Some other woman swims the English Channel, but we’re bored now.

The Vatican newspaper Osservatore Romano weighs in on the scenes at Rudolph Valentino’s funeral home: “It is a collective madness, incarnating the tragic comedy of a new fetishism, the last logical consequence of a materialist civilization which has given man dominion over everything but himself.” They make it sound like a bad thing.

A Sunday NYT Magazine article explains how Stalin “has become almost overnight the uncrowned dictator of Russia.”

Japan’s Shrine Bureau, a branch of the Home Dept., decrees the destruction of shrines to animals and monsters; only gods need apply.

The ACLU comes to the aid of 9-year-old Russell Tremain of Bellingham, Washington, who authorities removed from his home last year because he would not salute the flag in school for religious reasons (his parents are in the Elijah Voice Society, a splinter of the Jehovah’s Witnesses). His parents removed him from school when it refused to exempt him from “flag exercises,” so his father was charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor. A judge ordered Russell sent to the detention center for incorrigible children, be permanently removed from his home and put up for adoption so he could be raised by a “patriotic, Christian family.” The Tremains are not doing themselves any favors by refusing to show up in court – they do not recognize earthly courts – or authorize anyone to represent them. Russell will be returned to his family in late 1927, a year and a half after he was taken. More information on the case here. The US Supreme Court ruled in 1940 that schools could coerce students to recite the pledge of allegiance but reversed itself 3 years later.

Today -100: August 28, 1926: Of tips, warships, and greetings

2026-08-28T00:00:00.000-07:00

Coolidge issues rules for traveling government employees. They must limit tipping to 60¢ a day (with maximums for bellboys, porters, etc). They may not pay more than 50¢ a day for a hotel bath or $1.40 a week for laundry.

Nicaraguan complains to the League of Nations that Mexico is trying to overthrow its government, sending a warship carrying troops to aid rebels. It’s not asking the League to do anything in particular, just, you know, checking in.

Huge crowds (including a bunch of pickpockets) greet Gertrude Ederle in New York on her return from swimming the English Channel. How much of an overlap do you think there is with the crowds who jostled each other for a glimpse of Rudolph Valentino’s corpse?

Today -100: August 27, 1926: Fun with alliteration

2026-08-27T00:00:00.000-07:00

At Texas’s primary run-off elections tomorrow Gov. Ma Ferguson is expected to be crushed. Pa Ferguson calls Attorney Gen. Dan Moody a “Klene Kut Ku Klux Klansman” (actually, as a prosecutor Moody put a lot of kluxers in jail). I’d forgotten that 2 years ago Ms Ferguson’s slogan was “Me for Ma.” Anyway, Moody’s is “Dan’s the Man,” which is somewhat... problematic.

Today -100: August 26, 1926: Of corpses, governors, and women’s votes

2026-08-26T00:00:00.000-07:00

Campbell Funeral Parlors stops its public viewings of Rudolph Valentino’s corpse after the circus-like atmosphere (depending on what sort of circuses you go to, I guess).

New York Republicans are still having a hard time finding a candidate for governor. NY Supreme Court Justice Arthur S. Tompkins declines to run, pointing out that he has 8 years of his 14-year term on the Court left to run. He suggests Justice James Cropsey, but Cropsey would push for an unpopular state Prohibition enforcement act.

Mussolini giveth, Mussolini taketh away. In this case, women’s suffrage. Women (some women, not a lot of women) were recently granted the vote in municipal elections but now, before they’ve had a chance to exercise that vote, municipal elections are being abolished. Henceforth, muni officers will be appointed by the central government.

Today -100: August 25, 1926: It’s what he would have wanted

2026-08-25T00:00:00.000-07:00

30,000 people show up at the funeral home to see Rudolph Valentino’s corpse for two seconds at a time, getting a tad unruly at times. “They were merely curious, and looked it. Hardly one looked even sorrowful much less reverent.” 10 black-shirt-wearing Fascists set themselves up to guard the coffin, on the orders of Mussolini himself. Except they will turn out actually to be a bunch of actors hired by the funeral home. Mounted police charge the crowd, as was the custom.

Today -100: August 24, 1926: The last of The Sheik

2026-08-24T00:00:00.000-07:00

Rudolph Valentino dies at 31. In the 90 minutes before he went into a coma, “At intervals he cried out in Italian which no one at his bedside understood.” Pola Negri, who claimed to be engaged to him, is performatively prostrated.

Manuel Quezon warns the Philippines Senate that if the Republicans win the 1928 US presidential election, they will annex the Philippines, like Hawaii.

