Showing posts with label 1926. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 1926. Show all posts

Sunday, February 15, 2026

Monday, February 15, 1926. King wins a by-election.

Canadian Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King won a by-election for the representative for Prince Albert, Saskatchewan district, ending the situation of a Prime Minister governing without his own seat in the Parliament

Air mail through a commercial air carrier was accomplished in the U.S. for the firs time.

Ford Motors was the contracted carrier.


Mehmet Celal Bey, Turkish Ottoman administrator who declined to carry out orders during the Armenian genocide, died at age 62.  He paid for his refusal with his official position.'

He compared himself to "a person sitting by the side of a river, with absolute no means of saving anyone. Blood was flowing in the river and thousands of innocent children, irreproachable old people, helpless women, strong young men, were streaming down this river towards oblivion. Anyone I could save with my bare hands I saved, and the others, I think they streamed down the river never to return."

In another context, he'd be regarded as a "righteous amongst the nations"

Last edition:

Sunday, February 14, 1926. The Bamberg Conference.

Saturday, February 14, 2026

Sunday, February 14, 1926. The Bamberg Conference.

Nazi Party members attending the Bamberg Conference approved Hitler's motion to make his position absolute, thereby establishing the Führerprinzip.

The Trump administration essentially operates under the same principal, and indeed is run in much the same way.

The conference also ended inter party feuding, which had existed up to that point and which in fact would for some time. 

The conference also confirmed its 1920 twenty-five point program.



Translated, it stated:

The program of the National‑Socialist German Workers’ Party is a schedule. The leaders refuse to draft new goals after the ones listed in the program are achieved, solely for the purpose of enabling the party to continue to exist by artificially increasing the dissatisfaction of the masses.

1.  We demand the union of all Germans to form a Greater Germany on the basis of the people’s right to self-determination.

2.  We demand equality of rights for the German people with other nations; and abolition of the peace treaties of Versailles and St. Germain.

3.  We demand land and soil (colonies) for the sustenance of our people and settlement of our surplus population.

4.  None but members of the Volk (a people; large tribe) may be citizens of the state. None but those of German blood, whatever their creed, may be members of the Volk. No Jew, therefore, may be a member of the Volk.

5. Whoever has no citizenship is to be able to live in Germany only as a guest and must be regarded as being subject to foreign laws.

6.  The right of voting on the state's government and legislation is to be enjoyed by the citizen of the state alone. We demand therefore that all official appointments, of whatever kind, shall be granted to citizens of the state alone. We oppose the corrupting custom of parliament of filling posts merely with a view to party considerations, and without reference to character or capability.

7.  We demand that the state commit itself to providing, first and foremost, opportunities for its citizens to earn a living and make a life for themselves. If it is not possible to feed the entire population of the state, then members of foreign nations (non-citizens) must be expelled from the Reich.

8.  All further immigration of non-Germans must be prevented. We demand that all non-Germans, who have immigrated to Germany since 2 August 1914, be forced immediately to leave the Reich.

9.  All citizens must have equal rights and obligations.

10.  The first obligation of every citizen must be to work, either mentally or physically. The activities of the individual must not conflict with the interests of the general public, but must be carried out within the framework of the whole and for the benefit of all. We therefore demand:

11.  Abolition of work-free and effortless income. Breaking of interest-slavery.

12.  In consideration of the monstrous sacrifice of life and property that each war demands of the people, personal enrichment due to a war must be regarded as a crime against the people. Therefore, we demand ruthless confiscation of all war profits.

13.  We demand nationalization of all businesses which have been up to the present formed into companies (trusts).

14.  We demand that the profits of large companies shall be shared out.

15.  We demand an expansion on a large scale of old age welfare.

16.  We demand the creation of a healthy middle class and its conservation, immediate communalization of the great warehouses and their being leased at low cost to small firms, the utmost consideration of all small firms in contracts with the state, county or municipality.

17.  We demand land reform adapted to our national needs, the creation of a law for the expropriation of land for public purposes without compensation. Abolition of land tax and prevention of all land speculation.

18.  We demand struggle without consideration against those whose activity is injurious to the general interest. Common national criminals, usurers, profiteers and so forth are to be punished with death, without consideration of confession or race.

19.  We demand the replacement of Roman Law, which serves the materialistic world order, with a German common law.

20.  In order to enable every capable and hard-working German to attain higher education and thus enter into leading positions, the state must ensure the thorough expansion of our entire public education system. The curricula of all educational institutions must be adapted to the requirements of practical life. An understanding of the concept of the state must be achieved from the very beginning of schooling (civics). We demand that children of poor parents who are particularly gifted intellectually be educated at the expense of the state, regardless of their parents' social status or occupation.

21.  The state must ensure the improvement of public health by protecting mothers and children, by prohibiting juvenile labor, by promoting physical fitness through the legal establishment of compulsory gymnastics and sports, and by providing the greatest possible support to all associations involved in physical education for young people.

