Lex Anteinternet: Tuesday, October 20, 1925. Coolidge orders Billy Mitchell Court Martialed.

Lex Anteinternet: Tuesday, October 20, 1925. Coolidge orders Billy ...: 

Tuesday, October 20, 1925. Coolidge orders Billy Mitchell Court Martialed.

President Coolidge directed the Department of War (the real one, not the one that "War Secretary" Pete Hegseth claims to run, to court marital Col. Billy Mitchell for insubordination.

Frankly, Mitchel was clearly insubordinate, albeit correct in his view.

It's admirable, though, that Mitchell was willing to go down for his views.  I wonder how many senior officers in the service today would be willing to do so?

Coolidge issued this statement, on this day:

I have several questions here relating to an Arms Conference, rather a Limitation of Arms Conference. These are hypothetical questions and I don’t want to undertake to commit the Government in any way in advance of specific questions. I think I can repeat what I said at the last conference – that it was exceedingly gratifying to have the European nations make the agreements which they made at Locarno. The Department was expecting to receive the text today – I think they are published. I have conferred with Secretary Kellogg about them and he will make, or have made, a careful analysis and study of them in the Department. At the time the Dawes plan was entered into it was thought necessary to secure the active cooperation of American citizens in order to reach an agreement, but the great outstanding fact there was that an agreement was finally made. This Locarno agreement is a step in advance of that, and aside from the details of the agreement it seems to me that the great outstanding and satisfying fact is that it is a very clear indication that public opinion in Europe has become sufficiently settled that the suspicions and hatreds that were generated by the war have been sufficiently dissipated so that the actual political representatives of the governments were able to get together and make an important agreement of this kind. I should perhaps have said when I was speaking of the Dawes agreement that one of the fundamental things about that was that it was not made by the political representatives of the governments at that time, but was made by experts that were called in that didn’t have any political considerations at stake. It seems to me the present agreement is exceedingly encouraging on account of that feature. Of course I regard it also as encouraging on account of what it has done. It has been well said that it is perhaps the most important action taken in Europe since the signing of the Armistice. Now, I had been waiting for something of that kind before taking any active steps about considering the calling of a Disarmament Conference at Washington. I think I told the newspaper conference some time ago that a very large part of the considerations that have come before a Disarmament Conference relate peculiarly and almost entirely to Europe. That would be so in relation to any land disarmament. We have reduced our land forces so that that isn’t an American question, and while I would like to have an Arms Conference here because it could include both land and naval forces, yet I wouldn’t want to take any step that would be construed or in effect embarrass the European nations in solving their own problems of land disarmament. I wouldn’ t want to make the slightest criticism of any action they were taking that pointed in that direction, or have our Government say or do anything that would in the slightest way embarrass the bringing of that proposal to a successful conclusion. Now that is about the only attitude I can express at the present time. It is possible for the European nations to hold a Disarmament Conference that to my mind would be exceedingly useful, and which might make agreements that would be of great benefit not only to the European nations but to all the world. If they can do that I hope very much that they will. If the question of naval limitations is to be considered, then I suppose it would be necessary to include America, and it was for that special reason that I thought there would be greater hope of reaching a successful conclusion if an Arms Conference was held in this country. But I can’t answer those questions in advance of whether we are going to have a conference here, whether we would attend a conference abroad, until specific proposals have been made. When they are made, why then we will see whether it is best to accept them. Nor can I say whether we should want to call a conference here until there has been a preliminary sounding out of nations it would be proposed to invite, in order to find out whether such a proposal was agreeable to them. I might restate too the well known and what I hope is becoming the historic attitude of our Government, of desiring to do everything that we can, without jeopardizing our own interests, to help the European situation. We have realized all along that it would be useless to have any thought over there that there must be a constant reliance on us. I think I have stated in some of my addresses that we couldn’t help people very much until they showed a disposition to help themselves. I think that disposition is becoming more and more apparent abroad every day, and it is a rising of a condition that is exceedingly gratifying to those that want to help and those that want to see the European situation progressively developed.

