Showing posts with label baseball. Show all posts
Showing posts with label baseball. Show all posts

Monday, March 4, 2024

Saturday, March 4, 1944. The resisting defeated.

The USCGC Makinaw was commissioned on this date in 1944. She'd serve as an ice breaker until 2006.

The German military, evil cause notwithstanding, was proving itself to be as amazing in defeat as it had been in victory.  Never as well-equipped or modern as its propaganda would have it, it was nonetheless a potent fighting force, both in defeat as well as victory.  On this day, the Second Narva Offensive resulted in a German victory.

Outnumbered, the Germans took thousands of casualties, but not as many as the Red Army. Both armies had a disregard for life.  The Germans were, frankly quite surprisingly, aided by the presence of able Estonian recruits who had only recently entered service.

The latter was a portent of what was to come. As 1944 marched on, the German frontiers contracted, and as they did, the bloodletting, in part due to increased German resistance, meant that 1945, not 1944, was to be the bloodiest year of the war.

The Red Army launched a new series of offensive actions in Ukraine.  Stalwart German resistance notwithstanding, and the frankly primitive state of much of the Red Army, the tide had irrevocably turned.

From Sarah Sundin's blog:

Today in World War II History—March 4, 1944: 80 Years Ago—Mar. 4, 1944: Maj. Gen. Alexander Patch assumes command of US Seventh Army in Algiers, to prepare for landings in southern France.

Germany's battlefield performance on the Baltic coast and in Italy notwithstanding, the direction the war was headed in was obvious and the Allies were preparing not only for Operation Overlord, but Operation Dragoon, the invasion of southern France.  Patch was placed in command of that operation.


Patch had already seen combat command in the war in the Pacific, and more specifically Guadalcanal, making him one of a handful of U.S. generals who served against the Germans and Japanese. His health in the Pacific had been very poor, and he suffered from pneumonia while serving there.

Patch was born into an Army family and had originally wanted to be a cavalryman, but foresaw its obsolesce so he instead chose the infantry when he graduated from West Point in 1913  He saw action in the Punitive Expedition and in World War One.  He never recovered from his respiratory ailments and died on November 21, 1945, just after the end of the war.  He was 55.

Other things were also occurring in Algiers.

French industrialist, and fascist, Piere Firmin Pucheu went on trial in Algiers in spite of conditions that probably should have led to his safe presence in Algeria, Vichy role notwithstanding.  He had been the Vichy minister of the interior.  He was the first person tried under the French Committee of National Liberation's September 1943 edict charging all Vichy ministers with treason, something that was frankly political and extralegal.  He would be found guilty and executed on March 20, 1944, going to his death after shaking hands with his own firing squad and giving the order to fire himself.

Pucheau is an uncomfortable example as to how some examples of Allied justice were not just. Pucheau was largely not admirable. He was a fascist, and he had a hatred of Jews.  His execution, however, can be viewed for his being on the losing side of the war.

The 8th Air Force targeted Berlin, but only 29 bombers made it through due to weather.

Fighting was going on at Los Negros, where Troy McGill performed an act of heroism that would result in his receiving a posthumous Medal of Honor.

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty in action with the enemy at Los Negros Island, Admiralty Group, on 4 March 1944. In the early morning hours Sgt. McGill, with a squad of eight men, occupied a revetment which bore the brunt of a furious attack by approximately 200 drink-crazed enemy troops. Although covered by crossfire from machine guns on the right and left flank he could receive no support from the remainder of our troops stationed at his rear. All members of the squad were killed or wounded except Sgt. McGill and another man, whom he ordered to return to the next revetment. Courageously resolved to hold his position at all costs, he fired his weapon until it ceased to function. Then, with the enemy only five yards away, he charged from his foxhole in the face of certain death and clubbed the enemy with his rifle in hand-to-hand combat until he was killed. At dawn 105 enemy dead were found around his position. Sgt. McGill's intrepid stand was an inspiration to his comrades and a decisive factor in the defeat of a fanatical enemy.

Chinese and American troops who have just received first aid treatment are seen in a 2½ ton truck for transfer to the rear.  March 4, 1944.  Note the tanker's helmet and the M1917 helmets

The U-472 was sunk in the Barents Sea.  She never sank a single ship.

China and Afghanistan entered into a pointless treaty of friendship.

Mobster Louie Lepke, birth name Louis Buchalter and also known as Louis Lepke or Lepke Buchalter, was executed.

Louis Capone met the same fate on this day, for the same reason.

The Phillies attempted to introduce a blue jay logo.

Saturday, February 24, 2024

February 24, 1874. Honus Wagner born.

 


Baseball great Honus Wagner was born in Pennsylvania.  

A shortstop, he played professional baseball from 1897 to 1917.  Following retirement as a player, he managed the team he had played for, the Pittsburgh Pirates, for 39 years.  He passed away in 1955 at age 81.

Two of his brothers were also professional baseball players.

Last prior:

Thursday, February 22, 2024

February 22, 1874. Birth of Bill Klem.


"The Old Arbitrator", Klem was a Major League (National League) umpire from 1905 to 1941, and served in eighteen World Series (1908, 1909, 1911, 1912, 1913, 1914, 1915, 1917, 1918, 1920, 1922, 1924, 1926, 1929, 1931, 1932, 1934 and 1940), more than any other umpire.

He lived until 1951 and passed away at age 77, writing his attorney just before his death that "This is my last game, and I'm going to strike out this time."  He and his wife Marie had no children.

Last prior:

February 18, 1874. Disputed crown.

Tuesday, February 13, 2024

Wednesday, February 13, 1924. When We Were Very Young and corruption.


Winnie the Pooh debuted as Mr. Edward Bear in the pages of Punch. The work was When We Were Very Young.

Congress decided to try to regulate the employment of very young labor.

H. J. Res. 184, A Bill to Limit, Regulate, and Prohibit the Labor of Persons Under Eighteen Years of Age, 2/13/1924

And this in the form of a Constitutional Amendment called the Child Labor Amendment.

It would pass Congress, but it failed to secure the necessary state ratification.  Most of its provisions were later incorporated into law in any event.  It'd likely be regarded as obsolete today, and the fact that the same provisions were adopted by law provides a lesson to later day supporters of the moribund ERA.  Having said that, recent runs at child labor by some members of the GOP provide a bit of a lesson as well.



German nationalist attacked the headquarters of Rhineland separatists in Pimassens. Thirty-six  people were killed in the event.


Emblem of the British Fascisti.  Note the call to traditionalism, patriotism, and religion. By MrPenguin20 - Own work. Based on emblem visible here., CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=36730872


British fascists met at the Hotel Cecil in London.

Felsch in 1919.

Former Chicago White House outfielder Oscar "Happy" Felsch was arrested for perjury, following his prior day's testimony in Shoeless Joe Jackson's back wages trial.  White Sox lawyers in the intervening 24 hours produced letters that contradicted Felsch's testimony.

Wednesday, January 31, 2024

Wednesday January 31, 1924. Teapot Dome drama continues, Shoeless Joe testifies.


More drama over Teapot Dome.  The U.S. Senate declared that eases to the Mammoth Oil Company and the Pan American Petroleum Company "were executed under circumstances indicating fraud and corruption".

Speaking of a fraud; the first Soviet Constitution was approved.  It'd be amended six times before being replaced with a new constitution in 1936.  It stated:
The Russian Socialist Federal Soviet Republic, the Socialist Soviet Republic of Ukraine, the Socialist Soviet Republic of White Russia, and the Socialist Soviet Republic of Transcaucasia (including the Socialist Soviet Republic of Azerbaijan, the Socialist Soviet Republic of Georgia, and the Socialist Soviet Republic of Armenia) –unite themselves in one federal State–“The Union of Socialist Soviet Republics.” [Amended April 18, 1925, “so as to include the Socialist Republic of Turkmenia and the Uzbek Socialist Republic.”]