22.  We demand abolition of the mercenary troops and formation of a national army.

23.  We demand legal action against deliberate political lies and their dissemination by the press. In order to enable the creation of a German press, we demand that:

a. All editors and employees of newspapers published in the German language must be members of the race;

b. Non-German newspapers be required to have the express permission of the state to be published. They may not be printed in the German language;

c. Non-Germans are forbidden by law any financial interest in German publications or any influence on them and as punishment for violations the closing of such a publication as well as the immediate expulsion from the Reich of the non-German concerned. Publications which are counter to the common good are to be forbidden. We demand legal prosecution of artistic and literary forms which exert a destructive influence on our national life and the closure of events that violate the above demands.

24.  We demand freedom of religion for all religious denominations within the state so long as they do not endanger its existence or oppose the moral senses of the Germanic race. The party as such advocates the standpoint of a positive Christianity without binding itself confessionally to any particular denomination. It combats the Jewish-materialistic spirit within and outside us and is convinced that a lasting recovery of our people can only come about from within, on the basis of:

Public Interest Over Self-Interest

25.  For the execution of all of this we demand the formation of a strong central power in the Reich. Unconditional authority of the central parliament over the whole Reich and its organizations in general. The formation of corporative chambers and professional chambers for the execution of the laws made by the Reich within the various states of the confederation.

The leaders of the party promise to stand up for the execution of the above points ruthlessly, if necessary at the cost of their own lives.

Munich, February 24, 1920 — signed Adolf Hitler.

In 1928 an item that was causing controversy was amended:

In response to the mendacious interpretations of point 17 of the NSDAP program by our opponents, the following statement is necessary:

“Since the NSDAP stands on the principle of private property, it goes without saying that the passage ‘expropriation without compensation’ refers only to the creation of legal possibilities to expropriate land that has been acquired unlawfully or is not managed in accordance with the interests of the people, if necessary. This is therefore directed primarily against Jewish real estate speculation companies.”

Munich, April 13, 1928 — signed Adolf Hitler.

It's interesting reading in that you could see where the NASDP was headed, but they were not there yet.  It's also interesting to read how much of MAGA would be comfortable with this, although they wouldn't be comfortable with all of it. The NASDP was a populist party.

At this point, I frankly don't think a lot of the MAGA rank and file, and even some of its upper ranks, would really disavow association with the Nazis all that much.

Last edition:

Saturday, February 13, 1926. Calles attempts to end Catholic education.

Wednesday, February 11, 2026

Thursday, February 11, 1926. Calles attacks the Church.


Plutarco Elías Calles nationalized all property of the Catholic church in Mexico.

The degree to which the leaders of the Mexican Revolution were anti Catholic in a very Catholic nation is hard to overestimate, although at the same time, particularly in some regions, Catholic viewpoints were very represented amongst the revolutionaries.  Emiliano Zapata in particularly was notably Catholic.

Be that as it may, Madero was not a practicing Catholic and had peculiar spiritual views.  He was in fact a spiritualist and a Mason.  Still, his victory in the revolution, temporary though it was, was seen by Catholics as an opportunity to form a Mexican Catholic political party, which they did.  The Church condemned Madero's assassination.

It was that killing that sparked the second stage of the revolution.   Álvaro Obregón and Calles both featured prominently in that, and both were anti Catholic.  Calles was also a Mason.  In that phase of the revolution, moreover, democratic forces, which had brought about Madero's rise, started to wane and with the murder of Zapata and the victory of Carranza Mexico headed off in a much more radically leftist direction. In some ways the Mexican Revolution, in spite of its romantic portrayal in American cinema, was much more of a 20th Century European Revolution, many of which featured radically anti Catholic leaders against Catholic populations in favor of utopian leftism.

Calles fit that mold and was the sort example in the office of president of Mexico.  His anti clerical laws would lead to the Cristero War the following year.

Mexico remains a very Catholic country to this day and the Mexican people are very Catholic. But like other religious communities, the period of anti religious domination hurt the religious nature of the people nonetheless and the culture of the country.  Mexico has never really recovered from the anti religious views of the revolution.  Ironically, one of the beneficiaries of that has been Protestant Millennialism which has been successful in drawing in religious Mexicans who are unchurched, a byproduct of the revolution.

Actor Leslie Nielsen was born in Regina, Saskatchewan.  He served in the Royal Canadian Air Force during World War Two as an aerial gunner, although he was not deployed overseas.

Last edition:

Wednesday, February 10, 1926. Going to the League.

Tuesday, February 10, 2026

Saturday, February 7, 2026

Sunday, February 7, 1926. Negro History Week.

Carter G. Woodson.  Woodson was a professor and historian and an early pioneer in the study of African Americans.

African-American historian Carter G. Woodson initiated "Negro History Week", the precursor of Black History Month.  This is considerably earlier than I would have guessed this occured.

The Italian army took the Libyan city of Jaghbub, the home of the Senussi movement.

The village is actually much closer to Egypt than to any settlement in Libya.

