Dec. 22, 1907 (Sunday)

AS THE 2007 BOWL SEASON BEGINS, WHAT BETTER TIME TO RECALL ...
STANFORD'S PRESIDENT BLASTS BIG-TIME COLLEGE FOOTBALL: In a speech at Los Angeles' Occidental University on Dec. 20, the president of Stanford University, David Starr Jordan (right) called American football "UNETHICAL, UNCHRISTIAN and UNSPORTSMANLIKE." Speaking in general terms, he said:
"The mass play in the American game is a monstrosity. It is the greatest evil ever introduced into play. A game placing a premim on brute strength is devoid of sportsmanlike qualities."
He singled out praise for two colleges, saying, "Excepting Harvard and Cornell, practically all the large universities employ questionable methods in securing athletes." (There's no mention of the fact that Jordan happens to have a degree from Cornell.)
His speech, which is covered in the sports section of today's New York Times, is particularly critical of the University of Michigan, Yale University and the University of Chicago.
He mentions Ralph Rose of Michigan and Walter Eckersall of Chicago of poster boys of the state of the game. He says he is puzzled by the fact that Eckersall failed to pass the entrance exams at the University of Wisconsin but was accepted "with open arms" by the University of Chicago.
The remarks by Jordan, who has a research ship named after him, were rejected by officials from Michigan.

WAR-TOY PROTEST SURFACES IN GERMANY, THOUGH THERE'S NO MENTION OF 'MORTAL KOMBAT': Organizations in Germany with connections to the Social-Democratic party are asking working-class parents to resist the temptations to give children Christmas gifts such as SWORDS, GUNS, UNIFORMS, CANNONS and WARSHIPS, according to a story in today's New York Times. The chief organ of the Central Socialists, the Vorwartz, says, "Such gifts only poison the child mind and prepare children for the service of Meloch [sic], at whose command they may some day shoot down their own fathers and mothers."
The Times points out that this effort seems a bit out of place in Germany. The German Navy League has just issued a "Naval Year Book" for German youth. The book refers "to the Kaiser's 'future on the water'," and that's not talking about his fondness for mere pleasure boats.

Dec. 21, 1907 (Saturday)

PROGRESS IS SLOW AS THEY LOOK FOR BODIES IN PENNSYLVANIA MINE: They've put rescue work behind them and authorities are now in the recovery mode after the Dec. 19 explosion at the Darr Mine in Pennsylvania. Mining authorities think about 200 MEN have died in the blast and a temporary morgue (above) is slowly filling up. As of yesterday, only eight bodies had been brought out of the wreckage. A reporter for the New York Times ran into mine-safety expert Joseph A. Holmes yesterday at the Knickerbocker Hotel. Holmes pointed out that the extensive use of explosives in mines in the United States is a main cause for the high number of deaths in the mining industry. The deaths are preventable, he says. Here's a statement from Holmes, who is the head of the technological branch of the United States Geological Survey:
"In no country in the world are the natural conditions so favorable for the extraction of coal as in the United States but in spite of this fact the number of lives lost per 1,000 is larger than in any other country. Unless means are taken to counteract this, the death rate will grow larger."

INTEREST IN RACE TO PARIS IS REVVING UP IN NYC: Today's New York Times announces that the eagerly anticipated New York-to-Paris automobile race will begin at Times Square on Feb. 15. The formal announcement of the starting date is expected to boost interest in the race in the United States. Only one U.S. car has been entered so fat -- a Hol-Tan. Today's Times says that Harry Fosdick has some ideas about how he needs to modify his Hol-Tan car for the race:
While the engine will be exactly similar to those used in the regular stock machines, the frame, of course, will be strengthened. the wheels will be heavier and contain more spokes than customary. The wheel base will undoubtedly be shortened, and the car placed on higher wheels, so as to get a higher clearance."
To help promote the race, Italian journalist Luigi Barzini (at right) is in New York City. He accompanied Prince Borghese on the Peking-to-Paris race in the De Dion car. According to today's New York Times, Barzini "went through the Peking-to-Paris contest believing the feat impossible of accomplishing, and was amazed that it finally succeeded."
Barzini wrote about that race (see book at right).