Chapter I. Attributions of the Supreme Organs of Power of the Union

ARTICLE 1. The Union of Socialist Soviet Republics through its supreme organs has the following powers:

(a) To represent the Union in its international relations; to conclude all diplomatic relations; to conclude treaties, political and otherwise, with other States;
(b) To modify the exterior frontiers of the Union, as well as to regulate questions concerning the modification of frontiers between the member Republics;
(c) To conclude treaties concerning the reception of new Republics into the Union;
(d) To declare war and to conclude peace;
(e) To conclude internal and external loans of the Union and to authorize internal and external loans of the member Republics;
(f) To ratify international treaties;
(g) To direct commerce with foreign countries and to determine the system of internal commerce;
(h) To establish the bases and the general plan of all national economy of the Union; to define the domains of industry and industrial enterprises that are of federal interest; to conclude treaties of concession both federal and in the name of the member Republics;
(i) To direct transportation and the postal and telegraphic services;
(j) To organize and direct the armed forces of the Union;
(k) To approve the budget of the Federal State which includes the budgets of the member Republics; to establish duties and federal revenues, making additions and reductions in order to balance the member Republics’ budgets; to authorize duties and supplementary taxes to meet the member Republics’ budgets;
(l) To establish a uniform system of money and credit;
(m) To establish general principles of exploitation and use of the earth, as well as those of the subsoil, the forests, and the waters of the territories of the Union;
(n) To establish federal legislation on the emigration from the territory of one of the Republics to the territory of another and to set up a fund for such emigration;
(o) To establish principles of the judicial organization and procedure, as well as civil and criminal legislation for the Union;
(p) To establish the fundamental laws regarding work;
(q) To establish the general principles regarding public instruction;
(r) To establish the general measures regarding public hygiene;
(s) To establish a standard system of weights and measures;
(t) To organize federal statistics;
(u) To fix the fundamental legislation regarding federal nationality, with reference to the rights of foreigners;
(v) To exercise the right of amnesty in all territories of the Union;
(w) To abrogate the acts of the Congresses of the Soviets and the Central Executive Committees of the member Republics contrary to the present Constitution;
(x) To arbitrate litigious questions between the member Republics.

ARTICLE 2. The approval and modification of the fundamental principles of the present Constitution belong exclusively to the Congress of Soviets of the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics.

Chapter II. Sovereign Rights of the Member Republics

ARTICLE 3. The Sovereignty of the member Republics is limited only in the matters indicated in the present Constitution, as coming within the competence of the Union. Outside of those limits, each member Republic exerts its public powers independently; the USSR protects the rights of member Republics.

ARTICLE 4. Each one of the member Republics retains the right to freely withdraw from the union.

ARTICLE 5. The member Republics will make changes in their Constitutions to conform with the present Constitution.

ARTICLE 6. The territory of the member Republics cannot be modified without their consent; also, any limitation or modification or suppression of Article 4 must have the approval of all the member Republics of the Union.

ARTICLE 7. Just one federal nationality is established for the citizens of the member Republics.

Chapter III. Congress of Soviets of the Union

ARTICLE 8. The supreme organ of power of the USSR is the Congress of Soviets, and, in the recesses of the Congress of Soviets–the Central Executive Committee of the USSR which is composed of the Federal Soviet and the Soviet of Nationalities.

ARTICLE 9. The Congress of Soviets of the USSR is composed of representatives of the urban Soviets and of the Soviets of the urban type, on the basis of one deputy per 25,000 electors, and of representatives of the Congresses of Soviets of the rural districts on the basis of one deputy per 125,000 inhabitants.

ARTICLE 10. The delegates to the Congress of the Soviets of the USSR are elected in the Congresses of Soviets of the rural and urban governments. In the Republics where there does not exist a rural division, the delegates are elected directly to the Congress of Soviets of the respective Republic.

ARTICLE 11. Regular sessions of the Congress of the Soviets of the USSR are convoked by the Central Executive Committee of the Union once yearly; extraordinary sessions may be convoked on decision of the CEC (Central Executive Committee), or on the demand of the Federal Soviet, or of the Soviet of Nationalities, or on the demand of two member Republics.

ARTICLE 12. In cases where extraordinary circumstances interfere with the meeting of the Congress of Soviets of the USSR on the date set, the CEC of the Union has the power to adjourn the meeting of Congress.

Chapter IV. The Central Executive Committee of the Union

ARTICLE 13. The Central Executive Committee (CEC) of the USSR is composed of the Federal Soviet and the Soviet of Nationalities.

ARTICLE 14. The Congress of Soviets of the USSR elects the Federal Soviet from among the representatives of the member Republics in proportion to the population of each one to make a grand total of 371 members.

ARTICLE 15. The Soviet of Nationalities is composed of representatives of the member Republics and associated autonomous Republics of the RSFSR on the basis of five representatives for each member Republic, and one representative for each associated autonomous Republic. The composition of the Soviet of Nationalities in its entirety is approved by the Congress of the USSR.

(The autonomous Republics of Adzharia, and Abkhazia and the autonomous region of Ossetia, each send a representative to the Soviet of Nationalities.)

ARTICLE 16. The Federal Soviet and the Soviet of Nationalities examine all decrees, codes, and acts that are presented to them by the Presidium of the CEC and by the Council of People’s Commissars of the USSR, by the different Commissions of the People of the Union, by the CEC of the member Republics, as well as those that owe their origin to the Federal Soviet and the Soviet of Nationalities.

ARTICLE 17. The CEC of the Union publishes the codes, decrees, acts, and ordinances; orders the work of legislation and administration of the USSR, and -defines the sphere of activity of the Presidium of the CEC and of the Council of People’s Commissars of the USSR

ARTICLE 18. All decrees and acts defining the general rules of the political and economic life of the USSR, or making radical modifications in the existing practices of public organs of the USSR must obligatorily be submitted for examination and approval to the CEC of the USSR

ARTICLE 19. All decrees, acts, and ordinances promulgated by the CEC must be immediately put into force throughout all the territory of the USSR

ARTICLE 20. The CEC of the USSR has the right to suspend or abrogate the decrees, acts, and orders of the Presidium of the CEC of the USSR, as well as those of the Congress of Soviets and of the CEC of the Member Republics, and all other organs of power throughout the territory of the USSR

ARTICLE 21. The ordinary sessions of the CEC of the USSR are convoked by the Presidium of the CEC three times yearly. The extraordinary sessions are convoked by the Presidium of the CEC of the USSR on the demand of the Presidium of the Federal Soviet of the Presidium of the Soviet nationalities, and also on demand of one of the CEC of the member Republics.

ARTICLE 22. The projects of law submitted for examination to the CEC of the USSR do not have the force of law until adopted by the Federal Soviet and by the Soviet of Nationalities; they are published in the name of the CEC of the USSR

ARTICLE 23. In case of disagreement between the Federal Soviet and the Soviet of Nationalities, the question is transmitted to a compromise committee chosen by the two of them.

ARTICLE 24. If an accord is not reached by the compromise committee, the question is transferred for examination to a joint meeting of the Federal Soviet and the Soviet of Nationalities; and, if neither the Federal Soviet nor the Soviet of Nationalities get a majority, then the question may be submitted, on the demand of one of these organs to the decision of an ordinary or extraordinary Congress of the USSR

ARTICLE 25. The Federal Soviet and the Soviet of Nationalities elect for the preparation of their sessions and the direction of their work- -their Presidiums, composed of seven members each.

ARTICLE 26. Between sessions of the CEC of the USSR, the supreme organ of power is the Presidium of the USSR, constituted by the CEC to the extent of 21 members, including the Presidium of the Federal Soviet and the Presidium of the Soviet of Nationalities.

To form the Presidium of the CEC and the Council of People’s Commissars of the USSR, conforming to Articles 26 and 37 of the present Constitution, joint sessions of the Federal Soviet and of the Soviet of Nationalities are convoked. In the joint session of the Federal Soviet and the Soviet of Nationalities, the vote is taken separately within each group.

ARTICLE 27. The CEC elects, in accordance with the number of member Republics, 4 Presidents of the CEC of the USSR from among the members of the Presidium of the CEC of the USSR

ARTICLE 28. The CEC of the USSR is responsible before the Congress of Soviets of the USSR

Chapter V. The Presidium of the CEC of the Union

ARTICLE 29. Between sessions of the CEC of the USSR, the Presidium of the CEC of the USSR is the supreme organ of legislative, executive, and administrative power of the USSR

ARTICLE 30. The Presidium of the CEC of the USSR oversees the enforcement of the Constitution of the USSR and the execution of all decisions of the Congress of Soviets and the CEC of the USSR by all the public agents.

ARTICLE 31. The Presidium of the CEC of the USSR has the right to suspend and abrogate the orders of the Council of People’s Commissars and of the different Councils of the People of the Union of the S. S. R. as well as those of the CEC and CPC (Councils of People’s Commissars) of the member Republics.

ARTICLE 32. The Presidium of the CEC of the USSR has the right to suspend the acts of the Congresses of Soviets of the member Republics submitting afterwards these acts for the examination and approval of the CEC of the USSR

ARTICLE 33. The Presidium of the CEC of the USSR promulgates the decrees, acts, and orders; examines and approves the projects of decrees and acts deposited by the CPC, by the different authorities of the USSR, by the CEC of the member Republics, by their Presidiums and by other organs of power.

ARTICLE 34. The decrees and decisions of the CEC, of its Presidium, and the CPC of the USSR are printed in the languages generally employed in the member Republics: Russian, Ukrainian, White Russian, Georgian, Armenian, Turko-Tartar.

ARTICLE 35. The Presidium of the CEC of the USSR decides questions regarding the relationships between the CPC of the USSR and the People’s Commissars of the USSR, for one part and the CEC of the member Republics and their Presidiums, for the second part.

