Sunday, 22 December 1929: Germany's Liberty Law is Defeated at the Polls

Berlin:  

The Liberty Law is defeated at the polls as expected.  Nationalist politician Alfred Hugenberg’s proposed measure to reject the Young Plan in favor of ending war debt payments altogether is supported by less than 6 million voters, or 14%.  Still, that’s an increase from the roughly 10% who signed the petition earlier in the year that brought the measure up for a public vote, and it surprises some observers, who hadn’t expected the vote to be any higher.  Some places show marked increases: in Potsdam, for example, 45% more people vote for the Liberty Law than signed the plebiscite.  Dusseldorf, a socialist and centrist stronghold, sees a 35% increase in voters for the measure.  Pfalz and Wurttemberg report 100% increases. 

The measure, sometimes also referred to as the law “against the enslavement of the German people,” would also have prosecuted German officials who favored reparations payments, and would have renounced the war guilt clause in the Treaty of Versailles.  Voting is relatively quiet, although some clashes are reported in Berlin, including one polling place having all its ballots stolen at gunpoint. 

Khabarovsk, Russia:  

China and Russia sign an agreement to restore Russian control of the Chinese Eastern Railway, which was a major focus of a Russian invasion of Manchuria last month.  Prisoners will be exchanged, troops will be withdrawn, and China additionally says it will disband the White Russian military organizations operating in Manchuria. 

Manchuria:  

In a related development, Japan’s Rengo news agency reports that some 200 Japanese nationals living in Manchuria, who were caught in the fighting during Russia’s invasion, are suffering cold, hunger and other hazards in the wake of the conflict.  Meanwhile, in Shanghai, reports are that Japan’s Dempo news agency has displeased the nationalist government, allegedly spreading “ill reports specifically intended to undermine public confidence in the nationalist government,” according to a foreign office announcement, which also said the government had requested Japan’s legation in Peiking to “restrain these propagandists.”  The news agency’s telegraph and radio privileges are withdrawn. 

New York:  

The Fascist League of North America disbands.  The organization, which formed primarily in Italian-American communities around the country, received mixed reactions from the Italian government and was viewed with ambivalence by the U.S. government.  A Harper’s magazine article on Oct. 26, entitled “Mussolini’s American Empire,” claimed the FLNA was raising “soldiers for fascism.”  This caused an uproar nationwide, including Congressional calls for an investigation of the FLNA.

League President Count Ignazio Thaon di Revel says that the Harper’s article and ensuing calls for investigation had nothing to do with it.  Rather, the league’s work in “contributing to the enlightenment of the American public pertaining to the ideals of fascism” has been accomplished.

To view a photo of an FLNA march.

Wednesday, 4 December 1929

Washington:  

Secretary of State Henry Stimson denounces Russia’s statement from yesterday that the United States’ urging Russia to settle the Manchuria dispute was “unfriendly.”  Stimson says rather the U.S. action was prompted by the seriousness with which the United States views the Kellogg-Briand Pact.  Stimson reiterates a belief that public opinion can be used as a tool for enforcing peace, and for encouraging compliance with the Kellogg-Briand Pact by the nations who signed it. 

Moscow:  

Yet Russia keeps up the war of words.  Maxim Litninoff, Acting Commissar of Foreign Affairs, advises “protectors of the Kellogg pact” to keep their attentions focused on their own parts of the world.  “The Soviet Union, unlike other countries, rejected extraterritorial rights and privileges in China, and it would seem strange why, under this circumstance, the Nanking and Mukden governments took the path of violence with provocations toward soviet Russia.  This is explained by the simple fact that the start and further encouragement of actions of the Nanking government originated from the imperialistic camp.” 

Elsewhere: 

Shanghai:  Meanwhile the national government of China also issues a reply to the communiqué it, like Russia, received from the United States and other world powers, urging it to settle the Manchuria conflict peacefully.  The reply promises that, “apart from measures of self-protection and defense of territorial sovereignty against external invasions, China would observe her obligations under the pact.”

China:  The troop rebellions in the civil war grow more serious.  Reports say the number of mutinous troops in Pukow is 15,000, and they’ve headed north after looting the city.  Meanwhile, communist rebels have reportedly killed 100 people and looted the city of Kanchow (Ganzhou), in southern China.

