Wednesday, December 5, 1945. Flight 19.

The legendary aviation mystery of Flight 19 occurred when five Grumman TBFs disappeared in a training flight between Florida and Bermuda, together with a PBM Mariner that was sent to look for the missing aircraft.

The PBM is believed to have exploded.

No doubt because none of the aircraft have ever been found, the mystery remains an enduring and popular one, and it is part of the Bermuda Triangle set of myths.

The French government nationalized five banks.

Last edition:

Monday, December 3, 1945. A Walk In The Sun.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, 1945 at the movies, Advertising, Aircraft, Arab League, British League of Nations Mandates, Israel, Movies, Palestine, Retail, Royal Navy, World War Two

Monday, November 23, 1925. USS Wyoming commences an overhaul.

Today In Wyoming's History: November 23: 1925   The USS Wyoming commences an overhaul at the New York Navy Yard.

Not wanting that to be the only item for the day, we offer the following (note, this was in error, this is a paper from 1923):

The paper noted that it was for the whole family, clean, and unbiased.  It might have been all of those things, but what a bunch of horrible news.

Note the big collection of drug charges.

A surplus store in Casper was going out of business.

The building that business occupied is still there.  It's an office building today, right between the Rib & Chop House and the Ugly Bug Fly Shop, both of which occupy old buildings that were also there, but neither of which were in operation at the time.

Rib & Chop is going out of business with the conclusion of the year.  The most famous occupant of that building was The Wonder Bar which opened in 1937 and which was a Casper institution, with ups and downs, for decades.

Last edition:  

Saturday, November 21, 1925. Lava Beds.

Labels: 1920s, 1925, Art, Calvin Coolidge, football, Geology, Lava Beds National Monument, nature

Monday, November 14, 1910. First Ship Launch.

Eugene B. Ely took off in an airplane from the USS Birmingham in the first shipboard takeoff.

He landed in Hampton Roads.

He'd follow that up by being the first person to land an airplane on a ship on January 18, 1911.

Not too surprisingly, he died in an aviation accident on October 19, 1911. He received a posthumous Distinguished Flying Cross on February 16, 1933.

Last edition:

Tuesday, November 8, 1910. The Republican Party loses the House.

Labels: 1910, 1910s, 62nd Congress, Democratic Party, Progressive Party, Republican Party, Socialism

Friday, November 10, 1775: Founding of the Marine Corps.

 

November 10, 1775: The Birth of the U.S. Marine Corps

This was done by a resolution of Congress, stating:

Resolved, That two Battalions of marines be raised, consisting of one Colonel, two Lieutenant Colonels, two Majors, and other officers as usual in other regiments; and that they consist of an equal number of privates with other battalions; that particular care be taken, that no persons be appointed to office, or enlisted into said Battalions, but such as are good seamen, or so acquainted with maritime affairs as to be able to serve to advantage by sea when required...

These heraldry dates are subject to some challenge.  It is true that a Marine corps was founded on this day in 1775, but along with the Navy, it was disbanded in 1783.  It was brought back in 1798 due to the need to build up the Navy due to tensions with republican France, the first undeclared war in the nation's history.

There's a collection of lessons here, one being that the founders of the republican feared and detested the idea of a standing military. They regarded a standing military as a threat to democracy, which in fact it is.  That's the reason that the nation's entire defense was based on state militias.  However, as a second lesson, it proved impossible to do, and as a result both a standing Navy and a standing Army had to be created, although the size of the Army was tiny.

A second lesson in this story is that Presidents have, right from the onset, crept up on war, and then later on outright engaged in it, without the required declaration.

Given the climate of the times, all of this should be absolutely frightening.

Last edition:

June 17, 1775. The Battle of Bunker Hill.

Labels: 1770s, 1775, American Colonial Militia, American Revolution, Army, British Army, Bunker Hill, Colonial North America

Wednesday, October 28, 1925 Mitchell challenges Jurisdiction.

 

Billy Mitchell questioned the Army's jurisdiction to try him.

The Casper paper ran Out Our Way.

Turning down pie?