ARTICLE 36. The Presidium of the CEC of the USSR is responsible before the CEC of the USSR

Chapter VI. Council of People’s Commissars of the Union

ARTICLE 37. The Council of People’s Commissars (CPC) of the USSR is the executive and administrative organ of the CEC of the USSR and is constituted by the CEC as follows:

(a) The President of the Council of People’s Commissars of the USSR,
(b) The Vice- Presidents, (c) The Commissioner of the People for Foreign Affairs,
(d) The Commissioner of the People for Military and Naval Affairs,
(e) The Commissioner of the People for Foreign Commerce, (f) The Commissioner of the People for Ways of Communication,
(g) The Commissioner of the People for Postal and Telegraphic Service,
(h) The Commissioner of the People for the Inspection of Workers and Peasants,
(i) The President of the Supreme Council of National Economy,
(j) The Commissioner of the People for Labor,
(k) The Commissioner of the People for Finances
(l) The Commissioner of the People for Supplies.

ARTICLE 38. The Council of People’s Commissars of the USSR, in the limits of the powers granted to it by the CEC of the USSR and on the basis of rules regulating the CPC of the USSR, publishes the decrees and decisions that must become effective throughout the territory of the USSR

ARTICLE 39. The CPC of the USSR examines the decrees and decisions given it by the various Commissions of the People as well as those from the CEC of the member Republics and by their Presidiums.

ARTICLE 40. The CPC of the USSR is responsible for all its work before the CEC of the USSR and before its Presidium.

ARTICLE 4 1. The orders and acts of the CPC of the USSR may be suspended and abrogated by the CEC of the USSR and by its Presidium.

ARTICLE 42. The Central Executive Committees of the member Republics and their Presidiums may object to the decrees and orders of the CPC of the USSR to the Presidium of the CEC of the USSR, without suspending the execution of these orders.

Chapter VII. The Supreme Court of the Union

ARTICLE 43. In order to maintain revolutionary legality within the territory of the USSR, a Supreme Court under the jurisdiction of the CEC of the USSR is established, competent:

(a) To give the Supreme Courts of the member Republics the authentic interpretations on questions of federal legislation;
(b) To examine, on the request of the Prosecutor of the Supreme Court of the USSR, the decrees, decisions, and verdicts of the Supreme Courts of the member Republics, with view of discovering any infraction of the federal laws, or harming the interests of other Republics, and if such be discovered to bring them before the CEC of the USSR
(c) To render decisions on the request of the CEC of the USSR, as to the constitutionality of laws passed by the member Republics;
(d) To settle legal disputes between the member Republics;
(e) To examine the accusations brought before it of high officials against whom charges have been made relative to their performance of duties.

ARTICLE 44. The Supreme Court performs its functions in the following manner:

(a) With a full attendance of the member judges of the Supreme Court of the USSR;
(b) Or, in a meeting of the Civil Judiciary College and the Criminal Judiciary College of the Supreme Court of the USSR;
(c) Or, in a meeting of the Military College.

ARTICLE 45. The Supreme Court of the USSR, in full session, is composed of 11 members, 6 including its President and Vice-President, the four Presidents of the Supreme Courts of the member Republics, and a representative of the Unified Political Administration of the State of the USSR, the President and the Vice-President and the other five members are named by the Presidium of the CEC of the USSR

ARTICLE 46. The Prosecutor of the Supreme Court of the USSR and his assistant are named by the Presidium of the CEC of the USSR The Prosecutor of the Supreme Court of the USSR is charged with the duties; (1) to give the decisions of all questions in the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court of the USSR, (2) to prosecute the cases brought before the Court, (3) and, in cases of lack of agreement among the judges of the Supreme Court of the USSR, to bring these questions of dispute before the Presidium of the CEC of the S. S. R.

ARTICLE 47. The right to submit the questions referred to in Article 43 to the Supreme Court of the USSR for examination belongs exclusively to the CEC of the USSR, to its Presidium, to the Prosecutor of the Supreme Courts of the member Republics, and to the Unified Political Administration of the State of the USSR

ARTICLE 48. The regular sessions of the Supreme Court of the USSR constitute the special legal chambers to examine:

(a) The civil and criminal affairs of exceptional importance that are of interest to two or more member Republics;
(b) Personal charges against members of the CEC and the CPC of the USSR

A decision of the Supreme Court of the USSR to proceed to examine a case may take place only after special authority has been granted for each case by the CEC of the Union or its Presidium.

Chapter VIII. People’s Commissars of the Union

ARTICLE 49. For the immediate direction of the several branches of public administration, attributed to the CPC of the Union of the SSR, 10 People’s Commissars are created as mentioned in Article 37 of the Present Constitution and who act according to the regulations of the People’s Commissars approved by the CEC of the Union of the SSR

ARTICLE 50. The People’s Commissars of the USSR are divided into the following groups:

(a) People’s Commissars handling strictly federal matters of the USSR that are external in character;
(b) People’s Commissars handling matters that are purely domestic in character.

ARTICLE 51. The first group of Commissars handling matters external in character includes the following People’s Commissars:

(a) For Foreign Affairs
(b) For Military and Naval Affairs
(c) For Foreign Commerce
(d) For Ways of Communication
(e) For Postal and Telegraphic Service

ARTICLE 52. The second group handling matters that are strictly domestic in character includes the following People’s Commissars:

(a) The Council of National Economy
(b) For Supplies,
(c) For Labor
(d) For Finances,
(e) For the Inspection of Workers and Peasants.

ARTICLE 53. The People’s Commissars handling matters of purely external character have, in the various member Republics, their delegates directly subordinate to these Commissars.

ARTICLE 54. The People’s Commissars handling matters of domestic concern have, as executing organs in the various member Republics, the People’s Commissars of these Republics of similar title.

ARTICLE 55. The CPC of the USSR, including the individual Commissars, are the heads of the various departments mentioned.

ARTICLE 56. Under each Commissioner of the People, and under his presidency, is formed a college, of which the members are named by the CPC of the USSR

ARTICLE 57. The Commissioner of the People has the right to personally take decisions on all questions that come within the jurisdiction of his department, on advising the College of his department of his act. In case of disagreement on any decision of the Commissioner of the People, the College, or its members separately, may bring the dispute before the CPC of the USSR, without suspending the act of the Commissioner.

ARTICLE 58. The orders of the different People’s Commissars of the Union may be abrogated by the Presidium of the CEC and by the CPC of the USSR

ARTICLE 59. The orders of the People’s Commissars of the USSR may be suspended by the CEC or by the Presidiums of the CEC of the member Republic in case of evident incompatibility of these orders with the Federal Constitution, with federal legislation or with legislation of the member Republic. This suspension is immediately communicated by the CEC or by the Presidiums of the CEC of the member Republics to the CPC of the USSR and to the proper Commissioner of the People of the USSR

ARTICLE 60. The People’s Commissars of the USSR are responsible before the CPC, the CEC of the USSR and its Presidium.

Chapter IX. The Unified Political Administration of State

ARTICLE 61. In view of unifying the revolutionary efforts of the member Republics in their struggle against the political and economic counter-revolution, spying and banditry, there shall be created under the jurisdiction of the CPC of the USSR, a Unified Political Administration of State (GPU) of which the President shall be a consulting member of the CPC of the USSR

ARTICLE 62. The GPU of the USSR directs the activities of the local organs of GPU through its delegates under the jurisdiction of the CPC of the member Republics, acting in virtue of a special ruling sanctioned through legislative channels.

ARTICLE 63. The overseeing of acts of the GPU as to their legality shall be in charge of the Prosecutor of the Supreme Court of the USSR in virtue of a special ruling of the CEC of the USSR

Chapter X. The Member Republics

ARTICLE 64. Within the limits of the territory of each member Republic the supreme organ of power is the Congress of Soviets of the Republic, and in Congressional recesses, its Central Executive Committee.

ARTICLE 65. The relations between the supreme organs of power of the member Republics and the supreme organs of power of the USSR are established by the present Constitution.

ARTICLE 66. The CEC of the member Republics elect from among their own membership the Presidiums that in the recesses between sessions of the CEC are the Supreme organs of power.

ARTICLE 67. The CEC of the member Republics will form their executive organs–the Councils of People’s Commissars, as follows:

(a) The President of the Council of People’s Commissars,
(b) The Vice- Presidents.
(c) The President of the Supreme Council for National Economy,
(d) The Commissioner of the People for Agriculture, (e) The Commissioner of the People for Finances
(f) The Commissioner of the People for Supplies, (g) The Commissioner of the People for Labor
(h) The Commissioner of the People for the Interior, (i) The Commissioner of the People for Justice,
(j) The Commissioner of the People for the Inspection of the Workers and Peasants,
(k) The Commissioner of the People for Public Instruction, (l) The Commissioner of the People for Public Health
(m) The Commissioner of the People for Social Precaution, and in addition, and with a voice either consultative or deliberative, according to the decision of the CEC of the member Republics, Delegates of the People’s Commissars of the USSR for Foreign Affairs, for Military and Naval Affairs, for Foreign Commerce, for Ways of Communication, for Postal and Telegraphic Service.

