Whatever It Is, I’m Against It

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.

Today -100: September 16, 1926: I’ve just been strutting myself

2026-09-16T00:00:00.000-07:00

Coolidge bans arms exports to Nicaragua. This is aimed at the rebels rather than the government.

Sen. Rice Means loses the Colorado Republican primary for re-election, another sign of the declining influence of the Ku Klux Klan.

The 3rd Ku Klux Klan convocation authorizes Imperial Wizard Hiram Evans to stay in hotel bridal suites during his travels. And they’re giving him a yacht. He will adopt a standard of living commensurate with the “dignity of the Klan.” “Boys,” the Imperial Dentist announces, “I’ve just been strutting myself. I’m going to leave it to you whether I shall continue to do so.”

In Canadian federal elections, the Liberal Party comes slightly short of a majority. Mackenzie King will probably be able to stitch something together allowing him to continue as prime minister.

Today -100: September 15, 1926: Everyone is at work and Mussolini works harder than anybody else

2026-09-15T00:00:00.000-07:00

The Locarno treaties come into effect, triggered by Germany’s entry into the League of Nations.

After all those constant denials that nobody really believed, Al Smith will run for re-election as governor of New York after hall because his health has improved – he’s had a mole removed from his back.

4,353,605 Spaniards vote in favor of the plebiscite for continued dictatorship (and 0 against, that not being an option on the ballot). That’s 13% of the electorate, which the regime considers a rousing success.

US ambassador to Italy Henry Fletcher congratulates Mussolini on surviving the latest assassination attempt, and effusively praises The Duck and the progress Italy has made under Fascism: “Everyone is at work and Mussolini works harder than anybody else.” Mussolini is giving the Italian people a new spirit and a new patriotism.

KKK Imperial Wizard Hiram Evans says that if any European nation invades Mexico (no, no one is really suggesting that will happen), “there are enough Klansmen in America to repel them.”

Headline of the Day -100:

Same.

Today -100: September 14, 1926: Of parades, strikes, more strikes, and milk wars

2026-09-14T00:00:00.000-07:00

The Ku Klux Klan parade in D.C. is much smaller than last year’s, 15,000 to 20,000 this time around.

The British coal strike is still going on. Chancellor of the Exchequer Winston Churchill can’t get mine owners to negotiate.

Oh that’s cute: the Spanish plebiscite is taking place on the third anniversary of Primo de Rivera’s coup.

Supposedly thinking they were enforcing a temporary injunction against the NYC garment workers’ strike, police arrest 480 strikers. But the injunction only applied to 3 union officials, not the strikers as a whole.

In other New York labor news, there is a “Bronx milk war.”

Today -100: September 13, 1926: Much more to be desired is that the experiment be worked out in peace and cool judgment

2026-09-13T00:00:00.000-07:00

Mussolini says if the bomb had actually gone into his car instead of bouncing off it, he would simply have picked it up and thrown it back at the assassin. Sounds exactly like something Trump would say.

A NYT editorial on the assassination attempt says “While the special perils of a Dictator cannot be ignored, no thoughtful person desires to see that form of tyranny tempered by assassination. Much more to be desired is that the experiment be worked out in peace and cool judgment.” Jesus fucking Christ.

Name of the Day -100:

Today -100: September 12, 1926: I truly love to live in danger

2026-09-12T00:00:00.000-07:00

An anarchist, Gino Lucetti, throws a bomb at Benito Mussolini’s car. It bounces off, injuring some bystanders when it explodes. Lucetti tries to escape, throws another bomb, which fails to go off, at the cops trying to arrest him. They have to protect him from an angry mob. Lucetti has been living in Marseilles, where he fled last year after getting in a shoot-out with a Fascist. He snuck back into Italy on a rowboat. He will be sentenced to 30 years, will escape or be released in 1943, and soon die in a German bombing raid.

Speaking from his office window (the Chigi Palace having an egregious lack of balconies), Mussolini tells a crowd, “Excessive and culpable tolerance of plotters beyond our frontiers cannot any longer be endured.” He’s talking about France, which hosts not only refugees from Fascist Italy but anti-Fascist newspapers. He says, “As I have abolished strikes, I intend absolutely to stop periodical attempts against my life. I say this not on account of myself, because I truly love to live in danger, but on account of the Italian people, who work and produce and have a right not to be disturbed by such recurrent happenings.” He suggests he will bring back hanging. (Update: another article has The Duck saying, “From this balcony...” but I’ve looked at a bunch of pictures of the Palace and I maintain there aren’t any, if you’re wondering what I’ve been doing with my time today).

A bomb blows up a car in the “Little Italy” neighborhood of Harlem, killing at least one person in the car and severely wounding two more. This may be related to a Fascist street meeting held on the same corner a bit earlier, although the fire department claims the car’s gas tank probably exploded. No one believes them. The bomb may have belonged to the car’s occupants. (Update from tomorrow -100’s paper: one more dies and the two dead are both in Fascist organizations, so yeah they definitely planned to throw the bomb, which the police and fire dept still refuse to acknowledge was the cause of the explosion, at the ANTI-Fascist meeting in retaliation for the assassination attempt on Mussolini).