Berlin:  The fallout from Alfred Hugenberg’s Liberty Law initiative continues: 8 more German Nationalist People’s Party delegates in the Reichstag resign, including the party chairman, joining the six who resigned yesterday in protest of Hugenberg’s leadership.  Ten more are expected to follow soon.  

Tuesday, 3 December 1929

Berlin:  

The political fallout begins for nationalist political leader Alfred Hugenberg over his failed Liberty Law* initiative.  Six Reichstag delegates from his German National People’s Party resign from the party in protest over Hugenberg’s leadership, which has been driving the party increasingly nationalist.  This follows the split already evident last week, when some of his own party’s members voted against his proposed Liberty Law.  But Hugenberg is also being excoriated from the even more radically nationalist Adolf Hitler, leader of the national socialists.  

Russia: 

Nikolsk-Ussurlisky: Russian and Manchurian officials sign an agreement formally ending fighting in the Russian invasion of Manchuria.  According to dispatches, joint control of the Chinese Eastern Railway will be reinstated.  It’s still not clear what role the national government of China has in this agreement, if any, nor what recognition it will give the agreement, if any . . . nor that it even matters, given the central government’s tenuous-at-best rule in Manchuria. 

Moscow:  Meanwhile, the soviet government informs the French government (which is acting as the mediator between the United States and Soviet Union, since the two countries have no diplomatic relations) that it considers “unfriendly” the recent U.S. advice that Russia keep in mind the Kellogg-Briand Pact which it signed, and settle the Manchuria dispute peacefully.

 

“The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, from the first day of its existence, has pursued a policy of peace, and unlike other powers has never resorted to military action except as a necessary step for defense, due to direct attack on the union or armed intervention in its internal affairs.  The Soviet Union has consistently pursued this policy and intends to pursue it independently of the Paris pact for abolition of war.”  The response goes on to outline Russia’s case that it was China’s policy over the Chinese Eastern Railway that started the conflict.    

“The climax of this policy was the seizure of the Chinese Eastern Railway without any warning or preliminary presentation of any claims, in violation of existing agreements regarding the joint administration of the railway.  The soviet government believes that if action such as that of the Nanking government were taken toward the United States, Great Britain or France, it would be considered by their governments sufficient cause for putting into force reservations they made when signing the pact.  [. . .]  The Nanking government not only resorted to illegal seizure of the Chinese Eastern Railway, but mobilized along the soviet Manchurian railway an army, various sections of which, together with counter revolutionary Russian bands included therein, made systematic attacks on the U.S.S.R., crossing the frontier and firing on units of the Red Army and frontier villages, robbing and violating a peaceful population, causing thereby losses of lives and property.  Despite frequent warnings through the German government, these attacks did not cease but rather increased and compelled the soviet far-eastern army, in the interests of defense, protection of the frontier and the peaceful population, to take counter measures.  Thus the actions of the Red Army had due considerations of self-defense and were in no wise violations of any obligations of the Paris pact.

“That cannot be said of armed forces in Chinese territory and Chinese ports of those powers who have applied Tuesday to the Soviet Union with identical declarations.  The soviet government states that the government of the United States has addressed its declaration at a moment when the soviet and Mukden governments already had agreed to several conditions and were proceeding with direct negotiations which would make possible prompt settlement of the conflict between the Soviet Union and China.  In view of this fact, the above declaration cannot but be considered unjustifiable pressure on the negotiations, and cannot therefore be taken as a friendly act.  In conclusion, the soviet government cannot forbear expressing amazement that the government of the United States, which by its own will has no official relations with the soviet, deems it possible to apply to it with advice and counsel.” 

China:  

New fighting erupts in the civil war.  Communist rebels are reportedly advancing on Canton, on the southern coast, and two divisions of nationalist government troops mutiny at Pukow, across the river from the capital of Nanking, after refusing orders to deploy to Canton. 