ARTICLE 68. The Supreme Council of National Economy and the Commissars of Supplies, of Finances, of Labor, ‘of the Inspection of Workers and Peasants of the member Republics, while being subordinate to the CEC and CPC of the member Republics, will execute the orders of the CPC of the USSR

ARTICLE 69. The right of amnesty, as well as the right of pardon and the rehabilitation of citizens condemned by the judicial and administrative organs of the member Republics belongs to the CEC of these Republics.

Chapter XI. Arms, Flag and Capital of the Union

ARTICLE 70. The insignia of the State of the USSR is composed of a sickle and a hammer on an earthly globe, surrounded by sun rays and framed with wheat stalks, with an inscription in the six languages mentioned in Article 34: “Proletarians of all countries, unite!” Above the insignia, there shall be a five pointed star.

ARTICLE 71. The flag of the State of the USSR shall be in red or vermilion cloth with the arms of the Union.

ARTICLE 72. The Capital of the USSR is Moscow.

Joe Jackson called White Sox owner Charles Cominskey as a hostile witness in his trial for back wages.

Prussian state executioner Paul Spaethe, whose wife had died 24 days prior, lit 45 candles for the 45 people he had executed and then committed suicide.

Sunday, January 14, 2024

Blog Mirror: January 14, 1954: Joe DiMaggio Marries Marilyn Monroe


An interesting and sympathetic, while honest, treatment of a story we first looked at here in the context of her marriage during the Second World War.

January 14, 1954: Joe DiMaggio Marries Marilyn Monroe

DiMaggio, who we would have to assume had a thing for blond starlets, as this notes, would cap his marital attempts at two.  Monroe attempted three times.  So did Dorothy Arnold, who we would have to characterize as a minor actress.  She died in 1970, leaving behind her third spouse.

Arnold and DiMaggio's union resulted in the only child either of them had, the troubled Joseph Paul DiMaggio III.  He lived a troubled life, there being a lesson in here, but interestingly remained close to Monroe after his father and the actress divorced. He was one of the last people she called.  He died at age 57.

Saturday, December 9, 2023

Sunday, December 9, 1923. Fighting over and amongst oil.

 


Bill Donovan, age 47, a former major league baseball player, was killed in a train accident in New York.

The Convention and Statute on the International Régime of Maritime Ports is a 1923 was signed in Geneva providing for open ports.  It's still in effect.

Friday, November 17, 2023

Wednesday, November 17, 1943. Battle of Sattelberg commences.

The Battle of Sattelberg began on New Guinea, pitting Australian forces against the Japanese in the Huon Peninsula Campaign.

Australian Matilda tank in action, November 17, 1943.

The campaign would last through the 25th and result in 48 Australian soldiers killed to an unknown, but large number, of Japanese losses.

Sam Lacy of the African American newspaper The Chicago Defender met with Baseball Commissioner Landis to discuss integrating the major leagues.

Tuesday, October 17, 2023

Wednesday, October 17, 1973. The Arab Oil Embargo begins.

OPEC having doubled prices the day prior, Arab oil producing nations, led by Saudi Arabia, now went further and cut production overall by 5% and then placed an embargo on the United States, the Netherlands, Canada, the United Kingdom, West Germany,  Japan, Rhodesia, South Africa, and Portugal.  Western oil producers Venezuela nor Ecuador refused to join the embargo.

This causes us to recall part of what we recently posted here:

Friday, October 12, 1973. President Nixon commences a transfer of military equipment that leads to a Wyoming oil boom.

Congressman Gerald Ford was nominated to be Vice President by Richard Nixon.  

Also on that day, President Nixon authorized Operation Nickel Grass, the airlift of weapons to Israel.


 

M60 tank being loaded as part of Operation Nickel Grass

The operation revealed severe problems with the U.S. airlift capacity and would likely have not been possible without the assistance of Portugal, whose Azores facilities reduced the need for air-to-air refueling.  The transfer of equipment would also leave the United States dangerously short of some sorts of military equipment, including radios, something that was compounded by the fact that the U.S. was transferring a large volume of equipment to the Republic of Vietnam at the same time.

This would directly result in the Arab Oil Embargo, which had been threatened. The embargo commenced on October 17.  

U.S. oil production had peaked in 1970.  Oil imports rose by 52% between 1969 and 1972, an era when fuel efficiency was disregarded.  By 1972 the U.S. was importing 83% of its oil from the Middle East, but the real cost of petroleum had declined from the late 1950s.

The low cost of petroleum was a major factor in American post-war affluence from the mid 1940s through the 1960s.  The embargo resulted in a major expansion of Wyoming's oil and gas industry, and in some ways fundamentally completed a shift in the state's economy that had been slowly ongoing since World War One, replacing agriculture with hydrocarbon extraction as the predominant industry.

We often hear a lot of anecdotal information about this topic today.  

In this context, it's interesting to note that petroleum consumption is not much greater today in the U.S. than it was in 1973, but domestic production is the highest, by far, it's ever been.  Importation of petroleum is falling, but it's also higher than it was in 1973, but exportation of petroleum is the highest it's ever been, exceeding the amount produced in 1973.  If experts are balanced against imports, we're at an effective all-time low for importation.  In effect, presently, all we're doing with importation is balancing sources.


People hate this thought locally, but with renewable energy sources coming online, there's a real chance that petroleum consumption will fall for the first time since the 1970s, which would have the impact of reducing imports to irrelevancy.  Any way its looked at, the U.S. is no hostage to Middle Eastern oil any more.

It turned out that Europe wasn't hostage to Russian hydrocarbons either, so all of this reflects a fundamental shift in the world's economy.

Price has certainly changed over time.


Juan and Isabel Person were sworn into office as the elected president and vice president of Argentina

Judge John Sirica ruled that the Senate Watergate Committee was not entitled to have access to President Nixon's tape recordings, but that the U.S. Department of Justice special prosecutor, Archibald Cox, could subpoena them as evidence.

Motorola Corporation's engineer's filed for a patent on the DynaTAC, the first hand-held cellular telephone.  It would be issued two years later and our long modern nightmare would accelerate.

The DynaTAC would not enter production until 1983.

The Mets took game four of the World Series against the A's.  I surely would have watched that on the television with my father.

Sunday, October 15, 2023

Monday, October 15, 1923. The Declaration of Forty Six. Teapot Dome Hearings begin.

The Yankees won the World Series, beating the Giants in game six 4 to 2.


Germany issued new currency, scheduled on the prewar gold backed Mark, but backed by land and businesses which were subject to a forced mortgage.

Forty Six members of the Soviet Communist Party signed a declaration regarding their concerns about the party.  It stated:

15 October 1923

Top Secret

TO THE POLITBURO OF THE CC OF THE RCP(b)

The extreme seriousness of the situation forces us (in the interests of our party, in the interests of the working class) to tell you openly that continuation of the policy of the majority of the Politburo threatens the entire party with grave misfortune. The economic and financial crisis beginning at the end of July this year, with all the political consequences flowing from it, including those within the party, has mercilessly revealed the inadequacy of the party leadership, both in the economic realm, and especially in the area of inner-party relations.

The haphazard, poorly thought through, and unsystematic decisions of the CC, which hasn't made ends meet in the economy, have led to a situation where, given the presence of undoubtedly major successes in the realm of industry, agriculture, finances and transport, - successes which were achieved by the economy of the nation spontaneously, not thanks to but in spite of the inadequate leadership, or, to be more precise, the absence of any leadership, - we are faced not only with the perspective of the halting of these successes, but with a severe crisis of the economy as a whole.

Chervonets 1922

We stand before the approaching break-down of the chervonets currency, which spontaneously turned into the basic currency before the liquidation of the budget deficit; we face a credit crisis in which the State Bank cannot, without the risk of severe shocks, finance not only industry and the trade of industrial goods, but even the purchase of grain for export; we face the cessation of the sale of industrial goods because of high prices, which can be explained, on the one hand, by the complete absence of planned, organizational leadership in industry, and on the other, by incorrect credit policy; we face the impossibility of carrying out the grain export program because of the inability to purchase grain; we face extremely low prices for food products, which are ruinous for the peasantry and which threaten massive cutbacks in agricultural production; we face the interruption of wage payments, which evokes the natural dissatisfaction of the workers; we face budget chaos, which directly creates chaos in the government apparatus; "revolutionary" means of cutbacks in drawing up the budget and new, unplanned cutbacks during its realization have gone from being temporary measures to a permanent phenomenon, which relentlessly jolts the state apparatus and, as a result of the absence of planning in the cutbacks - causes accidental and spontaneous shocks to it.

