A Loose Bandage - McKinley Lives!

[Beck Reilly]

A Loose Bandage Pt. 0

Introduction

"A Loose Bandage" is the newest and, hopefully, final reincarnation of
a previous, failed alternate timeline beginning with the botched
assassination of the 25th President of the United States, William
McKinley.

The history of "A Loose Bandage" departs from out own history (known
as our timeline or OTL) when the bandage concealing the assassin's .38
caliber revolver slips off his hand, revealing the gun in time for a
bystander to knock the failed assassin to the ground, thus sparing
McKinley's life and (at least, slightly) delaying the years of
progressivism which began under the tutelage of McKinley's Vice
President, Theodore Roosevelt.

From the bungled assassination, to the Russian victory in the
Russo-Japanese War, "A Loose Bandage" tracks a timeline very different
from our own.

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Thoughts?

[Beck Reilly]

A Loose Bandage Pt. 1

September 6, 1901: Buffalo, New York

Leon Czolgosz slowly worked his way onto the stage. The Temple of
Music, despite its large size, was packed with soldiers, policemen,
detectives, and local citizens, all of whom crowded around the large
stage to greet the visiting President. Despite the crowds still
waiting for an opportunity to shake the hand of President McKinley,
the two large doors swung closed behind Czolgosz. Czolgosz began to
sweat as he entered a veritable gauntlet of security men as he made
his way towards the President.

Two steps back from Czolgosz, Security Chief George Foster looked
around as the last of the well-wishers shuffled their way towards the
President. His sight fell immediately upon a stocky Italian man with a
large, thick mustache. Foster pushed his way through the crowd,
grabbing the man by the arm. Nodding to a pair of detectives under his
command, Foster turned the suspicious looking Italian over to the
detectives, who quickly patted down the stunned man.

Czolgosz reached the head of the line. An hour earlier, he had hastily
worked to hide an Iver-Johnson .38 revolver under a handkerchief
wrapped to look like a bandage. Now, he began to sweat under the
handkerchief. Nervously looking about, he stepped up to the rotund
capitalist leader and enemy of the American people.

President William McKinley beamed at his secretary George Cortelyou
and stepped forward to greet the slender, pale-faced man who's hand
appeared to be encased in a sling. "Good afternoon," McKinley said, as
the man stuck out his left hand. Just as the grim-faced Czolgosz stuck
out his hand to greet McKinley, for whatever reason, the handkerchief
slipped off his hand and fluttered towards the floor, exposing the
revolver. McKinley stiffened at the sight of the weapon and let forth
a small yelp.

From behind Czolgosz, who had watched helplessly as the makeshift
bandage/camouflage fluttered towards the ground, the six-foot-six
black man who had tried to make small talk with the reserved Czolgosz
watched the revolver come up towards the President's stomach. James
Parker, a waiter, knocked Czolgosz to the floor as he pulled the
trigger, sending the shot wide and into a flag hanging in the
background.

At the sound of the gunshot, it seemed as if all eighty of McKinley's
security guards descended upon Czolgosz to give him the beating of a
lifetime. President McKinley, visibly shaken but otherwise uninjured,
could only manage to say, "Be careful of my wife. Do not tell her."
George Foster managed to pick Czolgosz off the floor – only to send
him crashing back down with a hard right-hook.

October 15, 1901: The White House

"It needs to be shorter, more to the point," Senator Mark Hanna tapped
the three-page speech. "Take out some of this bullshit about trusts –
some of it goes over the top, comes across too high and mighty - and
put a little more personal substance into it. Hell, Bill," Hanna was
one of the few people who could call the President by any sort of
nickname, "you've barely been seen the past month, people are starting
to ask questions." Hanna, took off his reading glasses and shoved them
into his coat pocket.

William McKinley was noticeably thinner than he had been a month ago.
His suits hardly fit onto his once flabby frame and his collar was
loose around the neck. "Are you okay, Bill? You look tired as hell.
You sleeping all right?"

McKinley rubbed his bloodshot eyes and massaged the bags under them.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Well, not quite fine, I don't sleep so well,
anymore," McKinley wearily stated. But Hanna already knew that. He'd
already talked to Ida and, from what she said, McKinley didn't sleep
more than two or three hours a night. "That goddamned bastard,"
McKinley let the statement hang as he picked up the draft of his
speech and slipped a pair of small glasses onto the bridge of his
nose.

"You sure we're doing the right thing with these trusts? I'm not so
sure anymore. Doesn't seem like such a great idea to publicly
challenge Morgan like this," McKinley said, glancing back over the
speech.

"Bill, its got to be done. These trusts are out of control –
especially Northern Securities."

"Yeah, granted, but should we really make such a grand affair as this?
I mean, a speech in front of the House? Should we make it that big of
a deal?" McKinley looked at his political handler as he dropped the
speech on his own desk. "We could just have Philander," referring to
the Attorney General, Philander Knox, "quietly file the suit."

"Look, Bill. This speech isn't so much about breaking the backs of
these goddamned trusts as it is about getting you back out into
public. People are beginning to wonder if that Czolgosz bastard really
screwed you up. We've got to hold you up and show the nation that
William McKinley is still in charge…"

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Thoughts?

[Beck Reilly]

A Loose Bandage Pt. 2

November 1901 – February 1903

- Shortly after William McKinley quietly announced his intention to
initiate a federal investigation and crack-down on major trusts,
Attorney General Philander Knox started turning the wheels in the
Justice Department. Over the course of the next sixteen months, Knox
and his attorneys prepared the government's case against their main
target, the Northern Securities Company.

Northern Securities, which controlled the stock of the Great Northern,
Northern Pacific, and the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy railroads, held
a virtual monopoly on rail traffic in the upper-Midwest. The trust,
which brought together the talents of wealthy and capable financier
J.P. Morgan and railroad magnate James J. Hill, was in clear violation
of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890.

Over the course of the investigation, Mark Hanna, the President's
political handler, came close to backing the administration out of the
lawsuit several times. At the personal request of J.P. Morgan himself,
Hanna began to have reservations in mid-1902. However, due to the
popular nature of the measure, McKinley managed to convince him that
it was necessary. The suit was filed by Knox himself in February of
1903.

- In May, at an anthracite coal mine in Pennsylvania, 150,000 miners
went on strike, demanding recognition of their union (the United Mine
Workers), a pay increase, and better hours. However, the mine owners
refused to negotiate, dragging the strike out into a five-month
ordeal. By November, the nation was facing coal shortages as the first
blasts of snow began to sweep across the northern United States.

Finally, when the shortages became serious enough, President McKinley
summoned the mine owners and their representatives to the White House.
Encouraged by both his political handler and mentor, Mark Hanna, and
financier J.P. Morgan (who hoped to end the investigation into
Northern Securities by helping the President), McKinley entered the
negotiations with high hopes. However, it soon became apparent that
the owners were unwilling to negotiate with the strikers.

When negotiations with industry officials failed, McKinley reluctantly
allowed the owners to deal with the five-month coal strike by using
Pinkerton agents. This (in)action by the McKinley government hurt his
public image badly. His Vice President, Theodore Roosevelt, who had
publicly advocated using US Army soldiers to run the coal mines if the
owners were unwilling to waver, began to privately criticize the
President's performance.

- Congress signs the Newlands Reclamation Act, named for its sponsor,
Representative Francis G. Newlands of Nevada, which is designed to
extend federal assistance (monetary and otherwise) to the farmers and
ranchers who toil in the semi-arid lands of the West. The measure
would bring thousands of new acres of land under cultivation and was
applauded by westerners and their political representatives in
Washington.

The Act provided for: 1) the federal government to plan, construct,
and manage irrigation projects designed for the purpose of reclaiming
marginal lands, 2) the sale of public lands to generate revenue for
the construction fees of these projects, and 3) the on-going expenses
to be paid by the farmers and ranchers profiting from the newly
available lands. The Newlands Act eventually (and somewhat
inadvertently) led to the damning of nearly every major western river,
as well as put the federal government at the forefront of water
distribution in the West.

- The Alaska Boundary Dispute, which had been simmering on the
Alaska-British Columbia-Yukon Territory border erupts with earnest
following the discovery of gold in the region. The Yukon and Alaskan
Gold Rushes triggered resumed debates as to the legitimacy of the
current border, which prompted the Canadian government to request a
survey of the area. When the United States refused, bitter arguments
ensued.

However, by January of 1903, the two sides were willing to sit down
together to discuss the issue. The US and Great Britain soon agreed on
a format to address the boundary arbitration. A commission was
appointed consisting of six members (three from the United States, two
from Canada, and one from Britain).

President McKinley appointed Senators Henry Cabot Lodge (MA) and Mark
Hanna (OH), and Secretary of War Elihu Root as the American
commissioners. On the other side Britain appointed Baron Alverstone,
the Lord Chief Justice of England. The Canadian appointees were Sir
Louis A Jette, Lieutenant Governor of the Province of Quebec and Allen
B. Aylesworth of Toronto. Canada entered discussions confident that
they would receive British support due to the help they gave the
British in the Boer War.

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Thoughts?

[Beck Reilly]

A Loose Bandage Pt. 3

March 1903 – December 1903

- The US Congress, at the request of President McKinley, creates the
United States Department of Commerce and Labor, a Cabinet-level
department concerned with matters pertaining to business, industry,
and labor. The President appointed his own secretary, George
Cortelyou, the man who had been at McKinley's side at the day of the
attempted assassination, as the first Secretary of Commerce and Labor.

- The US Senate ratified the Hay-Herran Treaty, which would have
given the United States a renewable 99-year lease to a six-mile wide
strip of the Panamanian isthmus in exchange for $10 million and an
annual payment. However, the Colombian Senate rejected the treaty
later that year. McKinley was left with a choice: accept the Colombian
Senate's rejection and move on (for the time being), or risk possible
conflict with Colombia.

McKinley, though, had had enough of war. For the time being, any deal
to construct a Panamanian canal was dead. In the meantime, the United
States was sniffing around Nicaragua, hoping that they may be able to
forge a deal with the Nicaraguans favorable to the US. However,
liberal President José Zaleya didn't want much to do with the United
States government and was, at the time, seeking German and Japanese
funding for a canal. The US would have to wait a while for a Central
American Canal. Once again, Vice President Roosevelt privately
criticized the President's leadership.

- "The Great Train Robbery" debuts in motion picture theaters around
the United States. The film was only twelve minutes long, but it is a
milestone in film making and is considered the first movie to tell a
fictional story. The scenes with the gun pointing at the audience and
the train rushing towards the audience had audiences at the time
screaming in fear, then laughing in relief.

- In Detroit, Michigan, the Ford Motor Company produced its first
cars, manufacturing just a few cars a day at the converted wagon
factory. Groups of two or three men worked on each car, using parts
made to order by other companies. However, Henry Ford had serious
competition from his replacement, the new head of the Henry Ford
Company (which had previously been named the Detroit Automobile
Company) and had been recently renamed the Cadillac Automobile
Company.

Henry Ford had made an egregious error earlier in the year. In January
of 1903, the first Cadillac automobile had been displayed at the New
York Automobile Show, selling nearly three thousand of the
as-yet-unmade autos. However, Ford had refused to sell, or even
advertise, his vehicles until he had a model ready for production. The
error would prove costly.

- The Wright Brothers make four flights in their Flyer I in Kill
Devil Hills outside of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. These are generally
accepted as the first powered, piloted flights. After years of
dedicated research and development, the brothers Orville and Wilbur
Wright fly 300 yards in the first practical airplane. This may be the
first controlled powered heavier-than-air flight and the first
photographed powered heavier-than-air flight.

- Late in the year, the arbitration commission assigned to rule on
the Alaskan Boundary dispute rules in favor of the United States,
awarding it the lands in question, while awarding British Columbia a
small triangle of land on the Alaskan panhandle. The Americans are
willing to trade that piece of relatively worthless land for those
that they gain.

The commission ruled in favor of the Americans primarily because the
British representative, Baron Alverstone, did not rule with the
Canadians as they had expected. Instead, he sided with the United
States, granting it the majority of the commission's vote. The
Canadians considered the action somewhat of a backstab, considering
the aid that they had provided Britain during the Boer War. The ruling
temporarily darkened relations between Canada and the Mother Country
whilst doing a lot to improve Anglo-American relations.

- Beginning in 1902, when the Venezuelan government was no longer
able to appease the demands of European bankers and pay off their
debts, the governments of Great Britain, Italy, and Germany had
erected a naval blockade of the South American nation and even fired
upon its coastal fortifications. According to the Europeans, this was
all designed to remind the Venezuelans of their unpaid debts.

Meanwhile, President McKinley, who had originally been content to
allow the Venezuelans to handle their own problems, was growing ever
more suspicious of German intentions in the Caribbean. When German
naval forces began a bombardment of a Venezuelan port, William
Randolph Hearst's newspaper empire began to spout off reports of
German imperialism in South America. Soon, McKinley was under growing
pressure from the American people, Capitol Hill, and, indeed, his own
aides, to intervene in Venezuela.

In December, McKinley ordered Secretary of State John Hay to warn the
Germans off. Although, at the time, the contents of the message were
secret and unknown to the public, it later emerged that McKinley had
warned that an American fleet under Admiral George Dewey were ready to
intervene if the Germans kept on this course. The Germans failed to
call McKinley's bluff, and, at the insistence of the Americans and the
retreat of the British naval forces, opened the blockade.
Commissioners were appointed by all involved nations to find a
diplomatic solution to the Venezuelan crisis.

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Thoughts?

[Sean Swaby]

Don't see what was wrong with the first incarnation, but I like this style. Keep it coming.

[Straha]

this will be good *pulls up lawn chair*

[Tom_B]

This is a nice title BTW.

[JimmyJimJam]

Bravo quite nice. Continue.

[Beck Reilly]

A Loose Bandage Pt. 4

January 1904 – November 1904

- On the night of February 8, a Japanese fleet under Admiral
Heihachiro Togo begins the Russo-Japanese war with a surprise torpedo
attack on the Russian naval fleet at Port Arthur, damaging two Russian
battleships. A series of indecisive naval engagements follow, in which
the Japanese are unable to successfully attack the Russian ships,
which lay under the cover fire of the shore batteries on the edge of
the harbor. Conversely, the Russians prepare, but do not attempt, to
make a major breakthrough out of the Yellow Sea. With the arrival of
Admiral Stepan Makarov, Russian hopes in the Far East rise.

However, these minor engagements provided the cover necessary for the
Japanese to land an army near Incheon in Korea, from which they first
occupy Seoul and then rapidly occupy the rest of Korea. By the end of
April, the Japanese army under Kuroki Itei is able to cross the Yalu
river into Russian-occupied Manchuria. In opposition to the Japanese,
who's strategy of gaining rapid victories to control Manchuria is
winning them huge chunks of land, the Russian strategy entails
fighting delaying actions in order to gain time for reinforcements to
arrive via the long, recently built Trans-Siberian railway.

In early May, the Russian and Japanese forces engage in the Battle of
the Yalu River. The Russian troops meet the Japanese army on the banks
of the Yalu, slaughtering them by the thousands. The Japanese assault
comes to a temporary halt as the Russians continue to fortify their
bank of the river. The entrenched Russian army throws repeated attacks
back into the river, eventually forcing the Japanese to rethink their
plan. Despite the overall shabby nature of the Russian troops, General
Aleksei Kuropatkin has managed to hold the line.

Back west, in St. Petersburg, nearly forty torpedo boats, a special
request of one Aleksei Makarov, are being disassembled and prepared to
make the long journey along the Trans-Siberian railroad to
Vladivostok, where they will join the Pacific Squadron. Meanwhile, to
the south, Admiral Makarov, himself, plans his break-out.

In mid-June, amidst the tremendous fire of Japanese naval artillery,
the Russian Pacific Squadron steams out of Port Arthur, intent on
breaking out of their cage in the Yellow Sea. At the head of the
fleet, Admiral Makarov sits in watches from the bridge of the cruiser
Askol'd as his battleships engage the Japanese. The battle is a
tactical draw but a strategic victory for the Russian fleet, who, due
to the selfless acts of the captains and crews of the wounded
battleships Tsesarevich and Retvizan who remain behind as a screening
force for the rest of the fleet, forces its way of the Yellow Sea. The
Squadron runs the gauntlet between Korea and Japan, steaming quickly
towards Vladivostok, where Makarov will be able to interdict Japanese
shipping to the mainland.

- The Republican National Convention of 1904 quickly turns into a
might big ruckus. Some might even call it a riot. In the working class
town of Chicago, Vice President Theodore Roosevelt is a very popular
man. His statementsover the coal mine, which had been leaked by key
Democrats to national papers, struck of 1902 had struck a cord with
the low-class workers. The people perceived Roosevelt as a man who
would fight for their rights.

However, not even his public popularity can help Roosevelt, who has
angered many of the conservatives with the private criticisms of
President McKinley. Thus, despite the people's support and the
supportive of his fellow progressive Republicans, the conservative
faction denies Roosevelt the nomination. Issues among the
conservatives are simplified somewhat by the rather timely death of
Mark Hanna, the President's trusted adviser. With his death, there is
little debate over the party's nominee. Despite his perceived
betrayal, Roosevelt nevertheless supports, with the promise of a
possible Cabinet nomination (Secretary of State sounds right up his
alley), nominees Elihu Root and Charles Fairbanks.

- The Democratic Convention in Missouri is much more sedate. The field
of candidates is rather narrow, as Republicans hold most high-ranking
political offices across the nation. However, like at the Republican
Convention, two factions emerge, one liberal, one conservative.
Leading the liberal faction is William Randolph Hearst, the newspaper
magnate. The past two candidates (indeed, the candidate who ran the
last two attempts), though, was a liberal and the Democrats are in the
mood for a conservative. They nominate conservatives Alton B. Parker
and Henry G. Davis.

- In Manchuria, the Japanese forces manage to breakthrough the Russian
lines on the Yalu River. However, the time available for a quick
victory has come and gone. Russian reinforcements have arrived in
northern Manchuria and join General Kuropatkin's army outside of
Fengcheng. Meanwhile, the Pacific Squadron begins operations, aided by
the timely arrival of a group of torpedo boats, interdicting the
Japanese supply lines, forcing the Japanese army's advance to slow to
a crawl after the breakthrough. Things are not looking up for the
Japanese military, or their economy for that matter…

- The Presidential election is anticlimatic. Former Secretary of State
Elihu Root rides the coattails of President McKinley's popular
presidency into the White House, easily beating his Democratic
opponent. Across the nation, the Democratic party gains little. The
McKinley administration had been one of almost staggering success.
Between the Spanish-American War and the booming economy (although
worker's rights could use a little help), there is little to dislike
about William McKinley.

[G.Bone]

good so far. Dunno why you made the font so big though...

[Beck Reilly]

good so far. Dunno why you made the font so big though...

I don't know. That's just the way it looked in Microsoft Word and I guess I was just used to looking at it like that. As long as the story's okay, though...

[Beck Reilly]

No more comments on Pt. 4?

[Coriolanus]

I like the TL so far. It is interesting to see TR's fate become one of a pariah within the Republican Party, at least to the bosses. After all, if memory serves me correctly, he was put in the VP spot to prevent him from gaining real power in national politics.

I'm not a big student of the Russo-Japanese War, but is it accurate to say they are doing better in TTL? If so, it is simply because of butterflies, or did I miss something else?

[Beck Reilly]

I'm not a big student of the Russo-Japanese War, but is it accurate to say they are doing better in TTL? If so, it is simply because of butterflies, or did I miss something else?

THE LAND WAR

In TTL, General Aleksei Kuropatkin begins his campaign with a small change (blame it on butterflies). He opposes the Japanese Army on the banks of the Yalu River, rather than hanging back and allowing the Japanese to land. This small change gives the Russians a victory, one which boosts the confidence of General Kuropatkin.