Whatever It Is, I’m Against It: Today -100: October 28, 1925: What sort of monster...: Since the French Cabinet can’t force Finance Minister Joseph Caillaux to resign when he rejects a capital levy, the whole Cabinet resigns i...

The age 25 year thing on marriage permission is really interesting. That's surprisingly high. 

Last edition:

Tuesday, October 27, 1925. Ethel: Then and Now.

Labels: 1920s, 1925, Cartoons, Ethel Hays

Saturday, October 27, 1945. Navy Day.

 

Stamp issued on this day in 1945.

Today is Navy Day, and has been since the day was first established.  This was, of course, the first Navy Day since the end of World War Two and was a huge deal accordingly.

Ships anchored in the Hudson for Navy Day.

President Truman commissioned the new aircraft carrier the USS Franklin D. Roosevelt.  In so doing, he delivered this address:

Mayor La Guardia, ladies and gentlemen:

I am grateful for the magnificent reception which you have given me today in this great city of New York. I know that it is given me only as the representative of the gallant men and women of our naval forces, and on their behalf, as well as my own, I thank you.

New York joins the rest of the Nation in paying honor and tribute to the four million fighting Americans of the Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard—and to the ships which carried them to victory.

On opposite sides of the world, across two oceans, our Navy opened a highway for the armies and air forces of the United States. They landed our gallant men, millions of them, on the beachheads of final triumph. Fighting from Murmansk, the English Channel and the Tyrrhenian Sea, to Midway, Guadalcanal, Leyte Gulf and Okinawa—they won the greatest naval victories in history. Together with their brothers in arms in the Army and Air Force, and with the men of the Merchant Marine, they have helped to win for mankind all over the world a new opportunity to live in peace and dignity—and we hope, in security.

In the harbor and rivers of New York City and in other ports along the coasts and rivers of the country, ships of that mighty United States Navy are at anchor. I hope that you and the people everywhere will visit them and their crews, seeing for yourselves what your sons and daughters, your labor and your money, have fashioned into an invincible weapon of liberty.

The fleet, on V-J Day, consisted of 1200 warships, more than 50,000 supporting and landing craft, and over 40,000 navy planes. By that day, ours was a sea power never before equalled in the history of the world. There were great carrier task forces capable of tracking down and sinking the enemy's fleets, beating down his air power, and pouring destruction on his war-making industries. There were submarines which roamed the seas, invading the enemy's own ports, and destroying his shipping in all the oceans. There were amphibious forces capable of landing soldiers on beaches from Normandy to the Philippines. There were great battleships and cruisers which swept the enemy ships from the seas and bombarded his shore defense almost at will.

And history will never forget that great leader who, from his first day in office, fought to reestablish a strong American Navy—who watched that Navy and all the other might of this Nation grow into an invincible force for victory—who sought to make that force an instrument for a just and lasting peace—and who gave his life in the effort—Franklin D. Roosevelt.

The roll call of the battles of this fleet reads like a sign post around the globe—on the road to final victory: North Africa, Sicily, Italy, Normandy, and Southern France; the Coral Sea, Midway, Guadalcanal, and the Solomons; Tarawa, Saipan, Guam, the Philippine Sea, Leyte Gulf; Iwo Jima and Okinawa. Nothing which the enemy held on any coast was safe from its attack.

Now we are in the process of demobilizing our naval force. We are laying up ships. We are breaking up aircraft squadrons. We are rolling up bases, and releasing officers and men. But when our demobilization is all finished as planned, the United States will still be the greatest naval power on earth.

In addition to that naval power, we shall still have one of the most powerful air forces in the world. And just the other day, so that on short notice we could mobilize a powerful and well-equipped land, sea, and air force, I asked the Congress to adopt universal training.

Why do we seek to preserve this powerful Naval and Air Force, and establish this strong Army reserve? Why do we need to do that?

We have assured the world time and again—and I repeat it now—that we do not seek for ourselves one inch of territory in any place in the world. Outside of the right to establish necessary bases for our own protection, we look for nothing which belongs to any other power.

