This was a nephew of Mexico's former dictator, we should add.
As the headline demonstrates, there'd been questions on whether the Washington treaties had secret protocols. They did not.
Gen. Diaz was apparently living in New Orleans at the time.
Billy Sunday visited the White House.
Sunday had been a professional baseball player who became a hugely influential evangelist, perhaps loosely comparable to Billy Graham in his era.
A group of students did as well.
On the "Old Calendar" (Julian calendar) this was December 25, so this was the date for Christmas, 1921.
This is actually considerably more complicated than it might seem, as the New Calendar is not the Gregorian Calendar used by the West and the Latin Rite of the Church, but rather the New Julian Calendar adopted in May 1923 by the Greek Orthodox Church. This caused a split over the calendar in the Orthodox Churches. The Russian Orthodox Church kept the Old Calendar, although by that time the Russian Orthodox Church was engaged in a struggle for its existence inside the Soviet Union, which was dedicated to its distinction. The civil government in Russia had adopted the Gregorian Calendar, used in the Western World, and now the whole world, on January 31, 1918.
Anyhow, in the Orthodox Churches, this was Christmas for 1921. With the largest Orthodox Church, the Russian Orthodox Church, under siege from the Communist government, and starvation rampant in Russia, it was not a happy one for the Orthodox.
The Dail approved the Anglo-Irish treaty, establishing the Irish Free State as a dominion. The vote was 64 to 57.
Dogsomyn Bodoo, Prime Minister of Mongolia, resigns after his efforts to make Mongolia into a Soviet style state meet with widespread opposition. He'd be arrested and executed the following August.
The Washington Naval Treaty agreed to ban the use of poison gas.
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This is also, I'd note, Orthodox Christmas for those Orthodox Churches that retain the Old Calendar today, and such Eastern Rite churches as may retain it.
Today was Thanksgiving Day across the nation, the day falling on the same point in the calendar in 1921 which it now does. As readers here know, during the Great Depression the day was moved, much to the consternation of some.
The news on the day included news of war and peace, with fears that negotiations to end the Anglo-Irish War, and grant Ireland independence, were about to collapse.
The day saw an inspection of Troop 2 of the Boy Scouts in Casper, with that troop having just received honors as noted. This is of interest in that the newspaper didn't really bother to take much note that the troop was associated with St. Mark's Episcopal Church. The association of the Boy Scouts with churches was so strong, it being part of the Muscular Christianity movement, that this was simply assumed.
I'm surprised, frankly, that this troop wasn't Troop 1, given that the Episcopal Church was very much a major American protestant denomination in an era in which protestant denominations were culturally dominant.
Interesting that gasoline prices were an issue. As of January 2020, the price would be roughly equivalent to the current one, but with the current inflationary cycle the country is now in, that would be difficult to really determine now.
Disaster struck in Gillette:
Today In Wyoming's History: November 24: 1921
1921 A serious fire in Gillette, WY destroyed several of the towns landmark buildings.
The U.S. Senate passed the Willis-Campbell Act on this day in 1921 prohibiting physicians from proscribing beer as a medical remedy. They could still prescribe hard alcohol and wine.
On the same day, the British suspended new ship construction in light of progress at the Washington Naval Conference talks. And Roscoe Arbuckle's trial was proceeding.
Marshall Foch visited New York City's statue of Joan d'Arc.
The Soviet Union, which was going to have an economy based on pure ownership by the proletariat of the means of production, figured out that banks were a necessity and crated a state bank. The Soviet economy was collapsing.
On this day in history the momentous Washington Naval Conference, a global conference aimed at reducing arms and the threat of another major war, commenced in Washington D. C. President Harding delivered a speech, which of course wasn't the only one delivered.
Harding's speech stated:
Gentlemen of the Conference, the United States welcomes you with unselfish hands. We harbor no fears; we have no sordid ends to serve; we suspect no enemy; we contemplate or apprehend no conquest. Content with what we have, we seek nothing which is another’s. We only wish to do with you that finer, nobler thing which no nation can do alone.
We wish to sit with you at the table of international understanding and good will. In good conscience we are eager to meet you frankly, and invite and offer cooperation. The world demands a sober contemplation of the existing order and the realization that there can be no cure without sacrifice, not by one of us, but by all of us.
I do not mean surrendered rights, or narrowed freedom, or denied aspirations, or ignored national necessities. Our republic would no more ask for these than it would give. No pride need be humbled, no nationality submerged, but I would have a mergence of minds committing all of us to less preparation for war and more enjoyment of fortunate peace.
The higher hopes come of the spirit of our coming together. It is but just to recognize varying needs and peculiar positions. Nothing can be accomplished in disregard of national apprehensions. Rather, we should act together to remove the causes of apprehensions. This is not to be done in intrigue. Greater assurance is found in the exchange of simple honesty and directness among men resolved to accomplish as becomes leaders among nations, when civilization itself has come to its crucial test.
It is not to be challenged that government fails when the excess of its cost robs the people of the way to happiness and the opportunity to achieve. If the finer sentiments were not urging, the cold, hard facts of excessive cost and the eloquence of economics would urge us to reduce our armaments. If the concept of a better order does not appeal, then let us ponder the burden and the blight of continued competition.
It is not to be denied that the world has swung along throughout the ages without heeding this call from the kindlier hearts of men. But the same world never before was so tragically brought to realization of the utter futility of passion’s sway when reason and conscience and fellowship point a nobler way.
I can speak officially only for our United States. Our hundred millions frankly want less of armament and none of war. Wholly free from guile, sure in our own minds that we harbor no unworthy designs, we accredit the world with the same good intent. So I welcome you, not alone in good will and high purpose, but with high faith.
We are met for a service to mankind. In all simplicity, in all honesty and all honor, there may be written here the avowals of world conscience refined by the consuming fires of war, and made more sensitive by the anxious aftermath. I hope for that understanding which will emphasize the guarantees of peace, and for commitments to less burdens and a better order which will tranquilize the world. In such an accomplishment there will be added glory to your flags and ours, and the rejoicing of mankind will make the transcending music of all succeeding time.
The first air-to-air refueling was conducted when an Army Air Corps officer negotiated going from one JN4 to another carrying a five gallon can of aviation fuel to refuel the second aircraft above Long Beach, California. Obviously, this was more in the nature of a stunt rather than being anything useful.
In Italy, the National Fascist Party was founded. Its founding resulted in an Italian one day general strike over its labor policies. It was the first party of its type.