Saturday, 30 November 1929

Berlin:  

As expected, the Reichstag rejects the Liberty Law*.  Nevertheless, German law requires that the measure also be submitted to a public referendum, which will be held December 22.  The Liberty Law didn’t even get the votes of all the members of the political parties that supported it.  The vote was actually conducted in sections, based on the provisions of the measure itself, but none of the votes was close, with the proposal failing by margins such as 318-82 and 312-80 (with some abstentions). 

Coblenz, Germany:  

Ten years after occupying it under the terms ending the World War, French forces complete their pullout from Coblenz, to great celebrations by the townspeople.  At the same time, in Aachen, Belgian troops that had been occupying that place since the World War evacuate.  

Friday, 29 November 1929

Berlin:  

Foreign Minister Julius Curtius takes the Reichstag floor to assail the Liberty Law* measure, saying the Young Plan (which the Liberty Law would refute) is Germany’s best hope of paying off war debt.  Curtius accuses the measure’s main supporter, nationalist politician Alfred Hugenberg, of “calculated tricks” in his attempts to get the German public to support the Liberty Law.  The Young Plan “is to bring an important amelioration of the burdens on Germany,” Curtius says.  Under German law, the Reichstag has no choice but to take up the Liberty Law measure, because 10% of German voters signed petitions asking for it (see November 2). 

“It is nonsense to determine by a plebiscite that a people doesn’t want to pay,” Curtius says.  “Of course it doesn’t want to pay.  The only question is whether it must pay or not.  A plebiscite on this question is sheer nonsense.  In comparison with the Dawes Plan, the Young Plan on a new political basis is to bring an important amelioration of the burdens on Germany.  German economy and the German people will be benefited by it.”

Nanking:  

The government of China finally agrees to peace terms with the Soviet Union (though practically speaking, it’s not clear it even matters anymore – Manchuria has unilaterally taken the lead).  Russian military actions in Manchuria are limited now to only a few air raids by bombers on selected sites in western Manchuria.  Russian troop withdrawals continue.  The United States and the other world powers, that were said to be contemplating some form of joint action against Russia, are now said to no longer see the need.

Saturday, 2 November 1929: Germany's Liberty Law Campaign Pulls a Surprise

Germany:  

Electorate surprise -- the Liberty Law* plebiscite passes the 10% mark needed to force it to the Reichstag.  Newspapers have been assuring readers for the last three days that the proposal wouldn’t pass.  But after the final votes are counted, the measure has squeaked by, reportedly by the razor-thin margin of 10.08%. 

The Reichstag is of course expected to reject the measure, which would call for Germany to abandon its debt reparation payments from the World War altogether.  But even if it does, German law still requires the measure be submitted to a public vote after that.  All of which means weeks’ more publicity for the nationalists, cranked out by the press controlled by Alfred Hugenberg, whose political coalition proposed the Liberty Law.  “The first battle is won,” says the nationalist newspaper Kreuzzeltung.  

The government is reportedly frustrated over the whole affair, including having to foot the bill for a nationwide referendum, probably early next year.  The government announces that it will heavily penalize any of its own officials who were found to have signed the Liberty Law petition.  The nationalists, meanwhile, claim the national government is trying to stifle freedom of expression over the measure. 

Reports from the countryside, especially places like Pomerania and East Prussia, hold that “junkers” – the old Prussian aristocracy, many of whom own vast estates with lots of workers – bullied their farm tenants into voting for the Liberty Law.  Sure enough, favorable votes in those places ran as high as 33% (Pomerania) and 25% (East Prussia). 

“Enemies abroad will be made aware that in Germany strong forces are alive which refuse to bend their backs under the yoke,” says Kreuzzeltung.

Manchuria:  

Civilians fleeing the Russian military actions at Fukdin report some 2,000 Soviet troops are involved, backed by warplanes.  They say Fukdin has been captured by the soviets, but that civilians are not being harmed.

Rome:  

Italy and France begin a round of preliminary discussions in advance of the London Naval Conference due to start early next year.  As the two perceived “great powers” on the Mediterranean, the nations’ naval rivalry is as intense as their political rivalry on the continent.  News reports state that Italian naval officers are already claiming that Italy’s navy must increase three-fold to give it parity with France and adequately protects its lengthy coastline.  France, on the other hand, is expected to counter that her far-flung empire demands a navy larger than any other country on the continent.  