In OTL, Kuropatkin, while not great, was actually a capable officer. However, he never gave himself the incentive to take charge of the battle and, thus, his army remained passive. In TTL, however, the initial victory on the Yalu gives Kuropatkin a sort of adrenaline shot and, soon, he's ordering counterattacks and other maneuvers which he was reluctant to order in OTL. Thus, he manages to tie the Japanese Army up much more effectively.

THE NAVAL WAR

In OTL, the Russian Navy had almost preposterously bad luck. Admiral Makarov was an extremely competant officer by the standards of the Russian Navy of the time. However, he was killed by a mine early in the war. In TTL, his flagship never hits the mine. Thus, he survives to lead the Russian fleet out of Port Arthur, which he was capable of doing. Soon, Makarov has gained a reputation as a first class naval officer and his recommendations are regarded with much more severity in St. Petersburg. Thus, the torpedo boats he requested are shipped along the railway to Vladivostok, where Makarov leads his newly reinforced fleet in interdiction operations against the Japanese supply convoys crossing the Sea of Japan, thus slowing the Japanese Army.

[Tom_B]

I have no trouble with your getting beyond the banal quartertruth that because the Russians were woefully inept the results of the RussoJapnese War were inevitable. Have you thought about domestic repurcussions in Romanov Russia?

I am still mostly interested in your take on E. Root's Presidency though.

.

[Sean Swaby]

Yep, excellent continuation. keep it up. By the way, now that McKinley is alive, what will he try to do about the Isle of Pines (which was declared to be disputed and was apparently to resolved later by the Platt Amendment to the Cuban Constitution)? Might he try to keep it as a territory? Leave it as it was in OTL (unresolved until the US Supreme Court ruled it was not US territory)?

[Straha]

this should be rather interesting

[Beck Reilly]

Loose Bandage Pt. 5

December 1904 – August 1905

- Civil unrest ushers in the new year in the Russian Empire. Despite
the recent string of morale-boosting victories in the Far East, the
average Russian worker is still a peasant, living in squalor and not
getting enough to eat. The relatively prosperous years of the 1880's
have come and gone. The peasants want rights and, contrary to the
beliefs of much of the Russian nobility, they want them now. Thus, in
February of 1905, Georgy Apollonovich Gapon, a revolutionary priest,
leads a crowd of laborers, two-hundred thousand strong, to the Winter
Palace, chanting "God save the Tsar."

The Tsar is not in the mood to listen to these demands, having the war
to fight and all, but he, nevertheless, asks Gapon inside to hear his
demands. While the demands seem fairly unreasonable to the Tsar, it is
obvious that they do not appear so to the thousands gathered outside
of his home. Nicholas reluctantly agrees to form a representative
assembly, the Duma. While not completed placated, Gapon is happy
enough for now. After all, this is only a first step.

Meanwhile, as Gapon is escorted out of the Palace, Nicholas ponders
the wisdom of his decision. After all, he needs support for his war.
But is it worth it to sacrifice so much power? The Tsar shrugs. It is
only a temporary measure, one which he can reverse once the army is
freed from the East. He'll play ball, for now, but God better help
those protestors once the war is over, because he sure won't. The
peasants won't get off lightly for trying to stab the Empire in the
back during its great victory in the East. Just wait until the army is
freed from combat.

- Elihu Root's inauguration, like his nomination and subsequent
election, is an event soon forgotten. The new President's speech,
while displaying a certain level of intelligence, is nothing special.
In fact, its content could very well have been written by the former
President himself. It appears as if the United States is going to have
another four years of a McKinley-like administration and, to most
Americans, that is just fine.

- While the United States goes through the monotony of the most recent
Presidential change, the Japanese fleet steams from Pusan in force.
Intent on crushing the Russian Baltic Fleet, which was sent months
prior to reinforce the weakened Pacific Squadron, Rear Admiral
Heihachiro Togo takes the thirty-one battleships and cruisers
comprising his fleet out into the Straits of Tsushima, separating
Japan from the Korean mainland and finds…nothing.

Meanwhile, eight-hundred miles to the northeast, under the cover of
darkness, the Russian Baltic Fleet glides silently through the choppy
waters of the Straits of Tsugaru, unopposed by the Japanese. Admiral
Makarov's suggestion had paid off. Passing through the Strait in the
early hours of the morning, the Baltic Fleet emerges and steams for
Vladivostok, where the ships of the Baltic will join their Pacific
brethren.

- Many of Root's Cabinet members have been pulled straight from
McKinley's, albeit, in some instances, in different roles. Lyman Gage
stays at Treasury and William Howard Taft replaces Philander Knox as
Attorney General. As it turns out, Roosevelt doesn't get State. That
honor goes to Philander Knox, former Attorney General. Instead,
Roosevelt gets something better (in his mind, anyhow): the War
Department.

- Early announcements from the Root administration seem to present
Elihu Root as more of a tremendously successful mouthpiece than a
take-charge President. New policies come out of the White House which
seem to be the product of the hopes and dreams of his Cabinet, rather
than he himself. Roosevelt-influenced conservation proposals are
announced by the President. Gifford Pinchot joins the Cabinet a month
later, as the Secretary of the Treasury. Indeed, Root appears to be
rather indifferent and uninterested in the more tedious necessities of
life in the White House. A man who will become enlivened by any sort
of action, Root appears to be almost bored by his job, thus far.

Meanwhile, though, President Root takes charge of a major effort to
finance and construct a Central American Canal. Once again,
negotiations between the United States and Colombia break down with
Colombian refusal to sell portions of the Panamanian isthmus, despite
the ongoing rebellion in that region. The US turns to Nicaragua, who
finally appears ready to negotiate with the United States. In fact,
President Root himself journeys to Nicaragua to negotiate, the first
sitting President to leave the country.

This only reinforces the belief that Root's true brilliance only
shines during glamorous periods of action. While this is, in part,
true, this reputation is greatly exaggerated by the newspapers of
William Randolph Hearst, who is gearing up for the New York
gubernatorial race and, in fact, the 1908 Presidential election.

- The Russian Combined Pacific Fleet sails out of Vladivostok in
force, much like its Japanese counterpart had done two months earlier.
Under the command of Admiral Aleksei Makarov, the Russians are out for
revenge.

In the preceding months, the Russian army, facing uncountable waves of
Japanese soldiers, was forced to fall back onto the Liaodong Peninsula
from Fengcheng. Bottled up on the peninsula, General Kuropatkin has
arranged a formidable line of defensive works, designed to stall the
Japanese for weeks, even months, at which point the Russians would be
able to retreat to a similar set of prepared trenches. A keen observer
would later not the striking similarities between Kuropatikin's
defensive tactics and those of the First World War.

Meanwhile, though, the Russian Pacific Fleet sorties, sailing south
into the Sea of Japan. In Pusan, Admiral Togo receives word of the
Russian Fleet's departure and orders his ships to make ready. Two
days later, the Japanese fleet emerges from Pusan, sailing north to
decide the fate of the Russo-Japanese War…

[G.Bone]

Very interesting...I like how you focus on the lengthened Russo-Japanese War as well as the ramifications of Roosevelt's absence in the White House. That's 'bout it.

[Coriolanus]

I agree with G Bone. Very good TL going here.

[Beck Reilly]

A Loose Bandage Pt. 6

October 1905 – August 1906

- Colonel JOHN J. PERSHING sat quietly in a group of foreign
observers, watching the Russian and Japanese dignitaries haggle over
the most minor terms. Growing increasingly frustrated by the seemingly
unending negotiations, Pershing was the official American
representative (Pershing thought of himself more as a legal spy) at
the treaty hearings. He had no official capacity but to sit and
observe, as he had been doing for the past year and a half. Sick of
Manchuria and the Japanese, he would be sorely glad to return to the
United States.

- The Treaty of Port Arthur is signed on October 12, 1905. Mediated by
the British government, the treaty brought the Russo-Japanese War to a
close. In the months since the Russian victory in the Battle of the
East Sea, the Japanese advance, out of supplies and running out of
men, had been pushed back towards the Yalu River by General
Kuropatkin's counterattacking army. Finally, the Japanese had thrown
in the towel. The war, however, had left both the Russians and the
Japanese virtually toothless. Neither can afford much more of the war
and a peasant's revolt is slowly simmering in western Russia,
diverting precious troops from the Far East.

The Treaty of Port Arthur leaves Korea independent, outside the both
Russian and Japanese spheres of influence, protected by several
European nations and even by a slight contribution of the United
States, who want to dispel Japanese illusions of grandeur in the
Pacific. Manchuria stays within the Russian sphere, as does Sakhalin
Island.

- Congress signs the Williams Act. Some progressives cry out that the
bill does not change enough, as it only forbids shippers from
receiving credits. Others recognize this as only a first step in the
ultimate strengthening of the ICC. Meanwhile, Washington is being
virtually run by the members of Root's Cabinet, while Root tramples
around Nicaragua with President Zelaya, trying to negotiate a deal to
build the canal.

Many in the United States are puzzled by their new President. The man
seems to be thoroughly uninterested in his office. However, at the
same time, he seems to exude energy and intelligence when he is
passionate about something. Not prone to making decisions on his own,
Root turns often to his Cabinet, who clearly have an expanded role in
the new administration. Root's personality is, indeed, difficult to
describe. Despite these tendencies, most ignore the oddities
(deficiencies?) of Elihu Root. After all, he doesn't have to actually
change anything. The United States is happy right where it is.

- That is, until Upton Sinclair published his novel "The Jungle,"
exposing the horrid conditions of the meatpacking industry and causing
a roar of outrage from the public. The uproar causes the President (or
his Cabinet, anyhow) to force through the Meat Inspection Act,
granting Secretary of Agriculture James Wilson the authority to
conduct meat inspections and condemn any unfit for human consumption.

- The Russian government finds itself in a reputable position, for the
first time in many years. Not only does it have money to spare, for
once, but it is in fairly decent standing with the Russian people
themselves. Earlier in the year, when Tsar Nicholas had tried to
revoke his promise of a representative assembly, the nation had
simmered in rebellion, a powder keg ready to blow. However, the Tsar
himself had fixed that. A few shots fired by Imperial troops here and
there to remind the rabble who's boss…and, then, call of the attack
dogs and protect them to win their affection. The Tsar's plan was
working perfectly, or at least it appears to be to the people who
count.

The Tsar decides to leave the Duma to its job: keep the people happy,
but do nothing of meaning. Amidst the protests of conservatives and,
especially, those of his wife, Nicholas grants the peasants their
precious assembly. Not only that, but he reforms the Russian work-day,
not to the eight hours requested by that priest, Gapon, but to a still
respectable ten hours a day. The peasants are as happy as they've been
since the days of his grandfather, and the Germans appear to be
nonplussed by the Russian victory, despite their verbal support. As
the Russian Empire moves to tighten and solidify the nature of its
relationship with Britain and France, Germany scrambles to secure its
own alliances.

- A massive earthquake strikes San Francisco, demolishing entire
blocks and setting neighborhoods ablaze. Only the quick actions of
General Frederick Funston saves the entire city from joining the
conflagration. General Funston declares martial law and orders
military engineers to dynamite blocks of buildings in order to form
fire breaks. As many as 3,000 people lie dead, while another 225,000
are left homeless. At the time, San Francisco only had a population of
400,000.

- The Japanese economy collapses less than ten months after the
signing of the Treaty of Port Arthur. The disastrous war has caused
irreparable damage to the Japanese nation and its pride. However, as
the Japanese slowly begin to rebuild, the entire population focuses on
one goal and one goal alone: getting even with the Russian Empire.
First, however, the Japanese need to rebuild their economy and then
their military, a task not easily done when men like Secretary of War
Theodore Roosevelt watch warily from across the Atlantic.

[Beck Reilly]

Information regarding Root's personality was found here (http://www.publicbookshelf.com/public_html/Mirrors_of_Washington/elihuroot_j.html).

[Tom_B]

Information regarding Root's personality was found here (http://www.publicbookshelf.com/public_html/Mirrors_of_Washington/elihuroot_j.html).

Root is a fascinating WI President. I see him as emphasizing foreign policy (trying to neegotiate a lot of treaties) while on the domestic front he is content with a consensus Republican policy with some odd tidbit of his vigorous mind added. Personality wise I see closer to Wilson (but without some of his flaws) than say Teddy R, but also with some similarity to the British Lord Curzon.

While the dominant mood in Japan is probably as you describe, I still think a humiliation this early will also engender a very reactionary "Meiji was a mistake" movement in Japan, which advocates a resturn to isolation and the Old Ways It would be an undercurrent but still of some significance..

Tom

[Beck Reilly]

A Loose Bandage Pt. 7

September 1906 – July 1907

- Nearly two months after he departed, President Root returns to the
United States, a treaty in hand guaranteeing the United States rights
to a ten mile swath of land through southern Nicaragua. The public
cheers as their President returns from his journey, successful. Root
orders construction on the new canal to begin as soon as possible and
ships, machinery, and personnel begin to leave American ports bound
for Central America within two months.

The Canal Treaty is the high-water mark of the Root Presidency.
Regarded by many of the time as the greatest single work of diplomacy
since the Louisiana Purchase, the Canal Treaty gives the United States
the right to a ten-mile wide region along the border of Nicaragua and
Costa Rica. Nicaraguan citizens will have the right to enter the Canal
Zone, as long as they are checked at border crossings.

Nicaraguan security personnel are forbidden from the Zone, except at
the request of the American Canal Zone Director. Those born within the
Zone will have both Nicaraguan and American citizenship, as long as
one parent is American. In return, the US pays a lump sum of $30
million for a 99-year lease with the option of extension and acquires
the sole right to construct, operate, and patrol the Canal.

- In October, the San Francisco School Board rules that Japanese,
Chinese, and Korean students must be taught in separate schools from
white students. The recently defeated Japanese government, facing a
small but determined rebellion from anti-Meiji forces, is worried by
development on the West Coast of the United States. However, the
government is not in the diplomatic position to successfully influence
domestic policy within the United States.

President Root has Secretary of State Knox quietly acknowledge and
ignore the Japanese protest. Secretary Knox quietly warns the Japanese
not to pursue their current course, or else the President might be
forced to order the end to Japanese immigration. The Japanese
reluctantly relent and Root does nothing about the segregation of San
Francisco's school system, mostly ignoring it.

Meanwhile, the Japanese add another member to their growing list of
enemies. Japan is not yet strong enough to take on Russia, let alone
the United States, but the revenge will be made so much sweeter by the
wait. In the mean time, the Japanese will have to get their kicks by
subduing these pesky, reactionary forces lined up against the Meiji
Emperor...

- With the rising opponent across the Pacific from the United States,
sixty-six year old Secretary of the Navy Mahan convinces President
Root to authorize a naval enlargement. The new naval reform will
include the construction of a new class of Dreadnaught-type
battleships. The new ships are set to make their debut in 1910.
Secretary of War Roosevelt eyes the naval appropriations hungrily,
wishing that his Department received half the amount of money his
friend Mahan had. No such luck at this time, however.

- In Dayton, Ohio, GLENN CURTISS meets with the famed Wright Brothers
to discuss aeronautical engineering and the future of aeronautics in
general. To his everlasting befuddlement, Curtiss is met with blind
hostility from the pioneers of aviation, who rebuff the young
engineer. Curtiss leaves the former bicycle shop angered and
frustrated. He has so many ideas, if only he could find an outlet to
express them and a sponsor to endorse them. He heads north, to New
York, where he meets with Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the
telephone.

- British and Russian representatives meet in Moscow to demarcate the
boundaries of their respective spheres of influence in Persia and
Afghanistan. What develops is somewhat of a surprise to their own
governments. In two weeks of negotiation, the two nations have hashed
out more of a military and economic alliance than a map showing the
boundaries of Persia and Afghanistan.

- The so-called Anglo-Russian Entente is worrying, to say the least,
to the Kaiser's government in Germany. Between that, the
Franco-Russian Entente, formed over a decade ago, and the Entente
Cordiale formed just two years earlier, the three greatest German
rivals have formed a virtual monopoly on German power. Kaiser Bill
isn't going to stand around like a sucker while all his opponents line
up against him, no, sir.

By early-summer, 1907, German representatives and officials were
spreading across unaligned nations across the globe, attempting to
plead and bribe alliances out of them. Officials had spread to not
only Austria-Hungary and Italy, but, namely, Sweden, the Ottoman
Empire, and Japan, as well. Most were offered military aid packages in
exchange for, at the very least, diplomatic support if a war was ever
sparked in Europe.

He offers, mainly, chances for revenge, though: promising Sweden
leadership in a Scandinavian Union and promising Japan parts of the
now-Russian mainland. To Italy and Austria-Hungary, the Kaiser offers
enormous military and economic incentives to shore up their Triple
Alliance. By late July, word had not been heard from any of the
contacted nations. For the time being, it looks as if Wilhelm's
attempt at diplomacy has failed.

[G.Bone]

Wow. Cranking out two installments in one day. I'm lucky to even have one complete & revised chapter in a fortnight!

I like the personality you attach in the TL here and there. I also like how you don't go by the regular format of XXX happening in AAA year but go by the events in each month. It's sortta like Prince of Peace but not quite.

Query: What's up with the capitalization of GLENN CURTISS? Who was he?

[Beck Reilly]

Query: What's up with the capitalization of GLENN CURTISS? Who was he?

Glenn Curtiss was an influential aircraft designer of the the early part of 20th century. I've capitalized a couple of names, his and Pershing's, I believe, thus far. I capitalize the names to just sort of point out where certain people are at this point in the ALB timeline. A sort of running Where are They Now? type of thing. I'm just emphasizing certain names, showing that that part of the story is more personally related to those characters than it is broadly related to the timeline in general.

[Beck Reilly]

Wow. Cranking out two installments in one day. I'm lucky to even have one complete & revised chapter in a fortnight!

Hah. Each installment takes me about an hour to an hour and a half to write. Usually, I write one in the morning right after I wake up and one right before I go to bed. That method has always worked for me. I find I do my best thinking early in the morning and late at night.

[G.Bone]

How much research have you done on this TL?

[Beck Reilly]

How much research have you done on this TL?

Well, I've not read books on each individual topic I've covered, I simply don't have time for that. However, I don't think it's wrong to say that I have moderately detailed knowledge of most of what I cover. There are parts that I'm less sure on, for instance, Japanese history. But there are also parts, especially in the future of the TL, that I know a lot about. Generally, I'd say I do a majority of my research as I write out the timeline, spending perhaps 15 to 20 minutes reading up on each event. I just don't have the time to do much more than that, or else I'd never get this done and my attention would wane.

Why, if you don't mind me asking? Does it appear as if I've done any research?

[G.Bone]

By the tone I would say so.

[Beck Reilly]

A Loose Bandage Pt. 8

August 1907 – July 1908

- The Cadillac Automobile Company introduces the world's first economy
line of motor vehicles. At $850, the Cadillac "Thirty-Five" is the
first automobile mass produced on assembly lines with completely
interchangeable parts, marketed to the middle class. The car is known
not only for its economical price tag, but also for its refinement and
engineering. Unlike other cars, the Thirty-Five's price tag drops as
time goes on, due to the streamlining of the production process.

However, Cadillac sales figures do not show a rapid boom in sales for
over a year after the car's introduction. Unfortunately for Cadillac,
it has the misfortune to begin sales only one month before the economy
tanks. However, with its recovery in the summer of 1908, orders from
around the United States are being fielded in the thousands, placing
Cadillac as the highest grossing automobile manufacturer in the
nation.

- With the (extremely) reluctant consent of Emperor Gojong, Korea
becomes a protectorate of the reinvigorated Russian Empire, much to
the dismay of the Japanese, who eye Korea as their "lost possession."
The Koreans, it turns out, are watching their adversary across the
Yellow Sea every bit as closely as the battered nation of Japan is
watching their continental neighbor. Japan is envious of Russian power
in the region, but, after the disastrous events of the Russo-Japanese
War, they can ill afford to chance the anger of the Russian
government.

