Founded in 2017, Strange Times is a twice-monthly newsletter that explores the weirdest news of 1921, one day at a time. To get free games and the original PDFs of every article that runs in Strange Times—plus stories that didn’t make the cut—back me on Patreon.

Today brings a catastrophic typo, battling miners, and the passion of Eugene V. Debs. Proofread, damn it, on…

This is both slightly funny and extremely not funny. In either case, it’s a good reminder that there was no federal anti-lynching law until 2022. The bill Hendrick says he helped write was probably the Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill, which was, like all attempts to give the federal government power to investigate lynching when the states refused to, blocked in the Senate by filibustering southern democrats.

Frank Hendrick, anti-organization candidate for the Republican nomination for judge of the Court of General Sessions, yesterday repudiated his own campaign circulars because of an error in the wording which he said might go far toward defeating him. Mr. Hendrick said he had intended to characterize himself as “the author of the Federal anti-lynching law,” but after thousands of the circulars had been distributed learned that the printer had made a mistake and set it up “author of the Federal anti-lunching law.”

“I suspect the clever work of a political enemy,” said Mr. Hendrick. “I am not an opponent of lunching. Lunching is not yet a crime, although in New York at present prices it is almost an impossibility. Even the Judges of the Court of General Sessions should lunch. They are the highest paid Judges in the world on a piecework basis, and they can well afford to lunch. There should, however, be a time limit put on lunches for Judges. It makes the court day in General Sessions all too short.”

May Day is on Friday, which makes this a good time to celebrate the career of Eugene V. Debs, the socialist leader imprisoned during World War 1 for sedition, who wasn’t released even after the war ended and the government let actual German spies go free. This item is interesting mostly because the Times printed the Socialist National Executive Committee’s statement at length, perhaps because the SNEC had some damn good writers on their side. I’m particularly awed by the line, “This budding militarist-junker clique does not represent the present or the future. It represents the era of abysmal hatreds which it hopes to keep alive.” Replace “militarist-junker” with “white supremacist grifter” and it applies neatly to 2026.

CHICAGO, Sept. 1.—In a statement issued today commenting on President Harding’s failure to act on an application for a pardon for Eugene Debs until after the peace treaty with Germany is ratified, the Socialist National Executive Committee, which is meeting here, declares “we decline to accept the latest reason given for failure to act. It is not in accord with known facts.”

The statement refers to the release of many convicted German spies, some of whom “were convicted of placing bombs on ships sailing for European ports,” and denounces the American Legion. “The committee, the statement says, “learns with profound regret and indignation that, after months of waiting, no definite action has been taken by President Harding....The United States has today the unenviable distinction of being the only country where the Administration has not granted a full amnesty to all its political prisoners.

“We decline to accept the latest reason given for failure to act. It is known that one militarist organization, the American Legion, born under mysterious financial auspices, that has indulged in kidnapping of Socialist speakers; that has fostered a mob spirit and has inspired and led mobs; that has usurped the civil and police functions of many communities; that is nursed by Chambers of Commerce and has attempted to terrorize those not in accord with its ignorant and reactionary views, has insolently attempted to thwart the efforts of millions to restore this country to its old status as a nation where all are free to speak and to write.

“This budding militarist-junker clique does not represent the present or the future. It represents the era of abysmal hatreds which it hopes to keep alive. If it gained ascendancy in the councils of the nation it would suppress every civil right with the bayonet as the strutting militarist caste did in the old Germany. It represents darkness, not light; ignorance, not intelligence; stupidity, not tolerance; militarist bureaucracy, not enlightened humanity.”

The ongoing updates from the Battle of Blair Mountain have mostly been too lengthy for me to type them up, so I was happy to see this condensed report, which ends with a truly chilling final line. If you want to see the PDFs of the full reports, which are all fascinating reading, back me on Patreon.

LOGAN, W. Va., Sept. 1 (Associated Press).—Conflicting reports of happenings along Spruce Fork Ridge, on one side of which armed bands were gathered, while on the other Logan County Deputy Sheriffs, volunteers and State troopers did patrol duty, circulated here tonight.

Captain I.G. Hollingsworth came into town early in the evening and declared that Deputies patrolling Crooked Creek had been driven down the hillside by a band from across the ridge. Immediately an emergency force was sent out.

When asked to verify the report shortly afterward, Colonel W. Eubanks, in charge of county forces, declined to confirm it or another, said to have been brought in from the Crooked Creek district, that two deputies had been wounded. Others arriving from the border denied that the deputies had been forced back.

Captain L.E. Lawson of the Mingo militia, who has charge of Mingo and McDowell volunteer patrols in the Blair Mountain region, brought three prisoners into town tonight. He departed half an hour later, saying he had been directed to return to the mountain district. At the same time two airplanes passed eastward, flying in the direction of the Logan-Boone boarder.

Authorities definitely have established that three of the Logan County forces were killed yesterday. These men, one a Deputy Sheriff and the other volunteer peace officers, were shot to death in the Blair Mountain encounter, which occurred shortly before firing on Crooked Creek began. In addition to John Gore, a Logan County Deputy, previously reported killed, John Cofago and Jim Munsie fell in the mountain fight.

Conflicting reports of casualties among the men trying to march toward Mingo were received at the Sheriff’s office. The number ranged from one to a dozen. It was explained in some quarters that it was extremely difficult to check losses on the other side, because men who fell quickly were picked up and carried away. If dead, the bodies hastily were buried, it was added.

The fate of four Deputy Sheriffs and a Logan Magistrate, held captive on the other side of the lines, remained in doubt today. Sheriff Chafin in a statement significantly remarked:

“I fear for them.”