December 7, 1917. The United States Declares War On Austria Hungary

Whereas the Imperial and Royal Austro-Hungarian Government has committed repeated acts of war against the Government and the people of the United States of America : Therefore be it Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That a state of war is hereby declared to exist between the United States of America and the Imperial and Royal Austro-Hungarian Government; and that the President be, and he is hereby, authorized and directed to employ the entire naval and military forces of the United States and the resources of the Government to carry on war against the Imperial and Royal Austro-Hungarian Government; and to bring the conflict to a successful termination all the resources of the country are hereby pledged by the Congress of the United States.

The Wyoming Tribune for April 9, 1917. And now Austria. And youth training camp cancelled.

It looked like the United States would be at war with Austria, as well as Germany, soon.  And the news hit about Cuba being at war with Germany.

A training camp for boys at Ft. Russell had been cancelled. . . training for new recruits for the Army was the reason.

The Wyoming Tribune. April 3, 1917: War Action Blocked

"Battling Bob" LaFollette used a procedural move to keep the vote on Wilson's request for a Declaration of War from occurring. The vote would of course occur. Something like that was a mere delay.

Governor Houx was pleading that the state a "contingent of rough riders" to the war.  Of course, given the way the war news was reading, a person might debate if that was to fight Germany or Mexico.  But anyhow, Wyoming was looking to supply cavalry.

West Point was going to follow the Navy's lead and graduate the 1917 class of officers early.

The Sherdian Enterprise for February 11, 1917; Austrian officers dudes no more, U.S. reestablished diplomatic relations with Mexico.

I haven't put too many Sheridan Enterprise up here, but this one I had to because of the great headline about Austrian officers

Wow.  Austrian officers "cease to be dudes".

That probably doesn't quite read the same way now.

In other items, this issue also reported the war news and on the restoration of diplomatic relations with Mexico.  And again, a tragic automobile accident was reported.

Count Tarnowski, Ambassador to the United States from the Austro-Hungarian Empire arriving in New York City on the SS Noordam.

On this day, in 1917.

Brother Albert Chmielowski dies on this day at age 71.

Albert Chmielowski, a Polish painter whose concern for the poor lead him to become a Franciscan monk died at age 71.

Chmielowski was born to a wealthy family and studied agriculture in order to step into the role of managing his family's estates.  Drawn to politics he joined in the Polish uprising of 1863 in which he lost a leg.  Following the Polish defeat he relocated to Belgium where he developed an interest in painting.  In 1874 he returned to Kraków, Poland where his interest in politics and the poor ultimately lead him into the Franciscan order in 1887.  By that time his identification with the poor had already lead him to a voluntary life of poverty.  He founded the Brothers of the Third Order of Saint Francis, Servants of the Poor in 1891.

The start of what came to be known as White Friday (although it apparently was a Wednesday), 1916

 Mount Marmolata vom Sellajoch, in the Dolomites before World War One.  The disaster commenced on this mountain where Austrian troops were garrisoned on the summit.  A local officer, Rudolf Schmid, had asked for permission to withdraw prior to the disaster, recognizing the danger, but had been denied.  He survived the disaster.

On this day in 1916 nature and war combined to eventually kill over 10,000 Italian and Austrian soldiers in the Italian Dolomites.  The day featured a catastrophic series of avalanches which would continue to carry on the rest of the week.  The majority of the casualties were Austrian with only 300 Italians loosing their lives in the disaster, if "only" is an appropriate word for death on such a colossal scale.

Austrian recruiting poster omitting, curiously, death.

An oddity of this event is that it is recalled as "White Friday", but it didn't solely or even principally occur on a Friday. The disaster was the start of a series of such events that would apparently culminate in some fashion on Friday.  Given this, it's often reported as if the full disaster occurred on a single day and a significant number of deaths occurred on the first day, but they did not end that day, and the day they first occurred on did not lend itself to the title of the day in history.

By any measure, however, it was a horrific event.

Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria died, November 21, 1916.

Franz Joseph, Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary, Croatia and Bohemia, died from pneumonia contracted only shortly before this date.  He was 86 years old and had been serving in that role for the Austro Hungarian Empire since 1848.

Franz Joseph in 1905

His death came, of course in the midst of the great tragedy of World War One, of which his nation was a central participant and the originating belligerent in some ways.   With his death, the throne would pass to his grandnephew Charles I who would carry forward until the death of the Empire in 1918.  

It's hard, in some ways, not to view the long reigning monarch's 1916 death as symbolic of the very death of the old order in Europe.