In Russia, while the Tsar views the addition of Korea to his sphere of
influence, most view it as simply another burden for the Russian
peasants to carry upon their backs. Restless forces again rise towards
simmering revolt against their uncaring leader and are again held down
by the force of the rejuvenated Russian military. However, in Japan,
things are even worse. A reactionary group, small but rather
influential, argues for a return to the isolation and the ways of old.
However, another group, equally small and equally reactionary, albeit,
most importantly, equally influential argues to form an alliance
against their Slavic opponent. But with who?

Britain finds itself in a quandary, allied with two powers, each on
opposite sides of the ball, each enemies of the other. On one hand,
British policy has always favored the underdog, the second-rate power
of the region, which, in the case of Asia, is Japan. On the other
hand, in Europe, Russia serves the same vital purpose in the
countering the German menace, one which is much closer to home and
much more dangerous for the British people. The British are a no-go
for the Japanese. They recognize the fact that Britain cannot, and
will not, align itself against Russia. Despite the common interests of
the British Empire and Japan in the East, British fears at home will
override their fears of losing influence in China. The British are not
even approached by Japanese diplomats. Germany, on the other hand, has
no such qualms about the Japanese…

- The prosperity of the last eleven years comes to a screeching halt
in December of 1907. The Great Panic is a direct result of
over-expansion and poor speculation, both of which causes the stock
market to take (relatively) drastic hit around Christmas. The economy
collapses as banks and business across the nation close their doors
for the final time. The Panic forces Secretary Lyman Gage, head of the
Treasury Department since McKinley's first days in office, to resign,
replaced by the man for all seasons, former personal secretary to one
William McKinley and former Secretary of Labor and Commerce, George
Cortelyou.

Cortelyou's first directive is to ease the crisis by depositing nearly
$45 million of government funds in national banks and buying
government bonds. Only the timely intervention of financier J.P.
Morgan, the man whom the previous administration has prosecuted,
prevented further economic collapse. To prevent further crises,
Cortelyou advocates a more elastic currency and recommends the
creation of a central banking system. President Root, however, is
forever tarnished, as it turns out, by the memory of the Great Panic
of 1907, which effectively ends in May of 1908, six months after it
began.

- New York Governor WILLIAM RANDOLPH HEARST ascends the platform at
the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, hell bent on giving the
performance of a lifetime. On the fourth ballot, he and liberal
associate William Jennings Bryan are neck-and-neck. Colleagues and
aides have reminded Hearst of the nature of this speech several
hundred times over, but Hearst needs no reminding. This speech will
make or break his attempted candidacy.

On the eleventh ballot, Governor Hearst pulls decisively ahead of
William J. Bryan, the Prince who will never be King, and never looks
back. The Democratic lineup is an odd one. Both men are editors and
newspapermen, although, obviously, Hearst is much more successful, and
are both young. Both men are Governors of their respective states and
both won their gubernatorial elections, despite the fact that Root
took their states in the presidential election. John Albert Johnson,
the gracious and rhetorically gifted Governor of Minnesota is an
excellent compliment to the rather gruff and impersonal, but
nevertheless liberal William Randolph Hearst, despite not being his
first choice.

- The Republican Convention is a cake-walk. Root walks away with the
nomination on the first ballot, half-heartedly opposed by only a small
group of radical progressives guided by freshman Senator Robert M. La
Follette, of Wisconsin. There is simply not much to complain about.
Not much has gone wrong in the Root administration, with the rather
blatant exception of the Great Panic, mostly due to the
round-table-like policy discussions frequently held by the entire
Cabinet. While Root's Presidency can be characterized as one of
marginal success, it has also been one of almost universal (again,
with the exception of the Great Panic) stability.

In short, the Presidential election is far from certain in July of
1908…

[G.Bone]

good stuff! keep going!

[Beck Reilly]

I think that with eight years done, that will conclude the first section of the timeline. Any comments?

If anyone has anything to say regarding the plausibility and events of Section I (1900-1908), speak now or forever hold your peace...

[Straha]

this all looks good to me! Its nice to see big SHWI style long TLs on here now!

[Tom_B]

Hearst had a high pitched voice that detracted from his speaking ability. It doesn't mean he would lose either the nomination or the election but it is something to factor in. You may throw in a remark or two about what his administration of New York was like.

OTOH Root would come across to the American people as someone who cared about foreign policy more than domestic and in times of economic trouble that does not go over well.

This is a very interesting and well thought TL and I commend your efforts.

[Grey Wolf]

Very interesting, I am finally catching up with these timelines after a weird week

Cadillac is doing something a-historical instead of Ford ?

Regarding Korea, it certainly looks good to me. I would think that the educated Russian classes would realise that a Russian protectorate over Korea is 'a good thing'. It means Russian dominance of the Yalu and the trade, logging rights etc. It ensures Russia enough warm water ports to be certain of keeping a fleet supplied and in good condition. It truly marks the culmination of Russia's policies in the East for over half a century. Navally from Putiatin and the Pallada to the protectorate of Korea, Russia has finally tied up its loose ends. A naval position of dominance also means a dominant mercantile trading position. OTL Russia had established mercantile marine companies, using Russo-Chinese banking finance, and railway company seaborne extensions. With this victory, Russia can dominant trade as much as she can the military position. Korea is much more useful to an economic view than Manchuria or the Maritime Provinces. In many ways, OTL the Russo-Japanese War was fought over Korea, and not Manchuria

This Great Panic is purely American ? The situation in 1908's election looks very much like Bryan's defeat in the mid 1890s, after Cleveland had had a reasonable term apart from an economic collapse (qv the Adlai Stevenson thread IIRC). Root can point to success, but the people are going to be looking at the here and now.

What I am wondering is what the US election laws of the time require Hearst to do with his media empire ? Is he allowed to continue to own and control it ? Can he pull a Berlusconi and make false promises he doesn't keep ? Who oversees these things - the US Supreme Court ? And who is on the Court, any friends of Hearst ?

Grey Wolf

[Beck Reilly]

Cadillac is doing something a-historical instead of Ford?

In OTL, by 1904, Cadillac was in a much stronger position than Ford. Only a few lucky breaks brought about the Ford empire. In TTL, Cadillac remains ahead of Ford.


This Great Panic is purely American ? The situation in 1908's election looks very much like Bryan's defeat in the mid 1890s, after Cleveland had had a reasonable term apart from an economic collapse (qv the Adlai Stevenson thread IIRC). Root can point to success, but the people are going to be looking at the here and now.

The Great Panic of TTL is simply an extension of the Panic of 1907 in OTL. However, because of Root's lack of interest in the economy, it hurts him badly. In his term, he spent almost no time on the economy, first leaving its everyday handling to Secretary of the Treasury Lyman Gage and then Sec. of the Treasury George Cortelyou.


What I am wondering is what the US election laws of the time require Hearst to do with his media empire?

I don't think there are any laws regarding his control of his media empire. It's his, after all. Even if by chance there are laws preventing that, he could just place a puppet at its head and still, effectively, run it.

Has anyone ever heard of laws which would affect this??

[Grey Wolf]

Hmm, I'd guess you're right

Well, I've found Burroughs v. United States
in the US Supreme Court but that is a 1934 ruling, it seems, but one born of a concern that money was influencing presidential elections

Funnily enough this seems to have been aimed primarily at unions, thus opening the door even more to corporate funding now that labour funding was outlawed. Now that would be useful for a more social democratic USA timeline, but not relevant for this one

But
http://www.kwenu.com/publications/orabuchi/us_elections4.htm
an overview of current campaign finance law doesn't make mention of ownership of the media. Maybe that is somewhere else, but I'm not having much luck finding it

Grey Wolf

[Grey Wolf]

http://www.fec.gov/pages/brochures/fecfeca.htm

As early as 1905, President Theodore Roosevelt recognized the need for campaign finance reform and called for legislation to ban corporate contributions for political purposes. In response, Congress enacted several statutes between 1907 and 1966 which, taken together, sought to:

Limit the disproportionate influence of wealthy individuals and special interest groups on the outcome of federal elections;
Regulate spending in campaigns for federal office; and
Deter abuses by mandating public disclosure of campaign finances.

Now, this hasn't happened in your ATL but one wonders whether Hearst would actually be the catalyst for calls to enact such legislation

Of course, this is still only affecting finance and not media control per se of which I am finding diddly squat online

Grey Wolf

[Grey Wolf]

Hmm, found some nutter's comments on campaign finance reform

http://www.cato.org/testimony/ct-bs022797.html


Before discussing the details of campaign finance, I think it is important to briefly remind ourselves that, for most of this country's history, the funding of political campaigns has been totally or largely unregulated. During our nation's first century, the era which produced as presidents Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Grover Cleveland, James Knox Polk, and Andrew Jackson, and which saw giants such as Daniel Webster, Henry Clay, John Quincy Adams, and John C. Calhoun serve in Congress, there were literally no laws regulating campaign finance. And today, we often look back on that century as a golden age of politics -- one in which memorable debates over such monumental issues as slavery and western expansion were discussed in serious campaigns, one in which people talked and debated these issues, one in which politics was marked by mass rallies and torchlight parades, and one in which voter turnout was considerably higher than it is today.
The federal government did not become involved in campaign finance until this century. If we look back, we find that the arguments made in favor of regulation a century ago were the same that we hear today: that the American people believed Congress to be made up of the "instrumentalities and agents of corporations;" that "corruption" was the norm; that new advertising techniques and technologies—in those days mass newspapers, recordings, train travel—had created an insatiable demand for political spending that could only be curbed by spending limits; and that we faced a "crisis" of democracy. In response to such complaints, the federal government passed its first campaign finance law in 1907, banning direct corporate contributions to candidates. In 1943, this ban was extended to labor unions. Additionally, congress passed greater disclosure requirements in 1925. However, these disclosure measures were so toothless as to be meaningless. For example, from its enactment in 1925 until its repeal in 1971, there was not a single prosecution under the Federal Corrupt Practices Act. Yet democracy survived, and this period of minimal regulation gave us Presidents Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt, Calvin Coolidge, Harry Truman, and Dwight Eisenhower, Congressional leaders such as Robert Taft, Hubert Humphrey, and Everett Dirksen, and serious debates over such issues as civil rights. For nearly two centuries, our democracy flourished despite, or perhaps even because of, the absence of any meaningful campaign finance regulation.


What useful note does emerge from this is that there were no meaningful campaign finance regulations before 1907 - the only ones I have been able to find say something odd about navy yard workers not being coerced to contribute...not sure where that comes from !

So, regarding Hearst, his money is not going to be an issue at all in your ATL... As for the media control, hmmm, maybe my failure to find any mention of it means there isn't any ?

Grey Wolf

[Grey Wolf]

I see the Pendleton Act predates the Tillman Act

http://www.campaignfinancesite.org/history/reform3.html

I do think that the issue of Hearst, his money and his influence would bring all these old arguments to a head, though

Grey Wolf

[Grey Wolf]

Another freaky website

http://www.nationalreview.com/kopel/kopelprint041001.html

but does contain the useful note


The 1907 Tillman Act (2 U.S. Code section 441b) makes it "unlawful for any national bank, or any corporation…to make a contribution or expenditure in connection" with a federal election. The term "contribution or expenditure" is defined broadly, to include "any thing of value." The Tillman Act has never been interpreted to apply to propaganda from the media


But still that does not immediately address a candidate's ownership of that media...

Grey Wolf

[Grey Wolf]

Hmmm

As Hearst continued to accumulate more newspapers in major markets, his
media empire continued to grow. By the turn of the century, he was a national force. He began using his power and influence to pursue political office. In 1902, he was elected to Congress from New York, running on a ticket that championed working class and immigrants. Much like Congressmen today, Hearst felt the position was a stepping stone to loftier goals as he seldom voted and only appeared on the floor to promote his own pet projects. It was the Presidency that Hearst yearned for, and he would take any elected office along the way to reach that goal.


In 1904, Hearst finished second in the balloting for the Democratic presidential nomination. Undaunted, he also ran for mayor and governor of New York but was also rebuffed. Many believe it was the radicalism of Hearst's newspapers that made him a liability to the Democratic party. Although Hearst would never realize his Presidential aspirations, he would remain throughout the decades a confidant of world leaders, entertainers and opinion makers. If he could not make the key decisions he felt the country needed to make, then he would make sure he could influence the people who did.


from
http://www.nyu.edu/classes/keefer/ww1/byrne.html

I guess I wasn't following this close enough - if he could get into Congress and come second in OTL without his ownership of the newspapers being mentioned then I assume it wasn't an issue prior to being elected

As you say it may be an issue in some way afterwards, but looking at Hearst I think he would do a Berlusconi and find ways NOT to divest himself of control...

That might well lead to Congress challenging him to do so

Grey Wolf

[Beck Reilly]

A Loose Bandage Pt. 9

August 1908 – June 1909

- Just weeks prior to the election, the first steam shovels bite into
the soggy Nicaraguan soil, beginning the excavation of the Nicaraguan
Canal. It is projected that the Canal will take at least seven years
to build, setting the completion date in mid-summer of 1915. The
administration uses the groundbreaking as evidence of the progress
made by President Root over the course of the last four years.

The public, however, is nonplussed by the whole event. What just last
year would have been celebrated as a grand example of American
innovation and strength is now nothing but a money pit. To the average
worker who spends his time counting his pennies, the construction of a
Canal he'll never see in a nation he can't place on a map, assuming he
could even afford one, is just not exciting news.

- What is exciting news, however, is the active support given to
William Randolph Hearst by Samuel Gompers, the President of the
American Federation of Labor (AFL). Throughout the autumn months, the
English immigrant turned labor leader makes a series of speeches on
behalf of Hearst, who seems to hide somewhat behind his vast media
empire. Hearst knew that his speaking voice was sub-par and intended
to do everything (within reason that) he could to avoid large public
events.

The election quickly turns into feeding frenzy for the media. Hearst's
vast array of periodicals and newspapers print articles displaying the
political exploits of their owner in glowing praise. while painting
the Root Presidency as one of conservatism and disdain for the average
worker. In truth, Hearst's governorship has been one of marginal
success, much like Root's own administration. His liberal initiatives
forced labor legislation and insurance reform into the forefront of
the New York political world.

On the other side of the ball, Elihu Root runs a rather gentlemanly
campaign. Rather than directly attacking Hearst, the President instead
points to his own political record, highlighting the bright spots
while conveniently ignoring his rather dismal economic record. When he
does go on the attack, it is his aides who make the direct accusations
against Hearst, rather than the President, himself. For instance, at a
speech in Illinois, Secretary of War Roosevelt, who has his
differences with Root but rather more with Hearst refers to the
Governor of New York as "the most dangerous candidate in the past half
century" and labels him as "dreadfully inexperienced." The only
problem with Root's campaign: sometimes attacks and allegations are
exactly what the public wants to hear.

- Just after the election, the American troops in Cuba are finally
relieved of duty and readied to return home after a ten-year
occupation of the island captured in the Spanish-American War. While
many Americans are glad to see their soldiers return homes, as many
are upset to see the last vestiges of American military power leave
its military conquests. For Cubans, the exodus of the United States
Army is just what the doctor prescribed. By the last days of 1908, the
Cuban government is, for the first time, trying to flex a little
diplomatic muscle of their own, albeit unsuccessfully.

- Young HERBERT N. SCHWARZKOPF was mesmerized by the display of
fireworks blooming above New York City. The thirteen-year-old was
transfixed by the show, craning his head back to get a better view of
the tremendous barrage of synchronized explosions and dazzling flashes
of multi-colored lights. Sitting on a stretch of Jersey coast,
Schwarzkopf suddenly knew exactly what he wanted to be when he got
older: the President of the United States, just like William Randolph
Hearst. But just how does one go about becoming the President, he
wondered?

- The early months of the Hearst Presidency see the introduction of
two key bills in the House of Representatives. The first bill, which
becomes known as the Clark-La Follette Tariff Act, is designed to
lower the exceedingly high tariff rates established by the McKinley
administration. The bill, highly opposed by conservative elements of
the Republican party, is nevertheless passed with relative ease by a
coalition of reform-minded Democrats and progressive Republicans.

The second bill, however, is much more complicated and controversial.
It proposes, in the wake of the greatest financial panic since the
conclusion of the Civil War, the creation of a Third Bank of the
United States. Almost all of the major European powers have developed
centralized controls over their banking systems, but the United
States, up until this point, still adamantly refuses to centralize the
nation's banks, despite mass popular sentiment in favor of it. The
passage of this bill is going to take a lot of time.

- Across the Pacific, German attempts at negotiations have finally
found a willing ear. After nearly a year of strenuous nitpicking and
beating around the bush, the German and Japanese governments finally
agree to a jointly announced "Treaty of Friendship." While not a
defensive treaty, per se, the treaty nevertheless tightens relations
between the two nations with the common enemy to the point where
Britain protests the actions of their own (nominal) ally.

The Japanese rather fatefully ignore the British protests. After all,
their supposed ally had made a defensive pact of their own with the
Russian government, the worst enemy of Japan. The Asian nation is no
longer sure of its standing with the British government and, in the
end, decide to act in their own best interests. After all, the Germans
are the enemy of their enemy. Doesn't that make them, by default,
friends? And the United Kingdom? Well, the British the friends of
their enemy; making them…what? In the meantime, the international
scene grows even murkier.

[G.Bone]

The Japanese rather fatefully ignore the British protests...

Hmm...rather foreboding....

But still good!

[Grey Wolf]

Very interesting

This Schwarzkopf Norman's dad ? Was he born in the USA ?

Wasn't Germany involved in the Japanese army anyway ?

Grey Wolf

[Tom_B]

Still a very good TL. While Liberal in many ways in this point of his development (and in this TL his eveolution to the RIght may not happen) I see The Chief (WRH) as being in favor of a strong military--incl. but perhaps not limited to a strong navy (concerns about Mexico will make him look at the Army as well).

You seem to be trying to make the First World War more like the Second. Usually that trick comes across as forced but your TL however is doing it with an unusual plausibility.

[Beck Reilly]

This Schwarzkopf Norman's dad ? Was he born in the USA ?

Yes. He was born in NJ and was the superintendent of the NJ State Police during the late '20s and early '30s. He designed the NJ SP from the ground up and it was he who led the police investigation into the Lindbergh kidnapping.

Wasn't Germany involved in the Japanese army anyway ?

Not that I'm aware of. Or, at least, not to a great degree.

[Beck Reilly]

You seem to be trying to make the First World War more like the Second. Usually that trick comes across as forced but your TL however is doing it with an unusual plausibility.

Truthfully, I'm not exactly sure what I'm trying to do. I haven't looked ahead more than a year or two in TTL and I'm just trying to go from one step to the plausible aftermath of that step and so on. I don't even really know what WWI in TTL is going to look like.

[Beck Reilly]

A Loose Bandage Pt. 10

July 1909 – March 1910

- Tragedy strikes the Hearst administration within its first five
months in office. The nation mourns the late Vice President, who dies
of an intestinal disorder in August of 1909. John Albert Johnson, the
former Governor of Minnesota, is remembered chiefly for his gift of
gab and his gracious, magnetic personality. President Hearst plays the
death of his second-in-command to perfection, attempting to use his
death as a springboard for his social reforms.

- Congress, however, wants nothing to do with many of Hearst's
proposed reforms. The primarily conservative, Republican Congress will
hear nothing regarding the nationalization of the country's railroads
nor will they hear of the creation of a federal income tax. While
Hearst is outraged by Congress's lack of understanding towards his
propositions, he is even outraged when it votes against the creation
of a national bank.