Dec. 20, 1907 (Friday)

BLOOD FLOWS IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: Shortly after the distinguished House of Representatives adjourned its meeting yesterday, two members -- John Sharp Williams (right) of Mississippi and David A. DeArmond of Missouri -- got into a major fistfight. Each was bleeding when startled onlookers pulled them apart. Today's Boston Globe notes that more than 100 members of Congress were in the room at the time and as many were in the galleries -- among them "a SCORE OF WOMEN" (horrors!), who were observing at the Capitol (shown above in 1906).
Basically, here's what happened:
As members milled about, DeArmond approached Williams' seat on the Democratic side of the chamber.
The two men began to argue. Then DeArmond hit a nerve. He said to Williams, "Then you are a LIAR."
The story in today's Boston Globe describes what happened next:
The words were like a spark to a mine. Quick as a flash Williams half rose and his arm shot out. His fist landed squarely on DeArmond's nose. The two men were so close that the full force of the blow was lost. DeArmond staggered, but quickly rallied and planted a stinging blow on Williams' right cheek that drew blood, and the latter came back at his adversary. The blows rained thick and fast, perhaps a DOZEN in all being struck.
Today's New York Times describes the fight in this manner:
Williams struck him then in the nose and DeArmond struck back. Porter, the pair clerk, who happened to be near, grabbed Williams around the body, so that his arms were held down, but before any one could hold DeArmond he succeeded in pounding Williams several time sin the face, finally scratching him under the eye, bringing blood. A big Kentuckian, Representative Kimball, rushed between the two, and it was all over.
The Times says the fight was part of "the annual protest against the House committee appointments." The Times also said that the fight, while violent, "was quite parliamentary, as fights in Congress go."

A comparison of the coverage in the Times and the Globe reveals a difference in the QUOTATION that sparked the fight.
As noted above, the Globe's report says that DeArmond said, "Then you are a liar."
The Times quotes DeArmond this way: "But my belief is that you are a DAMNED liar."

To set the stage and giving a nod to the rabid interest in prizefighting, the Globe mentions, "Both are small men, with the advantage of weight perhaps a few pounds in favor of the Mississippian." (NOTE: Not sure if Williams was "small." A check of his passport at ancestry.com reveals he was 5 feet 9.75 inches tall at the age of 19.)

Williams explained later that it's not a good idea to MESS with a MISSISSIPPIAN. Today's Globe quotes him thusly, "I regret very much the affair and tried to avoid it, but when Mr. DeArmond called me a LIAR there was NOTHING for me to do but to resent it. I AM A MISSISSIPPIAN."

(NOTE: The pugnacious DeArmond will die a horrible death in 1909, while trying to save the life of his grandson.)

INVENTOR IS CERTAIN THAT PEOPLE WILL SOMEDAY BE ABLE TO USE A WIRELESS 'PHONE' TO TALK ACROSS THE OCEAN: Today's Times has a handful of articles dealing with word out of Europe that Valdemar Poulsen (right) is now confident that he can develop an "oversea 'phone." Twice, messages have been exchanged between a suburb of Copenhagen and a suburb of Berlin -- covering a distance of 250 miles. (NOTE: The Times has a problem with the spelling of the inventor's name. One article in today's paper spells it Waldemar Poulson; another spells it Valdimar Poulson.)
Poulsen has quite a track record in the field of recordings and transmission. He made a recording of Emperor Franz Joseph in 1900, which can be heard here.

ACADEMIC SAYS IT SIMPLY CANT BE DONE; INVENTOR SAYS IT CAN: Columbia University's Professor Pupin doesn't sound too smart in 2007, but he was evidently worth listening to in 1907. The Times printed his reaction to Poulsen's efforts to create a transatlantic wireless telephone service:
"[T]he distance over which communication can be established will always be limited and he will never be able to telephone across the Atlantic or over any other area of the same size.
Meanwhile, inventor Nikola Tesla offered plenty of theoretical support -- mostly because he thinks Poulsen is using equipment based on Tesla's own work. In a letter to the Times, he says, "My own wireless plant will transmit speech across the Pacific with the same precision and accuracy as across a table."

Dec. 19, 1907

A JOURNALIST IN CONGRESS; OH MY! IS THAT LIKE HAVING A FOX IN THE HENHOUSE ... OR A HEN IN THE FOX DEN? It's a thought that might terrify some people, but a Congressman named Victor Murdock (above) of Kansas is, by profession, a newspaper reporter. According to an item in today's New York Times, Murdock has successfully applied some principles of investigative reporting to uncover some scandalous misuse of the taxpayers' money. The Times says Murdock is "given to burrowing into all sorts of forgotten things too dry and tedious for his colleagues."
During the last session of Congress, he discovered that the Post Office Department was "dividing SEVEN days' weight of mail by SIX to find a so-called 'average." By forcing the Government to stop the practice, he saved the U.S. about $5 MILLION annually, according to the paper. His latest find is even more intriguing. Evidently, he discovered that the U.S. Government, in 1836, put $28 million on deposit in various states, and -- shockingly -- "the States have never returned any of it."
Someone asked him how he came across that bit of information. His answer, which should be in some kind of Book of Best Quotes by Journalists, was:
"Oh, by just looking into some of those old musty black books which nobody is supposed to look into."