Roads to the Great War: 100 Years Ago: The Brusilov Offensive Launched

Roads to the Great War: 100 Years Ago: The Brusilov Offensive Launched: Russian Infantry Advancing After an Initial Success Against an Austrian Position Where:    Galicia on the Southwestern Eastern Fro...

Imperial Russia commences the Brusilov Offensive: June 4, 1916

The high water mark for Imperial Russia commences with the launch of the Brusilov Offensive.  The offensive was successful against Austria Hungary but was incredibly violent, resulting in over 500,000 Russian casualties and over 1,300,000 German and Austrian casualties.

The Russian offensive halted German operations against Verdun, which was one of its goals, but it was so costly that it effectively impeded the Russians from repeating it.  Had the Russians been able to do so, they may have forced a conclusion to the war and prior to the collapse of Russia itself.  It can be regarded as a genuine Imperial Russian feat of arms.

 Imperial Russian infantrymen, World War One.

Movies In History: The Grand Budapest Hotel

It may seem odd to some to see this film listed here, but it shouldn't.

The Grand Budapest Hotel is an Academy Award nominated film that was a bit of a surprise hit last year.  At least its a surprise to me, as it's the sort of unusual "small" story that we don't see get much attention anymore. The film itself almost recalls movies of the 1930s, during which it is set, more than contemporary movies.  And perhaps its a bit of a tribute to those films really.

It's masterfully done as well. Set in a fictional Eastern European country that we're lead to believe must have been part of the defunct Austro Hungarian Empire prior to its World War One collapse, the movies does a surprisingly good job of capturing the feel of those countries which had only lately entered into independence.  The Austro Hungarian Empire being multinational in nature, the mixed culture of those countries and those in its influence and orbit, such as Austria, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, and so on, is very well captured.  The film features a fair amount of the use of the German language. French shows up as well.  Last names are Slavic, German and perhaps Turkish.  The depiction of the cities is appropriately ornate.  The uniformed services shown in the film are also appropriately late Austrian in appearance. 

This film is in many ways truly odd, and very well done.  It is funny, but some of the humor is really off color and not appropriate for younger audiences. That comment would also apply to some of the things depicted in the film. But an American film pitched at a modern audience which features an Eastern European theme, set in the very early 1930s, is a real surprise, and that it did well is an even bigger surprise.

Monday, April 26, 1909. The barbarity of the day.

Natural Bridge, Virginia, April 26, 1909.

California joined Indiana and Washington in providing a law to force the sterilization of mentally retarded persons.

A growing movement at the time, this is universally regarded as a horror now, but largely because the Nazis would adopt a policy to murder people in the same category, revealing such actions for what they are.

Stockton, California, April 26, 1909.

Transgender surgeries, particularly of minors, has been rightly compared to it, and will be regarded in the same fashion in the future.

Nogales, Arizona, April 26, 1909.

The Hungarian cabinet resigned in protest of the Austro-Hungarian Viennese government's lack of support for universal suffrage for Hungarians, use of Magyar in Army regiments, and Hungarian bank independence.

Harrison County, Texas, Deputy Sheriff Lewis Markham Huffman, age 27, was shot and killed investigating a railroad camp disturbance. His partner was shot but survived.The offender was lynched. 

Last prior edition:

Saturday, April 24, 1909. Driving.

1900s, 1909, Equine Transportation

Thursday, April 8, 1909. Creation of Japanese Corporations

The Japanese Diet passed a law for the Japanese equivalent of corporations.

The United Kingdom and France accepted the Austro-Hungarian annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Chickasha Oklahoma, April 8, 1909.

Last prior edition:

Wednesday, April 7, 1909. A busy day for the Tafts.

1900s, 1909, law, William Howard Taft

Wednesday, March 31, 1909. Common Cup.

The Kansas State Board of Health banned the "common drinking cup" on trains and in public schools.

1919 Red Cross poster instructing parents to teach their children to never use a common drinking cup.

Common drinking cups were very common and it would take years to really fully prohibit their use.  Their elimination gave rise to the water fountain, which had no cup, and to disposable cups.

Georgian ended its "convict lease system" with 1,200 convicted felons thereby returned from private stockades to county jails.

The Serbian ambassador to Austro Hungaria presented his government's formal acceptance of the Austrian annexation of Bosnia.

Hull No. 401, the keel of the RMS Titanic, was laid at the Harland and Wolff shipyards in Belfast.

The company still exists and still has a shipyard in Belfast.  Founded in 1861, it was nationalized in 1977, and then privatized again in 1989.

Last prior edition:

Tuesday, March 30, 1909. The Army abandons Ft. Washakie.