Spain quits the League of Nations (well, gives the required two-year notice).

Spaniards are voting on the thing that isn’t a proper plebiscite because there’s no option to vote against dictatorship (also, the government will know that the people who do not vote oppose it). King Alfonso is believed to oppose Primo de Rivera’s regime, going so far (hah!) as to appoint Gen. Dámaso Berenguer (the future “soft dictator”) to the royal household; Primo de Rivera said that rather than shake Berenguer’s hand he’d prefer to run him through with a sword, which is also my usual Yelp review.

Staten Island concludes the celebration of its sesquicentennial, which is pretty fancy language for an outer borough.

Frisian regions of the Netherlands are insisting on the use of the Frisian language in schools.

In other news, there is a “Frisian” language.

Today -100: September 11, 1926: Of pirate radio, militaries, women’s suffrage, and nudists. German nudists, like you hadn’t already guessed that.

2026-09-11T00:00:00.000-07:00

Mexican Pres. Plutarco Elías Calles is attacked on a pirate radio station, whose transmitter the police have been unable to locate. Is this the first time such a thing has happened?

The French government reduces military spending, retiring 3,900 officers (leaving 128,000), raising the age of conscription from 20 to 21, and firing 7,000 military horses and... we’re all thinking it.

Spain’s plebiscite will entail the first use by women of their new right to vote. So women can now vote for dictatorship. Yay?

Prussia’s interior minister approves “cultural nudists” frolicking in public in woods and by lakes, provided view of them is screened off by shrubs or whatever.

Today -100: September 10, 1926: Of ministers plenipotentiary, demons, and fish

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

The USSR names a woman, Alexandra Kollontai, as minister plenipotentiary to Mexico.

Headline of the Day -100:

Not actual demons, sadly, but a Lt. Demons, chief officer of the French ship Lotus, which collided with and sank a Turkish coal ship, killing 8 Turkish sailors. It then docked in Constantinople, where he was arrested. (Update: his real name is Desmons)

Headline of the Day -100:

Today -100: September 9, 1926: Willkommen

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

Former Attorney Gen. Harry Daugherty and former Alien Property Custodian Thomas Miller are on trial for taking bribes for selling off German securities seized during the war to a Swiss company in 1921.

The League of Nations Assembly votes unanimously to admit Germany. German monarchists mock the whole thing, devalued as it is by Poland being simultaneously elected to the League Council.

Spain’s King Alfonso withdraws his martial law decree 3 days after issuing it. His appeal to artillerist rebels was obeyed when dictator Primo de Rivera’s was ignored.

Today -100: September 8, 1926: Of berets, true lovers of liberty, valets, and smoking

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

Front-Page Headline of the Day -100:

Spain, pissed at the League of Nations decision tomorrow to let Germany join with a permanent seat on the Council while Spain only gets a non-permanent one, decides to quit the League. Why, we’re the mother country of 20 Spanish-speaking nations! they say.

The bishops of Mexico issue a pastoral letter calling on Mexican Catholics to “Imitate the true lovers of liberty who have known how to stand in the breach until they died or won.” Like early Christians, they’re holding religious services in catacombs or something, blah blah blah, sorry, got bored.

Texas Attorney Gen. Dan Moody wants all Ku Klux Klan members in government to resign when he becomes governor.

Major Arthur Brooks, valet to the last four presidents, dies at 66. A black man, of course. Going in and out of consciousness, he summoned someone from the White House to give them the combination of the White House silver vaults.

Former Crown Prince Wilhelm of Germany is taking flying lessons. He does some loops and shit over Berlin’s Tempelhofer airfield, evidently smoking the whole time (the princeling, not the plane), for which he gets told off by a cop.

Today -100: September 7, 1926: Of nervous conditions, kidnap plots, notaries, sleep, and polar bears

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

The train with Rudolph Valentino’s body arrives in L.A. The late Mr. Valentino is taken off the train in a suburban station to prevent more mob scenes. Also Rudolph’s brother and Pola Negri, who “appeared to be in an extremely nervous condition.”

Spain claims to have foiled a republican plot to kidnap King Alfonso to force him to abdicate.

Headline of the Day -100:

This is literally true. The city borrowed from US banks to develop electrical works. The banks then insisted Burgomaster Karl Rothe sign each one of 7,000 notes before a notary either in New York City or in Leipzig. Sending Rothe to NY turns out to be cheaper than sending a notary to Leipzig, presumably because they’re sending him steerage class.

Irenee du Pont, vice chairman of the Board of E.I. du Pont de Nemours Co. thinks it is possible to create a chemical substitute for sleep.

Headline of the Day -100:

Today -100: September 6, 1926: Drill, baby, drill

2026-09-06T00:00:00.000-07:00

The Federal Oil Conservation Board finds that existing US oil reserves in the ground amount to only 6 years’ supply, so we’d better get cracking (not fracking) on finding more.

Spain declares martial law to enable the punishment of the “absolute indiscipline” in the Artillery Corps.

In his forthcoming message to Congress, Coolidge “will not recommend new legislation that might disturb business.” Current anti-trust laws, he thinks, are perfectly adequate.

