Contracts Are Let for First Work on New U.S. Buildings
The Evening Star of October 7, 1926, carried a running AP account of the fifth game of the World Series in St. Louis, where the left-handers Herb Pennock and Bill Sherdel held the Yankees and Cardinals scoreless into the fourth inning while the crowd chased a third straight attendance record. It reported defense summations in the New York conspiracy trial of former Attorney General Harry M. Daugherty and former Alien Property Custodian Thomas W. Miller over the release of $7,000,000 in seized American Metal Co. assets, with Miller's counsel dismissing the Ritz-Carlton check handover and the traced Liberty bonds. It also announced the first contracts in Washington's $50,000,000 federal building program: demolition on part of the Internal Revenue site and two new stories for the Liberty Loan Building, while the Commerce Department's site was still in dispute.
New Orleans Bank Pledges Resources in Cotton Crisis
The Montgomery Advertiser's front page for October 7, 1926 led with Alan J. Gould's AP account of Game Four of the World Series, in which Babe Ruth hit three home runs as the Yankees beat the Cardinals 10-5 before a record St. Louis crowd, tying the series at two games each and breaking seven series records. An AP dispatch from Germany reported that General von Seeckt had tendered his resignation as commander-in-chief of the Reichswehr after letting Prince Wilhelm, eldest son of the former crown prince, join army maneuvers without consulting Defense Minister Gessler, setting off republican protest. From New Orleans came word that the Federal Intermediate Credit Bank would put $60 million at the disposal of cotton growers in Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana, lending only through cooperatives or agricultural credit bodies so that another large crop would not be dumped in panic selling. A short item also reported a Nova Scotia schooner captain held on charges of trying to sink American Prohibition patrol boats.
The London Evening Advertiser of 7 October 1926 led this reading with a cable from London, England: a Miners' Federation delegate conference, having rejected the government's latest offer to end the coal stoppage, voted 594,000 to 194,000 on a South Wales motion to pull safety men out of the pits, which the paper treated as a direct answer to a government ultimatum. It also mourned William Gerry, a pioneer mill operator and alderman for seventeen years who died at his Craig Street home in his 85th year; the column then runs into farmers' complaints that one Toronto firm controlled the cattle export trade and a note on Ontario cattle winning prizes at Detroit. From Berlin it reported that the Prussian cabinet and the Hohenzollerns had signed a compromise on the former royal family's property claims, with most parties expected to support or at least not oppose ratification.
The Vossische Zeitung of 7 October 1926 gave prominent space to the fall of Colonel General Hans von Seeckt, head of the army command. Its report argued that permitting such an 'extravagance' had been a highly political act, that Seeckt had decided it over the head of Defence Minister Geßler, and that Geßler then told him one of the two must go. According to the paper, Geßler reported to President Hindenburg, a minister tried to mediate, and Hindenburg was apparently ready from the start to draw the consequences rather than allow a political conflict. The page also described a Reichsbanner rally and torchlight procession in Berlin's Wilhelmstrasse for the departing Prussian Interior Minister Carl Severing, with a large police presence on the Gendarmenmarkt. A column by Max Reiner, written as a German Nationalist's speech to Severing, ironically blamed rigid party discipline for the duty to condemn his six years in office.
General von Seeckt, Commander of the Reichswehr, Offers His Resignation
KEEP YOUR QUARRELS AT HOME!
Le Figaro’s front page of 7 October 1926 previewed the Imperial Conference due to open in London on 19 October. In a signed column, Alfred Mallet asked how a small island of 40 million people holds together an empire covering a fifth of the globe. He listed the Dominions’ moves toward autonomy, from an Irish legation in Washington that Canada was about to follow to a South African flag, and pointed to loyalty to the Crown, economic ties and the fleet and its bases as what held the Empire together. A Berlin dispatch reported that General von Seeckt had offered Hindenburg his resignation after the former Kaiser’s grandson joined Reichswehr manoeuvres, and called the episode a blunder at a time of Franco-German rapprochement. Henri Vonoven’s editorial backed Interior Minister Albert Sarraut’s circular against foreign political agitators, including the rule that foreign-language posters must carry a French translation.
The Vienna paper carried a Berlin telegram reporting that General Hans von Seeckt, chief of the German Army Command, had asked to resign. He had approved the Crown Prince's eldest son's service in Reichswehr exercises in Württemberg without telling Defence Minister Geßler, who then refused to defend him before parliament. Its leading editorial urged Austria's civil servants not to strike just because Chancellor Ramek had asked for four more days to examine their pay claims. It warned that a strike would hand the government a propaganda victory, while showing sympathy for a minimum salary it equated to 24 dollars. The feuilleton carried Erwin Rieger's travel sketch of Normandy, Brittany and the small cathedral town of Dol.