The Scissors: retail and wholesale prices of agricultural and industrial goods in the Soviet Union July 1922 to November 1923.

All these are elements of an economic, credit and financial crisis which has already begun. If we do not immediately take extensive, well thought out, planned and energetic measures, if the present lack of leadership continues, we face the possibility of unusually sharp economic shocks, inevitably bound up with domestic political complications and with the complete paralysis of our foreign activity and capability. And the latter, as everyone understands, is now more necessary than ever before; upon it depends the fate of the world revolution and the working class of all countries.

In precisely the same way, we see in the realm of inner-party relations the same incorrect leadership, paralyzing and demoralizing the party, which is particularly clearly felt during the crisis we are passing through.

We explain this not by the political incapability of the present party leaders; on the contrary, no matter how much we differ with them in evaluating the situation and in choosing the methods to change it, we think that today's leaders under any conditions couldn't help but be appointed by the party to leading posts in the workers' dictatorship. Rather we explain it by the fact that, under the guise of official unity, we actually have a one-sided selection of personnel, who can adapt to the views and sympathies of a narrow circle, and a one-sided direction of activity. As a result of the party leadership being distorted by such narrow considerations, the party has to a significant degree ceased to be that living, independent collective which is sensitive to the changes in living reality, precisely because it is connected with thousands of threads to this reality. Instead of this, we observe an ever progressing, barely disguised division of the party into a secretarial hierarchy and into "laymen", into professional party functionaries, chosen from above, and the other party masses, who take no part in social life.

This is a fact which is well known to every member of the party. Members of the party who are dissatisfied with this or that directive from the CC or even a provincial committee, or who are plagued by doubts, or who have noted "to themselves" various mistakes, things out of line or disorder of some sort, are afraid to speak about it at party gatherings; even worse, they are afraid to talk to one another unless they consider their interlocutor to be absolutely reliable, in the sense of not being "talkative"; free discussion within the party has virtually disappeared, party public opinion has been stifled. Now it is not the party, it is not the party's broad masses who nominate and choose provincial conferences and party congresses, which in turn nominate and choose provincial committees and the Central Committee of the RCP. On the contrary, it is the secretarial hierarchy, the party hierarchy which to an ever greater degree chooses the delegates to the conferences and congresses, which to an ever greater degree are becoming the executive conferences of this hierarchy. The regime which has been established within the party is absolutely intolerable; it is killing the independence of the party, replacing the party with a selected bureaucratic apparatus which functions smoothly during normal times, but which inevitably misfires during moments of crisis, and which threatens to become absolutely helpless when confronted with the serious events which lie ahead.

The situation which has developed is explained by the fact that the regime of fractional dictatorship within the party which unfolded after the Xth Congress has outlived itself. Many of us consciously chose not to resist such a regime. The about-face of 1921, followed by Lenin's illness, demanded, as far as some of us were concerned, a dictatorship within the party as a temporary measure. Other comrades from the very beginning reacted to it skeptically or opposed it. In any case, by the XIIth Party Congress this regime had become obsolete. It began to show the other side of the coin. The inner-party bonds began to weaken. The party began to wither. Extreme oppositional, even openly unhealthy, tendencies within the party began to take on an anti-party character, for there was no inner-party, comradely discussion of the most acute questions. And such a discussion could have revealed, without any difficulty, the unhealthy character of these tendencies, both to the party masses, and to the majority of their participants. As a result, we have seen the formation of illegal groupings, which draw party members away from the party, and we have witnessed the party losing contact with the working masses.

If the situation which has developed is not radically changed in the very near future, the economic crisis in Soviet Russia and the crisis of the fractional dictatorship within the party will strike heavy blows to the workers' dictatorship in Russia and to the Russian Communist Party. With such a burden on its shoulders, the dictatorship of the proletariat in Russia, and its leader, the RCP, cannot enter the field of the impending new international shocks in any other way than with the perspective of failure along the entire front of proletarian struggle. Of course, it would at first glance be easiest of all to resolve the question in the following sense: in view of the situation, there is not and there cannot be any place now for raising the questions of changing the party's course, of placing on the agenda new and complex tasks, etc., etc. But it is absolutely clear that such a point of view would be a position of officially closing one's eyes to the actual situation, since the entire danger lies in the fact that there is no genuine ideological or practical unity in the face of exceedingly complex domestic and foreign situations. In the party, the more silently and secretly the struggle is waged, the more ferocious it becomes. If we raise this question before the Central Committee, then it is precisely in order to find the swiftest and most painless resolution of the contradictions which are tearing the party apart, and to rapidly place the party on healthy foundations. We need real unity in discussions and in actions. The impending ordeals require the unanimous, fraternal, absolutely conscious, extremely energetic, and extremely unified activity of all the members of our party.

The fractional regime must be eliminated, and this must be done first of all by those who have created it; it must be replaced by a regime of comradely unity and inner-party democracy.

In order to realize all that has been outlined above, and to take the necessary measures to extricate ourselves from the economic, political and party crisis, we propose that the CC, as a first and most urgent step, call a conference of members of the CC with the most prominent and active party cadres, in order that the list of those invited include a number of comrades who have views concerning the situation which differ from the views of the majority of the CC.

E. Preobrazhensky

B. Breslav

L. Serebriakov

While not agreeing with certain points in this letter explaining the causes of the situation which has developed, and feeling that the party has come up against problems which cannot fully be resolved by the methods employed up until now, I fully endorse the final conclusion of the present letter.

A. Beloborodov 11 October 1923

I am in complete agreement with the proposals, although I differ with several points concerning motives.

A. Rosengolts

M. Alsky

In general, I share the thoughts of this appeal. The need for a direct and open approach to all our sore points is so overdue, that I fully support the proposal to call the indicated conference, in order to choose the practical ways capable of leading us out of the accumulated difficulties.

Antonov-Ovseenko

A. Venediktov

I. N. Smirnov

G. Piatakov

V. Obolensky (Osinsky)

N. Muralov

T. Sapronov

A. Goltsman

The situation in the party and the international situation are such that they demand the extraordinary concentration and unity of party forces more than ever before. While ascribing to the declaration, I view it exclusively as an attempt to create unity in the party and to prepare it for upcoming events. Naturally, at the present moment there can be no talk of inner-party struggle in any form whatsoever. It is necessary for the CC to soberly assess the situation and to adopt urgent measures to eliminate dissatisfaction within the party, as well as within the non-party masses.

12 October 1923. A. Goltsman

11 October 1923. V. Maksimovsky

L. Sosnovsky

Danishevsky

P. Mesyatsev

G. Khorechko

I do not agree with a number of assessments in the first part of the declaration; I do not agree with a number of characterizations of the inner-party situation. At the same time I am deeply convinced that the state of the party demands the adopting of radical measures, for things are not well in the party at the present time. I fully share the practical proposal.

A. Bubnov 11 October 1923

A. Voronsky

V. Smirnov

E. Bosh

I. Byk

V. Kosior

F. Lokatskov

I am in complete agreement with the evaluation of the economic situation. I consider the weakening of the political dictatorship at the present moment to be dangerous, but things must be aired out. I find a conference to be absolutely necessary.

Kaganovich

Drobnis

P. Kovalenko

A. E. Minkin

V. Yakovleva

I am in complete agreement with the practical proposals.

B. Eltsin

I sign with the same reservations as comrade Bubnov.

M. Levitin

I sign with the same reservations as Bubnov, sharing neither the form, nor the tone, which all the more convinces me to agree with the practical part of the given declaration.

I. Poliudov

O. Shmidel

V. Vaganian

I. Stukov

A. Lobanov

R. Farbman

S. Vasilchenko

Mikh. Zhakov

A. Puzakov

N. Nikolaev

Since during recent times I have been somewhat removed from the work of the party centers, I abstain from the judgements of the two leading paragraphs of the introductory part; I agree with the rest.

Averin

I am in agreement with the part outlining the economic and political situation of the country. I feel that in the part which depicts the inner-party situation, a certain exaggeration has been allowed. It is absolutely necessary to immediately take measures to preserve the unity of the party.

M. Boguslavsky

I am not fully in agreement with the first part, which speaks about the economic situation of the country; the latter is indeed very serious and demands great attention, but up until now the party has not advanced people who would have been able to lead better than those who have been leading until now. Regarding the question of the inner-party situation, I feel that there is a significant portion of truth in everything which has been said, and I consider it necessary to take emergency measures.

F. Dudnik

Most of them would end up with bullets in the back of their heads during Stalin's long reign.

Jal P. Bapasola, Rustom B. Bhumgara and Adi B. Hakim set out from Bombay with the goal of bicycling around the world, which they would achieve by March 18, 1928.

The U.S. Senate Committee on Public Lands and Surveys began hearings on California and Teapot Dome oil leases.