While the nationalization of the railroads and the creation of a
federal income tax are, by Hearst's judgment, necessary, they are his
propositions, not the desires of a majority of the population. The
national bank, on the other hand, is the product of mass popular
sentiment. Hearst sees the dismissal of the issue by Congress as the
actions of an inept body of corrupt politicians. From this point
onward, Hearst will show an almost supernatural disdain for
politicians, in general, the only exceptions being himself and
Secretary of State Bryan.

- President Hearst proposes a massive "military revitalization"
focusing specifically on new technologies available to but untested by
the United States armed forces. The proposal, which becomes the Armed
Forces Revitalization Appropriations Bill, is passed by Congress in
the winter of 1909-1910. President Hearst leaves no doubt that the
bill is to discourage the Japanese from meddling in the Pacific and
the Europeans from meddling on the American continents.

The bill calls for the expansion of the Dreadnought-type class of
battleships and the investigation and expansion into submersible
technologies for the Navy. The naval aspect of Armed Forces
Revitalization Appropriations Bill will even include financing for the
testing of naval aeronautical technology, leading to the first powered
flight off a US Naval vessel in the autumn of 1910.

The Army's portion of the bill calls for the development of a reliable
machine gun to be fielded by infantry and for the creation of an Army
Air Corps, to investigate the possible military applications of the
airplane. By the summer of 1910, inventor John Browning was working on
the machine-gun question while Glenn Curtiss busily designs the
nation's first scout aircraft.

- Meanwhile, in the process of upgrading the United States Navy,
Hearst has made his dislike of the Japanese, and his intention to keep
them where they belong, painfully obvious. The President's mistrust of
the Japanese is returned tenfold from across the Pacific, where the
Japanese fearfully eye the buildup of the US Navy. Fearing their own
navy will no longer be powerful enough to match the Americans alone,
the Japanese do exactly as the Germans told them not to…

On a cool day in November of 1909, Prime Minister Saionji Kinmochi
makes an announcement that will forever change the politics of the
Pacific. The Empire of Japan, fearful of the growing power of both the
United States and the Russian Empire, declares its formal military
alliance with the German Empire, boldly warning the Americans that any
attack on Japan will be met with the force of not only the Japanese
military but the Imperial German military, as well.

To say that the British government is not pleased by this turn of
events is a dramatic understatement. The British response is swift
and, within two weeks of the Japanese announcement, the Anglo-Japanese
Treaty is no more. In the meantime, President Hearst is smiling.
Hearst, a known Anglophobe, could not be happier that his two enemies,
Japan and Britain, are bickering. After all, what better way to hurt
ones enemies than to make them fight amongst themselves?

- While it goes unnoticed by the public, President Hearst's first
appointee to the Supreme Court takes to the bench replacing Associate
Justice Rufus Peckham, who had died during the lame duck period of
Elihu Root. The first of Hearst's five appointees, all are alike in
that they have been carefully selected to match Hearst's political
views. Not one of his eventual Justices (the last takes the stand in
January of 1911) is a career politician.

- President Hearst takes the opportunity presented to him by the
squabbling foreign powers to reiterate and expand the Monroe Doctrine.
The Hearst Extension gives the United States not just the authority to
warn European nations out of American affairs, but its gives the
United States sole international policing power over the nations of
North and South America. It announces that the United States reserves
for itself the right to intervene in the domestic conflicts of other
American nations if they "pose a threat to the stability of that
nation, and, thus, the entire Western Hemisphere."

This extension to the Monroe Doctrine is supported by expansionists
throughout the United States and is generally applauded by most,
although many laborers and socialists would simply prefer larger
domestic reforms rather than foreign policy and military reforms.
Nevertheless, while the Hearst Extension is a popular policy among the
citizens of the United States, unsurprisingly, it does not hit the
same key with the populations of other American states.

Of course, not many in the United States expect that the Hearst
Expansion to be brought to the forefront of American politics and
foreign policy as quick as it does.

[G.Bone]

Took me a while to recognize that Hearst was already elected. It's a shame about the refusal on the nationalized bank system- guess that'll bite them on the arse- given of course if there'll be a Depression like OTL.

[Grey Wolf]

You've got both Hearst Extension and Hearst Expansion down there

I think one thing which is always missed about the Monroe Doctrine was that at the time it was supported by Britain as a way of preventing Spain getting back its old colonies

Legally speaking, this Hearst Extension has no basis. Its the president of the USA basically making a policy statement. It may well warn off Europeans but it does NOT put them outside of any commitment on their part if they do things. Its an act of American arrogance, and the sort of calculations that must be made in Europe is whether Hearst is egotistical madman enough to back it with force ?

Grey Wolf

[Tom_B]

What Hearst is doing is making explicit something only a little bit bolder (and much more coherenet) than what was the implicit American policy towards Latin America in that era (for some reason I've been interested in the 1915 intervention in Haiti of late).

If America intervenes in Mexico and the British see their interests in the Tampico oil fields threatened--US/GB relations can deteriorate still further.

Beck has already earned Bonus Points for having Root and Hearst President of the US in the same TL. Now if he can make Pancho Villa Presidente of Mexico he hits the Trifecta!

[Grey Wolf]

The first of Hearst's five appointees, all are alike in
that they have been carefully selected to match Hearst's political
views. Not one of his eventual Justices (the last takes the stand in
January of 1911) is a career politician.

He may choose them but doesn't the House have to confirm them ? How come they confirm five guys who are clearly chosen for political reasons ? Won't the opposition cry foul ? And also, what about mid-term elections, these usually give a boost to the opposition and if the first judges pass unchallenged, I would certainly think the later ones would thereafter be challenged

it gives the
United States sole international policing power over the nations of
North and South America. It announces that the United States reserves
for itself the right to intervene in the domestic conflicts of other
American nations if they "pose a threat to the stability of that
nation, and, thus, the entire Western Hemisphere."

Sole international policing power means nothing if it is taken on board by the USA unilaterally. Most European interventions were due to loan defaults. I assume Hearst is not saying he will collect loans outstanding for European nations for them instead ?

Grey Wolf

[Beck Reilly]

He may choose them but doesn't the House have to confirm them ? How come they confirm five guys who are clearly chosen for political reasons ? Won't the opposition cry foul ? And also, what about mid-term elections, these usually give a boost to the opposition and if the first judges pass unchallenged, I would certainly think the later ones would thereafter be challenged.

Yes, they're chosen for political reasons but they're nevertheless respected lawyers. Justices are approved by the Senate and, in this case, the Democratic Party holds the majority of the Senate. Mid-term elections will not occur until November of 1910. Thus, the last Justice is confirmed by the lame-duck Congress two months before the Republicans actually have a working majority on the floor.


Sole international policing power means nothing if it is taken on board by the USA unilaterally. Most European interventions were due to loan defaults. I assume Hearst is not saying he will collect loans outstanding for European nations for them instead ?

It does mean something in the eyes of the US government which, in this case, is the only party that matters. This was the de facto American policy towards Latin America during this period anyhow and, in fact, Hearst is just clarifying and consolidating US policy.

Tom, damn you! I was leading the timeline in the direction that you guessed. I was going to postulate a scenario in which Villa would be President of Mexico, but now that you've suggested that...I don't know if I should continue in that direction lest I sound like I'm trying to produce a desired result.

[Beck Reilly]

A Loose Bandage Pt. 11

August 7, 1910: The White House

"The stability of Mexico and your United States are gravely threatened
by the corruption of the Diaz regime," Francisco Madero said, pleading
his case to the President of the United States. The man who should be
the President of Mexico was nearly reduced to tears of frustration.
He'd won the election, Goddamnit.

"Mr. Madero, we understand you frustration, but there is simply
nothing that the United States can do to-" a cough cut the Secretary
of State off. Bryan still flushed slightly at being interrupted by who
he thought of as his intellectual inferior.

"William, that's not exactly true. I mean, after all, this a perfect
opportunity to show the World that the United States says what it
means and means what it says," President William Randolph Hearst
looked at Madero while talking to Bryan.

"I think that this is the opportunity of lifetime. I mean, we did
state just a year ago that civil conflicts within American nations are
the sole domain of the United States – and if we don't settle this
conflict ourselves, who will? The British, or even the Germans, that's
who." Hearst would be damned if any politician let this opportunity
slip from his grasp. "No, we can't allow that to happen," Hearst gazed
thoughtfully into space before continuing.

"Now, Mr. Madero, what would you require from us?"

May 1910 – December 1910

- When Porfirio Diaz won an improbably large election against his main
opponent, the imprisoned Francisco I. Madero, in the summer of 1910,
few had any idea of the extent of the consequences of Diaz's corrupt
election. With his (nominal) defeat, Francisco Madero was released
from jail, at which point he promptly fled to Texas and, eventually,
on to Washington, where he found an eager listener in William Randolph
Hearst.

Hearst viewed the Mexican's misfortune as prime opportunity to show
the strength of the reinvigorated American military and the commitment
of the United States to follow through with the promotion of democracy
and its own policies. Perhaps, even at this point, Hearst was viewing
Mexico as a potentially juicy target for American expansionism.

While it cannot be proven by the legislators watching him from Capitol
Hill, Hearst believes that by helping Madero, he will be able to win
influence over the nation and, possibly, at a future date, turn it
into an American protectorate.

Thus it is that, at six in the morning on September 20, General
Leonard Wood leads American soldiers across the Rio Grande to "protect
and ensure the empowerment of the legal government of Mexico," headed,
of course, by Francisco Madero. What the Army meets on the Mexican
side of the Rio Grande is nothing less than a revolutionary army.
Organized by Madero's uncle, the Mexican Revolutionary Army meets its
American supporters and begin the march southward.

- The United States Navy commissions its first Dreadnought-type, all
big-gun battleship, the USS Virginia. Several more ships of that class
are still in the dockyards of the nation's great ports, being
furiously constructed by the legions of workers employed by government
contractors in the wake of the Great Panic of 1907.

- Meanwhile, the British are none too pleased by the American
invasion, whether or not it is supporting the legal government of
Francisco Madero. Fearing for their oil investments outside the city
of Tampico, the British ambassador soon meets with President Hearst,
who calmly informs the British that all matters pertaining to the
civil conflict in Mexico are in the sole domain of the United States.
However, he also promises the British that neither he nor the new
Mexican government will interfere with the British-run fields,
bringing the protests out of London to a dull roar.

- On a lighter note, as much of the news of this time seems rather
dark, the average American family can now afford an automobile. The
best-selling Cadillac "Thirty-Five," the price of which has actually
dropped since its first construction to slightly less than four
hundred dollars, making it affordable to average American worker. By
this time, nearly a million and a half "Thirty-Five's" have been sold.
Production levels continue to increase.

- The fighting of the Mexican Revolution is short but brutal. While
American and Mexican regular forces capture the city of Monterrey,
Mexican revolutionary Francisco Villa captures the northern city of
Ciudad Juarez. Mexico serves as a proving ground for the Army's new
weapons, the machine gun and the scout aircraft, both of which are
tested in limited numbers in the deserts of northern Mexico. While the
Browning Machine Gun proves dependable, the handful of aircraft which
see service prove to be unreliable in the sands of the desert. For the
time being, the Army Air Corps is scrapped.

Only hours before he has decided to tender his resignation, Porfirio
Diaz is arrested by members of his own military, headed by Victoriano
Huerta. General Huerta immediately invites the legitimate President of
the Mexican government into his capital. Upon his arrival in Mexico
City, however, newly-official President Madero is assassinated by a
zealous follower of Porfirio Diaz. Madero's dying statement, however,
requests that Huerta, who has experience leading the bureaucracy of
the Mexican government, take his place as President of the Republic.

This final statement potentially saves a number of years of political
infighting and even, some say, a full scale civil war. Within hours of
Madero's death, Victoriano Huerta is installed as the next President
of the Republic of Mexico and, even more importantly, his legitimacy
is not heavily contested by the other revolutionary leaders.
Meanwhile, ominously, the American forces remain in Mexico, nominally
to "ensure its stability," and, in fact, their numbers grow. President
Huerta, however, sees through the poorly laid American smokescreen.

[Tom_B]

My understanding is that Huerta was a really first rate alcoholic. Still a very interesting TL and I may have more substantial comments later.

[Beck Reilly]

My understanding is that Huerta was a really first rate alcoholic. Still a very interesting TL and I may have more substantial comments later.

My understanding is that, after his overthrow, he became one and quickly drank himself to death while under house arrest in 1915 in Texas. However, I understand that before his arrest in 1915, he was a fully functional heavy drinker, but not an alcoholic.

[G.Bone]

Ah...shades of Decades of Darkness abound in your TL....

Good stuff as always-

I was most saddened by the scrapping of the Air Core :(

Are there any intentions towards Cuba/Puerto Rico? Does Hearst see a target there? What are the public's view of him "helping" Mexico?

[Beck Reilly]

Ah...shades of Decades of Darkness abound in your TL....

Good stuff as always-

I was most saddened by the scrapping of the Air Core :(

Are there any intentions towards Cuba/Puerto Rico? Does Hearst see a target there? What are the public's view of him "helping" Mexico?

Sorry but, at this point, I don't think an Air Corps would have been too successful had it been instituted. Oh well, it will reappear eventually.

I don't understand the reference to the Decades of Darkness TL. Could you explain further?

Well, the US owns Puerto Rico ("Porto Rico") as it did in OTL. And, while Cuba would certainly be an excellent acquisition for the Hearst government, he's preoccupied with the Mexican affair at the moment. As for the public's perception of the Mexican campaign...it is initially favorable (due to the influence, mainly, of Hearst's media empire) but it will soon turn (violently) against the whole affair when Huerta realizes Hearst's intentions and riots begin in Mexico against the US "occupiers," demanding greater amounts of US soldiers than the army has at the moment. That gives away some of the TL, BTW, which, I hope, will remain interesting.

[G.Bone]

In Decades of Darkness, an alternate version of the US conquers the lower states of Mexico, and finally annexes the whole d**n thing in the 1880's. Is war still waging in the Phillipines as a result from the Spanish American War?

[Beck Reilly]

In Decades of Darkness, an alternate version of the US conquers the lower states of Mexico, and finally annexes the whole d**n thing in the 1880's. Is war still waging in the Phillipines as a result from the Spanish American War?

The course of the Philippine Insurrection is much the same in TTL as it was in ours. The brunt of the fighting in OTL was done before Emilio Aguinaldo was captured in March of 1901, before the POD of TTL.

[Beck Reilly]

A Loose Bandage Pt. 12

January 1911 – June 1911

- With an increasingly deadly and, one might add, unpopular simmering
conflict being waged in the Republic of Mexico to the south, the
mid-term Congressional elections see the Republican Party sweep both
Houses of Congress. Unfortunately for said party, and, indeed, the
nation, Hearst's fifth and final Supreme Court Justice is approved by
the solidly-Democratic, out-going lame-duck Senate. This final
appointment gives Hearst de facto control of the Supreme Court,
although, at this point, it is unknown to the public and the
politicians on Capitol Hill just how in debt these five Justices are
to President Hearst.

- With the new Congress about to enter their positions, William
Randolph Hearst issues the first explicit order to the United States
Army ordering a "consolidation of power within the Republic of
Mexico." In other words, in February of 1911, President Hearst issues
orders to General Frederick Funston, the commander of American
soldiers in theater, to begin a gradual takeover of the sovereign
nation of Mexico.

Unfortunately for Hearst, he has vastly underestimated Victoriano
Huerta, who immediately recognizes the shift in the American demeanor
from one of good-natured intent to one of sharp-eyed wariness. Huerta
is not only aware of Hearst's diabolical plot, but he is ready for it.
Within weeks of the transmission of the order to General Funston,
controlled riots (well as controlled and purposeful as riots come)
against US troops spread like wildfire across the nation.

Soon, Funston finds himself under increasing pressure from the
President and increasing pressure from the Mexican people themselves.
For the moment, though, if Funston is going to do what he's been
ordered to do, he'll need more soldiers.

- Both the British and German governments recognize the situation in
Mexico quickly. Both are dismayed by the behavior of their American
cousins. However, pledges continue to pour out of Washington,
promising that British and, yes, German investments in Mexico will be
protected from harm. Hearst, as much as he would like to, manages to
resist the temptation to tell Prime Minister Asquith exactly where he
can stick his protests.

The main worry, of course, that the British have, the only nation in
the position to do anything about the unpleasantness spreading across
the Latin American nation, is for the safety of the Tampico oil
fields. However, due to the relative isolation of those oil fields -
and the numbers of American soldiers in the area (most of the US Army
is concentrated in the northern Mexican states) – these fields are
relatively safe. Certainly, it's not something worth risking a
potential economic war or, God help us, even a shooting war with the
Americans, is it?

- Meanwhile, back in the United States, the conflict in Mexico is
starting to become a very unpopular venture. Despite the best efforts
of Hearst's entire media empire, Hearst is not able to kick up as much
of a thirst for expansion as he had way back in 1898. However, this is
Hearst's baby, his pet project, and he is not going to tolerate
letting it collapse. After all, it's not his fault that the average
American simply doesn't have the foresight to see the prudence behind
the Mexican venture...

- If Hearst is going to pull this off, however, he is going to need a
lot more soldiers, in a lot quicker time. The solution? Why, initiate
a draft. Such a nifty solution to a simple problem, Hearst thinks to
himself.

In ten years, all this supposed outrage over the "protection" of
Mexico will have dissipated and all that will be left to see are the
enormous accomplishments of his glorious Presidency. Men will look
back and be proud to have served during such a time and for such a
man. First, however, Hearst must overcome his own demons, and somehow
convince Congress to pass his Selective Service Act. That will be a
mighty accomplishment in and of itself.

- Predictably, Congress laughs President Hearst all the way back to
the White House when he demands that it pass an act to draft the young
men and workers of the United States into an army built on Hearst's
personal whims. William Randolph Hearst, however, is upset, to say the
absolute least, by Congress's lack of respect for his request.

Goddamnit, how dare Congress refuse the will of the people?

Completely absent from Hearst's mind is the fact that the American
people do not want to be forced into the army. They don't want to be
forced to run around the country side training for a month and then
march around the deserts of a seemingly harmless nation for the better
part of two years. All this for a bunch of Mexicans and their
worthless land. The public issues a collective "Thanks, but no
thanks."

- Hearst, however, has other ideas. He's not going to let a large
assortment of corrupt politicians ruin his vision of the future of the
United States, no, sir. How dare they? He couldn't give a damn that
these were the elected representatives of the American people; after
all, if the people knew the truth about this politicians as he did,
there'd be a half-dozen lynching on every street in Washington.

These were the corrupt of the corrupt. They were in the position they
were in because they were better at the game of corruption than their
peers back at home. This is how Hearst views the Congressmen and
Senators (who aren't even elected by the people, if you can believe
that), anyhow.

Hearst has other ideas, though. In the meantime, he'd have to find a
way to silence Congress so he can achieve his goals. All done by the
book, of course…

[Straha]

ooh very good stuff there. Have you considered possibly having one of the 2 major parties of OTL get replaced by another one in the TL?

[Tom_B]

Hearst owned considerable property in Mexico. How much this contributed to his ideas about Mexico is a matter os speculation but clearly it was an added motive--and his political opponents would portray as his sole motive. Hearst also strongly believed in the direct election of senators so that issue would've surfaced early in his Presidency.

Very nice TL. This section was particularly well written in terms of style.

[G.Bone]

ah...iraq...errr.... :)

I like the tone in this installment. Very strong and tells alot about Hearst's personality. Has Baja been ignored due to it's lack of resources? Are all the northern tier of states been "occupied"?

[Coriolanus]

I like this TL alot! Very informative and very plausible. I wonder, though: what's going on with Civil Rights? Is it the same as OTL, or is there any hope for improvement under WRH?

[Beck Reilly]

ooh very good stuff there. Have you considered possibly having one of the 2 major parties of OTL get replaced by another one in the TL?

Actually, I will. I said I was going to do that in the "Progressives Survive" thread.