We do need this kind of armed might, however, for four principal tasks:

First, our Army, Navy, and Air Force, in collaboration with our allies, must enforce the terms of peace imposed upon our defeated enemies.

Second, we must fulfill the military obligations which we are undertaking as a member of the United Nations Organization—to support a lasting peace, by force if necessary.

Third, we must cooperate with other American nations to preserve the territorial integrity and the political independence of the nations of the Western Hemisphere.

Fourth, in this troubled and uncertain world, our military forces must be adequate to discharge the fundamental mission laid upon them by the Constitution of the United States—to "provide for the common defense" of the United States.

These four military tasks are directed not toward war—not toward conquest—but toward peace.

We seek to use our military strength solely to preserve the peace of the world. For we now know that this is the only sure way to make our own freedom secure.

That is the basis of the foreign policy of the people of the United States.

The foreign policy of the United States is based firmly on fundamental principles of righteousness and justice. In carrying out those principles we shall firmly adhere to what we believe to be right; and we shall not give our approval to any compromise with evil.

But we know that we cannot attain perfection in this world overnight. We shall not let our search for perfection obstruct our steady progress toward international cooperation. We must be prepared to fulfill our responsibilities as best we can, within the framework of our fundamental principles, even though we recognize that we have to operate in an imperfect world.

Let me restate the fundamentals of that foreign policy of the United States:

1. We seek no territorial expansion or selfish advantage. We have no plans for aggression against any other state, large or small. We have no objective which need clash with the peaceful aims of any other nation.

2. We believe in the eventual return of sovereign rights and self-government to all peoples who have been deprived of them by force.

3. We shall approve no territorial changes in any friendly part of the world unless they accord with the freely expressed wishes of the people concerned.

4. We believe that all peoples who are prepared for self-government should be permitted to choose their own form of government by their own freely expressed choice, without interference from any foreign source. That is true in Europe, in Asia, in Africa, as well as in the Western Hemisphere.

5. By the combined and cooperative action of our war allies, we shall help the defeated enemy states establish peaceful democratic governments of their own free choice. And we shall try to attain a world in which Nazism, Fascism, and military aggression cannot exist.

6. We shall refuse to recognize any government imposed upon any nation by the force of any foreign power. In some cases it may be impossible to prevent forceful imposition of such a government. But the United States will not recognize any such government.

7. We believe that all nations should have the freedom of the seas and equal rights to the navigation of boundary rivers and waterways and of rivers and waterways which pass through more than one country.

8. We believe that all states which are accepted in the society of nations should have access on equal terms to the trade and the raw materials of the world.

9. We believe that the sovereign states of the Western Hemisphere, without interference from outside the Western Hemisphere, must work together as good neighbors in the solution of their common problems.

10. We believe that full economic collaboration between all nations, great and small, is essential to the improvement of living conditions all over the world, and to the establishment of freedom from fear and freedom from want.

11. We shall continue to strive to promote freedom of expression and freedom of religion throughout the peace-loving areas of the world.

12. We are convinced that the preservation of peace between nations requires a United Nations Organization composed of all the peace-loving nations of the world who are willing jointly to use force if necessary to insure peace.

Now, that is the foreign policy which guides the United States. That is the foreign policy with which it confidently faces the future.

It may not be put into effect tomorrow or the next day. But nonetheless, it is our policy; and we shall seek to achieve it. It may take a long time, but it is worth waiting for, and it is worth striving to attain.

The Ten Commandments themselves have not yet been universally achieved over these thousands of years. Yet we struggle constantly to achieve them, and in many ways we come closer to them each year. Though we may meet setbacks from time to time, we shall not relent in our efforts to bring the Golden Rule into the international affairs of the world.

We are now passing through a difficult phase of international relations. Unfortunately it has always been true after past wars, that the unity among allies, forged by their common peril, has tended to wear out as the danger passed.

The world cannot afford any letdown in the united determination of the allies in this war to accomplish a lasting peace. The world cannot afford to let the cooperative spirit of the allies in this war disintegrate. The world simply cannot allow this to happen. The people in the United States, in Russia, and Britain, in France and China, in collaboration with all the other peace-loving people, must take the course of current history into their own hands and mold it in a new direction-the direction of continued cooperation. It was a common danger which united us before victory. Let it be a common hope which continues to draw us together in the years to come.

