Labor Day, 1919

American troops near Marfa, Texas, are treated to a picnic in honor of Labor Day, September 1, 1919.

September 1 was Labor Day in 1919, then as now falling on the first Monday of September.  The unofficial end of American summer was a day off for most people, including I'd note most local newspapers, and it was celebrated in much the same fashion as it currently is.  Foot races and picnics were held in the mining town of Hanna, Wyoming.  Motorcycle races were held in Marion Indiana.  Massachusetts Governor Calvin Coolidge delivered a speech on labor in Plymouth.

In the case of American solders serving on the border, which was still quite tense, this meant, if they were stationed near Marfa, a lunch served by the American Red Cross.

If they were assigned to the transcontinental Motor Transport Convoy, which was now running several days behind schedule, it wasn't a day off. They traveled from Carson City, Nevada, to Meyers, California

The road was treacherous and the Nevada Highway Department closed the road in the Sierras for the convoy.  Motorcycles were used to police the convoy speed and spacing, as well as looking for hot bearings.   The convoy went 34 miles in 13.5 hours and its arrival in Meyers was treated as a great success.  The Mayor of San Francisco traveled out to meet the convoy.

A party that claimed to represent labor was laboring away in chaos on this Labor Day weekend in Chicago.  The left wing turmoil going on in Chicago saw yet another Communist Party emerge out of the departed hardcore left wingers of the Socialist Party, when the non English speakers formed their own Communist Party of America.

This is really confusing as there already was a Communist Party of America, that had existed since May. This new one joined the old one rapidly. The English speaking Communist Labor Party would follow within months.

Of interest, the new foreign born Communist Party of America that formed on this day was double the size of the Socialist Party of America, with 60,000 members, and six times the size of the Communist Labor Party, which had 10,000 members.  This pretty shows that the leadership of the Socialist Party was more conservative and democratic than the rank and file, which had gone hardcore left. 

It also shows that the sentiments of the Socialist were highly influenced by immigrant members who were likely hardcore leftists when they arrived in the country, something that the Communist Party and its sympathizers on the radical left have not really liked to acknowledge.  The 1910s through the 1930s were the high water mark of radical Socialism in the US and its interesting to note that this was also the case for Anarchism, although it was waning by the 1930s.  In both instances the movements had significant immigrant representation within them and, moreover, representation from certain concentrated areas of Europe where the movements were also strong.  It's fairly clearly the case that in those instances they brought radical sentiments with them, rather than acquiring them in the US, although there were certainly native born radicals as well.

All of these movements were on the way out by the 1940s for a variety of reasons, including the fact that they'd been tested with disastrous results in Europe by that time and World War Two caused an economic boost in the country that buried any lingering sympathy for economic radicalism.  But in 1919, Communism was untested and on the rise, even if a language barrier caused it to oddly develop in the US, briefly, in a fractured fashion.  Even at that, however, it never really had very much appeal for most Americans, including foreign born ones, let alone most American workers.

Workers and the high cost of living were the topic of that day's Gasoline Alley, which was published in the local Chicago newspaper.  In a somewhat serious edition of the cartoon, the Reds made their own appearance that day.

It was a day off, of course, for most Americans and that meant not only picnics and races, but trips to the movies, which the movie industry used to introduce new films.

Her Purchase Price frankly had a the type of plot that movie goers of the era loved but which are creepy today.  In that film, Sir Derek Anstruther encounters European looking Egyptian slave Sheka while touring Egypt.  She learns that she's been raised a slave since taken by a bandit in her youth.  So he buys her, after falling in love with her.

Low and behold this disrupts Sir Anstruther's inheritance so the loyal Sheka sells herself to somebody else so that he's not dispossessed.  But Sir Derek pursues, and in the meantime her parentage is cleared up and all is well.

Hmmm. . . .

For folks who were bothered by the racial qualities of that one, let alone the moral questions raised by buying your bride in an Egyptian slave market, The Brat was also released on this day in 1919.  It featured a a chorus girl known only by that nickname who resists improper advances, resulting in her arrest.  The prosecutor's brother, however, is studying the underworld and therefore the judge lets her live in his household so that she can be the subject of study.  Well you can see how that one goes. . . 

Frankly, that was a bit disturbing as well.

Well, north of the border there was Back To God's Country, in which the daughter of a Canadian woodsman grows up in nature and has a rapport with animals.  She falls in love with a Canadian government official and marries him, after escaping the clutches of a bogus Mountie who attempts to rape her and who kills her father.  She then travels with her husband on a whaler but the captain turns out to be the rapist in disguise, so she has to escape by dog sled in the Arctic, with her husband.