[Beck Reilly]

I like the tone in this installment. Very strong and tells alot about Hearst's personality. Has Baja been ignored due to it's lack of resources? Are all the northern tier of states been "occupied"?

Baja has been ignored, as you say. US forces are concentrated in the states of Chihuahua and Nuevo Leon. There are also smaller units in basically all states bordering those two.

[Beck Reilly]

I wonder, though: what's going on with Civil Rights? Is it the same as OTL, or is there any hope for improvement under WRH?

Same as OTL. Hearst was not known for his, err, 'kindly' views on race. He openly disliked Asians and Hispanics and showed an indifference toward blacks. I doubt if anything in terms of civil rights is going to happen under him.

[G.Bone]

1. is there an actual head of the opposition against Hearst/
2. when is the next installment coming?

[Beck Reilly]

1. is there an actual head of the opposition against Hearst/
2. when is the next installment coming?

1.) Not at the moment. Congress right now is dominated by the Republican Party. However, the progressive Republicans frequently vote with the liberal Democrats, while many of the conservative Democrats vote with the balance of the Republicans. Opposition will soon form around House Speaker Nicholas Longworth and Senate Majority Leader Charles Dawes.

2.) Not sure; within the next couple of days.

[Beck Reilly]

A Loose Bandage Pt. 13

July 2, 1911: The United States Capitol

The junior member of the Californian delegation to the United States
House of Representatives and one of only four Socialists in the 62nd
Congress, was already drenched in sweat. Even for a man who had
traveled extensively in the South Pacific and was born and raised in
California, summertime in Washington, D.C., was almost unbearable. And
it was only morning; it would get hotter.

Jack London's driver pulled the Cadillac to a stop just down the
street from the great building itself. He still thought it ridiculous
for a Socialist to have a chauffer, although, on days like this, it
came in handy not to have to walk in the heat. London opened the door
himself and stepped out onto the curb, thanking the driver who had
rushed around the auto and managed to get to the opposite side in time
to close the door behind him.

If the heat was bad in that luxurious black box they call an
automobile, it was absolutely stifling on the paved sidewalk. London
made his way slowly towards the looming Capitol, trying to exert as
little energy as possible. Arriving quickly, he joined the crowd
gathering in front of it, craning his neck for a view of the smaller
grouping at the top of the steps.

The sight was surprising, to say the least. House Speaker James Mann
and the President Pro Tempore Charles Dawes stood toe-to-toe with an
Army officer. London had arrived in the midst of a heated argument
between the three men, one which the soldier appeared to be winning.

"What's happening?" London asked to his neighbor, a man who he
recognized as a Senator from Indiana who's name escaped him at the
moment.

"It appears that our good president has decided to adjourn Congress,"
a deep sarcasm tainted the Senator's words. He remembered the man was
a Democrat, too.

"He can do that?" London questioned the Senator. Martin? Marsh?
Marshall, that was it!

"Technically, he can, although it is extremely rare. No other such
time stands out in my mind. The power is granted in the Constitution,
although it was not designed for use under these circumstances. In
fact, I'm not even sure what the circumstances mandating this are."

From the expressions on the faces of the Speaker and the President Pro
Tempore, they too were resigned to this fact. They strode back down
the steps of the Capitol red-faced and embarrassed for being
reprimanded by a soldier. Whatever shame showed on their faces was
mixed with resignation. They both knew there wasn't anything to do.
They could kick and scream about the President's heavy-handedness, but
there wasn't anything meaningful to do.

Despite the heat, London was shivering.

July 1911 – September 1911

- In the days following the adjournment of Congress, few appear to be
worried about the President's action. Except, of course, the
Representatives and Senators. After all, how many farmers and laborers
really sympathize with their elected leaders? While they toil in
fields and sweat in mills, these fat bastards sipped tea, wore
monocles, and talked of their own money. At least, that was the image
Hearst's papers wanted to convey to the American people.

Besides, who really cares that some politician thousands of miles away
has effectively lost his job when we have these great Independence Day
celebrations bought and paid for by the Hearst media empire to
distract us…?

- In Washington, however, the reaction is quite different.
Congressional leaders are outraged by the President's disregard for
what they perceive as the spirit of the Constitution. However, legal
maneuvering gets these leaders no where. Frankly, even had the Supreme
Court not been packed with Hearst supporters, the President's actions
would be upheld. Technically, the measures implemented are legal,
albeit rare. For the time being, Congress is forced to cool its
collective heals.

Several of Hearst's Cabinet members resign in protest in late July.
Most significant among the handful is the Secretary of State, William
Jennings Bryan, a man who Hearst had once admired. Hearst is disgusted
with his former mentor now. Can he not see that the future of America
lies with Hearst, himself? By God, Congress may be unwilling to lead
this country forward, but William Randolph Hearst certainly is
prepared to do just that.

Hearst quickly uses recess appointments to fill the Cabinet positions
with likeminded Departmental heads. Among them is perhaps the only
member of Congress who supported the adjournment, a rabid
anti-Socialist from Pennsylvania named Alexander Mitchell Palmer. As a
reward for his apparent loyalty to Hearst, he is moved into head the
Justice Department.

- In the two months that follow the adjournment of Congress, a long
two months which sees many Congressmen become resigned to their fate
and sees the (unreported) deaths of hundreds, if not thousands, of
soldiers in Mexico, President Hearst issues a couple of executive
orders designed to further placate and distract the masses.

The first order creates a much-needed and much-talked-about Third Bank
of the United States. The creation of the bank serves to stabilize an
economy rocking in the wake of the adjournment of Congress as well as
to convince the people of Hearst's good intentions. It accomplishes
the first but will ultimately fail in its latter goal.

The second order nationalizes the major railroads of the nation.
While, nominally, it is hoped that this will decrease costs and
improve efficiency, thus making civil use of the nation's railroads
friendlier, Hearst has other motives in his heart, like moving large
bodies of troops cheaply and quickly.

Nevertheless, Hearst's signature on both orders is applauded by
Socialists and deplored by conservatives across the nation. A lawsuit
is soon filed by many private railroad owners, questioning Hearst's
right to take over their businesses. The case makes its way to the
Supreme Court quickly. Hearst is about to find out whether his
appointees are loyal to him or not. However, loyal or not, with public
will on his side, Hearst is sure his measures will be approved.

After all, if they're not, his plans for the future are dead in the
water.

[G.Bone]

I find the usage of "Thoughts?" very tricky in both addressing the readers for commentary and as well as your sig.

On your TL- from my view, President Hearst is quickly becoming the dear leader that Bush is attributed to have. However, I think that such a move in considating his power is going to backfire on him. I like the touch of Jack London as a member of Congress as well as the Socialist Party. It's much more pleasing than what he ended up in OTL.

[Grey Wolf]

Hearst seems to be becoming something of a fascist - I use this in its technical term relating to authoritarian government allied to big business. He has taken state control of the railways for government ends, and has clamped down on democratic opposition, whilst packing the judiciary with his supporters.

I find it somewhat surprising that the United States can allow this to happen. After all, whilst Hearst's media empire may be large it is by no means exclusive and I'd rather think that the other major newspapers come out vehemently against the suppression of Congress. I would also think that the politicians could get the case into the Supreme Court, whether or not they expect to win. I would certainly expect them to make the move - after all Hearst can't have packed the lower courts and if my hazy knowledge of US law is correct, it requires a lower court to kick the case up to the USSC ? Now, the Supreme Court could refuse to hear the case, though I do not think it would have legal grounds for doing so - after all it is clearly federal matter and clearly a constitutional one. IMHO if the case is sent to them, they HAVE to hear it. It may be expected that Hearst's supporters will ensure he wins, but the court can produce a dissenting minority opinion which would be VERY valuable to Hearst's opponents

Grey Wolf

[Grey Wolf]

As far as I can see
Article 2 Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution
is intended only to mean that the president can adjourn Congress IF both houses cannot agree themselves on a date for adjournment - i.e. if the Senate and the House of Representatives cannot agree a common date

Is this the part of the Constitution that Hearst is relying upon ?

Grey Wolf

[Beck Reilly]

However, I think that such a move in considating his power is going to backfire on him. I like the touch of Jack London as a member of Congress as well as the Socialist Party. It's much more pleasing than what he ended up in OTL.

Exactly. You seem to be one step ahead of me.

[G.Bone]

So when will the next installment come out?

[Grey Wolf]

So when will the next installment come out?

Maybe once the points I made have been checked to see if they're valid ?

Grey Wolf

[Beck Reilly]

The USSC will indeed hear the case and will not overturn Heart's decision. It will be a split decision 5-4 as to the legality of it. In fact, if you read my last entry, I refer specifically to an upcoming SC decision (although the case specifically only mentions the nationalization of the railroads, one must assume that, by default, it judges the legality of th adjournment of Congress)...

"...Nevertheless, Hearst's signature on both orders is applauded by
Socialists and deplored by conservatives across the nation. A lawsuit
is soon filed by many private railroad owners, questioning Hearst's
right to take over their businesses. The case makes its way to the
Supreme Court quickly. Hearst is about to find out whether his
appointees are loyal to him or not. However, loyal or not, with public
will on his side, Hearst is sure his measures will be approved.

After all, if they're not, his plans for the future are dead in the
water..."

Sure, it will have a dissenting minority, but what actual difference will it make? It will boost the confidence of the Congressional leaders, but they really can't do anything about it for the moment. Hearst's action IS technically legal, although underhanded and shady. I don't see what the problem is...?

G. Bone, the next chapter will be along early this week, probably Tuesday, but it could be online as early as tonight depending on whether I'm interested in the football game tonight or not.

[Straha]

wow this is an excellent TL.

[Tom_B]

Concur with Straha. This is a very interesting TL. I can sse how Hearst's ego would get out of control. He was also very much interested in film, working with Selig and Pathe and IIRC he produced Perils of Pauline. You might thing about implication for the development of motion pictures with him as President.

[T-Bone]

Great TL - interesting reading.

[Beck Reilly]

A couple of more days until I'm done with Pt. 14. In the meantime, I was bored and produced a list of Presidents through the current times. However, I'll probably only take TTL until the early 1960s.

[G.Bone]

So I'm guessing there's no limit on the terms of office?

BTW- it's good to see a third party live and kicking

[Coriolanus]

Bully for TR! :D

Looks very interesting. It seems the Democratic Party no longer exists by 2004.

[Beck Reilly]

So I'm guessing there's no limit on the terms of office?

There's a term limit. It's just a different one than in OTL. Three terms instead of two. However, convention remains that, except in emergencies, a President only serves two terms.

[Beck Reilly]

A Loose Bandage Pt. 14

October 1911 – December 1911

- As most had expected, the Supreme Court issues a split decision,
five-to-four, ruling in favor of President Hearst's executive
officers. Some high-level Congressmen scream that Hearst has packed
the Court, causing Senators across the nation to vainly attempt to
avoid scrutiny from their fellow Congressmen. After all, they approved
Hearst's appointments, doesn't the blame, at least partially, lie with
them?

In Washington, Hearst is delighted. The ruling in the Union Pacific
Railroad v. United States case opens the road for Hearst, effectively
granting him the power to create new laws without consultation from
either Congress or the members of his Cabinet. Where does one start,
though? So much to do and so little time to do it. Well, to begin,
Major General Bell, the Army Chief of Staff, is still screaming for
more troops.

Hearst's third executive order is nearly a word-for-word reproduction
of the failed Selective Service Act. The United States now has a
draft.

- There is a public outcry across the nation against the Selective
Service System, which, despite its nominally unbiased nature, is
proving very easy to avoid – that is, assuming you have the cash. By
early November, the first ranks of eligible, lower-class men between
the ages of eighteen and twenty-one are entering boot camps across the
nation.

At this same time, the first anti-draft riot since the Civil War is
ignited in a suburb of New York City. The riot, led by Socialists who
fear that the draft will negatively impact workers rights and who know
that some families are not going to be fed if their men are at war, is
but the first of many. Meanwhile, newspapers owned by Hearst across
the nation continue to ooze cheer and optimism over the course of the
war in Mexico, completely ignoring the negative domestic impacts.

By the end of the first month, around Thanksgiving of 1911, North
America is being hit hard. Riots tear across the United States,
ripping through poor neighborhoods and threatening to spill into
wealthier neighborhoods if not contained. The economy is slumping,
despite a seemingly never-ending flow of optimistic reports from the
Secretary of the Treasury, a former Senator and entrepreneur from
Michigan.

- Meanwhile, in Mexico, American soldiers battle increasing hardships.
The damn Mexicans, thinks General Frederick Funston, commander of the
US Army in Mexico, are getting too good at scattering like rabbits
after killing a squad of Americans. American forces in Mexico have
been driven northward by increasingly shaky supply lines, forced to
abandon their tenuous hold on important southern cities like Veracruz
and even Mexico City, itself.

In Mexico City, President Huerta rides into the capital of his nation
to survey the damage done by the Americans. He is greeted by thousands
of cheering Mexicans who has suffered under the conditions imposed by
the American occupation and is surprised to find that almost all
support him. Surprised – but delighted. What a handy political tool;
as long as the Mexican people direct their anger at the United States,
his position will remain rock-solid.

Conditions in the Mexican desert are brutal. American soldiers find
themselves without enough to eat or enough clothing to weather the
vicious cold of the night. Their supply stocks, however, are
increasing the further north the troops move, due to the shortening of
supply lines as much as to the nationalization of the railroads.
Driven back into the northern tier of states, morale is dropping
amongst the troops.

- On the other hand, anger is rising within their ranks, as well.
Their anger has found a rather unlikely target, however. Instead of
President Hearst, the soldiers of the American military are livid with
the Socialists. How dare men like that creep Debs and his lackeys
criticize this conflict? How dare they blame the individual soldier,
labeling them with the most horrible descriptions? At least Hearst is
taking measures to support his warriors.

In the White House, William Randolph Hearst fumes about the
Socialists, as well, blaming them for the continuing string of
setbacks in Mexico. How dare they interrupt his plans? For God's sake,
these people shouldn't be able to call themselves Americans. To
compound his problems, the recent elections have given the Republicans
complete control of Congress.

Hell, in a month, Hearst thinks glumly over a glass of whiskey, some
of these damn Socialists were going to have a say in running this
nation. There is even a rumor that they were planning to call for
Hearst's impeachment. If only there was some way to keep Congress
adjourned…

"What Really Happened on December 7, 1911?"
The Chicago Tribune: December 7, 1986

Journalist Allen A. Gore has recently published what many historians
are already referring to as the definitive biography of our nation's
most controversial President. His work, titled "The House the Hearst
Built: The Life of America's Dictator," will hit bookshelves across
the nation this weekend.

However, for all its glowing praise, the book has attracted the
attention of historians across the nation not for its intricate
details, but for its broad speculation. The premise of the most
controversial theory, that presented in the Twenty-fourth Chapter is
simple enough: that the fire which destroyed the old Capitol Building
in Washington City, effectively launching the United States into a
year of dictatorship and despotism, was ordered by none other than the
President, himself.

For years, most historians have held that the fire was set by the man
accused and executed for the crime, twenty-seven year old Norman
Thomas, a Socialist firebrand and drifter originally from Ohio. Caught
by US Marshals while fleeing the city, Thomas was quickly arrested,
tried, and lined up before a firing squad for his crime. The truth,
Gore believes, is much more complicated than that.

"The truth is that this young man was put up to burning the old
Capitol Building by federal employees working under the infamous
Attorney General, Alexander Mitchell Palmer," Gore contended in an
interview. "Attorney General Palmer was utterly ruthless and
intelligent, yes, but he was nothing if not loyal to his master,
William Randolph Hearst. He would not have ordered the burning of such
an important landmark if the order had not come from Hearst, himself."

When asked about the sources he used, Gore responded that he had seen
several documents, some dated and signed by Palmer, others belonging
to a memoir written by one of the federal agents supposedly involved
in Thomas's release from a Philadelphia jailhouse, just one week
before that fateful Sunday night in December of 1911.

"My source, who has requested to remain anonymous, confirms the
legitimacy of everything written by his father, the agent supposedly
involved in releasing Thomas," Gore told reporters from the porch of
his home in Tennessee. "I have done research in the capital and have
spent hours sorting through piles of documents. I have no doubt that
what the source told me is true.

"On November 29, eight days before the fire, two federal agents
working for the Department of Justice visited the Eastern State
Penitentiary in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania," Gore continued, quickly
summarizing the events that led up to the fire. "The two agents, one
of whom was the father of my source, secured the release of a
twenty-seven year old Socialist charged, coincidentally or not, with
burning down a Hearst newspaper building in the same city.

"By December 5, Thomas was in Washington City, drinking at the bar of
a high-class hotel named the Willard. Sources from the time say that
Thomas ran up quite a bar tab at the hotel. This only leaves more
questions: how could a man freshly released from prison have afforded
such an expensive couple of days?" Gore asked a crowd of reporters.

"The answer is simple, he was paid by the administration to light a
fire in the Capitol Building the night before Congress was to convene
for the first time in eight months. Unfortunately for Thomas, he was
captured by authorities as the building continued to blaze," Gore
finished.

"How was he caught so fast? Because Attorney General Palmer knew
exactly where to look, that's how. Regrettably, Thomas was summarily
executed only two weeks later and never had the chance to tell his
story. We may never know the truth, but I believe whole-heartedly in
the theory postulated in my book," Gore assured reporters before
retreating back into his home.

On the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Capitol Fire, the citizens of
the United States continue to argue as to the source of the blaze. One
thing, though, is certain: the Fire was but the beginning of a
disastrous period of United States history.

[Straha]

Wow. now that makes things get dangerous.

[G.Bone]

Wow. H***er earlier on. BTW- how is Europe coming along now that there is a psuedo-dictatorship in America? Is it just putting as always?

[Beck Reilly]

Wow. H***er earlier on. BTW- how is Europe coming along now that there is a psuedo-dictatorship in America? Is it just putting as always?

There's not much for them to do. The Europeans are basically going about their own business (to the extent that they know how, anyways). This is but a temporary dictatorship, as the election is in a little less than a year. Try as Hearst might, not even his packed Supreme Court is going to have the guts to cancel the election. Obviously, Hearst is going to claim victory, as will his opponent. Fun times ahead...

[Coriolanus]

Wow. Now THIS is alternate history.

It's all so plausible, it's scary..... :eek:

[Beck Reilly]

A Loose Bandage Pt. 15

December 1911 – January 1912

- Even as the last of the Capitol Building continues to burn, United
States Marshals close in on Norman Thomas, the Socialist troublemaker
who is claimed to have been seen igniting the fire. With his capture,
President Hearst pats himself on the back for his good luck.

The Capitol Building is gone and its destruction to force Congress
back into "temporary recess" hardly without notice. Much of Congress
is too stunned by the obliteration of the symbol of American democracy
to fiercely complain and most of the country simply wants some level
of law and order returned.

Sure, some of the more intelligent Congressmen complain and argue
bitterly, but their complaints fall on deaf ears (the majority of the
public is treated to rampant speculation as to the cause of the blaze
by the Hearst papers: everyone from the Socialists to the Mexicans to
the Republicans are blamed for the fire) and most are passive, at
best. Besides, they, too, want order returned to the suffering nation;
if Hearst is the man to provide that, well, so be it.

Moreover, the man theoretically responsible for the fire is a
Socialist, and a relatively prominent one as well. How perfect. And,
what's better, the public was thirsting for revenge. Not just for the
destruction of the Capitol, but for the dozens of charred, ruined city
blocks in Boston and New York, Brooklyn and Philadelphia. The
anti-draft riots of November, despite lying only two months in the
past, remain fresh in the minds of everyone. What's at the forefront
of the nation's memory, however, is not the rioting masses, but the
smaller groups who led these riots – the Socialists and, yes, even a
few aging Anarchists.