Dec. 18, 1907 (Wednesday)

MANY IN EASTERN MASSACHUSETTS CELEBRATE THE CENTENARY OF POET WHITTIER: The poet John Greenleaf Whittier (That's a card from a cigarette pack at right) would have been 100 years old yesterday. Many schools in Eastern Massachusetts celebrated the event. The festivities were appropriately low key in his hometown of Amesbury, Mass., according to today's Boston Globe. "And yet the very quietness of the even harmonized well with the gentle nature of the poet," the paper says today.
Many speakers in Amesbury noted Whittier's efforts to fight slavery -- sometimes dealing with the topic in his poems (including the poem above). Among the speakers was Booker T. Washington. He said:
"The name of John Greenleaf Whittier is a household word in the homes of the black people of this country. While this celebration is taking place on the spot which he loved so much here in Massachusetts, there is another celebration that is in progress throughout the south among the people of my race. I recall, as an example, that there is located upon the grounds of the Hampton Institute in Virginia [now Hampton University] a little school for the primary children, known as the Whittier school. There his name and memory are kept green. There today hundreds of little voices are joining in songs of praise and gratitude. It is in such schools and in the hearts of such children that Whittier will most live in the future."


LORD KELVIN DIES: One of England's great scientists, Lord Kelvin, died yesterday night in Glasgow, Scotland. He was 83. He bore his suffering quietly until the end, according to today's New York Times:
Only the friends of Lord Kelvin know with what uncomplaining patience he bore throughout the last twenty years of his life the almost incessant pain of acute facial neuralgia.
The paper passes on a delightful quotation attributed to Kelvin, who had a great role in the development of electricity and late in life enrolled as a student at Glasgow University (at the age of 75). The quote of note:
"If only we had thirty hours in a day instead of twenty-four, we might get some of our work done."

Dec. 17, 1907 (Tuesday)

GREAT NAVY SHIPS WEIGH ANCHOR OFF VIRGINIA AND HEAD FOR THE PACIFIC: President Roosevelt and thousands of others watched the flotilla of battleships -- which the New York Times called "iron monsters" -- deftly clear their anchors off Hampton Roads and head out to sea (above) for an extended trip, which will eventually take them around the world. The departure of the Great White Fleet drew plenty of attention from people whose minds went to another famous Naval engagement at that location. One onlooker told the Times, "Ain't seen so many folks out since the day the Monitor fought the Merrimac." It's a wonderful quotation. Could it be too good to be true? A small doubt arises because the speaker is NOT IDENTIFIED. Might it have been the invention of the journalist? No way of knowing. The reporter refers to the speaker only as "one homespun-clad peanut grower from the interior."

GOMPERS SAYS LOW WAGES AREN'T THE SOLUTION: Capitalists, labor leaders and manufacturers gathered last night at the banquent of the National Civic Federation at New York's Hotel Astor. Samuel Gompers sounded defiant in the face of suggestions that lower wages would help the nation's economy, according to today's New York Times. Here's a portion of what he said:
"The workingman realizes that the financial situation is as it is not from any fault of his. Whether the bankers are to blame or the captains of industry or their representatives in Congress, the workingmen have made up their minds that it is not their fault. And they have also made up their minds that they are not going to be the chief sufferers from the consequences of the blunders of those who have had financial affairs under their direction."

Dec. 16, 1907 (Monday)

NAVY FLEET TO SET SAIL TODAY:At 10 a.m., sixteen battleships of the U.S. Navy are scheduled to leave Hampton Roads for a lengthy trip to the Pacific Coast and beyond. Each ship that passes the Mayflower, with President Roosevelt on board, will fire a National salute. Last night, sailors spent more than $3,000 in Norfolk for costumes "to be used in the ceremony upon the occasion of crossing the equator," today's New York Times says. The Times celebrated the sailing yesterday with a couple of full-page displays that show the ships taking part in the voyage (see above).
Reporters are accompanying the fleet. A PRESS CENSOR is on board the U.S.S. Connecticut, and "all copy must be scrutinized by him." the article says. Furthermore, "No naval officer will be permitted to represent any newspaper or press association." The reason for the secrecy is reportedly that "there will be some maneuvers never before attempted in the American Navy."
Wonder if any of the training will have been inspired by the recent findings of the Bavarian War Ministry (see below).

GERMAN SOLDIERS FIND THAT A LITTLE WHISKY HELPS THEIR AIM: An experiment conducted by the Bavarian War Ministry indicates that a few SHOTS of whisky might help soldiers take more accurate SHOTS at targets. According to today's New York Times, the ministry found that "in independent rifle shooting soldiers became BETTER MARKSMEN after imbibing a small quantity of alcohol than before." Experiments at the Augsburg School of Musketry involved the firing of 10,000 shots. It turns out that men who "had been served with a draught of spirituous liquor displayed MORE STEADINESS and ACCURACY of aim while firing singly than did those belong to the squad which had been kept abstinent." In field and volley firing, the teetotallers fared slightly better.
The tests are continuing, according to the report. Men will alternate between drinking and non-drinking in week-by-week rotations.
One can expect enlistments to go up.