The atomic bombs which fell on Hiroshima and Nagasaki must be made a signal, not for the old process of falling apart but for a new era—an era of ever-closer unity and ever-closer friendship among peaceful nations.

Building a peace requires as much moral stamina as waging a war. Perhaps it requires even more, because it is so laborious and painstaking and undramatic. It requires undying patience and continuous application. But it can give us, if we stay with it, the greatest reward that there is in the whole field of human effort.

Differences of the kind that exist today among nations that fought together so long and so valiantly for victory are not hopeless or irreconcilable. There are no conflicts of interest among the victorious powers so deeply rooted that they cannot be resolved. But their solution will require a combination of forbearance and firmness. It will require a steadfast adherence to the high principles which we have enunciated. It will also require a willingness to find a common ground as to the methods of applying those principles.

Our American policy is a policy of friendly partnership with all peaceful nations, and of full support for the United Nations Organization. It is a policy that has the strong backing of the American people. It is a policy around which we can rally without fear or misgiving.

The more widely and clearly that policy is understood abroad, the better and surer will be the peace. For our own part we must seek to understand the special problems of other nations. We must seek to understand their own legitimate urge toward security as they see it.

The immediate, the greatest threat to us is the threat of disillusionment, the danger of insidious skepticism—a loss of faith in the effectiveness of international cooperation. Such a loss of faith would be dangerous at any time. In an atomic age it would be nothing short of disastrous.

There has been talk about the atomic bomb scrapping all navies, armies, and air forces. For the present, I think that such talk is 100 percent wrong. Today, control of the seas rests in the fleets of the United States and her allies. There is no substitute for them. We have learned the bitter lesson that the weakness of this great Republic invites men of ill-will to shake the very foundations of civilization all over the world. And we had two concrete lessons in that.

What the distant future of the atomic research will bring to the fleet which we honor today, no one can foretell. But the fundamental mission of the Navy has not changed. Control of our sea approaches and of the skies above them is still the key to our freedom and to our ability to help enforce the peace of the world. No enemy will ever strike us directly except across the sea. We cannot reach out to help stop and defeat an aggressor without crossing the sea. Therefore, the Navy, armed with whatever weapons science brings forth, is still dedicated to its historic task: control of the ocean approaches to our country and of the skies above them.

The atomic bomb does not alter the basic foreign policy of the United States. It makes the development and application of our policy more urgent than we could have dreamed 6 months ago. It means that we must be prepared to approach international problems with greater speed, with greater determination, with greater ingenuity, in order to meet a situation for which there is no precedent.

We must find the answer to the problems created by the release of atomic energy—we must find the answers to the many other problems of peace—in partnership with all the peoples of the United Nations. For their stake in world peace is as great as our own.

As I said in my message to the Congress, discussion of the atomic bomb with Great Britain and Canada and later with other nations cannot wait upon the formal organization of the United Nations. These discussions, looking toward a free exchange of fundamental scientific information, will be begun in the near future. But I emphasize again, as I have before, that these discussions will not be concerned with the processes of manufacturing the atomic bomb or any other instruments of war.

In our possession of this weapon, as in our possession of other new weapons, there is no threat to any nation. The world, which has seen the United States in two great recent wars, knows that full well. The possession in our hands of this new power of destruction we regard as a sacred trust. Because of our love of peace, the thoughtful people of the world know that that trust will not be violated, that it will be faithfully executed.

Indeed, the highest hope of the American people is that world cooperation for peace will soon reach such a state of perfection that atomic methods of destruction can be definitely and effectively outlawed forever.

We have sought, and we will continue to seek, the attainment of that objective. We shall pursue that course with all the wisdom, patience, and determination that the God of Peace can bestow upon a people who are trying to follow in His path.

The Battle of Surabaya began in Indonesia.