L'Écho d'Alger's front page of 7 October 1926 carried Paris dispatches dated the previous day. A Cabinet Council chaired by Poincaré at the Finance Ministry dealt with routine business and the reopening of the Chambers, whose date was left open, and took up the high cost of living, especially the price of wheat. The Interior Minister sent the prefects a circular warning that French liberties did not entitle foreigners to bring their home countries' political conflicts into France or disturb public order. An opinion extract from Le Quotidien explained how Poincaré planned to ratify the American debt accords: a preamble would let Parliament hint at further US undertakings on transfer and on commercialization of the debt.
This front page of La Tribune de Madagascar, dated 7 October 1926, carried three substantial items. A column signed by Senator Maurice Ordinaire, apparently drawn from his own report to the Senate, dealt with France's colonial wireless network: planned in 1911 and begun in 1917 with four large stations including Tananarive, it was slowed by postwar shortages, so that Tananarive opened only in 1925 and Brazzaville was still idle after some forty million had been spent. A news note explained plans to revive, in amended form, the repealed 1916 law against illicit price rises and to amend Article 419 of the Penal Code, while urging caution. A report from Syria complained that colonial readers had been fed sanitized news and described the revolt around Damascus, the Djebel Druze and Hama, with Europeans evacuated under fire and a passenger train attacked.
This front page of L'Écho Annamite was given over largely to the campaign for Cochinchina's Colonial Council. Ten Vietnamese candidates headed by Bui Quang Chieu, among them the paper's own Nguyen Phan Long, signed a joint manifesto pledging to press the legitimate aspirations of the People of Annam through a deferential but firm Franco-Annamite collaboration that rejected any hostility to French sovereignty, and they named as their program the Cahiers des Vœux handed to Governor General Varenne. Bui Quang Chieu's own appeal to the Travinh-Bentre-Vinhlong-Gocong constituency recalled his 29 years in the administration, his early retirement and his oath at Phan Chau Trinh's bier, charged that fraud had kept Nguyen Van Huot from his 1922 seat, and listed allied candidates district by district. A report from France said Poincaré would seek ratification of the Washington war-debt accords unchanged, adding a preamble of reservations on the missing transfer and safeguard clause.
The Prague German-language daily led its 7 October 1926 front page with the fall of Colonel General Hans von Seeckt, chief of the German Army Command. According to its Berlin report, Seeckt had on his own authority let the former Crown Prince's eldest son join Reichswehr exercises in Württemberg without telling Defence Minister Geßler, and he resigned after a heated clash with the minister. An editorial titled 'Sentiment' linked the affair to the resignation of Prussia's Social Democratic interior minister Severing and to the new Hohenzollern property deal, mocking a bourgeoisie grateful to the old dynasties and a largely monarchist officer corps. A second Berlin report set out the deal's terms: 250,000 Morgen of land and 15 million marks in cash for the former royal house, subject to approval by the Prussian Landtag.
The Journal de Genève's front page of 7 October 1926 led with a signed editorial on the Pan-European Congress in Vienna. The writer welcomed the movement's economic core — Europe uniting against American competition and lowering both tariff and 'moral' barriers in what he called a renewed offensive for free trade — but argued that it was a mistake to shut out Britain, Europe's strongest industrial power, and to give an economic idea the political form of separating continents. A heading on Robert Grimm's candidacy also appears on the page, though the passage read under it continues the Pan-European argument. A Belgian correspondent described a feverish campaign before the 10 October communal elections, which he said had features that raised them above purely local contests.
This partial reading of Politika's page of 7 October 1926 covers three items. Dr. Lazar Marković, who had worked in the Third Commission and the Assembly at that year's League of Nations session, wrote to the editor demanding a correction of the paper's 26 September leader on the Geneva "balance sheet" and said he would confine himself to his own work there. The paper replied that the balance remained negative, then reported that the Macedonian émigré weekly "Nezavisima Makedonija" in Bulgaria would appear daily from 11 October, calling this the first consequence of the League-backed Bulgarian refugee loan. A column signed "Ibis" told of young Croatian teachers who begged to stay in the Kruševac Župa after marrying there, and used them to mock Croatian politicians who insisted that Serbs and Croats were two peoples.
