Monday December 5, 1921. Reflections from a distant mirror.

A Joint Congressional committee called upon President Harding to inform him of the opening of the 67th Congress.

The 67th Congress of the United States convened.  It had been elected more than a year earlier, so suffice it to say, things were not going swimmingly, something we can appreciate now.

The first bill they considered was the budget for the following year, which ran a deficit, something we're also familiar with now.

In London, Irish delegates met with British ones and came to a compromise in which Northern Ireland could choose to remain separate from Southern Ireland and an oath of allegiance would only be administered to members of the Irish parliament.  Ireland would accept dominion status.

The Irish negotiators were in the difficult position of receiving very little in the way of instruction from the Irish President Éamon de Valera who remained in Ireland during negotiations and who simply gave the negotiators nearly carte blanc authority.  The compromise reached was a real one, giving up on dreams of an Irish republic and accepting an ongoing connection with the United Kingdom, although that no doubt reflected the wishes of most of the Irish.

The British football association banned women from the game.

 

The United States Supreme court upheld picketing during labor strikes as an exercise of the 1st Amendment.