Last edition:

Saturday, February 6, 1926. Linguistic dispute.

Friday, February 6, 2026

Saturday, February 6, 1926. Linguistic dispute.

Pancho Villa's skull was stolen by grave robbers.  It's whereabouts remain unknown.

Mussolini delivered a defiant speech about the fascist program of Italianization of South Tyrol, which had an ethnic German majority.

The Italians and Germans managed to put this aside after the rise of Hitler, but had the Germans won the second World War, they certainly would have turned on Italy over this issue.  As late as the 1990s, if not later, there was still Italian support for the fascist decrees on the topic.

It was a Saturday.




Last edition:

Friday, February 5, 1926. Attacking the couriers.

Thursday, February 5, 2026

Friday, February 5, 1926. Attacking the couriers.


Terrorists attacked a train traveling from Moscow to Riga in Latvia, killing Soviet couriers L. F. Pecherskiy, Theodor Nette and his partner, with the apparent goal of stealing a diplomatic pouch.

A crowd of 10,000 people gathered in Los Angeles to watch the funeral procession of actress Barbara La Marr.


La Marr was regarded as a great beauty and was famous for that, as well as a torrid life.  Only 29 at the time of her death, she'd been married four times.

Last edition:

Tuesday, February 2, 1926.

Monday, February 2, 2026

Tuesday, February 2, 1926.

A play, adapted from F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1925 novel The Great Gatsby, premiered at the Ambassador Theater on Broadway, which is remarkable in more ways than one, one being that this was well before the collapse in the economy that is so often figured into the novel, but which the novel anticipated as a moral collapse.


The incite of the novel, accordingly, can hardly be appreciated today, and indeed should be reread today, given the current times.

They were careless people, Tom and Daisy- they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.

The Great Gatsby.

Representatives of the governments of the UK and France, which nearly went to war in 1918/1919 over the fate of Syria, signed a treaty of friendship on behalf of the British Mandate for Palestine and the French Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon.  Notably, the native populations for both areas had utterly no desire that either European power be there.

Four members of the illegal Black Reichswehr were sentenced to death for politically motivated murders in Germany.

A banquet was held at the Hotel Astor to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the founding of the National League.

Last edition:

Saturday, January 30, 1926. Pinks and Greens.

Friday, January 30, 2026

Saturday, January 30, 1926. Pinks and Greens.

The Allied occupation of the first zone of the Rhineland in Germany ended. 

It was a Saturday.






Mitchell was out.


The Army was just introducing its new service uniform.

1926 was the year the U.S. Army adopted an open collared "service uniform", with a different pattern for enlisted men as opposed to officers.  Here Maj. John B. Coulter is shown wearing the newly introduced uniform.  While the cut is a little different, and breeches are not common now, and were then, this is the same basic color scheme of uniform, "pinks and greens" reintroduced for all ranks in 2018, after having been originally phased out in 1954.  While it was a good looking uniform, it was actually not as practical as its predecessor, given that it was supposed to be a combat uniform.  This would cause the Army to rapidly develop combat specific clothing immediately before World War Two.

Officers had to buy their uniforms (they still do) and Coulter must have just purchased his.  Coulter was a cavalryman (hence the breeches) who had entered the Army in 1912 and who would serve until 1952, retiring as a Lt. General.

Friday, January 23, 2026

Saturday, January 23, 2026. Saturday Art. Tramps and J. C. Leyendecker.

 


It was a Saturday, obviously.

A couple of comments.  The Saturday Evening Post featured a cover by J. C. Leyendecker.  This cover was cross posted over at Reddit's 100 Years Ago sub and immediately drew a comment about how Rockwell did the covers for the magazine.

That's a really common perception, but it's highly inaccurate.  A short search, whose accuracy I can't verify, indicates that Rockwell did 323 covers for the Saturday Evening Post during his career but Leyendecker did over 300. Joseph Kernan and Ruth Eastman did quite a few, but there were other illustrators as well. Both Rockwell and Leyendecker did them for Country Gentleman as well.

Rockwell's style is very close to Leyendecker's, and Rockwell openly credited Leyendecker with being his mentor.  Indeed, his style is so close that if these were illustrated today Rockwell would draw criticism for it.  

Leyendecker is not nearly as well recalled by the general public as Rockwell but he has an enormous number of fans to this day.  We've commented on his somewhat tragic life story several times.

The  Parasite is a written work by Tarkington that must have been reprised in he magazine i this issue. Tarkington also wrote The Magnificent Ambersons.  The story is unrelated to the illustration, but it's startling in this context.  The portrayal of what we'd regard as the homeless in this fashion was really common, and continued up until at least the early 60s.  Indeed, Buddy Ebsen portrayed essentially this sort of character, in an unsympathetic portrayal, in an episode of The Andy Griffith Show.



The New Yorker had a typical one of its illustrations.

Some people really love these, I'd note, but I don't.


Last edition:

Saturday, January 16, 1926.

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