Uruguay is the first South American country to recognize the Soviet Union.

Today -100: August 23, 1926: Πραξικόπημα!

2026-08-23T00:00:00.000-07:00

A coup in Greece removes dictator Theodoros Pangalos from power. Gen. Georgios Kondylis leads the bloodless coup. Pangalos is arrested and put on a destroyer. However, the captain of the destroyer turns out to be a supporter of Pangalos and tries to help him escape; the ship is pursued by another destroyer which will exchange fire with the first (or just fired warning shots?) and recapture Pangalos.

Today -100: August 22, 1926: Of churches and valentinos and high fashion

2026-08-22T00:00:00.000-07:00

Mexican Pres. Plutarco Elías Calles meets Archibishop Leopoldo Ruiz of Michoacan and tells him that churches, which are now property of the state, may stay open and services held in them while the Church pursues amending the Constitution. The Church refuses because they don’t want to recognize the state-ownership thing.

Rudolph Valentino has pleurisy.

Today -100: August 21, 1926: Of exaggerated consumption, wets, lawyers, and lyricists

2026-08-21T00:00:00.000-07:00

France orders restaurants to serve only two meats per meal – ONLY TWO MEATS PER MEAL! – “to put an end to exaggerated consumption, particularly in luxury establishments especially frequented by foreigners.” Also, only stale bread will be sold, to decrease consumption of flour.

Columbia President Nicholas Murray Butler refuses to run for NY governor. He faced opposition from up-state Republicans over his strong opposition to Prohibition. They want a candidate who’s Wet, but not that wet. Sen. James Wadsworth says the Republicans will evade the Prohibition issue entirely by saying their gubernatorial candidate will abide by whatever the upcoming referendum says.

Stalin continues the purge of his opponents in particular and Old Communists in general, removing Lev Kamenev from his post as Trade Commissar. Kamenev can now devote his time to writing a biography of Lenin.

Lawyers who are members of the Italian Fascist Party will no longer be allowed to represent anti-Fascists.

Paul Schindler, theatre director and composer of such musicals as “The Geezer of Geck” and “The Wizard of Oz,” commits suicide. I can’t find a trace of this alleged version of Wizard of Oz, but it provides an excuse for me to mention that the lyricist for all the songs in the 1939 movie version, “Yip” Harburg, also wrote “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime” (1932), “Lydia the Tattooed Lady,” “Finian’s Rainbow,” and a musical about Amelia Bloomer. He was blacklisted in the '50s.

Today -100: August 20, 1926: Calles says no

2026-08-20T00:00:00.000-07:00

Mexican Pres. Plutarco Elías Calles rejects yesterday’s appeal from the Catholic Episcopate for a deal, which would consist of the government suspending the clauses in the Constitution relating to religion and the laws enforcing them, and the Church in return doing, um, nothing. He suggests they try to appeal to Congress and the court rather than him.

42 are indicted for using the mails in Florida land frauds, including Merle C. Tebbetts, which is a very Florida-land-fraudster name. The state of Florida is pretty much wall-to-wall land fraud at this point.

Someone takes up Lady Astor’s offer to pay for the passage of anyone wants to go to Russia, provided they stay for two years. A J. Morton of Liverpool, with his wife and 2 children have set sail. The Soviet gov. has promised to find him work.

Today -100: August 19, 1926: Of conferences, chrysopoeia, and duels

2026-08-19T00:00:00.000-07:00

Philippines Sen. Sergio Osmeña says that when he visited Washington, Coolidge told him that the US intends to free the Philippines, you know, eventually, after building up its economy. Osmeña seems to trust him absolutely. Osmeña proposes a small conference – in Washington – of a handful of men from each side. “I am sure the Filipinos would accept the decision of such a conference.” He expects such a conference to decide to hold off independence and obviously Filipinos would just say, “Well, if a conference of some randos thinks we’re not ready to rule ourselves, then we must not be.” Osmeña will be the Philippines’ vice president from 1935, succeeding to the presidency on Manuel Quezon’s death in 1944, during the Japanese occupation.

The Philippines Senate votes unanimously to override Gov. Leonard Wood’s veto of the bill for an independence referendum, without even waiting on the decision of Osmeña’s conference.

Gen. Erich Ludendorff, who just keeps showing up in the news, whether it’s his divorce or his tax-dodging, is tricked by a locksmith’s apprentice into buying a process to turn any metal into gold.

German student Erwin Behr is killed in a friendly sabre duel (mensur), which is a thing which is still going on.