100 federal Prohibition agents surge into Charleston, South Carolina, arresting prohibition agents, sheriffs & constables, bribe-taking being the primary charge.

Today -100: September 5, 1926: Of prosperity, candidates, chaplins, and plebiscites

2026-09-05T00:00:00.000-07:00

Coolidge will not actively campaign in the mid-term elections, but has spent his vacation meeting with bankers & business people, because of course he has, and developing the party’s issues: prosperity, no change in tariffs, cutting taxes and government spending still further, Prohibition enforcement, and helping farmers through cooperative marketing.

The New York Republicans, having failed to get anyone to agree to run for governor, plan to just draft someone at their convention on the 27th, ignoring any previous refusals.

Monsignor John P. Chidwick, who according to the NYT is “Department Chaplin” of the United Spanish War Veterans of the State of New York (does he do the mustache? probably) and was chaplain of the USS Maine when it was blown up, resigns from the veterans’ group, saying it’s been taken over by the Ku Klux Klan, noting the election of Sen. Rice Means (R-Colorado), who is indeed totally a kluxer, as National Commander in Chief.

Spain will hold a plebiscite on whether to call a new National Assembly or just continue Primo de Rivera’s dictatorship. Which is in increasing conflict with the military, with King Alfonso straddling the fence as always.

Today -100: September 4, 1926: Of planes, duels, and corpse trains

2026-09-04T00:00:00.000-07:00

Coolidge, pushing to increase spending on naval aviation, says he’s pretty sure that doesn’t violate the Washington Treaty. He doesn’t want an arms competition (“arms race” wasn’t coined until 1930), so he thinks everyone else will ignore his aeroplane surge, probably.

Prince Valerio Pignatelli, secretary to the Italian Legation in Mexico, challenges Federal District Governor Gen. Francisco Serrano to a duel for making fun of the duel he did last week when both guys missed.

A large crowd throngs the Chicago railroad terminal trying to catch a glimpse of the train containing the coffin containing the body of Rudolph Valentino, because these people badly need TikTok. In the event, they don’t actually get to catch a glimpse of the train containing the coffin containing the body of Rudolph Valentino; the view’s blocked by another train or something. They don’t even get to catch a glimpse of Pola Negri, who’s ridin’ the rails with the late Mr. Valentino.

Today -100: September 3, 1926: Of trousers, mild wet plans, and Bolshevism-savor

2026-09-03T00:00:00.000-07:00

Front-Page Headline of the Day -100:

Headline of the Day -100:

Moist, I think the word you’re looking for is moist. Like the R’s, the D’s are using the forthcoming referendum on state Prohibition enforcement as an excuse to weasel out of taking a position.

The execution of Celestino Madeiros is postponed so he can testify in Sacco and Vanzetti’s appeal for a new trial, which is based on Madeiros’s confession to the crime for which S&V were convicted.

The Catholic Episcopate attacks the claim in Pres. Plutarco Elías Calles’s message to Congress yesterday that the Church was in rebellion against the Mexican state. They say, “He would better have said that all Governments since 1853 have been oppressors of the Church, inspired by a Jacobinism or a premature Bolshevism.” Calles’s policies also “savor of Bolshevism,” presumably mature Bolshevism. They also claim that the closings of churches, schools, etc were done with no supporting law.

Today -100: September 2, 1926: Of sympathetic actions, curfews, platinum teeth, and goats

2026-09-02T00:00:00.000-07:00

Knights of Columbus leaders – including a gentleman known as The Supreme Knight – meet Pres. Coolidge, later claiming they didn’t ask him for intervention in Mexico, just “sympathetic action.” Which doesn’t sound very Supreme-Knighty, if you ask me.

Chicago now has a curfew for children 16 or younger, and cops are supposed to enforce it, but “Because of the prevailing mode of short skirts, rolled hose and bobbed hair, they were unable to distinguish children from grown-ups.”

Former mayor of Atlantic City William Riddle, challenging his property tax assessment, makes the mistake at one point of taking out his $1,200 platinum false teeth, whereupon one of the assessors demands that they be taxed too. After a couple of days fighting about jurisdiction, they determine he should pay $30.58.

Headline of the Day -100:

Today -100: September 1, 1926: Of quitters, films, and duels

2026-09-01T00:00:00.000-07:00

NY Supreme Court Justice James Cropsey drops out of the gubernatorial race, thanks to Sen. James Wadsworth’s objection to a state Prohibition enforcement plan, which Cropsey supports, being put in the Republican platform. At least according to an (unnamed) friend of his.

William Hays, “head of the motion-picture industry,” meets Pres. Coolidge and asks him to include films in the proposed Archive Building, although it sounds like this would be just for “historic” films, like the footage of McKinley’s inauguration.

Rhode Island State Police shoot at striking textile workers in Manville when they try to storm a factory, injuring god knows how many.

Prince Valerio Pignatelli, secretary to the Italian Legation in Mexico, fights a duel with one Alberto Meade, whoever that is. It’s pretty unusual to have a duel in a foreign country. Anyway, they both shoot and miss. The cause of their quarrel is unknown. Pignatelli turned later in life to writing pulp novels.

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?