Today -100: June 2, 1913: Of harassment, numerous and insidious lobbies, ritual murders, and Jack the Ripper

Almost-War Headline of the Day -100: “Bulgars Harass Greeks.” Show us on the map of Salonika where Bulgaria touched you.

Elsewhere, the prime ministers of Bulgaria and Serbia meet to try to prevent a new war.

Since President Wilson claimed that there is a “numerous and insidious lobby” against tariff reduction, a sub-committee of the Senate Judiciary committee will investigate the matter, requiring every member of the Senate to answer questions under oath, to recount every conversation they had about tariffs with persons with financial interests in them, to detail any of their own financial interests that might be affected by tariffs, etc (a later article suggests that this is a scheme to get those financial details so that objections can be made to individual senators voting on particular tariffs that affect them personally, but this scheme, if it exists, is based on a misreading of Senate rules, which do not prevent such votes). It is unclear whether Wilson will testify (he won’t). The next 6 days will see much debate over the precise meaning of the words lobby and lobbyist.

The Russian Ministry of Justice plans to put a Jew on trial for ritual-murdering a Christian boy in Kiev in 1911 (I had thought this was settled when the boy’s step-father was arrested).

Sir Melville Macnaghten, retired head of Scotland Yard’s Criminal Investigation Department, says he knows who Jack the Ripper was but he won’t tell. Also, that Jack committed suicide.

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