Aftenposten's morning edition of 7 October 1926 described Finnish President Relander leaving Oslo: King Haakon and Crown Prince Olav rode with him in an open carriage from the Palace to the East Station while thousands cheered along Karl Johan. The paper also reported that Klaveness Bank would ask a general meeting next Friday to dissolve the bank and choose voluntary liquidation rather than costly winding-up under administration; it expected the process to take about five years and said small depositors would be paid in full. An editorial, "Mowinckel Again", defended Prime Minister Lykke's decision to wait for the prohibition referendum before setting the budget's revenue side, and mocked Mowinckel for having backed a prohibition law during treaty negotiations, which the paper called a humiliating retreat.
The Leidsch Dagblad's front page for 7 October 1926 led its town news with a power failure that stopped every electrically driven factory in Leiden and in the neighbouring municipalities supplied by the municipal works. The director said one turbo-generator was already out for rewinding when a short circuit in a second overloaded a third. A brief restart just after noon failed by half past twelve. The foreign overview reported how French papers read General von Seeckt's resignation: Le Matin tied it to Stresemann's rapprochement with France and demanded continued military control. It also covered the show of Franco-German goodwill at the Pan-European congress in Vienna. A short item reported Baldwin's ultimatum to the British miners: accept or reject the offer of a national arbitration tribunal, or see it withdrawn.
Le Petit Matin of Tunis led on 7 October 1926 with Charles Alexandre's warning that Destour agents were touring the caïdats and the South to collect money. He claimed one of them had raised more than 25,000 francs with the help of hostile notaries, and he urged the Protectorate authorities to watch for palace intrigue and contacts with foreign powers. Raymond Colrat's Paris letter mocked Poincaré's crumbling coalition for adopting the war-debt settlement he had once denounced. The page also printed in full Albert Sarraut's circular ordering prefects to curb agitation by foreign groups and foreign-language newspapers in France. Shorter items covered Severing's resignation in Prussia, Venizelos's retirement, the British miners' rejection of Baldwin's plan and a German banker's case for mobilizing railway bonds.
The Situation of Sun's and Chiang's Armies in Eastern Hubei
Military Conference at Jiujiang
Conditions Inside Wuchang Extremely Dire
This partial reading of Shibao's war page covers three reports on the fighting in central China. A string of wire items on eastern Hubei told of a withdrawal from Daye, an 'Eastern Army' ordered back to Jiujiang, and southern units reported near Tieshan, Huangshigang and the Ruichang border, while headquarters had no news from the front. Attached Anhui briefs reported a police officer in Nanling shot for spreading 'Red' propaganda, 300 recruits from Hefei and Lu'an shipped via Wuhu to the front, and Gao Shidu ordering counties to remit taxes after a telegram from Chen Tiaoyuan. A Jiujiang dispatch noted a sudden special martial-law order and Zhou Fengqi joining a military conference. A Reuters report from Hankou described about 2,000 civilians allowed out of besieged Wuchang, a woman trampled to death at the gate, and starvation inside the walls.
POLICE DETAINED TWO RUSSIAN PEDDLERS WITH THE VICENTE LÓPEZ CAR, PLATE 765, SEEN BY THE SAN MIGUEL BOYS
Crítica's page of 7 October 1926 was dominated by the murder of Dr. Carlos Ray in his Vicente López chalet. The paper reported that the Buenos Aires provincial police believed a gang led by Francisco Alvarez, alias 'El Pibe Albarellos', had committed the crime, and announced Albarellos's arrest and the finding of caps. It insisted its previous day's scoop was accurate, describing a gang of four whose holdups had been tolerated by Comisario Rodríguez, with two men robbing and killing inside the chalet while two kept watch outside. A separate report told how a mounted officer in Ciudadela chased down a Ford with Vicente López plate 765, the car boys in San Miguel had described, and detained two Russian peddlers.
The consolidation of relations between Italy and Bulgaria
The proposals for disarmament
The meeting of the Fascist Directorate
Il Piccolo of 7 October 1926 put Rome's Balkan diplomacy at the top of its page. It printed the official communiqué on the Bulgarian Foreign Minister Buroff's long, cordial talk with Mussolini at Palazzo Chigi, and it reported that Greek delegates had come to Rome to settle the last disputed points of a new Italo-Greek commercial treaty, with trade meanwhile running under a temporary modus vivendi signed on 10 September. From Zurich the paper reported that a League of Nations mixed commission on the economic side of disarmament had accepted a proposal to treat preparation for chemical or bacteriological warfare as a crime. A Fascist party bulletin listed who attended the National Directorate's meeting under Mussolini, held to prepare the next evening's session of the Fascist Grand Council. This reading covers only part of the front page; stories such as the Seeckt resignation and the British miners' strike survive only in fragments.