Strange Times 83: Americans Like Milk

Today’s delightfully brief issue brings tales of overindulgence in dairy and jingoism. Put your hand over your heart for…

March 24, 1921

• A California movie house chain bars any film featuring Clara Smith Hamon, lately acquitted of the murder of oil man Jake Hamon.

• Chicago and Cincinnati bar the sale of Henry Ford’s paper, the Dearborn Independent, to protest its relentless anti-Semitism.

• Apparently following orders from Moscow, Communists rise up and seize key buildings in Hamburg and other German cities.

• The Weather: Increasing cloudiness and warmer today; Friday, showers, followed by clearing; southeast winds.

Since I’m sure you’re wondering, this is about double the cow’s milk Americans drink today.

WASHINGTON, March 23.—The average American today is a great milk drinker and consumes twice as much as former generations, according to the Department of Agriculture. The consumption of milk last year was estimated at 44 gallons per capita, not including that used in ice-cream, cheese and butter. 

While every family had its own cow in colonial days, the department experts said, the present day development of dairy centers with modern methods of handling and transportation facilities, make it easier now for the city consumer to get his milk supply.

Real Americans drink milk and pledge allegiance to stuff. Can you say the same about the people teaching your children?

ALBANY, March 23.—Over Democratic opposition that declared the measure a “fool bill,” the Assembly passed today by a vote of 98 to 31 the Halpern bill, which would require public school teachers to take an oath of allegiance to the flag and the Federal and State Constitutions. The measure is an aftermath of the “Red” investigation last year by a legislative committee, headed by Senator Clayton R. Lusk, now leader of the upper house.

“I was inclined to think that the hysteria which prevailed last year in this chamber had passed,” declared Minority Leader Charles D. Donohue in opposing the measure. “It would seem that unless a man wraps a flag around him he is not an American.”

Assemblyman Halpern, introducer of the bill, declared there were teachers in the New York City public schools who have “disregarded the ideals of institutions of the State and nation.” He asserted that the measure opened up an avenue to get “the teachers out of the schools who have no respect for American institutions.”

The Assembly defeated the Dickstein bill to permit Jews to keep open their places of business on Sunday. The vote was 96 to 31. Assemblyman Dickstein moved that the vote be reconsidered. His motion prevailed, and he will make another attempt to pass the bill.