Last edition:

Friday, October 26, 1945. Cowards.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, Albert Einstein, Allied Occupation of Germany, Bulgaria, Communism, Nazi Germany, Nazi Party, Nuremberg Trials, War Crimes, Weapons

Tuesday, October 23, 1945. Signing Robinson.

It was announced that Jackie Robinson had signed with the Kansas City Royals, although he was not to play under the arrangement for a full season, going to the Montreal Royals for the 1946 season.

Robinson in 1946 as a Montreal Royal.

Robinson was a great man, and is justly celebrated, but there's a fair number of myths regarding his pioneering role in integrated baseball.  He was not, for one thing, the first black player in the major leagues.  That honor would inaccurately go to Moses Fleetwood Walker, although he had played in the 19th Century, and is inaccurate itself as William Edward White had played a single major league game prior to that.  White didn't reveal  his race, and therefore is often not credited, but Walker's brother Weldy Walker did, and he also played major league baseball

Moses Fleetwood Walker.

So, in reality, Robinson was the fourth African American ball player known to have played in the majors and the third to acknowledge his racial identify.

Weldy Walker.

1883 letter to editor by Weldy Walker.

Additionally Robinson was not the only black player in the majors in 1947, Larry Doby appeared in the American League two months later, something that has also been planned as far back as 1945.  His appearance, however, had not been accompanied by advance press, as Branch Rickey had done with Robinson.  It just happened.

A surprising part of the story is that Robinson being picked upset a fair number of players in the Negro Leagues who well knew that their talents were superior to Robinson's.  It was Robinson's character, of course, that had lead Ricky to pick him.

If the entire story is pieced together, it makes for an interesting focus on racism in the United States following the Civil War and before the Civil Rights Era.  Racism was intense the entire time, but it can be argued it actually got worse towards the end of the 19th Century.  The Navy had been integrated going into the Spanish American War but forces were at work to end that, and soon did.  Breaking the color barrier was hard for athletes in team sports, but was possible in the 19th Century up until the late 1880s when it became much harder, with it being harder in baseball, where the color barrier was absolute, as opposed to football, where a few men crossed it here and there before the 1946 groundbreaking season.  

World War Two had a lot to do with the color barrier fracturing.

Considerations were being made about the post war military, including a proposal to have a single service (something the Canadians in fact did).  Also proposed was something akin to the pre war German system, a small professional army with a large conscript reserve.

Neither proposal found favor at the time.

Of course, in just a couple of years conscription would in fact be revived, and would remain a feature of American life until 1973.  Watching current events, however, a good argument can be made for just what Truman had proposed here, a very small professional Army with a conscript reserve.  Conscripts are a lot less likely to fire on their friends and neighbors than professionals or volunteers are.

Last edition:

Monday, October 22, 1945. The Handan Campaign (邯郸战役) launched.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, Chinese Civil War, Egypt, It was because of World War Two, Nationalist Chinese Army, People's Liberation Army, The Handan Campaign (邯郸战役), United Nations, Winston Churchill, World War Two

CliffsNotes of the Zeitgeist, 104th Edition. Mike Johnson, toady, and other matters.

This one should be short.  I'm very tired, and I'm in a bad/despondent mood.  Nonetheless. . . 

Some observations.

Mike Johnson, toady.

Mike Johnson is a complete toady . I don't know how he can stand himself.  Those interviews with his little shit eating smirk in which he spouts lies. . . uff.

Johnson claims to be a Christian.  He claims to be a Southern Baptists, and perhaps he is, but he seems to solidly be in the New Apostolic Reformation camp, and if I had to guess, he feels that lying to the heathens is justified if it brings about an Evangelical Republic.  That view wouldn't be sanctioned by the views of most branches of Christianity.

Johnson is going to be remembered as one of the worst Speakers in American history due to his complete toadyism.  He probably figures he'll be exalted for helping to bring about an Evangelical republic.

People who accuse others of being a Communist should be forced to live in a Communist country.

Johnson is one of those people who now run around calling the Democrats Communists, or Marxists.  They are not, and its totally absurd.  It's particularly absurd coming from a camp that is completely fascistic in real terms.