I haven’t any information about any proposed action by the War Department in relation to Colonel Mitchell, and any information that is to be given out about that would come from them.

I haven’t made any statement or taken any action relative to a further extension of leave to General Butler. I think you are all familiar with the letter that I sent to the Mayor about a year ago and its contents. I don’t feel called on to make any statement about it or take any further action until the Mayor has acted.

These inquiries seem to be pretty much all in relation to the situation abroad which I have discussed, and the leave of General Butler which I think I have covered. If you want to have any more information about that why consult my letter which was made public about a year ago.

Last edition:

Friday, October 16, 1925. The Locarno conference ended with several agreements in place and an atmosphere of optimism.

Labels: 1920s, 1925, Diplomacy, Europe, Locarno Conference

Lex Anteinternet: Friday, October 15, 1915. The Wright Company sold.

Lex Anteinternet: Friday, October 15, 1915. The Wright Company sold.: 

Friday, October 15, 1915. The Wright Company sold.

Orville Wright in 1928.

Orville Wright sold the Wright Company and basically went into retirement at an early age.

The Wright siblings are interesting.  Neither aircraft brother married.  Wilbur was already dead by this time, but Orville would lead a long life.  At this point in time he was still living with his father and sister Katherine.  His father, Milton, was a clergyman and would die in 1917.  Another brother, Reuchlin Wright, was also living at this time, but was married and somewhat estranged from the family.  Yet another brother, Lorin, was also living and was also married. His sister Katherine continued to live with Orville following their father's death, but married in 1926 at which time she was 40 years old.  Orville regarded her marriage as a horrible act of betrayal, and did not speak to her again until he was near death in 1948 at age 76.

Orville Wright, Bishop Milton Wright, Katharine Wright, Earl N. Findley, nephew Horace Wright, John R. McMahon, and Pliny Williamson, all seated on the lawn of Orville's home, Hawthorn Hill; Dayton, Ohio.

Two siblings, twins, had died in their childhood.

The dynamics of the family are unusual. They were all well educated, and obviously highly intelligent.  For some reason the three younger Wrights had a very close bond with their father and were seemingly dedicated to him, and each other, relatively uniquely.  Remaining unmarried for life, as Orville did, was quite unusual at the time, and there's every indication that Wilbur, Orville and Katherine up until her marriage, were celibate and chaste.  There's no indication at all of same sex attraction, as such conditions always are speculated upon in our current day and age.  Orville commented at one point that he didn't have time for a wife and an airplane, which perhaps was correct, but most men do find time for a wife.  

Posthumous modern psychoanalysis has pondered if the two younger Wrights had Asperger's Syndrome, which if possible is impossible to know.  It could be that they fit into that rare category of humans who are simply not very interested in sex or family life, something current people have a very hard time grasping.

Lex Anteinternet: Tuesday, October 11, 1910. TR takes a flight.

Lex Anteinternet: Tuesday, October 11, 1910. TR takes a flight.:   

Tuesday, October 11, 1910. TR takes a flight.

 

This Day in History: Teddy Roosevelt, first President to fly

SURF-A

Honeywell is testing a new surface-alert system, SURF-A, designing to provide pilots with audible and visual warnings when hazards are present on a runway at the Natrona County Airport.

 

Casper airport announces highest number of September passengers in 40 years

Big Horn County Auction.

Wow, this is quite the auction:

Current Auctions for Big Horn County WY

Blog Mirror: Congress just created a new reason to worry about air travel Yet another concern for air safety: the understaffed employees who will work without pay.

 

Congress just created a new reason to worry about air travel

Yet another concern for air safety: the understaffed employees who will work without pay.

Casper air travel should continue during federal shutdown, but ripple effects loom

 

Casper air travel should continue during federal shutdown, but ripple effects loom