News Items From Time Magazine In 1923

A collection of items from Time Magazine from 1923. These are real.

March 3:
Kansas: A bill is before the Legislature to make the possession of cigarettes an offence punishable by imprisonment. Kansas already has a law against selling or giving away cigarettes, but none against smoking them.

March 24:
Connecticut: The lower house of the Legislature defeated a bill to legalize Sunday football and baseball by 139 to 86.

Florida: The system whereby convicts are delivered under contract to turpentine camps at $20 a head profit to the sheriff sending them there has been abolished by the Florida legislature 31-1. State Senator Wicker, who voted against the measure, said: "There are two things I know about--mules and Niggers. Corporal punishment is the only way a convict Nigger can be controlled.


May 28
Washington: By decision of the Attorney General it is legal for women to wear trousers where and when they please.

April 14
Director Lord of the Budget Bureau announced three weeks ago an expected deficit for the Treasury of $180,000,000 ($180 million). With income taxes yielding an unexpected $63,000,000 and the tariff another $100,000,000 over expectations, the deficit is in a fair way of being wiped out.

Nov. 3
One day of the Texas State Fair at Dallas was devoted to the Ku Klux Klan. From 75,000 to 200,000 (according to the persuasion of the estimator) assembled wearing "100% American" buttons, Dragons, Klabees, and Cyplopses were present in robes of gold, purple, scarlet.

Dec. 24
The Supreme Court has declared the Minimum Wage Law in the District of Columbia unconstitutional by a vote of 5 to 3. This sweeping decision threatens the minimum wage laws already established or about to be enacted in several states, including New York, California, Kansas, Oregon, Wisconsin, Washington. The decision of the court held that the District's law was a price fixing act and as such an abridgment of the right of contract...Samuel Gompers, President of the American Federation of Labor, has already issued a vigorous statement in which he asserted taht a tendency of the court was "to decide against humanity in favor of property".

Oct. 15
Some of the more important resolutions proposed by the American Federation of Labor.
--For a Constitutional Amendment prohibitng child labor.
--For investigation of the American Bell Telephone Co. as a monopoly, taking monopoly profits.
--For giving Porto Rico (sic) the status of a state.
--For the abolition of motion picture censorship as a danger to free speech.
--For condemnation of Fascisti organizations.
--For a separate political party for labor.

March 3
The military expenditures of the United States, England, France, Italy will be well over a billion dollars this year (the U.S. military spending was $251,250,231).

April 7
Germany: Ten thousand undaunted warriors followed their beloved leader, Adolph Hitler, into battle. The occasion was the first military maneuvers held by the Bavarian Fascista Army, wholehearted supporters of the monarchy.

Oct. 22
The animals in the Berlin Zoo were stated to be so hungry that they keep Berlin awake at night.

Nov. 12 Senator La Follette of Wisconsin arrived in the U.S. fresh from a European tour. He was principally impressed by what he had seen in Germany: "The Germans are suffering for want of food, fuel, and clothing. Young children and old people are dying daily from hunger and disease. Emaciated, despairing, they are waiting the end. Food riots are common. The crisis which is at hand involves possibilities too awful to contemplate. It menaces more than Germany. There is no time for debate."

Aug. 3
William Randolph Hearst, largest individual landowner in Mexico, has filed a formal protest against the threatened seizure of his Barbicora ranch of  acres by the state of Chihuahua.

Oct. 27
Challenged by charges of cowardice and indifference, the Church issued a manifesto on the subject of "Industrial Relations and the Churches." All American churches of any considerable membership took part and the manifesto...was edited by a Catholic and a Protestant to explain Catholic, Jewish, and Protestant teachings on the subject.
   The Catholics emphasize: "Industrial relations are human relations, and therefore subject to the moral law." Wages must be sufficient to suppor the wage earners in reasonable and frugal comfort. Labor organizations are permitted.
    Judaism points out that the primary purpose of industry is to free men and equip them for the "larger life."
    The Protestant position: the intrinsic worth of personality makes "even the least" to be of greatest importance to God and society; the motive of service makes property subordinate to spiritual needs.

Dec. 17
The U.S. is now the only civilized country, with the possible exception of Japan, which places absolute legal restrictions on the dissemination of information on methods of preventing conception.