Maybe it would have been better just to skip the movies on that Labor Day.

August 30, 1919. Fallon to Carson City, through the night, Knoxville riots, Socialist emergency.

The Motor Transport Convoy had a long day, starting at 6:30 a.m on August 30 and ending at 2:30 a.m. on August 31.  During that 20 hours they went 66 miles.  Conditions were so bad that the soldiers had to push the vehicles through some stretches of road.

Keep in mind that this was a road that was otherwise open for civilian use. . . but without the aid of soldiers to push.

The convoy was met by Nevada's Governor, reflecting the fact that the city on the far western edge of the state is the state's capital.

The Red Summer continued on when Knoxville, Tennessee, erupted into violence.  A start of the riots was the arrest of Maurice Mays, a biracial politician, for the murder of a white woman even though there was no basis to believe that he was the killer.  This resulted in a lynch mob developing that ultimately rioted.  This in turn caused black residents to arm themselves for their own protection and to seal off part of the city.  Violence later developed.

Mays was later tried and in spite of a lack of evidence, convicted.  His conviction was overturned by the Tennessee Supreme Court and he was re-tried, found guilty again,and sentenced to death.  His suspected father, the former white mayor of Knoxville, with whom he had a friendly relationship, committed suicide a few years thereafter.

In Chicago the Socialist Party convened an Emergency Session.

The Socialist Party of America was a rising political party at the time, it's boat rising with the rising tide of radical political parties everywhere.  The emergency was the invitation by Lenin for certain Socialist elements to join the Communist International which was causing a rift in the party.  The party was dominated by its "right wing", which on this day achieved control of the convention on its opening day, bringing the rift with the "left wing" to an immediate head.

The Country Gentleman came out featuring an article on "counterfeit farms".  I wish the article was available so I could learn what they were writing about.

And the movies saw the first release of Dangerous Nan McGrew, which would be re-released in the 1930s in the form of a Betty Boop cartoon.

And the Gasoline Alley gang, which seemed to be on vacation, went golfing.

Sunday, July 13, 1919. Day of Rest

Sunday by tradition and Christian canon is a day of rest, and that's what the 1919 Motor Transport Convoy somewhat did on that day. They didn't advance in their trip.  Indeed, the diary of their progress noted the day as one of rest.

In spite of it being day of rest a FWD truck was repaired.  FWD's were a really heavy truck of the period that had a very good reputation.  FWD stood for Four Wheel Drive and the company that made them was the Four Wheel Drive Auto Company.

1917 FWD advertisement in The Horseless Age.

Not surprisingly, during World War One the Army purchased quantities of FWDs, more specifically FWD Seagrave Model Bs and FWD Model Gs which look a bit like the truck in the advertisement above, but which were somewhat smaller. The Model G in fact had pre war service with the Army and had been used in the Punitive Expedition.  With four wheel drive, they were really pioneering trucks quite ahead of their times.

Elsewhere, rest came to Longview Texas where Federal Marshalls were now in charge and took the stop of temporarily impounding firearms in the town. 

Mr. Daniel Hoskins, the oldest resident of Longview Texas following race riots posted with temporarily impounded firearms, July 13, 1919.  The firearms are also pretty ancient and I suspect his depiction with them was for effect.

Of course, it being a Sunday, new movies were out, not all of which were wholly pacific.

A Man's Country featured a bar maid and a minister who come to see each other in a different, and of course romantic, light.

The Love Burglar featured one of those endlessly complicated silent movie plots which makes you wonder how they packed so much into something that had no sound and depended for story development solely on the acting alone, with print of course.

Speaking of love

They Cheyenne State Leader, being one of the few papers that put out a Sunday edition in 1919, reported that the George Washington, a troop ship was equipped now with a nursery to bring home the children of U.S. solders born overseas to French brides.  

The number of war brides brought over to date was 327, and of the 327 brides, 16 had given birth prior to embarkation. That really wasn't that large of a number in context actually.

Sunday, June 29, 1919. Reminding the readers that the war had ended. . . and alcohol was about to exit. Going to the movies, and the Tour de France.

Folks stopping in here yesterday saw, of course, that the banner headlines on the Germans signing the Versailles Treaty and the Great War ending.  As one of the papers below notes, it would actually require the ratification by the various signing countries to do that, but for most it would come fairly soon.  The U.S. never did ratify it, but instead ratified a treaty that picked out the clauses the Administration of the time liked, that coming after President Wilson had left office.

The US version omitted, famously, the League of Nations.