- On January 7, 1912, on the one-month anniversary of the Fire,
President Hearst issues the Capitol Fire Decree, declaring that:

"Until further notice, as pursuant to Constitutional law, the United
States government hereby fights it permissible to, in the name of
restoring law and order, restrict when necessary the rights to freedom
of speech, including the freedom of the press, the freedom to organize
and assemble, peacefully or otherwise, the privacy of letters, mail,
and telegraph, order searches and confiscations and restrict property,
even if this is not otherwise provided for by present law.

As per Constitutional law, from this moment until the end of the
declared state of emergency, a state of martial law exists. A curfew
will be in effect in all major cities between the hours of seven p.m.
and six a.m.; any and all persons caught breaking this curfew can and
will be arrested by the United States Armed Forces. These persons, and
all others violating the laws of the United States shall be tried
under special military tribunals. Personal freedom [used in reference
to habeas corpus] is hereby suspended until such a time when threats
to this nation are removed from society. Pursuant to the ruling of the
Supreme Court in ‘Ex Parte Milligan,' all civilian courts are hereby
suspended until further notice."

- Reaction to the Capitol Fire Decree is mixed. Socialists,
anarchists, and other radicals across the nation erupt into a fury,
threaten to incite riots in all major cities. Some of the more extreme
radicals even go so far as to speak of a coup against the President.
Much of the nation, however, is indifferent. After all, only the
criminals and the Socialists have anything to fear from the Decree,
right? Besides, no one deludes themselves into thinking for a second
that the Supreme Court, the supposed balance to Executive tyranny,
will do anything but bow down to the nation's first dictator.

The reaction in northern Mexico is immediate. The soldiers of the
United States Army almost universally applaud the President's action.
Damn Socialists have been hurting the nation long enough, it's about
time they were made to pay for their criminal behavior. Finally a
politician who is willing to get things done. By the end of the week,
the first trainloads of experienced troops are shuffled northward out
of northern Mexico, heading for another occupation duty – this time,
in America's cities.

From staging areas in Texas, raw conscripts of the recently enlarged
United States Army are marched into northern Mexico to assume
occupation duty from the northbound regulars. Some of Hearst's
remaining aides (and there aren't all that many; most of the civilian
aides of long since jumped ship back when Hearst first adjourned
Congress, replaced by military officers and law enforcement officials
where possible) argue for the US to completely extract itself from
Mexico.

Hearst, though, has other ideas. What better breeding place is there
for anger than Mexico? Soldiers who return from Mexico find themselves
hated by the public and scorned by their neighbors. If only the anger
felt by these soldiers towards their fellow Americans can be harnessed
for use by the government...

- By the end of the month, almost all of the major cities are in the
process of being occupied by relatively large contingents of American
soldiers. The arrests start almost immediately and the jailhouse
populations swell drastically. Socialists rabble-rousers, anarchists,
and regular criminals find themselves jammed together in stinking
hellholes. However, despite the relative progress, the Army finds
themselves strangely unable to properly exercise control the
population.

The contingents of soldiers in the cities are simply not large enough
to control their ever-burgeoning populations, despite the fact that,
with the strong European opposition to the Hearst administration,
immigration to the United States has come to a virtual stop and many
of the cities' previous occupants flee to the countryside, if they
can. Something else is going to be needed if the government wants to
control the unruly population effectively.

[G.Bone]

Wow. You are the fastest person I know to ever write up a TL and post it on a website at the same time. Some writers I know didn't put it on a website until they were at Part 50 or 51.

As for your TL- shades of Germany are prominent to the point that I'm expecting a secret service to be established within the military order. Of course that would be contrary to the Consitution, which has been walked over with a black leather boot. Was Hearst that ego-maniac in OTL?

As for the quality- four stars out of four stars.

[Coriolanus]

I've gotta applaud your efforts, Beck Reilly. I posted under a different alias at the old board(PM Nixon, before my computer went temporarily kaput), and my Mexican Occupation TL was a true pain. It is refreshing to see someone putting in so much effort into a TL, and doing such a good job.

Now about the TL: it ought to be interesting to see how this all ends. I wonder if this will affect America's entry into a possible WWI in this TL?

[Beck Reilly]

A Loose Bandage Pt. 16

February 1912 – April 1912

- A blast rips through the chilly afternoon air in bustling
Washington, DC, destroying half of the Department of War. The
explosion kills both Secretary of War McReynolds and Army Chief of
Staff J. Franklin Bell. Both die instantly as the building collapses
around them and President Hearst vows revenge from his heavily-guarded
sanctuary within the White House.

The death of the highest ranking military officer and his civilian
commander stuns the nation once again. The alleged – it is impossible
to tell his true identity, as the bomber blew himself up in the
process – Socialist has done more damage to his cause than even Norman
Thomas. The nation is outraged. Everyone, even the rejected members of
Congress, want revenge upon the Socialists for their sins.

The Socialists are, in the eyes of the nation, hurting the nation
badly. From the sabotage of the war effort, to the destruction of the
Capitol Building, and now to the murder of the Secretary of War and
the Army Chief of Staff, the public has had enough of the Socialists –
the so-called champions of the people.

- President Hearst responds immediately to the blast.

Major General Frederick Funston is recalled from command in Mexico,
replaced by Leonard Wood, to take command of the Army, replacing the
murdered General Bell. Funston has proven himself to be an ardent
supporter of the President's results, if not his means, and Hearst
trusts him as far as he trusts any of the military officers. A certain
former Senator from Michigan, a failed automobile manufacturer named
Henry Ford, is shifted from the Treasury Department to replace the
slain McReynolds. Ford is replaced at Treasury by a virtual unknown,
personally loyal to Hearst.

Attorney General Alexander Mitchell Palmer announces the creation of
the Federal Security Service (FSS). FSS Troopers (as their units are
mostly motorized, they carry the name passed on by the cavalry) are
soon drawn from the Army and from law enforcement across the nation,
comprising their most rapidly ant-Socialist members and recruits. By
mid-March, the FSS will have nearly ten thousand men under its command
and will assume the duty hunting "political criminals" within the
cities occupied by the Army. The FSS, it is planned, will grow to take
over many of the Army's civilian concerns, thus relieving much of the
pressure on the Armed Forces. Unlike average law enforcement, the FSS
Troopers will be as heavily-armed and as well-trained as the average
soldier.

- State politicians across the nation are growing increasingly worried
over the federal government's increase in power. Almost three-quarters
of US state Governors at this time are Republicans and, while they are
concerned, there really is not much they can do. Hell, most are
practically under house arrest due to the large military presence in
all of America's major cities.

Even worse for these scared Republican politicians across the nation,
the American people simply do not care. Either through laziness or
through sheer ignorance, the majority of the nation's citizens are
indifferent. While a sizable minority are opposed to the federal
government's actions, an equally sizable minority supports the
President's mandates whole-heartedly. And, with the Army throwing its
full support behind William Randolph Hearst, the situation is
impossible.

- By mid-March, the government has finally hit its groove. Suppression
of the population is at an all-time high, not that the ignorant
peasants could give a rat's ass. Military and law enforcement spending
is at an all-time high, as well, although not many outside of the
inner circles of government knows for absolute certainty at this time.
The economy, with the exception of war-related industry, is at an
all-time low, not that one could tell from the Hearst newspapers
(virtually the only newspapers printed at this time).

A small amount of progress has been made in even the war in Mexico,
where US forces have retaken the city of Monterrey from the Huerta
government. US deaths, though, are also at an all-time high. The
United States is pissing through nearly five hundred soldiers a month,
at this point. And, what's better for Hearst's regime, the misdirected
anger continues to rise within the ranks at the Socialists,
anarchists, and other ungrateful hell-raisers in the United States.
What's best, the latest troop rotation is about to begin.

- With the latest batch of embittered soldiers returning from the
deserts of Mexico, the President finally issues a long-awaited order
in late March, criminalizing the entire Socialist Party and ordering
the arrest of all of its known members. The people don't bat an
eyelash at the President. They've been expecting the order for a long
time and, frankly, many don't care. As one historian would later note,
"the levels of human indifference are, in some ways, more shocking
that the levels of brutality." However, while they might not care,
they certainly do take notice.

On April Fool's Day, 1912, the FSS launched the first raids in its
short but illustrious career. Around the nation, nearly
fifteen-thousand heavily Troopers of the Federal Security Service
crash through the doors of the nation's cities, arresting nearly
fifty-thousand Socialist Party members. The next day is a repeat of
the last, and the day after that a repeat of the one before until the
raids officially end two weeks later.

By the ides of April, the US government held nearly four-hundred
thousand men who's only crime was belonging to a certain political
party. With cooperation from local law enforcement, many of whom
feared the wrath of the federal government, President Hearst had
single-handedly completed a seemingly perfect takeover and
consolidation of power. By the end of April, the first consolidation
camps were being set up in the countryside to hold the political
prisoners captured in the April Fool's raids.

- Meanwhile, from his home outside of New York City, former Vice
President Theodore Roosevelt began sending out letters to politicians
and military officers across the nation who are upset by the Hearst's
dictatorship. From the writing desk of Theodore Roosevelt, the first
organized opposition with potential military-backing to the Hearst
regime begins to form.

[Archangel Michael]

This is pretty damn good.

I've always wanted to see a plausable TL where the US government becomes a dictatorship.

[Beck Reilly]

This is pretty damn good.

I've always wanted to see a plausable TL where the US government becomes a dictatorship.

Don't be too happy. It's not going to last for more than two or three more parts.

And, before anyone complains about the takeover being implausible, I'd like to remind everyone that it was the power of indifference and hate which led to Adolf Hitler assuming power in Germany. I believe that, given the right circumstances, indifference and hate for a particular group could have led America down a similar road.

[Straha]

I've gotta applaud your efforts, Beck Reilly. I posted under a different alias at the old board(PM Nixon, before my computer went temporarily kaput), and my Mexican Occupation TL was a true pain. It is refreshing to see someone putting in so much effort into a TL, and doing such a good job.

Now about the TL: it ought to be interesting to see how this all ends. I wonder if this will affect America's entry into a possible WWI in this TL?
Theodore Roosevelt means we go in earlier and start kicking ass in 1914.

[Beck Reilly]

Theodore Roosevelt means we go in earlier and start kicking ass in 1914.

The war's not going to start in 1914, though.

[G.Bone]

Great TL-

I like the little bits of voice you threw in there, such as this:

The United States is pissing through nearly five hundred soldiers a month, at this point.

If only this was a political commentary on OTL...

[Unknown]

Is Hearst behind this blast, too? Is there going to be a World War II in this TL? When will World War I start?

[Unknown]

I also take it that Citizen Kane, thought to be based on Hearst's life, is going to be different than in OTL? That is, assuming you haven't butterflied away Welles. I like the idea of having Theodore Roosevelt in the hero's role. Keep it up!!!! I would like to see this timeline taken forward to 2001, if possible.

[Beck Reilly]

A Loose Bandage Pt. 17

May 21, 1912: Boston, Massachusetts

Twenty-year old Leverett Saltonstall sat by himself in the dark of the
cinema theater. Other than the entire orchestra in a pit only ten
yards in front of him, he was virtually alone. Not many could afford a
trip to the cinema these days – all though you would never read that,
of course – and many who could were a part of the rapidly expanding
Army, including many of his friends.

In his second year at Harvard, he felt very much alone.

The film flickered to life in the smoky auditorium, lighting the
darkness and capturing his attention. The cartoon was funny, in its
own way, made all the more comical by the grim music played by the
orchestra. The newsreel was what he wanted to see and it came to life
immediately following the silly cartoon.

"Northern Mexico – Heroic soldiers smash cowardly Mexican resistance,"
the screen read. The cameraman panned across the carefully designed
scene, showing grimy, yet grinning American soldiers standing over a
row of dead Mexicans, all of whom wore civilian clothes. The film cut
to the next scene, showing American soldiers marching in step through
the streets of a city to Sousa's "Washington Post March." Was the city
American? Mexican? It was impossible to tell.

"Outside Cleveland, Ohio – Murderous Socialists repay their debt to
society," the film informed its viewers, showing line upon line of
scantly fed men repairing a railroad track. Another scene showed the
backs of a squad of American soldiers, uniformed and holding rifles to
their shoulders. A line of men, Socialists, it was presumed, fell as
the rifles puffed smoke. The Statue of Liberty loomed in the
background. How ironic.

Then, a line of plain, white wooden crosses were shown, accompanied by
a sad rendition of "Taps" from the orchestra. "Innocent victims of
Socialist madmen and Mexican criminals memorialized." This was the
only time President Hearst was seen in the films. He was kneeling by
one of the crosses, laying a wreath upon a grave. It was a moving
scene, Saltonstall had to admit.

The newsreel was deeply depressing; yet, somehow, it hit home. He had
to compliment the director who made it. An excellent piece of
propaganda. Of course, the main feature would be, too. The feature was
set in Northern Mexico, and featured tall, heroic American soldiers
thwarting the devilish plots of the dark, sinister Mexicans.

The film gave him the irrational urge to join the Army and a
supernatural pride in his heritage – for God's sake, his family had
arrived on the Mayflower! In the end, though, as before, he just
returned to his studies. Leave the fighting to the soldiers. Someone
has to direct them.

June 1912 – September 1912

- The so-called Consolidation Camps, built to relieve the overflowing
jails of the United States, open across the Midwest, confining
Socialists and other social "undesirables" in a military prison,
guarded by Troopers of the ever-growing Federal Security Service.
Conditions in the camps range from bad to worse to dreadful. Detainees
receive inadequate food, clothing, and medical care. Insufficient
shelter and sanitation is the norm.

However, due to the remote locations of the camps and the White
House's iron control of the media, this fact receives no publicity and
the average American is completely unaware of the actions of their
government. Many, though, are suspicious, and "going West" gains a
profoundly negative connotation. In general, though, the American
populace is indifferent to the injustices of their government, finding
it simpler to muddle away their lives rather than question the
administration and their all-hearing Security Service.

- The resistance to William Randolph Hearst grows in leaps and bounds
throughout the summer and into the fall of 1912. Dubbed by the Hearst
administration as the "White Rose," (‘White' hypocritically implying
peace and absolute monarchism at once; ‘Rose' hinting at the state
flower of New York, the birthplace of the movement) both moderates and
radicals flood into the group.

Representative Jack London's masterful essay the "Iron Jackboot" ranks
among the greatest single propaganda pieces of United States history,
along with Thomas Paine's "Common Sense" and Theodore Roosevelt's "An
Unfair Deal." Just a month after writing the essay which would make
him the most famous Socialist in American history, Jack London is
captured by the FSS and shipped away, never to be seen again. He is
the only member of Congress known to have been killed by the
President's security machine.

- Meanwhile, in Mexico, Victoriano Huerta orders the rebellion against
the American occupiers in the northern states to simmer down. While
the relative discontinuation of guerilla operations causes a
propaganda coup for the United States government (Hearst's papers
claim that the spirit and will of the American soldier has defeated
the cowardly Mexicans), Huerta has a by far grander scheme in mind.

Huerta knows that the main source of patriotic fervor in the United
States, and, thus, possibly the only thing holding the Hearst
administration in power, is the success of the anti-Mexican party
line. By ordering a reduction (but not the discontinuation the United
States will see) in guerilla operations, Huerta hopes that the United
States Army, without a war to distract them, will see the true nature
of William Randolph Hearst. Huerta's playing a particularly dangerous
game with the future of his nation.

[Coriolanus]

Great to see you continuing this AH. I'm looking forward to this "White Rose" resistance.

[G.Bone]

interesting installment.

Keep writing! :)

[Beck Reilly]

A Loose Bandage Pt. 18

October 1912 – November 1912

- As November approaches, there is an odd sort of political tension
shimmering around the United States – despite the fact that there is
no real public political stage left. There's the Hearst
administration, with its broadcasting and security juggernaut. There's
the underground White Rose Society, fronted by a former Vice President
who seems to be daring Hearst to order his arrest. Finally, there's
the increasingly unaligned regular military, still trapped in Mexico
but with no remaining target for its anger.

The Mexicans and, especially, General Francisco Villa, leader of the
Mexican Army, are lying low in the torn battlefields of the northern
tier. The Socialists, Anarchists, and all other social miscreants are
locked away in secret prison camps, unable to degrade the character of
the average soldier. Suddenly, Hearst's seemingly endless reserve of
white-hot anger in Mexico is evaporating. Don't misunderstand, there's
still plenty of misguided rage locked within the soldiers long home
from the battlefield, but its beginning to look as if the reserve is
petering out.

The unspoken question throughout the nation: Will there or will there
not be an election on November 5?

It's all Roosevelt speaks of, of course. Traveling around the nation,
mostly by auto but, even, occasionally by air, as the government
controls the trains, Theodore Roosevelt is amassing support among
disillusioned workers, politicians, and industrialists, alike. From
stump to stump, Roosevelt hammers the Hearst administration, straying
beyond the boundary that has gotten others arrested, and glorifies the
virtues set forth in the Constitution. With no current military
adventures or national security escapades to distract it from the
worsening economy, the United States populace is increasingly
receptive to Roosevelt's message.

Hearst, meanwhile, seems to have completely forgotten about the
existence of an electoral process. "Elections, what elections?" is the
response from the Hearst administration. "Why, we'd completely
forgotten about those little bumps in the road so enshrined by the
Constitution. If it will make you all feel that much better, why not
go ahead with a formality such as elections?" After all, if you don't
vote for Hearst, you're liable to find yourself in a camp somewhere,
smashing rocks and growing thin. Besides, he's done so much for the
nation, how could any honorable citizen actually vote for anyone else?
And, if they do, so be it – elections can always be bought.

- So it is that in the middle of October, the White House makes
reference to the upcoming election, officially garnering in the
campaign for the Presidency. The elections will be monitored by none
other than the Troopers of the Federal Security Service. To ensure
Socialist tampering, of course.

Unsurprisingly, Hearst is nominated by…himself; after all, there's no
party backing anymore. Hell, for all intents and purposes, there is no
Democratic Party left in existence. All Democratic Congressmen have
long since declared themselves Independents or even joined the former
hated Republican Party. Hearst floods the media world with propaganda,
promising a further four years of supposed economic prosperity and
national security. Between all of Hearst's misinformation, it's a
wonder that Roosevelt has time to get in anything.

Roosevelt, too, is nominated by no single party. Rather, his is a
nomination of acclamation. No one, from Southern aristocrat to negro
steelworker is going to challenge his candidacy. As Roosevelt says,
"Only the true unification of the electorate will usher in the return
of democracy to this great land." Roosevelt's is a grassroots
campaign, one not guided by media blasts but of hometown speeches and
handshakes. Roosevelt's Vice Presidential candidate is none other than
former Speaker of the House James R. Mann of Illinois.

The world waits and holds its breath.

- In the intervening time, the reduction of guerilla attacks in Mexico
has solidified European backing of the Huerta regime. While the
Kaiser's Germany had been cautiously courting the beleaguered Mexicans
since the beginning of the war, British backing is a relatively new
phenomenon. Suddenly, British monetary aid begins to slowly accumulate
in Mexico City. After all, now that the United States is teetering on
the edge of defeat, only British money and the force of arms can
protect the oil fields of Tampico from Mexican harassment.

The Germans, on the other hand, have been consistent backers of the
Huerta regime, providing it with the money needed to pay the soldiers
of the Mexican Army and the legitimacy needed to keep the regime
afloat. With the United States against the ropes, German weaponry
begins arriving by the shipload in Veracruz. The Kaiser knows What a
useful ally these Mexicans could prove: from their unique position
they could tie down both American and British interests.

Thus, by the end of October, Mexico, the bastard nation of North
America, finds itself the darling of the European community. Pounds
and Marks, Francs and Rubles all flow freely through the banks of
Mexico City and into the hands of the government. Suddenly, the nation
who had formerly received no backing, is overflowing with foreign
currency. Of course, President Hearst screams about this "injustice"
from his seat in Washington, but what can be done to punish the
Europeans? Invade Canada? The idea is laughable.

