Politika
- “A Great Man — a Small Bishop”
- A Few Forgotten Figures
- Victory of the “Wets”
This partial reading of Politika for 4 November 1926 covers three items. In a signed column, V. Wilder recalled a night in 1903 when a young Jesuit, by the light of a tallow candle, called Bishop Strossmayer “a great man but a small bishop”, and wrote that the sneer made him grasp Strossmayer’s greatness. A short item revived forgotten figures on Russia’s war effort: a front of more than 3,400 kilometres, with one soldier for every metre and a half. A report from New York on the US elections counted 46 Democratic and 43 Republican senators, expected six Progressives to give the Republicans a majority, and read the vote as a plebiscite on Prohibition rather than a political contest.
This reading covers three selected excerpts from a blurred halftone scan. Words are cut off at the tile borders, some numbers in the Russian munitions list and the day in the Washington and Paris datelines cannot be read reliably, and the first letter of the US election headline is damaged. The Yugoslav–Hungarian headline is cut at the right edge and was not translated. The sources used here do not establish the Soviet statistical publication behind the Russian figures or the details of the 1926 dispute over the Strossmayer monument in Zagreb.
Translation
“A Great Man — a Small Bishop”
“Strossmayer is a great man — but a small bishop!” So a young fanatic in black told me in 1903, beside a tallow candle, almost crossing into hatred for the ninety-year-old man in whose closest circle he moved every day. Because he was a “small bishop”! And it was then that I truly grasped the whole greatness of Strossmayer. The Jesuit’s words cut deep into my mind.
A Few Forgotten Figures
The Russian front on which Russian soldiers fought was over 3,400 kilometres long. On average there was one soldier for every metre and a half of the front’s length.
Victory of the “Wets”
According to reports from New York, it is reckoned that the Democrats won 46 senators and the Republicans 43. With 6 Progressive seats, the Republicans will have a majority. The result of the election is not political in nature, but rather a plebiscite on the prohibition of alcohol.
Context
Why a Jesuit could call Strossmayer a “small bishop”
Wilder’s column is built on a paradox: a Jesuit who worked daily near Strossmayer admired the man but despised the bishop. Josip Juraj Strossmayer, a Croatian Catholic bishop who lived from 1815 to 1905, served as Bishop of Bosnia (Đakovo) and Syrmia from 1849 until his death, so in 1903 he was in his late eighties; the column’s “ninety-year-old” is a round figure. His record shows why a strict churchman might rate him poorly as a bishop. At the First Vatican Council he was one of the most notable opponents of papal infallibility. He supported repairing the schism between the Catholic and Russian Orthodox churches, and in 1860 he advocated Yugoslavism within a federal Austria-Hungary. He was also one of the key founders of the Yugoslav Academy. Wilder writes that the Jesuit’s contempt was exactly what revealed Strossmayer’s greatness to him. Zagreb still has a monument to the bishop by the sculptor Ivan Meštrović. The column does not say which of Strossmayer’s positions the Jesuit had in mind.
How the paper’s Senate arithmetic fits the final result
Politika’s New York report counted 46 Democrats, 43 Republicans and 6 Progressives, and concluded that the Republicans would keep control. The Senate then had 96 seats, with 49 needed for a majority, so the paper’s 43 Republicans plus 6 Progressives make exactly 49. That arithmetic is consistent with the established outcome of the elections of 2 November 1926, which reduced the Republican majority by seven seats. By listing the Progressives separately, the report shows how thin the Republican position had become: the party reached the majority threshold only if senators the paper treated as a distinct group were counted with it.
Why New York made the election look like a vote on Prohibition
New York voters on 2 November 1926 chose officials and also voted in a referendum to repeal Prohibition, which was accepted by a very large majority. Governor Al Smith, a Democrat, was re-elected, and the Republican senator James Wadsworth was defeated. The Prohibition Party nominated no Senate candidate of its own but campaigned for the independent Republican Franklin Cristman. The Democrat Robert F. Wagner won with 46.5 per cent against Wadsworth’s 42.4, while Cristman took 8.2 per cent, more than the gap between the two leaders. With a direct repeal question on the same ballot and the dry vote split off from the Republican ticket, it is easy to see how the paper’s New York report came to read the whole election as a plebiscite on alcohol. The claim that the result was “not political in nature” remains the paper’s own interpretation.
What the Massachusetts defeat meant for President Coolidge
Massachusetts gave the result a personal edge for the White House. William M. Butler, the chair of the Republican National Committee, had been appointed to the Senate seat left by the death of Henry Cabot Lodge. When Butler launched his campaign, most of the speakers tied it to the re-election prospects of President Calvin Coolidge, his close ally. On 2 November the former Democratic senator David I. Walsh defeated him. A minor candidate, Washington Cook, even ran under the label “Modification of Volstead Act”, so the liquor question was printed on the ballot itself. Walsh’s victory was one of the Democratic gains behind the 46 seats the paper credited to the Democrats.
Original
„Велики човек — мали бискуп“
" Штросмајер је велики човек - али мали бискуп! " Тако ми је године 1903 говорио крај свеће лојанице млади црни фанатик, прелазећи готово у мржњу на човека деведесетогодишњег старине, у чијој се је најближој околини свакодневно кретао. Јер је био - " мали бискуп "! А ја сам тада право схватио сву величину Штросмајерову Речи језуите усекоше ми се дубоко у памет.
Неколико заборављених бројева
Преко 3. 400 километара била је дужина руског фронта на коме су се борили руски војници. Просечно је на сваких метар и по дужине фронта долазио по један војник.
Победа „мокрих“
По вестима из Њујорка, рачуна се да су демократи добили 46, а републиканци 43 сенатора. Са 6 прогресистичких мандата, републиканци ће имати већину. Ресултат избора није политичке природе, већ више плебисцит о забрани алкохола.