Today -100: August 18, 1926: Of reserves

2026-08-18T00:00:00.000-07:00

Rep. Ogden Livingston Mills is the NY Republican Party’s “reserve candidate” for governor if Columbia Pres. Nicholas Murray Butler continues to refuse to accept the nomination. Mills meets the requirements the R’s think are essential for success: he’s from New York City and is a Wet. Like Alfred Smith, Mills would be a reluctant candidate, preferring to run for re-election to Congress and then for Senate in ‘28.

Today -100: August 17, 1926: Like a big boy

2026-08-17T00:00:00.000-07:00

Secretary of State Frank Kellogg says Mexico’s crackdown on the Catholic Church has affected no American citizens or property protected by treaty rights, so there’s no reason for the US to intervene.

The Polyclinic Hospital issues a statement on Rudolph Valentino: “Like a big boy, Valentino is very thankful to the nurses who have taken care of him.”

British authorities open the coffin that purportedly contains the body of Lord Kitchener, recovered from the sea. And by British authorities, I mean Lambeth coroner Ingleby Oddie and pathologist Sir Bernard Spilsbury. Just luxuriate in those names for a moment. Anyways, the coffin is... empty.

Philippines Governor Gen. Leonard Wood vetoes a bill passed by the Philippines Legislature for a plebiscite on Philippine independence, saying the Lege doesn’t have that power.

Canberra goes dry.

Today -100: August 16, 1926: Of nullification, valentinos, and lynchings

2026-08-16T00:00:00.000-07:00

Rep. George Holden Tinkham calls on Attorney Gen. John Sargent to institute criminal proceedings against the Anti-Saloon League for violations of the Corrupt Practices Acts and for perjury, covering up its fundraising and spending amounting, Tinkham says, to $50 million over the years, including paying congresscritters, to buy the 18th Amendment and enforcement laws. Tinkham attacks the Justice Dept’s failure to enforce the Corrupt Practices Act of 1925 which, he says, amounts to nullification.

Rudolph Valentino is operated on for a gastric ulcer and appendicitis (he didn’t actually have the latter, I gather).

A masked mob storms the Wythe County, Virginia county jail and lynches a black man, Raymond Bird, shooting him, then hanging him from a tree.

Today -100: August 15, 1926: I don’t believe that any man can be successful who seeks great political honors

2026-08-15T00:00:00.000-07:00

NY Gov. Al Smith attends a private dinner in his honor at the Hotel Statler in Buffalo. After Erie County Democrats give, like, 15 speeches in a row about how he needs to run for re-election, Smith says he doesn’t wanna and it would damage his health and it’s bad to act like only one person can lead the party, and...

He adds that of course if the State Convention nominates him anyway (on Sept. 28 for a Nov. 2 election day), he’ll just have to suck it up.

One Frank Power (not his real name, it will come out) claims to have in his possession the body of Lord Kitchener, whose ship was torpedoed in 1916. The alleged corpse was allegedly recovered by an alleged Norwegian fisherman. “Power” has brought a coffin from Norway to London.

The Supreme Lodge of the Knights of Pythias rejects a proposal to help lepers in the Philippines.

In a letter to the League of Nations, Italy defends its accord with Britain establishing “zones of influence” in Abyssinia, echoing Britain’s earlier letter to the League in saying that the agreement was for Abyssinia’s good and certainly wouldn’t violate its rights. Neither country explain why they negotiated in secret from the world in general and Abyssinia in particular.

Lawsuits between Gen. Erich Ludendorff and his banker, Dr. Borchardt of the, ahem, Sinner Banking House, lay bare some top-shelf tax evasion on the general’s side. General L accuses his banker of keeping some of the money he moved offshore (if Switzerland counts as offshore) and the banker responds that the general was asking him to do illegal things and wanted his account hidden under someone else’s name. This all might give impetus to the left’s demand that Ludey be stripped of his pension.

Italy is preventing Italians from touristing abroad. Even Swiss women married to Italian men are not being allowed to visit their relatives.

Today -100: August 14, 1926: Yay! they’ve found a woman to blame!

2026-08-14T00:00:00.000-07:00

Several of Mexico’s episcopate meets to protest against a possible prosecution of the archbishop of Mexico City for statements he made to a newspaper. The government has said won’t happen but I guess the archbishops called the meeting before that happened. The episcopate blames the laws affecting the Catholic church on Belinda Zarada of the Anti-Clerical League.

Coolidge approves the first two airway routes.