Equine transport, Ireland, October 15, 1923.

Saturday, October 14, 2023

Sunday October 14, 1923. Yankees beat the Giants, blast at Wrigley Field, More French Babies.

The Yankees took game 5 of the 1923 World Series, 8 to 1.

Polo Grounds, Yankee's Stadium in the background.

A bomb exploded outside of Wrigley Field, injuring none but causing $5,000 in damage.  It was attributed to union agitators who were upset with Kenesaw Mountain Landis.

No arrests were made.

French President Alexandre Millerand lobbied for an increased French birth rate to hedge against Germany.  French birth rates had decreased since the war.

Friday, October 13, 2023

Saturday, October 13, 1923. German October

The Reichstag enacted emergency powers that over road the constitution to deal with the ongoing economic crisis.  

Thuringian Prime Minister August Frölich took three Communists into his cabinet, the second Communist victory in what the Executive Committee of the Communist Party was planning to be its German October, the Communist takeover of Germany.

As an aside, there was no Oktoberfest in 1923.  The economy cancelled it.

Not content with just trying to spark a Communist revolution in Germany, the NKVD detonated the Polish munitions facility at the Warsaw Citadel. Twenty-eight Polish soldiers were killed.

Turkey moved its capital to Istanbul.

Irish Republic Army prisoners at Mountjoy prison announced a hunger strike.

The Yankees took game four of the World Series, beating the Giants 8 to 4.

Thursday, October 12, 2023

Friday, October 11, 1923. Cantlin found not guilty.

We have no image of the Casper Daily Tribune today, but if we did, you would have seen an article about the Cantlin trial.

Moreover, if you could have read the Casper Herald, a different newspaper, you would have seen the following.

CANTLIN FREED BY JURY WYOMING'S SHAME

Erroll J. Cantlin has been granted legal permission by a jury of Douglas citizens, (God save the Word) to shoot and kill women autoists who fail to put on their dimmers while he is driving on the same road. The acquittal of this self confessed slayer marks a victory for the Invisible Empire in Wyoming. The slimy hand of the Ku Klux Klan, stained  with the blood of hundreds of innocent men and women, showered its hold in the right place.

Twelve good men and true! have set aside the laws of the civilized world in order to free a man whose hands are red with the blood of a defenseless victim. With such support and encouragement Cantlin should wind up with an enviable record as a gunman. No longer will he have to accept the wages of an undersheriff. The way is open for him to go on the stage and clean up thousands. A man that can hit an automobile twice at point blank range with bullets fired from a pistol aimed in another direction is indeed an object of curiosity. His name should live forever in the Hall of Fame. There should be a great demand for his memoirs. We suggest that he write a book and call it "The Wonders of Moonshine, or Women I Have Killed." With the riches that will pour in from the receipts at the vaudeville houses and the sale of the book we hope Cantlin will not forget the men who helped place the stamp of authenticity on his weird tale. They should at least be entitled to one-half of what he earns. But then again maybe they won't need it. The Ku Klux Klan it is said, pays those who serve them with a generous hand. And transposing some of Attorney Hemmingway's words, spoken yesterday, 'we don't see how any attorney could be so vile as to protect such a client.' Again we repeat, 'twelve good men and true.' True to the principles of that doctored brand of Americanism taught by the Ku Klux Klan. They served their Kleagle well. And they undoubtedly will be handsomely rewarded. An innocent woman lies dead in her grave. Slain for no cause at all. And a jury of 12 Douglas citizens declare it was Cantlin's duty to kill her. If you drive a car, be careful. The 'crime' of failing to turn on your dimmers is punishable by DEATH. Warn your wife and sisters. Human life is something to be taken at will by an undersheriff. 'Twelve good men and true' have so declared at Douglas. Here are their names, men. Look them over. These are the men who said after hearing the evidence that Cantlin was justified in killing Mrs. Nellie B. Newcomb who now rests unavenged in her grave.

The article would end up in charges of criminal liable, a crime that no longer exists, being filed against the newspaper in Converse County.  It would result in a conviction.

As for Cantlin, I can't find anything much about him, but he did return to Casper apparently, as he is buried in Casper's cemetery with a tombstone that indicates that he died in 1947 at age 61.

The Giants took the third game of the series in a 1 to 0 game.

Wednesday, October 11, 2023

Monday, October 11, 1943. Loss of the Wahoo.

The submarine USS Wahoo was sunk by the Japanese at Soya Strait.


The Wahoo was a well known submarine in the U.S. Navy, and commanded by he highly successful Dudley Walker Morton.  During its career, it sunk 19 ships.  Its loss caused the Navy to halt submarine forays into the Sea of Japan until June 1945.

The ship was lost trying to run the La Pérouse Strait, dividing the southern part of Sakhalin from the northern part of Hokkaidō.  It was spotted by aircraft on the surface and depth charged.

The New York Yankees took the world series in Game 5, having won three games in a 3-4 format that was imposed due to World War Two.

Thursday, October 11, 1923. Yankees win, case almost to jury, and miscellaneous death and destruction.

 


The Cantlin murder case was almost complete

The Yankees evened up the game count, with Babe Ruth hitting two home runs in the game.

The DeAutremon Brothers attempted to rob their employer's train, the Southern Pacific Railroad No. 13, as it passed through a tunnel in the Siskiyou Mountains in the Pacific Northwest.  The robbery was a failure, but they murdered four railroad men while making their escape.  

They successfully evaded authorities for a period of years, but were ultimately all captured and sentenced to lengthy prison sentences.  Hugh DeAutremon was captured in 1927 when a soldier who had been stationed in the Philippines recognized him as a serving soldier in his former unit, under an assumed name.  Ray and Roy were captured in Ohio that following June.

All were found guilty and sentenced to life in prison, which is somewhat surprising for the era, given the murders.  Hugh was paroled in 1958 and died of stomach cancer nearly immediately thereafter. Roy was diagnosed with schizophrenia and given a lobotomy, which rendered him unable to care for himself, and he was a resident of the Oregon State Hospital until 1983 when he died.  Ray was paroled in in 1984 and expressed horror for their crime upon his release.

The investigation was notable for the use of a forensic chemist, who identified the suspects based on the residue in a pair of overalls left at the scene.

The SS City of Everett sank in the Gulf of Mexico on a molasses run. All 26 hands on board were lost.


Eight children who were passengers on a horse-drawn school bus were killed near Rootstown Ohio when the wagon was hit by a train. This is mentioned in the newspaper above.

Calvin Coolidge addressed a group of Postmasters.


Tuesday, October 10, 2023

Wednesday, October 10, 1923. Giants win, State rests.


The giants one game one of the World Series and the State had already arrested in the dimming headlights murder trial of a former deputy sheriff.

It was the first World Series game played at Yankee Stadium.


Cao Kun was inaugurated as the president of the Republic of China, a political entity that only controlled the country's northern provinces.

The U.S. Navy airship Shenandoah, launched in August, was christened at Lakehurst, New Jersey.

The Saxon government allowed Communists into the cabinet with the goal of combating Bavarian nationalist.

The Lord's Day Alliance, which lobbied for blue laws, was at the White House.


The group still exists.

Kipling delivered an address at St. Andrews in which he stated:

INDEPENDENCE

THE sole revenge that Maturity can take upon Youth for the sin of being young, is to preach at it. When I was young I sat and suffered under that dispensation. Now that I am older I purpose, if you, my constituents, will permit me, to hand on the Sacred Torch of Boredom.

In the First Volume, then, of the Pickering Edition of the works of the late Robert Burns, on the 171st page, you will find this stanza:

To catch Dame Fortune’s golden smile.

 Assiduous wait upon her.

And gather gear by every wile

 That’s justified by honour——


Not for to hide it in a hedge.

 Nor for a train attendant.

But for the glorious privilege

 Of being independent.

At first sight it may seem superfluous to speak of thrift and independence to men of your race, and in a University that produced Duncan of Ruthwell and Chalmers. I admit it. No man carries coals to Newcastle—to sell; but if he wishes to discuss coal in the abstract, as the Deacon of Dumfries discussed love, he will find Newcastle knows something about it. And so, too, with you here. May I take it that you, for the most part, come, as I did, from households conversant with a certain strictness—let us call it a decent and wary economy—in domestic matters, which has taught us to look at both sides of the family shilling; that we belong to stock where present sacrifice for future ends (our own education may have been among them) was accepted, in principle and practice, as part of life? I ask this, because talking to people who for any cause have been denied these experiences is like trying to tell a neutral of our life between 1914 and 1918.

Independence means, "Let every herring hang by its own head." It signifies the blessed state of hanging on to as few persons and things as possible; and it leads up to the, singular privilege of a man owning himself.

The desire for independence has been, up to the present, an ineradicable human instinct, antedating even the social instinct. Let us trace it back to its beginnings, so that we may not be surprised at our own virtue to-day.