1900s, 1909, Arapaho people, Army, cavalry, Ethnicities, Frontier Wyoming, Shoshone people, The Frontier West, Wind River Reservation, Wyoming

Monday, March 29, 1909 Nibelungentreue

While already articulated in other ways, and the subject of a prior war, German Chancellor Bernhard Heinrich Karl Martin, Prince of Bülow announced the doctrine of Nibelungentreue, that being that the German and Austrian empires were united by their common language and heritage.

It really meant more than that.

Individual nationalism was rising in this era in any event, with Austria struggling against it.  Imperial Germany seemingly was a nation state, but only because it had suppressed the numerous nationalities, some large and some small, living within its borders.  Unlike the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which acknowledged its polyglot nature while being principally of one faith, Imperial Germany, which included those of Westphalian, Dutch Dane, Swabian, French, and Polish nationalities, was a Prussian Empire which imposed, or tried to impose, its concept of a "German" nationalism upon its distinct regions which varied in faith.  Seemingly settled in the Franco Prussian War, as late as 1909 the reluctant acceptance of Prussian dominance still was unsettled.

Nibelungentreue would give rise to militant, and malevolent, German nationalism by 1914, which would have disastrous consequences in the 1930s and 1940s.  Germany as a state, however, was already accepted, even though even to this day some regions of Germany would make as much sense in a neighboring country as they do in Germany.

Cordell Hull had something else on his mind, which he discussed in a speech on this day:

I desire in this connection to direct the attention of the House to the best, the fairest, the most equitable system of taxation that has yet been devised—the taxation of incomes. Adam Smith, the father of political economy, laid down this rule of taxation:

The subjects of every State ought to contribute toward the support of the Government as nearly as possible in proportion to their respective abilities—that is, in proportion to the revenue which they respectively enjoy under the protection of the States.  . . .

I have no disposition to tax wealth unnecessarily or unjustly, but I do believe that the wealth of the country should bear its just share of the burden of taxation and that it should not be permitted to shirk that duty. Anyone at all familiar with the legislative history of the Nation must admit that the chief burdens of the government have long been borne by those least able to bear them, while accumulated wealth has enjoyed the protection and other blessings of the Government and thus far escaped most of its accompanying burdens. . . .

Heretofore any suggestion from this side of the House that our system of taxation should be so adjusted as to require the aggregated wealth of the country to bear a fair share of the burden of taxation has usually met the disapproval of the other side upon the ground that such course would be socialistic, if not unconstitutional. . . .

I agree that Members of Congress are under oath to support the Constitution, and that it is the duty of the Supreme Court, under proper circumstances, to construe and expound that instrument; but I submit that where, in the judgment of Members of Congress, a palpably erroneous decision has been rendered by the Supreme Court, stripping the coordinate legislative branch of the Government of one of its strong arms of power and duty—a decision overturning a line of decisions extending over a hundred years of the Nation’s history . . . . It is entirely proper that Congress should pass another income-tax act, again raising the important questions deemed to have been erroneously decided by the Supreme Court heretofore, and by this course secure a rehearing upon these controverted questions. . . .

The world has never seen such colossal fortunes as we behold in the present age. Their owners are richly able to pay taxes. Why does the Government, founded as it was upon the doctrine of equality, persist in taxing every article of necessity which the poor widow must buy, while it permits citizens residing in other countries to hold property here of probably $100,000,000 in value on which the Government declines to levy even a single cent of tax? . . . Public sentiment is becoming aroused. The American people are loudly, insistently demanding that this infamous system of class legislation shall cease, and unless this Congress regards their wishes they will soon compel compliance, even if they have to resort to a renovated Congress. 

Last prior edition:

Thursday March 25, 1909. The Crazy Snake Rebellion.

Thursday March 25, 1909. The Crazy Snake Rebellion.

The Crazy Snake Rebellion broke out between Creek Indians and Oklahoma deputies over land issues in that state, not too surprisingly given the origin of the state itself.  Indeed, land issues related to Oklahoma's origins are still being sorted out.

The rebels.

The event was the last Native American uprising in Oklahoma.

War between Imperial Russia, Austria-Hungary and Germany was averted. . . for the time being. . . by Russia accepting Austrian annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Today In Wyoming's History: March 25: 1909  A well near Byron came in as a gusher. Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society. 

Wednesday, February 24, 1909. A general European war?

Serbia brought Europe to the edge of war when it announced it opposed Austria Hungary's annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, taking the position they should be part of Greater Serbia.

Serbia would back down in March.

The United States ratified the Ship Canal Treaty with Columbia.