Johnson should be required to live in North Korea for a decade so he can learn what a Communist actually is.

Freaking out about New York

Part of the reason the "Marxist" term is getting thrown around is because Zohran Kwame Mamdani is about to be elected the Mayor of New York City.

Mamdani is a Democrat but he's also a Democratic Socialist.  He's an observant Muslim and a member of the political far left, which is something that can only really happen in a Western country.

New York City has always been a Democratic stronghold.  There are some Republican New Yorkers who are well known to history, such as Theodore Roosevelt, but the city's connection with the Democratic Party is very strong historically  That shows in this race as the Republican candidate is Curtis Sliwa, who has less than zero chance of taking the office.  Democrat Andrew Cuomo is running as an independent after having already lost to Mamdani in the primary.  His chances are obviously very poor.

Oh well.  

Bernie Sanders is also a democratic socialist and the country back in the past had some outright Socialist hold high office.  All the bedwetting by the GOP is just stupid, but stupidity is really setting in around Donald Trump.

Donald Trump is truly weird.

The entire administration's desperate struggle to slander the No Kings rallies over the weekends really declined into the absurd.  The weirdest thing was a completely juvenile AI depiction of a King Trump dumping shit on No Kings protestors.  It's the sort of bathroom humor that juvenile boys like.

Juvenility is increasingly a hallmark of the Trump administration as his acolytes grasp on to his descent into dementia.  The thing is, however, the blind refusal to face reality and invoke the 25th Amendment means that the country has been, by this time, almost completely destroyed as a serious entity.  We will not rapidly recover from Trump, if we ever do.

Trump supporters dismiss all of this as "that's just his style" or as TDS.  Derangement is the key word.  Trump is increasingly deranged.

Gaza

Among the weird claims that Trump keeps making, I'd note is that he's ended eight wars.

The one war he might be able to claim he ended, the one in Gaza, seems to be teetering on the edge of a resumption of fighting.  Added to that, quite frankly, there's no way whatsoever that Hamas is going to lay down arms.  None.

If the peace is to hold, Gaza will need to be rebuilt as it's destroyed at practically a Hiroshima level, employment found for its people, which has never existed, and a real government put in place.  It's not impossible, but nearly so.

Covert Operations

The Administration has authorized covert operations in Venezuela, which makes them non covert.  Anyhow, our "peace president" is waging a small war against a foreign power illegally.

And its been revealed by the New York Times that during Trump's first term an attempt was made to insert Navy Seals into North Korea to plant a listening device. The mission went wrong as it encountered North Korean fishermen, all of whom were killed.

The details of this are unclear, but basically, that's murder unless its a case of mistaken identity.

In the Special Ops community the Seals are getting a bad reputation.

What is in those files?

Donald Trump last Friday called for Rep. Thomas Massie to be "thrown out" of Congress "ASAP".

Isn't that interesting?

Last edition:

CliffsNotes of the Zeitgeist, 103d edition. Missing the obvious demographic aspect of the story . . ."Wyoming Churches See Revival, Shakeup After Charlie Kirk's Death"

Labels: Catholic, Charlie Kirk, Christian Nationalism, Christianity, Mainline Protestant, Populism, religion, Sunday Morning Scene, The Reformation, The wealthy, Zeitgeist

Tuesday, October 20, 1925. Coolidge orders Billy Mitchell Court Martialed.

President Coolidge directed the Department of War (the real one, not the one that "War Secretary" Pete Hegseth claims to run, to court marital Col. Billy Mitchell for insubordination.

Frankly, Mitchel was clearly insubordinate, albeit correct in his view.

It's admirable, though, that Mitchell was willing to go down for his views.  I wonder how many senior officers in the service today would be willing to do so?

