The Looming French Menace

Our Graphical History Tour of 1923 this month turns to foreign affairs and finds Monsieur LePoilu looming over a terrified John Bull. Could it be 1066 all over again?

"Looming Across the Channel" by Harry Murphy for Star Company, ca. March 29, 1923

Well, of course not.

"Völker Europas, Wahrt Eure Heiligsten Güter" by Arthur Johnson in Kladderadatsch, Berlin, March 18, 1923

Unless you were looking at things from a German point of view. (By the way, that little dude pointing at the crazed French soldier is the Kladderadatsch magazine's mascot.)

Occupation by France and Belgium of Germany's Ruhr Valley provoked their erstwhile Entente ally Great Britain to suspend diplomatic relations with Paris. The Harding administration expressed disapproval, but declined to get involved.

Resistance (passive and otherwise) by the Germans under France's heel proved to be a considerable nuisance. French soldiers shot and killed a number of German railroad saboteurs in the month of March, and the government of Prime Minister Raymond Poincaré threatened action against Krupp Aktiengesellschaft and other German corporations for cheering on the resistance.

"Plenty of Advice from a Safe Distance" by J.N. "Ding" Darling in Des Moines Register, March 13, 1923

Cheerleaders on the other side of the fence include Krupp and mining and media mogul Hugo Stinnes (soon to buy Kladderadatsch). The character calling out from the gate in the distance is Chancellor Wilhelm Cuno, whose government encouraged resistance by the citizenry.

"Seeing Himself in the Boss' Clothes" by J.N. "Ding" Darling in Des Moines Register, March 29, 1923

Moving across the channel but sticking with "Ding" for the moment, the political establishment in Great Britain was coming to grips with the possibility of a government led by the Labour Party. The decline in the fortunes of the Liberal Party left the more socialist Labourites as the more likely alternative to the Conservative Party, whose leader, Andrew Bonar Law, was being sidelined by throat cancer.

"The Present British Pastime" by Dorman H. Smith for Newspaper Enterprise Assn., ca. March 29, 1923

As signals of the eventual likelihood of a Labour government, the King and Queen had a get-to-know-you lunch with Labourite leaders, and the party officially disavowed Soviet-style communism.

"This'll About Be the End of Me" by Clifford Berryman in Washington Evening Star, March 15, 1923

Speaking of the Soviets, a third stroke on March 9, 1923 had left Vladimir Lenin temporarily unable to speak, and presented the Bolshevik government with its first succession battle. Leon Trotsky, contrary to Clifford Berryman's cartoon, was not terminally ill. But with only tepid and wavering support from Lenin, Trotsky was soon to be pushed out of the government, as General Secretary Josef Stalin had already been consolidating power behind the scenes for years.

"A Haircut and Shave Might Help" by Gale in Los Angeles Times, March 23, 1923

At the same time, Progressive Republicans in the U.S. such as Senators Borah of Idaho and LaFollette of Wisconsin were urging the Harding administration to extend official recognition to the Soviet regime. A high-profile capital trial of some Orthodox priests and bishops, on top of Russia's repudiation of tsarist era debts to U.S. and European governments, made recognition of the government in Moscow politically unfeasible.

"Italy Enlightening the World" by Daniel Fitzpatrick in St. Louis Post-Dispatch, March 30, 1923

Traveling now to Italy, we find il Duce Benito Mussolini hosting a major international conference. Daniel Fitzpatrick's sour assessment of Mussolini's welcoming speech was not shared by the Chicago Tribune, which editorialized on March 20:

"Premier Mussolini's remarks in welcoming the second congress of international chambers of commerce ought to win some serious consideration in this country and we especially commend them to those discontented communities of our west whose new leaders are preaching socialistic remedies.

"Mussolini was once a socialist and an exile from Italy because of his opinions. But he lived and thought through that phase and it was in passionate conviction of the fallacy of Marxian doctrine that he inspired and organized the movement that saved Italy on the brink of communist quicksand. Today from the seat of supreme authority, confronting the great dangers and difficulties of reconstruction, he announces his conviction that 'a government desiring to uplift its people after a war crisis must give free play to private enterprise and forego any measure of state control or state paternalism.' ...

"Says Mussolini, 'One of the great historical experiences, which has unfolded itself under our eyes, clearly demonstrated that all systems of associated economy which avoid free initiative and individual impulse fail more or less pitifully within a short lapse of time.'"

"Experience— that is the key to Italy's wisdom at this time. It ought to be ours."

"In Spring the Balkans' Fancy" by Elmer Bushnell for Central Press Assn., ca. Mar. 13, 1923

In addition to the international events recounted here today, shots were fired between Irish separatists and British occupiers, and between Lithuania and Poland. Negotiations to end the Entente powers' occupation of Turkey had been slogging on for months.

"Little Red Riding Hood" by Dorman H. Smith for Newspaper Enterprise Assn., ca. March 19, 1923

With all this in mind, Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes convinced President Warren Harding to support the idea of creating a World Court to settle international disputes.

"A Dangerous Platform" by Harry Murphy for Star Co., ca. March 29, 1923

It was an idea that didn't sit well with isolationists in the Senate, including the president's Republican supporters and the Progressives, or in the press. In the end, President Harding would be out of the picture before the Senate was ever gaveled into session.