- Meanwhile, election day comes and goes across the United States.

[Tom_B]

Still a very interesting TL. I think Hearst sliding into near dictatorship rings true. You may be overstating his dominance of the media--he struggled to supplant Pullizer's World, while Ochs turned around the NY Times and then there is Medill/Patterson/McCormick cast of characters with the Chicago Tribune.

Tom

[FederationX]

I just hope the United States pulls out of Mexico.

[Straha]

what are the political alignments of the parties in this ATL?

[Beck Reilly]

what are the political alignments of the parties in this ATL?

As of Pt. 18, there is one political party: The Republican Party (everyone else supports them but doesn't belong to the party). There are really only two ends of the political spectrum: Pro-Hearst and Anti-Hearst.

Tom, I am really not counting on the Hearst media for much. Just a little propaganda. Not too many Americans are completely blinded as to what is happening. They help him, but not by all that much.

[G.Bone]

Really shorter than the previous installments but good none the less. What is happening to Mexican culture and people now that it is finally being paid attention to?

[Beck Reilly]

Really shorter than the previous installments but good none the less. What is happening to Mexican culture and people now that it is finally being paid attention to?

Yeah. The election itself just seemed like such a good breaking point. Later installments will increase in length once again.

Mexican culture is booming with (excessive?) national pride. Revolutionary sentiment is dying across the nation and Huerta's regime is growing stronger. German weapons and, soon, German training officers, will be pouring into the nation, allying themselves together closely. Mexicans are turning inward, while, strangely, turning outward, as well. They now have a place on the international scene, but at the same time are growing almost cocky in their victory. After all, they beat the United States! Forget the fact that the US gave a half-assed effort at best...

[Beck Reilly]

A Loose Bandage Pt. 19

November 1912 – January 1913

- Voters go to the polls across the United States of America, a former
paragon of democracy which, in three short years, has lapsed into a
quagmire of corruption and dictatorship. In many ways, it is an
election typical to many other in the relatively short history of the
nation. In the North, women stage rallies demanding the right to vote,
while in the South, blacks practically break out into a run in front
of the polling places, afraid to cross the line of burly white
brawlers determined to keep them from exercising their constitutional
right to vote.

However, some things have changed. Groups of white men hurry along
with the many blacks. Still others protest against the government,
hurling bricks and bottles of flaming alcohol or gasoline
(affectionately referred to as "Hearst Hissers" by the men throwing
them) at the blue-clad Troopers of the Federal Security Service. All
across America, riots erupt outside polling stations in major cities
as overzealous supporters of Roosevelt clash with the goons of
Hearst's FSS.

Unlike the average riot, however, the November Troubles, as they come
to be known (despite fact that the fighting, in one form or another,
would last well into 1913), see a total lack of on the part of the
riot control officers. Before long, police are mixing it up with other
cops, rioters are clashing with the FSS, and, on the government side,
weapons are being brandished across the nation. Key instigators are
dropping dead leading their followers into battle on the streets,
victims of the accurate sniper fire of the veteran Federal Security
Service. However, most riots were quickly ended, their organizers
shipped West and their ranks returned to anonymity.

- Theodore Roosevelt waits impatiently for the "official" results of
the election from the headquarters of the White Rose Society in
Chicago, Illinois. Long a bastion of socialism and industrial pride,
Chicago is at the forefront of opposition to the Hearst
administration. Thus, when the White Rose was driven from New York by
increased battalions of the Federal Security Service, the decision was
made to relocate to Chicago, which also happens to be the home state
of Roosevelt's Vice Presidential candidate, James Mann.

It is thus that on the early morning hours Roosevelt and his key
supporters gather around the wireless set to listen to the results
being broadcast around the nation. They know instantly that they have
been cheated.

- The results are similarly announced from the White House, itself,
where President William Randolph Hearst basks in the glory of his
improbably large victory. Declaring himself the champion by a margin
of nearly seven million votes, Hearst's remaining friends and
political allies celebrate in the White House. The only problem? Only
fourteen million voted in the election four years ago.

Even allowing for a numerical increase in the electorate, no one in
the United States really believes that Roosevelt received a measly
four million compared to Hearst's eleven million. The election is
decidedly fraudulent and, what's worse, everybody knows it. A defiant
Hearst, though, doesn't believe that anyone can touch him, not with
the Supreme Court in his pocket and the Federal Security Service at
his beck and call. That is, until a Chicago wireless station
broadcasts a recording of the Chief Justice of the Illinois Supreme
Court swearing a sober Theodore Roosevelt in as President of the
United States.

- The self-proclaimed President Hearst is outraged to say the least.
Enough is enough. Within the day, Hearst orders Attorney General
Palmer to issue an arrest warrant for every known member of the White
Rose Society including Roosevelt, himself. The charge: treason. Palmer
does exactly that and by nightfall on November 10, Theodore Roosevelt
is a wanted man.

Despite being a nominal outlaw, Roosevelt refuses to hide from the
Federal Security Service, instead daring their troopers to entire into
the working-class areas of Chicago, where the equally brutish White
Guard lies in waiting. Clashes occur regularly over the next month
between the two paramilitary organizations. Hearst, however, is the
one doing much of the hiding, staying within the confines of the White
House, fearful of the nation he claims to be leading. Meanwhile,
Roosevelt makes speeches across Chicago and, indeed, thanks to the
printing presses of the Chicago Tribune, these speeches are spread in
print covertly across the nation.

By Christmas of 1912, after nearly a month of cat-and-mouse, Roosevelt
finally builds up the support needed to order Congress to convene in
Chicago. Hearst faces a dilemma. The FSS is clearly not up to the task
of defeating the White Guard. However, the loyalty of the military,
while not quite suspect, certainly leaves something to be desired.
Thus, he cannot use the military to crush Roosevelt's "insurrection."
Instead, he settles for setting a perimeter around the greater Chicago
area using FSS Troopers and building a similar, but defensive,
perimeter around Washington, itself.

- Congressmen from around the nation converge on Chicago, followed by
supporters and bodyguards of all types. Despite the supposedly
impermeable perimeter erected around the city, the Congressmen manage
to, slowly but surely, leak into the city in ones and twos, slowly
building a quorum inside the leased Auditorium Building on Michigan
Avenue. Hearst watches helplessly as his supposedly top-notch Federal
Security Service is unable to restrain a group of middle-aged
politicians.

By mid-January, Congress has assembled in Chicago to an extent great
enough to begin the process of rebuilding American democracy.
Congressional officers include Speaker of the House Nicholas Longworth
and Senate President pro Tempore Charles Dawes. The first order of
business is, of course, the removal of William Randolph Hearst from
the White House, where he clings ferociously to his dying dreams of
glory.

Unfortunately, this will not prove as easy as once thought. The first
decision: to impeach him or not. Well, his actions certainly justify
impeachment, but to impeach the President would in an odd paradox
confirm his position as President and, thus, turn Theodore Roosevelt
into a traitor and make this outlawed session of Congress illegal. In
which case any decision made by it under Constitutional law would be
illegal as well and the whole process would be right back where it
started. An odd paradox, yes, but an insurmountable problem, no.
They'd just have to find another way.

- In the last week of January, 1913, President Theodore Roosevelt and
Speaker of the House Nicholas Longworth countersign an order not
unlike the one signed by Hearst months prior. Only, in this case, it's
ordering the arrest of William Randolph Hearst on an identical charge
of treason. However, even from their entrapment in Chicago, Congress
knows that Hearst has built himself quite a nice little fort out of
Washington and manned it with the best and the brightest that the
Federal Security Service (and the pro-Hearst military factions) has to
offer.

Roosevelt announces in front of Congress that the only way to defeat a
military force is with another military force. He proceeds to ask
Congress to form an army (which will become known as the
"Congressional Army") for the express purpose of securing the arrest
of Hearst, the Presidential imposter. The stage is set.

[G.Bone]

I wrote about a "second civil war" in the DME forum a couple of hours ago!

Anyhoo- great installment. I like the trap that Congress has sprung on itself. Do supporters of the White Rose wear white roses in their button hole as a sign of support or something akin to a crest of arms? (I'm thinking of the War of the Roses type thing)

[Coriolanus]

Fascinating. I'm looking forward to where this is going....I already know what happens thanks to the Presidency list on one of the other pages, but I await with great anticipation how Hearst is removed from office.

[Beck Reilly]

Fascinating. I'm looking forward to where this is going....I already know what happens thanks to the Presidency list on one of the other pages, but I await with great anticipation how Hearst is removed from office.

Actually, the list of Presidents has changed slightly. For the immediate timeframe, though, yes, you already know who's going to win this little battle.

[Tom_B]

I guess Hearst will soon regret not nipping White Rose in the bud! Actually one thing I like about this is while it is a dark TL it does quite get totally dark.

[Beck Reilly]

A Loose Bandage Pt. 20

February 1913 – May 1913

- From across the nation, state governments answer the call of
Congress, calling the citizen soldiers of National Guard to arms in
defense of the American way of life. The part-time soldiers converge
slowly upon the city of Chicago, hindered by a lack of control over
the nation's railroads thanks to the Hearst-dominated Federal Railroad
Commission. The National Guardsmen are greeted upon arrival by
swelling ranks of soldiers of the Regular Army and organized groups of
Congressional brawlers, the White Guard.

To rein in this hodgepodge assembly of street-fighters, soldiers, and
workers, Congress appoints General John J. Pershing to oversee the
forceful reinstitution of democracy. General Pershing is, thus far,
the highest ranking officer of the Regular Army to join the
Congressional fold. Addressing his army for the first time in
mid-February, Pershing calls for "the eradication by force of arms of
the tyrannical regime of William Randolph Hearst" but sets the
liberation of Congress from their encircled position in Chicago as the
first priority of the Congressional Army.

- In Washington, Hearst is increasingly worried by the rather strange
turn of events which have befallen his government over the past six
months. However, Hearst is not altogether blind and naïve. Even from
his position a thousand miles to the east, Hearst knows the thin line
that is the Federal Security Service cordon of Chicago will collapse
in the face of the massed Congressional Army. Rather, Hearst recalls
the FSS from their positions around Chicago, transporting them back to
his capital to bolster the defenses.

With the blockade of Chicago "broken," badly needed supplies flood
back into the desperate city and Congressional representatives seep in
and out. The thousands of bureaucrats and clerks necessary to keep a
government ticking join their elected leaders in the nation's
temporary democratic capital. Telegraphs and public utilities are
restored; channels of communication are opened with the government of
Canada. By the beginning of March, something resembling an intact,
relatively functional Constitutional government is ready to do
business from Chicago. However, the Hearst government, which still
retains control of much of the eastern seaboard, continues to refuse
to conduct any sort of negotiations with the Roosevelt administration.

In mid-March, Congress issues orders to its army to secure the city of
Washington, by force if necessary. The final battle for the future of
the United States is about to begin, although, as it turns out, the
sides have yet to fully form.

- With the majority of the agents of the Federal Security Service
holed up with their leader in Washington, much of the nation swings
toward the Congressional camp. From Massachusetts to California, the
bare amount of federal orders increasingly come from Chicago. As if it
needs to be said, Hearst's forces no longer maintain their absolute
rule over the nation, instead, the Federal Security Service retains
control of only a city here and there. Hearst control over the
railroads is waning quickly, much like his hold over the military.

The last vestiges of Hearst control over the American heartland are
ripped apart when National Guard forces from Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky,
and Pennsylvania join together to seize control of the railroads in
their respective states. Little resistance beyond the obligatory,
isolated cases of sabotage is offered by either the FSS or the FRC
and, by the end of March, the Governors of the four states have opened
their rail lines for use by the Congressional government. By the end
of the month, Pershing's is making its way from the outskirts of
Chicago to the Maryland countryside.

- The Siege of Washington begins on March 4th, 1913. While the
Congressional Army takes positions in trenches surrounding the capital
of the United States, a grim, rainy inauguration is held on the lawn
of the White House. In attendance are the handful of aides still loyal
to William Randolph Hearst, a sizable crowd of FSS Troopers, and a
scattering of melancholy city residents. All in all, it is a rather
morbid ceremony, especially compared to the lavish celebration being
held in Chicago to commemorate Theodore Roosevelt's official
inauguration.

Within hours of the two inaugurations, the first artillery shells
begin to land among the government buildings in Washington City.
Meanwhile, the fanatical soldiers of the Federal Security Service lash
out at encamped Congressional soldiers with artillery fire of their
own. Both sides have enormous reserves of ammunition stockpiled for
just such a siege. Over the course of the next couple of weeks, the
two fighters dance around the ring and attempt to negotiate their way
out but, in the end, negotiations break down and the stalemate
continues.

Congressional attacks are repelled from the city's outskirts, taking
massive casualties for each and every frontal assault. The
well-entrenched Troopers of the FSS maul the attacking
Congressionalists, wounding or killing thousands. The FSS is too few,
however, to counterattack. It soon becomes apparent that the citizen
soldiers and brawlers of the siege army lack the skill needed to budge
the well-armed, battle-hardened fanatics of the Federal Security
Service.

- Thousands of miles away, Mexican and Congressional officials sign
the Treaty of Monterrey, guaranteeing the integrity of Mexican
territory and Mexican independence in exchange for which the Mexican
government will cease any and all hostilities against the United
States of America. In other words, status quo ante bellum pervades.
However, within days this frees up a majority of the American Army,
nearly one hundred and fifty thousand professional soldiers, all
commanded by President Roosevelt's personal friend, General Leonard
Wood.

It takes General Wood only a matter of minutes to decide with whom his
allegiance lies and, by late-March, the greater part of the American
Army is readying itself to join the struggle for democracy.

The advance contingents of Wood's Army joins General Pershing in the
waning weeks of April, nearly two whole months after the initiation of
the Siege of Washington. By mid-May, the rest of Wood's fifty-thousand
man contingent join the Congressional Army outside of Washington City.
The border of Mexico secure for the first time in almost three years,
and with over one-hundred-thousand soldiers left behind to assure that
it stays that way, the final chapter of the Hearst administration has
been written.

- In the second to last week of May, 1913, the Congressional Army
launches its assault on the demolished city of Washington. Meeting
fierce resistance from the zealous fighters of the Federal Security
Service, the soldiers of democracy nevertheless advance on the White
House. With the stub of the destroyed Washington Monument in sight,
and the half-collapsed White House looming in the background, the
weary men of the attacking army are denied their goal.

Early in the morning of May 27, Army Chief of Staff Frederick Funston
escapes house arrest in the War Department with a company of loyal
soldiers. A half-hour later, Funston steps into the White House,
pistol leveled, and arrests the man who claims to be President of the
United States. A white flag is raised from the top of the White House
and William Randolph Hearst is escorted from the property by an Army
Guard. The following message is received via telegraph by Theodore
Roosevelt and Congress in Chicago:

"Washington, DC, under Army control. William Randolph Hearst under
arrest. Top aides under arrest. Please come at once to claim your
rightful place in the capital of the United States of America. General
Frederick N. Funston."

It's over.

[G.Bone]

I was wondering when you were going to update this TL...

With the American presence out of Mexico, does this mean that their economy will be stable enough to avert the waves of immigration to the US in OTL? Will the Washington Memorial be re-built ala London post-Great Fire or the same design? With the strict immigration laws implemented in the Western states, does this mean that the immigration to CA has been re-directed to Australia and other places?

[Beck Reilly]

With the American presence out of Mexico, does this mean that their economy will be stable enough to avert the waves of immigration to the US in OTL?

Well, yeah. But it's going to be stable enough for a lot of other things, as well. And these other ventures might just destabilize their economy.


Will the Washington Memorial be re-built ala London post-Great Fire or the same design?

The correct question probably is: will Washington, DC, be rebuilt at all?


With the strict immigration laws implemented in the Western states, does this mean that the immigration to CA has been re-directed to Australia and other places?

Immigration to the United States is going to come to a stand still. Especially considering the decrepit state of affairs between the US and Mexico in the years to come.

[Beck Reilly]

A Loose Bandage Pt. 21

June 1913 – October 1913

- President Theodore Roosevelt's jubilant and triumphant arrival in
the capital of the United States quickly becomes a rather sober
affair. To Roosevelt's eye, the scarred city looks more like the
battlefields of Cuba than the capital he left eight years ago. Much of
the city is completely destroyed, its roads pockmarked with shell
craters, its building nothing more than charred remains, and much its
population either dead or refugees in the surrounding cities. While
the government may persist, its house has been thoroughly ruined.

From the blackened hole of the once-glorious Capitol Building, to the
burnt stump of the Washington Monument, to the battered White House,
the extent of the destruction is enough to bring the hardened
President to private tears. That night, a jagged piece of the Capitol
Building sitting upon the desk of the hotel room, Roosevelt decides
that America needs a fresh start. A message is sent to Congress in
Chicago, ordering the body to remain in the industrial heart of the
nation. Within a week, Teddy Roosevelt boards a train leaving the
nation's capital and ultimate monument to the destruction of
dictatorship.

- For the United States, the next six months are a time of rebuilding:

- First (and foremost): the punishment of William Randolph Hearst.
Within a month of the final assault on Washington City, a Grand Jury
is assembled in New York City which quickly indicts the former
President on several counts of murder, treason, and numerous other
felonies. However, despite the roaring start of the Hearst case,
within months, he is cooling his heals in prison, awaiting his day in
court. The problem is that the federal government is at a loss as to
what to do with the former President.

The man's crimes would assure the average citizen of a swift execution
and unceremonious burial. Of course, Hearst is, in fact, a former
President of the United States and the damage done to the nation's
reputation, not to mention that of the Office itself, cannot allow for
an execution. So, while Congressmen and Governors disagree as to the
appropriate punishment for the country's worst President, there is
simply too much else to be done to warrant such an enormous debate.

On the other hand, the government is quick to divide up Hearst's
assets. Again, there is some conflict within the halls of Congress as
to the future of his media empire, but, in the end, lacking any
meaningful historical precedent, agree to form a government-funded
autonomous national broadcasting system, known as the United States
Broadcasting Corporation (USBC). In point of fact, Congress has
learned a powerful lesson in the usefulness of propaganda, one that
they're not going to let slip from their fingers. The USBC, which
finds itself in possession of several newspapers and radio stations,
is nominally an autonomous corporation outside of government
intervention (except for a Congressionally-appointed Chairman).

- Second on the national agenda: a push for a series of Constitutional
Amendments designed to restructure the government in order to assure
the future of American democracy. Congress, meeting in its
semi-permanent home in the Auditorium Building of Chicago, begins
discussion on several key issues which could, supposedly, have
prevented the abuse of power that was the Hearst administration.
However, such talks require radically altering the face of the United
States government and, as such, the matter is extremely complicated.

Debate drags on long into the autumn of 1913 until, finally, in
November, Congress reveals its theoretical amendments to the
Constitution:

The Sixteenth Amendment abolishes the current office of President of
the United States, replacing it with the much weaker State President.
A largely ceremonial Head of State, the new State President is elected
by universal suffrage (giving women the right to vote) for a term of
four years. The State President is the Commander-in-Chief of the
military and signs bills into law and can veto those bills as well. He
has the ability to submit to Congress any referendum focused on the
foreign affairs of the nation and can dissolve Congress for a period
lasting no longer than two weeks, at which time a new election is held
and Congress can not be dissolved for two years following.

The Seventeenth Amendment creates the office of the Secretary General
of the United States Congress, an official appointed by Congress to
serve as Head of Government for a term coinciding with that Congress.
He is a member of the majority party in Congress and is elected on the
first day of a Congressional session. The Secretary General appoints
members to the State Cabinet (see the Eighteenth Amendment) and serves
as its head. He has the sole power over military appropriations but
not over operational command. Like the State President, all bills must
be signed into law by the Secretary General and can be vetoed. He has
virtually sole authority over domestic policy. He is the
Commander-in-Chief of the Capital Guard, a paramilitary body created
to protect the capital city from enemies both foreign and domestic.
All legal acts of Congress and State Decrees must be countersigned by
the State President, the Secretary General, and the departmental head
who's department is effected by the act.