Elsewhere: 

Russia:  The soviet government sentences more of its citizens to die.  This time 14 people get the sentence, most of them kulaks, but two priests and one a church warden.  The priests were sentenced for inciting others to set fire to a cooperative farm near Pekoff, Russia. 

China:  In the civil war, Shanghai has reportedly been put under martial law, and fighting has reportedly spread into Manchuria, where the Soviet offensive against Fukdin continues as well.  Heaving fighting continues in the Honan province as well. 

*See definitions page.

Tuesday, 29 October 1929: New York Stock Market's Crash is Complete

THE NEW YORK STOCK MARKET CRASHES AGAIN

New York: 

the Stock market crashes still further.  Another selloff ravages Wall Street – Stocks drop another 12% -- 16.4 million shares trade.  IT'S THE Worst day in market history – Billions in value IS wiped out. 

The trade volume shatters the previous record of 12.9 million shares, which was set only last Thursday.  Experts estimate that fully half the stocks on the New York Stock Exchange have lost 50% of their value over the last month or so.  Total value lost over that time is estimated at $25 billion.    
As with Thursday's crash, crowds gather outside the exchange to see the historic tumble.  Yet unlike Thursday, this crash is not marked by frenzied panic.  Large financial interests place buy orders at successively lower levels throughout the day, making the selloff look more like the orderly retreat of a well-drilled army than the bedlam that ensued Thursday.  The ticker, though behind by 2-1/2 hours, still fares better than Thursday, when it didn't print the final quote until 4 hours after the market closed.  
Markets in Europe tumble too.

1929 Stock Market Crash - YouTube

Elsewhere: 

Russia:  the government kills 12 more of its people -- “enemies of the state” -- bringing the total for the week to 100. 

Germany: Newspapers claim that the Liberty Law campaign has failed, saying the nationalist-driven proposal drew only 7% of voters.

Vienna: Nationalists attack Jewish students to stop them from attending school. 

China:  The civil war expands – three nationalist government divisions revolt in Ichang, and communist rebel forces reportedly invade Linyung.  

Monday, 28 October 1929: New York Stock Market Crashes Again

THE NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE CRASHES AGAIN

New York: 

THE STOCK MARKET CRASHES AGAIN -- DROPPING nearly 12%.  Over 9 million shares trade, the second-highest trading day on record, exceeded only by last Thursday's crash.  Today's plummet is especially demoralizing given the upbeat assessments from Wall Street bankers and President Herbert Hoover since Thursday.  

The market starts down immediately upon opening.  A small rally happens around 1 p.m., then the selloff continues, even accelerating late in the day when it becomes clear that the bankers who stymied last Thursday's avalanche would be making no further moves today.  Today's crash lacks the panicked frenzy of Thursday, but the net result at the closing bell is actually worse.  

Manchuria:  

In the ongoing border clash, Manchurian/Chinese forces* reportedly attack two Russian posts along the Argun River on the border.  In one town, the attack is preceded by heaving artillery shelling.  In another, in the Turyrock region, marauding Manchurian forces kill Russian soldiers and plunder the town before withdrawing. 

Russia: 

The communist government KILLS two more OF ITS CITIZENS, Jewish diamond merchants who allegedly smuggled diamonds out of Russia.  The government says they "defrauded" the country.  Their deaths bring the total number of Soviet citizens killed by their government in the last four days to 63.  

 

Japan: 

An assassination attempt is made on Prime Minister Osachi Hamaguchi.  Since becoming Prime Minister in July, Hamaguchi’s cabinet has been challenging nationalist military radicals whose influence over Japan is growing.  A man with a dagger, whom authorities say is deranged, jumps on the running board of Hamaguchi’s car, but he is thrown off and Hamaguchi is unhurt.

Osachi Hamaguch

Kyoto, Japan: 

The 3^rd conference of the Institute of Pacific Relations opens.  This unofficial gathering of nations with an interest in the Pacific Rim has been growing.  This year, government representatives from Japan, China, the U.S., Great Britain and 9 others are on hand.