Science tells us that Man did not begin life on the ground, but lived first among tree-tops—a platform which does not offer much room for large or democratic assemblies. Here he had to keep his individual balance on the branches, under penalty of death or disablement if he lost it, and here, when his few wants were satisfied, he had time to realize slowly that he was not altogether like the beasts, but a person apart, and therefore lonely. Not till he abandoned his family-tree, and associated himself with his fellows on the flat, for predatory or homicidal purposes, did he sacrifice his personal independence of action, or cut into his large leisure of brooding abstraction necessary for the discovery of his relations to his world. This is the period in our Revered Ancestor's progress through Time that strikes me as immensely the most interesting and important.

No one knows how long it took to divide the human line of ascent from that of the larger apes; but during that cleavage there may have been an epoch when Man lay under the affliction of something very like human thought before he could have reached the relief of speech. It is indeed conceivable that in that long inarticulate agony he may have traversed—dumb—the full round of personal experience and emotion. And when, at last, speech was born, what was the first practical use Man made of it? Remember, he was, by that time, past-master in all arts of camouflage known to the beasts. He could hide near a water-hole, and catch them as they came down to drink—which is the germ of war. He could attract them by imitating their cries of distress or love—which is the genesis of most of the arts. He could double back on his tracks and thus circumvent an acquaintance of his own kind who was stalking him—which is obviously the origin of most of our social amenities. In short, he could act, to admiration, any kind of lie then extant. I submit, therefore, that the first use Man made of his new power of expression was to tell a lie—a frigid and calculated lie.

Imagine the wonder and delight of the First Liar in the World when he found that the first lie overwhelmingly outdid every effect of his old mud-and-grass camouflages with no expenditure of energy! Conceive his pride, his awestricken admiration of himself, when he saw that, by mere word of mouth, he could send his simpler companions shinning up trees in search of fruit which he knew was not there, and when they descended, empty and angry, he could persuade them that they, and not he, were in fault, and could despatch them hopefully up another tree! Can you blame the Creature for thinking himself a god? The only thing that kept him within bounds must have been the discovery that this miracle-working was not confined to himself.

Unfortunately—most unfortunately—we have no record of the meeting of the World’s First Liar with the World’s Second Liar; but from what we know of their descendants to-day, they were probably of opposite sexes, married at once, and, begat a numerous progeny. For there is no doubt that Mankind suffered much and early from this same vice of lying. One sees that in the enormous value attached by the most primitive civilizations to the practice of telling the Truth; and the extravagant praise awarded, mostly after death, to individuals notorious for the practice.

Now the amount of Truth open to Mankind has always been limited. Substantially, it comes to no more than the axiom quoted by the Fool in Twelfth Night, on the authority of the witty Hermit of Prague, "That that is, is." Conversely, "That that is not, isn't." But it is just this Truth which Man most bitterly resents being brought to his notice. He will do, suffer, and permit anything rather than acknowledge it. He desires that the waters which he has digged and canalized should run uphill by themselves when it suits him. He desires that the numerals which he has himself counted on his fingers and christened "two and two" should make three and five according to his varying needs or moods. Why does he want this? Because, subconsciously, he still scales himself against his age-old companions, the beasts, who can only act lies. Man knows that, at any moment, he can tell a lie which, for a while, will delay or divert the workings of cause and effect. Being an animal who is still learning to reason, he does not yet understand why with a little more, or a little louder, lying he should not be able permanently to break the chain of that law of cause and effect—the Justice without the Mercy—which he hates, and to have everything both ways in every relation of his life.

In other words, we want to be independent of facts, and the younger we are, the more intolerant are we of those who tell us that this is impossible. When I wished to claim my independence and to express myself according to the latest lights of my age (for there were lights even then), it was disheartening to be told that I could not expect to be clothed, fed, taught, amused, and comforted—not to say preached at—by others, and at the same time to practise towards them a savage and thorny independence.

I imagine that you, perhaps, may have assisted at domestic conferences on these lines; but I maintain that we are not the unthinking asses that our elders called us. Our self-expression may have been a trifle crude, but the instinct that prompted it was that primal instinct of independence which antedates the social one, and makes the young at times a little difficult. It comes down from the dumb and dreadful epoch when all that Man knew was that he was himself, and not another, and therefore the loneliest of created beings; and you know that there is no loneliness to equal the loneliness of youth at war with its surroundings in a world that does not care.

I can give you no great comfort in your war, but, if you will allow me, I will give you a scientific parallel that may bear on the situation.

Not once upon a time, but at many different times in different places and ages, it came over some one Primitive Man that he desired, above everything, to escape for a while from the sight and sound and the smell of his Tribe. It may have been an excellent Tribe, or it may have been an abominable one, but whichever it was he had had enough of it for a time. Knowing no more than the psychology of his age (whereas we, of course, know the psychology of all the ages), he referred his impulse to the direct orders, guidance, or leading of his Totem, his Guardian Spirit, his Disembodied Ancestor, or other Private God, who had appeared to him in a dream and inspired his action.

Herein our ancestor was as logical as a man taking his Degree on the eve of a professional career—not to say as practical as a Scot. He accepted Spirits and Manifestations of all kinds as part of his highly organized life, which had its roots in the immemorial past; but, outside that, the amount of truth open to him was limited. He only knew that if he did not provide himself with rations in advance, for his proposed excursion away from the Tribe, he would surely starve.

Consequently, he took some pains and practised a certain amount of self-denial to get and prepare these rations. He may have wished to go forth on some utterly useless diversion, such as hacking down a tree or piling up stones, but whatever his object was, he intended to undertake it without the advice, interference, or even the privity of his Tribe. He might appreciate the dear creatures much better on his return; he might hatch out wonderful schemes for their advantage during his absence. But that would be a side-issue. The power that possessed him was the desire to own himself for a while, even as his ancestors, whose spirits had, he believed, laid this upon him, had owned themselves, before the Tribal idea had been evolved.

Morally his action was unassailable; his personal God had dictated it. Materially, his justification for his departure from the normal was the greasy, inconspicuous packet of iron rations on his shoulder, the trouble he had taken to get them, and the extent to which he was prepared not to break into them except as a last resort. For, without that material, backed by those purposes, his visions of his Totem, Spirit, or God would have melted back into the ruck of unstable, unfulfilled dreams; and his own weariness of his Tribe would have returned upon himself in barrenness of mind and bitterness of soul.

Because if a man has not his rations in advance, for any excursion of any kind that he proposes to himself, he must stay with his Tribe. He may swear at it aloud or under his breath. He may tell himself and his friends what splendid things he would do were he his own master, but as his Tribe goes so must he go—for his belly’s sake. When and as it lies, so must he lie. Its people must be his people, and its God must be his God. Some men may accept this dispensation; some may question it. It is to the latter that I would speak.

Remember always that, except for the appliances we make, the rates at which we move ourselves and our possessions through space, and the words which we use, nothing in life changes. The utmost any generation can do is to rebaptize each spiritual or emotional rebirth in its own tongue. Then it goes to its grave hot and bothered, because no new birth has been vouchsafed for its salvation, or even its relief.

And your generation succeeds to an unpromising and dishevelled heritage. In addition to your own sins, which will be numerous but quite normal, you have to carry the extra handicap of the sins of your fathers. This, it is possible that many of you have already made clear to your immediate circle. But the point you probably omitted (as our generation did, when we used to deliver our magnificent, unpublished orations De Juventute) is that no shortcomings on the part of others can save us from the consequences of our own shortcomings.

It is also true that you were brought into this world without being consulted. But even this disability, from which, by the way, Adam suffered, though it may justify our adopting a critical attitude towards First Causes, will not in the long run nourish our physical or mental needs. There seems, moreover, to be an unscientific objection on the part of First Causes against being enquired of.

For you who follow on the heels of the Great War are affected, as you are bound to be, by a demoralization not unlike that which overtakes a household where there has been long and severe illness, followed by a relaxation of domestic ritual, and accompanied by loud self-pity and large recriminations. Nor is this all your load. The past few years have so immensely quickened and emphasized all means of communication, visible and invisible, in every direction that our world—which is only another name for the Tribe—is not merely "too much with us," but moves, shouts, and moralizes about our path and our bed, through every hour of our days and nights. Even a normal world might become confusing on these terms; and ours is far from being normal. One-sixth of its area has passed bodily out of civilization; and much of the remainder appears to be divided, with no consciousness of sin, between an earnest intention to make Earth Hell as soon as possible, and an equally earnest intention, with no consciousness of presumption, to make it Heaven on or before the same date. But you have ample opportunities of observing this for yourselves.

The broad and immediate result is, partly through a recent necessity for thinking and acting in large masses, partly through the instinct of mankind to draw together and cry out when calamity hits them, and very largely through the quickening of communications, the power of the Tribe over the individual has become more extended, particular, pontifical, and, using the word in both senses, impertinent, than it has been for many generations- Some men accept this omnipresence of crowds; some may resent it. It is to the latter that I am speaking.