Anyhow, the big news remained on the front pages of the few newspapers in Wyoming that had Sunday editions.  Most did not.

Both local and national prohibition were also in the news.  The national news was that President Wilson had decided he had no authority to lift wartime prohibition and therefore wasn't going to, for the time being.  It was big, if odd, news in that general Federal prohibition was inevitable at this point, given the recently passed Constitutional amendment.

Locally Monday June 30 was the upcoming last day for alcohol in Wyoming, which made such headlines doubly confusing, as while the national story mattered, it only mattered somewhat and it only mattered if you lived in a place where booze was going to remain legal until the Federal ban hit.  In Wyoming, as with Colorado, that day came earlier.

The Sheridan newspaper ran that as its cover, with an odd racist cartoon that depicted booze in a mistral show fashion.  Not only is it odd to see the topic of the legality of alcohol being discussed, and its disappearance frankly celebrated, but it's really odd to see the press lean on racist stereotypes.

On stereotypes, Sunday was a big day for movie releases and the there were a number of interesting options, including Girls.

The romantic comedy Girls was released on this day in 1919.  Like most silent films, the plot is somewhat complicated.  The interesting thing, perhaps, is that this pre production code film shares a title with the latter skanky trash released under the same name more recently by HBO.  While no more restricted by the law than the latter production, the earlier one didn't plumb the same icky depths.

If you preferred Westerns, The Outcasts of Poker Flat was released, which is a well known silent film.

And the dram Sahara was out as well.  Romantic depiction of the Middle East were a big deal with early movies for some reason.

The title Sahara has been used for movies at least five times, including fairly recently.

If you lived in France, where the relief of the end of the war was particularly felt, this Sunday saw the start of the 1919 Tour de France.  The Tour is of course one of the greatest annual sporting events.  This was the 13th time the race had been run, and the first race since 1914, given the interruption of the war.

June 8, 1919. Sunday at the movies

As was the custom, a lot of movies were released on this Sunday, June 8, 1919.

These included The Other Man's Wife, a turgid, home front, wartime drama.

Also at the theaters was Pistols for Breakfast, a Harold Lloyd comedy.

And also a comedy was the Franklyn Farnum movie, The Puncher and the Pup.

June 1, 1919. Trouble in Mexico, Films in the U.S.

Inspite of their being no official peace in Europe, yet, where the U.S. was technically at war, still, Mexico had pushed its way back on to the front page of the papers.

Pancho Villa was extremely active in Chihuahua and Juarez, directly across from El Paso, was on everyone's mind.  Things were getting tense. At the same time rumors were reported that Felipe Ángeles had asked to be recognized by the United States as the Mexican head of state.  I don't know if he had actually done that or not.

Felipe Ángeles

Angeles was one of the many quixotic figures of the Mexican revolution and he was in fact serving with Villa at the time.  He'd been a Mexican revolutionary general with socialist, and ironically pacifist, leanings who had taken refuge in the U.S. in 1915 after it had appeared that Villa had been conclusively defeated.  In the U.S. he was a member of the Mexican Liberal Alliance which sought to bring about an end to the war and a coalition government.  He rejoined Villa in the field after Villa started to resume successful military operations following the U.S. withdrawal.

The news was also full of the story that a former Wyoming Treasurer was caught up in a booze scandal. The beginning of the merger of the official and prominent with the evasion of Prohibition had already seemingly begun.

This story, of course, was in regard to Colorado, which had passed "bone dry" Prohibition some months prior.  National Prohibition had not yet gone into effect, and Wyoming's remained a month out, as the paper reported.

Allied leaders, June 1, 1919.

In Paris, the work towards a peace continued, or continued in the form of waiting on the Germans.

In the U.S., this being a Sunday, a lot of new movies were released.

If you subscribed to movie magazines, you could read about some of them in advance.

Or maybe just go.

Major star Lillian Gish was featured in True Heart Susie, which was released on this date in 1919.  Susie loves the dim William Jenkins and sells her possessions so that her dull witted love can attend college. Even her prized pet cow is sold.  Jenkins completes his studies in theology without ever being aware of it.  He does impress upon her that she must dress as plainly as possible.  He goes on to marry another, however, and after much disappointment and the fortunate if tragic death of his first wife, he marries Susie.

A bit  much really.

Also released on this date in 1919 was A Woman There Was.  The film was a South Seas adventure and was a box office flop.  No copies survive.

Also released was All Wrong, a comedy about a young husband who has developed a theory of "perpetual courting" and tries to implement it in his marriage, to disastrous results.

That actually sounds a lot like some current marriage advice. Realistic or not, apparently it was funny in 1919.