Immediately, the dialogue is charged.  After the formal openings, China's delegation uses the first evening session to accuse Japan of interfering in China’s civil war, mistreating civilians, and assassinating a warlord in Manchuria.  The nationalist army advance on Peiking in 1927, one delegate says, was stopped "not by communists, but by Japanese troops.  Chinese civilians were maltreated and many were killed by Japanese soldiers during the Japanese occupation."

Meanwhile, Japan's delegation claims that a U.S. immigration policy from 1924, that excludes Japanese from America, is an "open wound."  "The controversy arising from American immigration legislation in 1924 is not closed," one delegate says.  "The wound so needlessly inflicted on our national honor is still open and will remain open until the matter has been rightly settled.  I think it necessary to make this plain statement because there seems to be an impression in America that the incident is as good as forgotten in Japan.  This erroneous impression is doubtless due to our courtesy and reticence on this subject in conversing with American visitors."

Germany: 

The Liberty Law* plebiscite ends tonight, and newspapers still report that it looks like it will fall well short of the 4 million votes needed to force it to the Reichstag.

* See the definitions page.

Friday, 18 October 1929: More Soviet Action in Manchuria

Manchuria: 

NEW FIGHTING IS REPORTED BETWEEN SOVIET AND MANCHURIAN/CHINESE TROOPS, both today and yesterday.  Reports say Russian forces penetrated 100 miles up the Sungari River into Manchuria, using 7 gunboats and 12 warplanes, likely looking for and destroying arms or boats that might be used to harass Russian river traffic along the Amur River on the Russia/China border.  The soviets are largely unopposed, and withdraw after the incursion.  

Berlin: 

President Paul von Hindenburg blasts the Liberty Law plebiscite supported by Alfred Hugenberg’s nationalists, especially the provision that would impeach and imprison government officials who support the Young Plan.*  Votes in favor of the Liberty Law are reportedly light.

Meanwhile, a new report on unemployment among labor union members shows unemployment increased from 9% in August to 9.6% in September.  

Paul v. Hindenburg, Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-C06886 / CC-BY-SA.  Used under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Vienna:  

Chancellor Johann Schober submits a revised Austrian constitution to the Reichstrat (legislature) that reduces the autonomy of the largely socialist province of Vienna and places it more under the control of the national government, which contains powerful fascist elements.  Tension between socialist-leaning Vienna and the national government and rest of the country has been an ongoing feature of post-war Austrian politics.

Johann Schober

Elsewhere: 

New York: The stock market loses another 2.5%, rising early then falling hard.  A report today from the New York Stock Exchange says Wall Street lost nearly $2.6 billion in September.

  

China: Some 500 troops mutiny in the city of Wuhu, and capture the city for seven hours.  Foreigners seek safety from Japanese and British gunboats in the harbor, and forces of the nationalist government subdue the rebellion.  Meanwhile, communist rebels are attacking the city of Chengchow, in north-central Honan province.  

Wednesday, 16 October 1929

Germany: 

The plebiscite allowing voters to petition for the proposed Liberty Law begins.  If 4 million approve it, the Reichstag must take up the measure.  Continues through October 28.

New York: 

Stocks fall sharply, down 3.1% on heavy trading.  It’s the third straight day of decline totaling 4.7%.  Volume increased over the same period, with over 4 million shares changing hands today.

Saturday, 12 October 1929

Berlin:  

The German government issues an official statement calling the Liberty Law campaign being pushed by Alfred Hugenberg (see Oct. 9) “a monstrous attempt to incite the German people against the government and annihilate the ten year good will policy of the republic with Germany’s former enemies.”  The statement urges Germans to reject the Liberty Law, and notes that Germany's foreign policy since the World War has secured such positives as reductions in the required war debt reparations payments, and liberation of the Rhineland.

Manchuria:

A Soviet flotilla on the Amur River opens fire on Chinese gunboats and land positions near Lahasusu. According to official dispatches, the firing starts at 5:30 a.m., and in short order, three Chinese gunboats are sunk.  A fourth is captured by the Russians, along with 7 barges and an army transport steamer.  The soviets lose no vessels, although 16 are killed, including the chief of the soviet Amur River Fleet.