The independence which was a "glorious privilege" in Robert Burns's day, is now more difficult to achieve than when one had merely to overcome a few material obstacles, and the rest followed almost automatically. Nowadays, to own oneself in any decent measure, one has to run counter to a gospel, and to fight against its atmosphere; and an atmosphere, as long as it can be kept up, is rather cloying.

Even so, there is no need for the individual who intends to own himself to be too pessimistic. Let us, as our forefathers used, count our blessings.

You, my constituents, enjoy three special ones. First, thanks to the continuity of self-denial on the part of your own forbears, the bulk of you will enter professions and callings in which you will be free men—free to be paid what your work is worth in the open market, irrespective of your alleged merits or your needs. Free, moreover, to work without physical molestation of yourself or your family as long and as closely as you please—free to exploit your own powers and your own health to the uttermost for your own ends.

Your second blessing is that you carry in your land's history and in your hearts the strongest instinct of inherited continuity, which expresses itself in your passionate interest in your own folk, your own race and all its values. History shows that, from remote ages, the Scots would descend from their heather and associate together on the flat for predatory purposes; these now take the form of raiding the world in all departments of life—and governments. But at intervals your race, more than others, feel the necessity for owning itself. Therefore it returns, in groups, to its heather, where, under camouflage of "games" and "gatherings," it fortifies itself with the rites, incantations, pass-words, raiment, dances, food and drink of its ancestors, and re-initiates itself into its primal individualism. These ceremonies, as the Southern races know to their cost, give its members fresh strength for renewed forays.

And that same strength is your third and chief blessing. I have already touched on the privilege of being broken by birth, Custom, precept and example to doing without things. This is where the sons of the small houses who have borne the yoke in their youth hold a cumulative advantage over those who have been accustomed to life with broad margins. Such men can and do accommodate themselves to straitened circumstances at a pinch, and for an object; but they are as aware of their efforts afterwards as an untrained man is aware of his muscles on the second morning of a walking tour; and when they have won through what they consider hardship they are apt to waste good time and place by subconsciously approving, or even remembering, their own efforts. On the other hand, the man who has been used to shaving, let us say, in cold water at seven o’clock the year round, takes what one may call the minor damnabilities of life in his stride, without either making a song about them or writing home about them. And that is the chief reason why the untrained man always has to pay more for the privilege of owning himself than the man trained to the little things. It is the little things, in microbes or morale, that make us, as it is the little things that break us.

Also, men in any walk of life who have been taught not to waste or muddle material under their hand are less given to muddle or mishandle moral, intellectual, and emotional issues than men whose wastage has never been checked, or who look to have their wastage made good by others. The proof is plain.

Among the generations that have preceded you at this University were men of your own blood—many and many—who did their work on the traditional sack of peasemeal or oatmeal behind the door—weighed out and measured with their own hands against the cravings of their natural appetites.

These were men who intended to own themselves, in obedience to some dream, leading, or word which had come to them. They knew that it would be a hard and long task, so they set about it with their own iron rations on their own backs, and they walked along the sands here to pick up driftwood to keep the fire going in their lodgings.

Now, what in this World, or the next, can the World, or any Tribe in it, do with or to people of this temper? Bribe them by good dinners to take larger views on life? They would probably see their hosts under the table first and argue their heads off afterwards. Offer 'em money to shed a conviction or two? A man doesn't lightly sell what he has paid for with his hide. Stampede them, or coax them, or threaten them into countenancing the issue of false weights and measures? It is a little hard to liberalize persons who have done their own weighing and measuring with broken teacups by the light of tallow candles. No! Those thrifty souls must have been a narrow and an anfractuous breed to handle; but, by their God, in whose Word they walked, they owned themselves! And their ownership was based upon the truth that if you have not your own rations you must feed out of your Tribe's hands—with all that that implies.

Should any of you care to own yourselves on these lines, your insurances ought to be effected in those first ten years of a young man’s life when he is neither seen nor heard. This is the period—one mostly spends it in lodgings, alone—that corresponds to the time when Man in the making began to realize that he was himself and not another.

The post-war world which discusses so fluently and frankly the universality and cogency of Sex as the dominant factor of life, has adopted a reserved and modest attitude in its handling of the imperious and inevitable details of mere living and working. I will respect that attitude.

The initial payments on the policy of one’s independence, then, must be financed, by no means for publication, but as a guarantee of good faith towards oneself, primarily out of the drinks that one does not too continuously take; the maidens in whom one does not too extravagantly rejoice; the entertainments that one does not too systematically attend or conduct; the transportation one does not too magnificently employ; the bets one does not too generally place, and the objects of beauty and desire that one does not too generously buy. Secondarily, those revenues can be added to by extra work undertaken at hours before or after one's regular work, when one would infinitely rather rest or play. That involves the question of how far you can drive yourself without breaking down, and if you do break down, how soon you can recover and carry on again. This is for you to judge, and to act accordingly.

No one regrets—no one has regretted—more than I that these should be the terms of the policy. It would better suit the spirit of the age if personal independence could be guaranteed for all by some form of co-ordinated action combined with public assistance and so forth. Unfortunately there are still a few things in this world that a man must manage for himself: his own independence is one of them; and the obscure, repeated shifts and contrivances and abstentions necessary to the manufacture of it are too personal and intimate to expose to the inspection of any Department, however sympathetic.

If you have a temperament that can accommodate itself to cramping your style while you are thus saving, you are lucky. But, any way, you will be more or less uncomfortable until it presently dawns on you that you have put enough by to give you food and housing for, say, one week ahead. It is both sedative and anti-spasmodic—it makes for calm in the individual and forbearance towards the Tribe—to know that you hold even seven days' potential independence in reserve—and owed to no man. One is led on to stretch that painfully extorted time to one month if possible; and as one sees that this is possible, the possibilities grow. Bit by bit, one builds up and digs oneself into a base whence one can move in any direction, and fall back upon in any need. The need may be merely to sit still and consider, as did our first ancestors, what manner of animal we are; or it may be to cut loose at a minute's notice from a situation which has become intolerable or unworthy; but, whatever it may be, it is one's own need, and the opportunity of meeting it has been made by one's own self.

After all, yourself is the only person you can by no possibility get away from in this life, and, may be, in another. It is worth a little pains and money to do good to him. For it is he, and not our derivatively educated minds or our induced emotions, who preserves in us the undefeated senior instinct of independence. You can test this by promising yourself not to do a thing, and noticing the scandalous amount of special pleading that you have to go through with yourself if you break your promise. A man does not always remember, or follow up, the great things which he has promised himself or his friends to do; but he rarely forgets or forgives when he has promised himself not to do even a little thing. This is because Man has lived with himself as an individual, vastly longer than he has lived with himself under tribal conditions. Consequently, facts about his noble solitary self and his earliest achievements had time to get well fixed in his memory. He knew he was not altogether one with the beasts. His amazing experiences with his first lie had shown him that he was something of a magician, if not a miracle-worker; and his first impulse towards self-denial, for ends not immediately in sight, must have been a revelation of himself to himself as stupendous as a belief in a future life, which it was possibly intended to herald. It is only natural, then, that individuals who first practised this apparently insane and purposeless exercise came later to bulk in the legends of their Tribe as demigods, who went forth and bearded the gods themselves for gifts—for fire, wisdom, or knowledge of the arts.

But one thing that stands outside exaggeration or belittlement—through all changes in shapes of things and the sounds of words—is the bidding, the guidance, that drives a man to own himself and upholds him through his steps on that road. That bidding comes, direct as a beam of light, from that Past when man had grown into his present shape, which Past, could we question it, would probably refer us to a Past immeasurably remoter still, whose Creature, not yet Man, felt within him that it was not well for him to jackal round another brute's kill, even if he went hungry for a while.

It is not such a far cry from that Creature, howling over his empty stomach in the dark, to the Heir of all the Ages counting over his coppers in front of a cookshop, to see if they will run to a full meal—as some few here have had to do; and the principle is the same: "At any price that I can pay, let me own myself."

And the price is worth paying if you keep what you have bought. For the eternal question still is whether the profit of any concession that a man makes to his Tribe, against the Light that is in him, outweighs or justifies his disregard of that Light. A man may apply his independence to what is called worldly advantage, and discover too late that he laboriously has made himself dependent on a mass of external conditions, for the maintenance of which he has sacrificed himself. So he may be festooned with the whole haberdashery of success, and go to his grave a castaway.

Some men hold that this risk is worth taking. Others do not. It is to these that I have spoken.

"Let the council of thy own heart stands for there is no man more faithful unto thee than it. For a man's mind is sometime wont to show him more than seven watchmen who sit above in a high tower."