Today -100: August 13, 1926: Of budgets

2026-08-13T00:00:00.000-07:00

Coolidge’s 1928 budget will include a large increase in Prohibition enforcement spending. Since he’s still committed to reducing spending overall, that money will come out of the Army and Navy, which won’t need it after the League of Nations Arms Conference leads to all sorts of disarmament, probably. Already previously congressionally-approved battle cruisers will not be built and naval maneuvers will be canceled due to lack of fuel. So Coolidge is doubling down on Prohibition enforcement ahead of his re-election run.

Today -100: August 12, 1926: Of property seizures and kloters

2026-08-12T00:00:00.000-07:00

Mexico orders the seizure of property controlled by members of the Catholic clergy, some of it hidden under the names of private citizens.

Texas Gov. Miriam “Ma” Ferguson officially states that she’s not dropping out of the re-election race or resigning after losing the first primary, as she promised to do. She says Attorney Gen. Dan Moody only won the primary because of the Klan vote.

Today -100: August 11, 1926: Persecutive religious laws are the worst kind of religious laws

2026-08-11T00:00:00.000-07:00

Headline of the Day -100:

The Vatican’s Osservatore Romano says there will be no negotiations with Mexico unless it withdraws its “persecutive religious law” but will trust to the “invincible arms of prayer.” The invincible arms of prayer and a nickle will get you a cup of coffee.

Pres. Coolidge refuses to receive a deputation from the Knights of Columbus who want the US to intervene in Mexico’s religious affairs. He considers those a domestic matter for Mexico, which is a refreshing change of pace for US policy towards Mexico.

Today -100: August 10, 1926: Of quiet cities and sore losers

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

FACT CHECK! The Associated Press investigates rumors that Stalin is dead in a revolt and army mutiny and that Trotsky has fled Moscow. They find that “Moscow is as quiet as any American city on Sunday morning.”

Texas Gov. Miriam “Ma” Ferguson has reneged on her promise not to stand in a run-off if she failed in the Dem. primary, which she very much did. So there will after all be a run-off on the 28th. She’s also trying to get Attorney Gen. Dan Moody thrown off that ballot for alleged campaign finance irregularities (contributions from candidates for other offices) and miscounted ballots.

Today -100: August 9, 1926: Of power in the Philippines

2026-08-09T00:00:00.000-07:00

Coolidge’s envoy to the Philippines, Col. Carmi Thompson, says the status of the Philippines should be settled – annexation, autonomy, whatever – for a long period during which there will be absolutely no reconsideration of independence, in order to create the settled conditions needed for Firestone to build the giant rubber plantations that Filipinos do not want. Gov. Gen. Leonard Wood wants to be given more power, including the power to make appointments without the approval of the Legislature, which has not been compliant lately no matter how many times he nominates the same people. He also wants Americans heading departments, he wants control over the cops, the annulment of laws passed by the Lege limiting his power, etc.

Today -100: August 8, 1926: Thousands of priests have come here to make our people fanatics and sink them in ignorance

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

Katherine Langley (not that you’d know “Mrs. John W. Langley”’s first name from the NYT) wins in the Republican primary for Kentucky’s 10th congressional district, the very seat her husband John resigned in January as he faced a prison term, which he is currently serving at Atlanta Penitentiary, for Volstead violations including securing “medicinal” alcohol for bootleggers and attempting to bribe a Prohibition agent.

Mexican Pres. Plutarco Elías Calles tells US reporters “in our Latin-American countries foreign priests have meant calamity, especially Spanish and Italian Catholic priests. They have all been outcasts from Rome... Thousands of priests have come here to make our people fanatics and sink them in ignorance.” He says he will accept no foreign mediation. He says he considers the boycott “as ridiculous as if I should dress as a clown and got out into the streets.”

Mexico’s (possibly Mexico City’s?) Health Department bans the Charleston from public dance halls because it might cause heart failure.

Col. Carmi Thompson, the former US treasurer, who Coolidge sent to the Philippines to check on conditions, says that while many, many Filipinos want independence, they have no actual grievances.

Today -100: August 7, 1926: If it could be done, it had to be done, and I did it

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

Gertrude Ederle of New York, 20, who won a gold medal at the 1924 Olympics, becomes the first woman to swim the English Channel. 5 men have previously done so, but none as quickly (14 hours, 31 minutes), and that with a choppy sea that greatly increased the length she had to swim. Her 2003 obituary says she sang “Let Me Call You Sweetheart” while she swam to set a rhythm. She says “I just knew if it could be done, it had to be done, and I did it.” Also, she was promised a red roadster if she did it.

The Vatican’s Osservatore Romano says Mexico’s new laws constitute a “real and true substitution of civil power for that of the Church.”