Wednesday, 9 October 1929: Prussia Declares Stahlhelm Illegal

Berlin: 

The government of Prussia, the state that makes up some 60 percent of Germany, bans the Stahlhelm (“Steel Helmets”), a nationalist paramilitary organization, in two provinces, on grounds that it is effectively an army.  The move is in response to the Stahlhelm’s support of the the Liberty Law campaign.

For months, a coalition of groups called the Reich Committee for the German People’s Petition has been campaigning, sometimes violently, for the Liberty Law, which opposes the Young Plan, would discontinue war debt payments altogether, and even prosecute government officials who support the Young Plan. The coalition was the brainchild of Alfred Hugenberg, a nationalist press baron who owns multiple newspapers, and is made up of many groups, including the German National People’s Party, a nationalist political party of which Hugenberg is head, and the radical, fascist, fringe National Socialist German Worker’s Party (nazis).  The coalition was formed to drum up support for a national plebiscite on the Liberty Law, to be conducted in October.  Under German law adopted after the World War, if 10 percent of voters nationwide sign a petition in favor of a proposed law, the Reichstag has to take up the measure. Hugenberg’s plebiscite is intended to gather the necessary signatures to force the Liberty Law to the Reichstag.

Also part of the coalition is the Stahlhelm, the largest of the many paramilitary organizations that operate in Germany, boasting some half a million members.  President Paul von Hindenburg is its honorary president.  The Stahlhelm is heavily comprised of former soldiers, and serves as an unofficial army reserve of sorts, after the standing German army was required to shrink under the Treaty of Versailles.  It was pro-nationalist from its beginning, and often serves as a kind of armed wing of Hugenberg’s political party.

Prussia’s Minister of the Interior issues his ruling in reprisal for the Stahlhelm’s sometimes heavy-handed activities in support of the Liberty Law, including violence.  The minister is a socialist, and much of Prussia is socialist-leaning.  Prussia issues a handbill as well, stating:  “The German government as well as an overwhelming majority in the German nation, realizes that the improvement in Germany’s international position cannot be forced by any German law, but is only obtainable step by step through constant efforts and negotiations with other powers.”  

Stahlhelm with old imperial flag

Moscow:  

Pravda, newspaper of the communist party, launches a new occasional feature titled, “To Know Our Enemies in Order to Hate them.”  It’s a review of capitalist countries, with the United States winning the honor of being evaluated first.  “Millions of European proletarians who sought freedom and happiness on American farms are disillusions after paying a bitter price.  Farmers are being reduced to beggars.  Taxes aggregate 30 percent of the value of farm production, while from four to five million workers are permanently unemployed.  Workers do not get vacations.  They are given no means to support themselves properly, and are likely one morning to find their jobs gone when they return to work.  Millionaires’ daughters order colored limousines to match every new gown.”

“Hence we must imbue communists with a real hatred for capitalists so that communists will fight harder.  Those American communists who refuse to believe in the inherent rottenness of American capitalism are being expelled.  Business is their god, money their king and commerce their ruler; but, as churches and thrones were crushed, so this American paradise will be crushed.”

Harbin, Manchuria:  

The U.S. consulate here receives a report from Leonard Lilliestrom, U.S. Vice Consul, confirming reports of atrocities by Red Army soldiers against White Russians in Hailar and Manzhouli.  Among the gruesome details: soviet cavalry has surrounded villages and forced males over 10 to the edge of town where they are mowed down with machine gun fire.  An estimated 150 White Russians have been killed by the soviets.

Elsewhere: 

Jaryczowo, Poland:  Anti-semitic unrest among ethnic Ukrainians flares into violence and death.  Last night a mob of Ukrainians attacked a synagogue during evening prayers, resulting in four Ukrainians killed and 11 Jews and 5 Ukrainians injured as the Jews fought back with candlesticks and furniture.  Today a large Ukranian mob attacks Jewish merchants, wounding 7, vowing revenge for the deaths of their kin.  Police are out in force, as both groups are heavily armed.

Hungary:  Jewish students are beaten in schools after distributing handbills.  Schools in Hungary have been known to ban Jewish students from classes with Hungarians, and Jews who protest this can face mistreatment.  

Rome: The fascist government bans certain editions of Jack London novels, branding them “anti-fascist.”