Coolidge issued this statement, on this day:

I have several questions here relating to an Arms Conference, rather a Limitation of Arms Conference. These are hypothetical questions and I don’t want to undertake to commit the Government in any way in advance of specific questions. I think I can repeat what I said at the last conference – that it was exceedingly gratifying to have the European nations make the agreements which they made at Locarno. The Department was expecting to receive the text today – I think they are published. I have conferred with Secretary Kellogg about them and he will make, or have made, a careful analysis and study of them in the Department. At the time the Dawes plan was entered into it was thought necessary to secure the active cooperation of American citizens in order to reach an agreement, but the great outstanding fact there was that an agreement was finally made. This Locarno agreement is a step in advance of that, and aside from the details of the agreement it seems to me that the great outstanding and satisfying fact is that it is a very clear indication that public opinion in Europe has become sufficiently settled that the suspicions and hatreds that were generated by the war have been sufficiently dissipated so that the actual political representatives of the governments were able to get together and make an important agreement of this kind. I should perhaps have said when I was speaking of the Dawes agreement that one of the fundamental things about that was that it was not made by the political representatives of the governments at that time, but was made by experts that were called in that didn’t have any political considerations at stake. It seems to me the present agreement is exceedingly encouraging on account of that feature. Of course I regard it also as encouraging on account of what it has done. It has been well said that it is perhaps the most important action taken in Europe since the signing of the Armistice. Now, I had been waiting for something of that kind before taking any active steps about considering the calling of a Disarmament Conference at Washington. I think I told the newspaper conference some time ago that a very large part of the considerations that have come before a Disarmament Conference relate peculiarly and almost entirely to Europe. That would be so in relation to any land disarmament. We have reduced our land forces so that that isn’t an American question, and while I would like to have an Arms Conference here because it could include both land and naval forces, yet I wouldn’t want to take any step that would be construed or in effect embarrass the European nations in solving their own problems of land disarmament. I wouldn’ t want to make the slightest criticism of any action they were taking that pointed in that direction, or have our Government say or do anything that would in the slightest way embarrass the bringing of that proposal to a successful conclusion. Now that is about the only attitude I can express at the present time. It is possible for the European nations to hold a Disarmament Conference that to my mind would be exceedingly useful, and which might make agreements that would be of great benefit not only to the European nations but to all the world. If they can do that I hope very much that they will. If the question of naval limitations is to be considered, then I suppose it would be necessary to include America, and it was for that special reason that I thought there would be greater hope of reaching a successful conclusion if an Arms Conference was held in this country. But I can’t answer those questions in advance of whether we are going to have a conference here, whether we would attend a conference abroad, until specific proposals have been made. When they are made, why then we will see whether it is best to accept them. Nor can I say whether we should want to call a conference here until there has been a preliminary sounding out of nations it would be proposed to invite, in order to find out whether such a proposal was agreeable to them. I might restate too the well known and what I hope is becoming the historic attitude of our Government, of desiring to do everything that we can, without jeopardizing our own interests, to help the European situation. We have realized all along that it would be useless to have any thought over there that there must be a constant reliance on us. I think I have stated in some of my addresses that we couldn’t help people very much until they showed a disposition to help themselves. I think that disposition is becoming more and more apparent abroad every day, and it is a rising of a condition that is exceedingly gratifying to those that want to help and those that want to see the European situation progressively developed.

I haven’t any information about any proposed action by the War Department in relation to Colonel Mitchell, and any information that is to be given out about that would come from them.

I haven’t made any statement or taken any action relative to a further extension of leave to General Butler. I think you are all familiar with the letter that I sent to the Mayor about a year ago and its contents. I don’t feel called on to make any statement about it or take any further action until the Mayor has acted.

These inquiries seem to be pretty much all in relation to the situation abroad which I have discussed, and the leave of General Butler which I think I have covered. If you want to have any more information about that why consult my letter which was made public about a year ago.

Last edition:

Friday, October 16, 1925. The Locarno conference ended with several agreements in place and an atmosphere of optimism.

Labels: 1920s, 1925, Diplomacy, Europe, Locarno Conference

Friday, October 13, 1775. An October 1775 Birthday for the Continental Navy

An October 1775 Birthday for the Continental Navy

October 13, 1775: The Birth of the United States Navy

Last edition:

June 17, 1775. The Battle of Bunker Hill.

Labels: 1770s, 1775, American Colonial Militia, American Revolution, Army, British Army, Bunker Hill, Colonial North America