The Eighteenth Amendment creates a Constitutionally-mandated State
Cabinet, which jointly clarifies and conducts the policies of the
United States, and has at its disposal both the civil services and the
military forces of the United States. The State Cabinet consists of:
The Secretary of State; The Secretary of War; The Secretary of the
Economy, Finance, and Industry; The Attorney General; The Secretary of
the Interior; and The Secretary of Education. All positions are to be
filled within one month of the Secretarial inauguration. All positions
are to be filled within one month of the resignation or dismissal of
any member. All appointments to the State Cabinet are proposed by the
Secretary General and are approved by the State President. Congress
reserves the right to impeach any member. The State Cabinet is
presided over by the Secretary General.

The ratification process is slow and painstaking, especially after
President Roosevelt comes out against the castration of the Office of
President. However, the amendments slowly but surely make their way
through the state legislatures. The people of the United States are,
frankly, tired of dictatorial Presidents and are looking to Congress
to lead the country in the future.

[stephen_dean]

what has happened to the united states gold reserve, was it stashed away in a secret hide away, or still sitting where it lay?

are there any nurembuerg style trials, or purges of people who supported the dictatorship?

what is the world view of the events in the America's

[G.Bone]

Why is the "new" Prez called State President?

Otherwise from that- good to see this TL alive! :D :) ;) :p

[Beck Reilly]

- "What has happened to the United States gold reserve? Was it stashed away in secret? Or is it still sitting where it lay?" The Third Bank of the United States, created by an executive order, never accumulated anywhere near the wealth it obtained in OTL. Much of the nation's wealth remains firmly in private banks and the pocketbooks of a select group. What money the Third Bank did accumulate, was stored in New York and Philadelphia. Both cities remained under FSS control for a while, but eventually the FSS was forced to pull back and simply left the gold where it lay. In other words, the nation's is safe and sound.

- "Are there any Nuremberg-style trials? Are there any purges of people who supported the dictatorship?" No to #1. Yes to #2. While there is not a single large trial with numerous defendents, the most radical (read: a couple of hundred people) supporters of Hearst are purged from service while an even smaller number face criminal prosecution. Generally, though, amnesty is granted to most (although, promotions for these men will be hard to come by).

- "What is the world view of the events in the Americas?" The Europeans, and especially the Germans, were consistent backers of the Mexicans in their fight against the Hearst regime. Most of Europe simply watched in a combination of fascination and distaste as Hearst took power and most switched recognition to the Roosevelt government late in 1912.

- "Why is the new President called the 'State President'?" No particular reason, really. A new name was needed in the years following the "dictatorship" and "State President" has a certain ring to it. There is much more a sense of national unity following the Hearst administration than many would suspect. When the states were forced to bond together with their elected Congress, it solidified the nation. "State" is simply a recognition of this new-found coherence and an allusion to him being the Head of State.


Keep these comments coming....

[Straha]

is America more of a parliementary state on the lines of the UK model?

[Beck Reilly]

is America more of a parliementary state on the lines of the UK model?

It's more along the lines of a semi-presidential system like the current French or the Finnish government.

[FederationX]

Is the president list still the same, or did you change it?

[Beck Reilly]

Is the president list still the same, or did you change it?

Changed it somewhat. Still sort of working on it.

[G.Bone]

What powers does the Secretary of the Economy has?

Will a National Security Agency be founded under the Attorney General or will the Capital Guard simply assume both duties as domestic & international security? (for the nation rather than the Capital)

What will be the fate of the District of Columbia? Will it be replicated in Illinois?

Will the system of voting be altered to porportional representation so that third parties (i.e. Green Party) be voted in?

Will Mr. Roosevelt be mindful to the environment as he was in OTL?

[Beck Reilly]

- "What powers does the Secretary of the Economy have?" The Secretary of the Economy, Finance, and Industry will become the third most powerful man in the nation, after the First Secretary (I'm still working on the new US government...) and the State President. He has roughly the duties (and powers) of the Secretary of the Treasury, Secretary of Commerce, and the Secretary of Labor combined. In other words, he's a very powerful man.

- "Will a National Security Agency be founded under the Attorney General or will the Capital Guard simply assume both duties as domestic & international security (for the nation rather than the Capital)?" Rather than forming another law enforcement agency, the duties of the United States Marshals Service are going to be expanded greatly during the Great War. The Capital Guard is more of a garrison force commanded directly by Conrgess for the capital city than a law enforcement agency.

- "What will be the fate of the District of Columbia? Will it be replicated in Illinois?" No. It will be determined that the threat posed by having a seperate capital city (i.e. one not representing the demographical makeup) is actually a security risk. It is feared that, by having a city designed to serve the government only, the government can take complete charge of said city and use it for their own purposes. Thus, Congress will choose a normal, functioning city to house the US capital. Obviously, there are only a few choices, and Chicago seems as good of choice as any.

- "Will the system of voting be altered to porportional representation so that third parties (i.e. Green Party) be voted in?" State elections and Congressional elections remain the same. The State President is elected by popular vote of the entire nation while the First Secretary is appointed by a majority of Congress (from the majority party).

- "Will Mr. Roosevelt be mindful to the environment as he was in OTL?" Of course. But he will, obviously, be distracted by more pressing issues for much of his administration...(rebuilding the United States and the Great War, for instance...)

[Unknown]

I must say, I like this timeline.

Is the movie Citizen Kane going to be different in this AH (assuming Orson Welles has been born)?

How far do you plan to take this timeline?

How many people died during the fighting between Hearst and Roosevelt?

BTW, it is good to see a timeline where Roosevelt is the hero.

Keep up the good work!!!

[Beck Reilly]

- "Is the movie Citizen Kane going to be different in this AH (assuming Orson Welles has been born)?" I should think so. Maybe a little.

- "How far do you plan to take this timeline?" Still to be determined, but probably until the mid-1950s.

- "How many people died during the fighting between Hearst and Roosevelt?" Casualty Breakdowns for the Hearst Administration look something like this:

app. 11,000 killed (Mexican Insurrection).
app. 9,000 killed (Political Internments).
app. 2,500 killed (Riots).
app. 14,000 killed (2nd Civil War - Roosevelt).
app. 18,000 killed (2nd Civil War - Hearst).
app. 8,000 killed (2nd Civil War - civilians).

All-in-all, Hearst's four years in office saw somewhere around 62,500 Americans killed for one reason or another. This is the highest casualty count (obviously) since the Civil War in the 1860s.

[G.Bone]

When will the next installment come out?

Wouldn't merging the US capital with Chicago's administration end up a logistical nightmare, being that you have the municiple and the federal in that city?

Has there been any improvements within the military structure and arms to the point that TTL's Great War will be significantly altered?

How's Mexico after this coup de tat?

What is the speed of an unleaded swallow? :D

[Tom_B]

Still one of the most interesting TL on the Board. One thing I like is that new American government sees the folly of executing Hearst. One problem I see with the revised Cosnstitution though is what happens if different parties control the House and Senate--how is a Secretary General chosen?

Who gets to pick Supreme Court Justices--the Seceretary General?

Anyway please continue.

Tom

[Beck Reilly]

- "When will the next installment come out?" Don't know. Maybe not 'til next weekend.

- "Wouldn't merging the US capital with Chicago's administration end up a logistical nightmare, being that you have the municipal and the federal in that city?" For a time, yeah it would. However, Chicago has the advantage of NOT being the state capital, simplifying things somewhat. Generally, though, things will continue in the city government as normal, while the federal government goes about its business running the nation.

- "Has there been any improvements within the military structure and arms to the point that TTL's Great War will be significantly altered?" The US will generally be more prepared. Three levels of military service will come out of this: The Regular Army, the US Volunteers, and the US Militia. The Regular Army will be much like OTL's Army. The Volunteers will be an all-volunteer (suprise, suprise) force run at a state-level much like our National Guard. The Militia will be a community-based compulsory (all males between the ages of 18 and 21) reserve force under the control of the respective Governors, unless Congress votes to nationalize them, at which time they undergo extensive (but shortened) training. Meanwhile, the US government will invest more in technology, like armor, after the trench fighting around DC. However, these preparations won't be anywhere near complete in 1916...

- "How's Mexico after this coup d'etat?" Mexico is turning to the one nation who supported them fully during the Insurrection period: The German Empire. Within months, they are going to sign a treaty with the Germans and get an extensive revitalization of their military. Roosevelt's not going to like it, but, hey, what can he do? Start another war? I don't think so. This will be near complete by 1916...

- "One problem I see with the revised Cosnstitution though is what happens if different parties control the House and Senate--how is a Secretary General chosen?" Whichever Party controls Congress (majority of combined number of Senators and Representatives). The Secretary General must come from their ranks. He must be, then, elected by a majority in the House and a majority in the Senate. The goal is to elect the most balanced candidate possible and try to prevent extremes from both sides from taking power.

- "Who gets to pick Supreme Court Justices--the Seceretary General?" Correct. I'm thinking about changing the Secretary General to the First Secretary. It's easier to type and I like the sound of it better.


These questions are great! They help me straighten out the story in my own mind. Keep them coming and don't hesitate to ask.

[Imajin]

What happens to Washington, DC? Is it simply re-integrated into Virginia, and is there any progress at all rebuilding it's monuments, even without the Federal Capital there?

[stephen_dean]

was there a naval element to the civil war, and if so, do any of the naval resources of the united states end up being seized by other nations or striking out on there own?

The library of congress probally took some shells, so i take it there are a few questions on patents, copywriting and things of that nature, and if things were saved where do they go?

Where do yuu think all the immigrants from our TL will be going?

So mexico is rising from the ashes, i hope they get to have a few aces, i think a hispanic red baron would be a great character.

[Beck Reilly]

- "What happens to Washington, DC? Is it simply re-integrated into Virginia, and is there any progress at all rebuilding it's monuments, even without the Federal Capital there?" It's going to become something of a living museum. Many of the monuments and, indeed, the museums, are going to be rebuilt. However, the government structure itself, is not going to return. It will eventually hand control over to Maryland (the Virginia portion was given back to said state in 1845 or 1846, I forget which).

- "Was there a naval element to the civil war, and if so, do any of the naval resources of the united states end up being seized by other nations or striking out on there own?" First, I'm confused about the seizures by other nations. What nations? It's a civil war, all internal. Anyways, the Navy was conspicuously loyal to the Roosevelt government anyhow, with almost no dissention. Roosevelt was, after all, once the Assistant Secretary of the Navy.

- "The library of congress probally took some shells, so i take it there are a few questions on patents, copywriting and things of that nature, and if things were saved where do they go?" Most everything was saved. Just because Hearst had no respect for the rules laid forth in the Constitution, does not mean he had no respect for the history of it or the men who wrote it. Most if it will join the Federral government in Chicago.

- "Where do yuu think all the immigrants from our TL will be going?" The usual. Australia, New Zealand, South Africa...

[stephen_dean]

First, I'm confused about the seizures by other nations. What nations? It's a civil war, all internal. Anyways, the Navy was conspicuously loyal to the Roosevelt government anyhow, with almost no dissention. Roosevelt was, after all, once the Assistant Secretary of the Navy.

i meant, lets say a naval ship of some sort were, in say japan when hostilities broke into open civil war, would it be taken into custody, but since the navy was loyal to Roosevelt that is a moot question.

thanks for tl, makes for great reading.

Since im in Northern Maine, and it rarely if ever gets into ATL, is there any way something really unusual or monumental can happen there, just this once? i know this request is probally ASB material.

[FederationX]

i meant, lets say a naval ship of some sort were, in say japan when hostilities broke into open civil war, would it be taken into custody, but since the navy was loyal to Roosevelt that is a moot question.

thanks for tl, makes for great reading.

Since im in Northern Maine, and it rarely if ever gets into ATL, is there any way something really unusual or monumental can happen there, just this once? i know this request is probally ASB material.

How about a real war between the United States and the United Kingdom over the border of Maine and New Brunswick? In real life it was settled,but could have led to a war.

[Coriolanus]

Good work so far! I'd love to see more, Reilly.

[Beck Reilly]

A Loose Bandage Pt. 21

June 1913 – October 1913

- President Theodore Roosevelt's jubilant and triumphant arrival in
the capital of the United States quickly becomes a rather sober
affair. To Roosevelt's eye, the scarred city looks more like the
battlefields of Cuba than the capital he left eight years ago. Much of
the city is completely destroyed, its roads pockmarked with shell
craters, its building nothing more than charred remains, and much its
population either dead or refugees in the surrounding cities. While
the government may persist, its house has been thoroughly ruined.

From the blackened hole of the once-glorious Capitol Building, to the
burnt stump of the Washington Monument, to the battered White House,
the extent of the destruction is enough to bring the hardened
President to private tears. That night, a jagged piece of the Capitol
Building sitting upon the desk of the hotel room, Roosevelt decides
that America needs a fresh start. A message is sent to Congress in
Chicago, ordering the body to remain in the industrial heart of the
nation. Within a week, Teddy Roosevelt boards a train leaving the
nation's capital and ultimate monument to the destruction of
dictatorship.

- For the United States, the next six months are a time of rebuilding.

First (and foremost): the punishment of William Randolph Hearst.
Within a month of the final assault on Washington City, a Grand Jury
is assembled in New York City which quickly indicts the former
President on several counts of murder, treason, and numerous other
felonies. However, despite the roaring start of the Hearst case,
within months, he is cooling his heals in prison, awaiting his day in
court. The problem is that the federal government is at a loss as to
what to do with the former President.

The man's crimes would assure the average citizen of a swift execution
and unceremonious burial. Of course, Hearst is, in fact, a former
President of the United States and the damage done to the nation's
reputation, not to mention that of the Office itself, cannot allow for
an execution. So, while Congressmen and Governors disagree as to the
appropriate punishment for the country's worst President, there is
simply too much else to be done to warrant such an enormous debate.

On the other hand, the government is quick to divide up Hearst's
assets. Again, there is some conflict within the halls of Congress as
to the future of his media empire, but, in the end, lacking any
meaningful historical precedent, agree to form a government-funded
autonomous national broadcasting system, known as the United States
Broadcasting Corporation (USBC). In point of fact, Congress has
learned a powerful lesson in the usefulness of propaganda, one that
they're not going to let slip from their fingers. The USBC, which
finds itself in possession of several newspapers and radio (a medium
which has spread somewhat due to the interest of the Hearst
administration) stations is nominally an autonomous corporation
outside of government intervention, except for a
Congressionally-appointed Chairman.

- Next on the national agenda: a push for a series of Constitutional
Amendments designed to restructure the government in order to assure
the future of American democracy. Congress, meeting in its
semi-permanent home in the Auditorium Building of Chicago, begins
discussion on several key issues which could, supposedly, have
prevented the abuse of power that was the Hearst administration.
However, such talks require radically altering the face of the United
States government and, as such, the matter is extremely complicated.

Debate drags on long into the autumn of 1913 until, finally, in
November, Congress reveals its theoretical amendments to the
Constitution:

The Sixteenth Amendment abolishes the current office of President of
the United States, replacing it with the much weaker State President.
A largely ceremonial Head of State, the new State President is elected
by universal suffrage (giving women the right to vote) for a term of
four years. The State President is the Commander-in-Chief of the
military and signs bills into law and can veto those bills as well. He
has the ability to submit to Congress any referendum focused on the
foreign affairs of the nation and can dissolve Congress for a period
lasting no longer than two weeks, at which time a new election is held
and Congress can not be dissolved for two years following.

The Seventeenth Amendment creates the office of the First Secretary of
the United States Congress, an official appointed by Congress to serve
as Head of Government for a term coinciding with that Congress. He is
a member of the majority party in Congress and is elected on the first
day of a Congressional session. The First Secretary appoints members
to the State Cabinet (see the Eighteenth Amendment) and serves as its
head. He has the sole power over military appropriations but not over
operational command. Like the State President, all bills must be
signed into law by the First Secretary and can be vetoed. He has
virtually sole authority over domestic policy. He is the
Commander-in-Chief of the Capital Guard, a paramilitary body created
to protect the capital city from enemies both foreign and domestic.
All legal acts of Congress and State Decrees must be countersigned by
the State President, the First Secretary, and the departmental head
who's department is effected by the act.

The Eighteenth Amendment creates a Constitutionally-mandated State
Cabinet, which jointly clarifies and conducts the policies of the
United States, and has at its disposal both the civil services and the
military forces of the United States. The State Cabinet consists of:
The Secretary of State; The Secretary of War; The Secretary of the
Economy, Finance, and Industry; The Attorney General; The Secretary of
the Interior; and The Secretary of Education. All positions are to be
filled within one month of the Secretarial inauguration. All positions
are to be filled within one month of the resignation or dismissal of
any member. All appointments to the State Cabinet are proposed by the
First Secretary and are approved by the State President. Congress
reserves the right to impeach any member. The State Cabinet is
presided over by the First Secretary.

The ratification process is slow and painstaking, especially after
President Roosevelt comes out against the castration of the Office of
President. However, the amendments slowly but surely make their way
through the state legislatures. The people of the United States are,
frankly, tired of dictatorial Presidents and are looking to Congress
to lead the country in the future.

[G.Bone]

erm...Becky...you posted this before on page 7...

[Beck Reilly]

erm...Becky...you posted this before on page 7...

Beck, please. It's a full name of its own - a male name. "Becky" is a girl's name.

It's slightly modified. (a.k.a. A couple of words are different. Secretary General is changed to First Secretary.)

[G.Bone]

Ah. Shame that the First Secretary is known as that, due to the bulkiness of the name. I was thinking more along the lines of Prime Minister or Vizier. *shrugs. Anyhoo- when's the next new installment coming?

[Beck Reilly]

A Loose Bandage Pt. 22

November 1913 – February 1914

- The Kaiser's government continues to pour money into Mexico. Much of
the initial money goes towards rebuilding the infrastructure of the
damaged nation, building roads and railroads, rebuilding cities and
ports. Pretty soon, however, President Huerta is secretly asking the
Germans for much more than railroad ties and bank loans: they're
asking for weapons of war and the training to put them to effective
use.

Thus, in December of 1913, a full eight months after the last American
soldiers stepped foot back over the Rio Grande, the Mexican government
signs a military treaty with the German Empire. The treaty guarantees
a steady flow of German weapons and training personnel to the North
American nation and, among other things, support to create a Mexican
weapons industry. By the end of that month, the first German soldiers
and advisors are starting to land in Veracruz.

Predictably, Teddy Roosevelt is absolutely ripping his hair out. Not
only is it a violation of the hundred-year-old Monroe Doctrine, but it
is a direct challenge to the United States government. Of course,
though, there is, in the end, nothing that the American president can
do about the treaty. After all, the U.S. Army had been in combat in
Mexico just a year earlier, and for the year before that as well; no
one wants to go back to that situation, least of all the
Republican-dominated Congress.

For the first time since its creation, the Monroe Doctrine cannot be
enforced by its creators. The U.S. government whines and complains,
but gets nowhere. Their complaints go unheeded by all of Europe, with
the possible exception of Britain, who has oil interests on the
Mexican coast.

- With the capital of the United States laying in ruins and virtually
the entire federal government relocated to the temporary capital in
Chicago, Congress debates and debates and finally agrees to legally
relocate the capital. The obvious choice, of course, is Chicago.

Soon after the end of the Second American Revolution, professors and
politicians alike had agreed that it was the isolation of the American
capital which had allowed Hearst to hold onto his stronghold for such
an extended period of time. That is, the isolation which made
Washington appear so functional and its establishment as a purely
governmental, non-residential city, had been its greatest weakness.
Hearst had been able to use the capital city and, indeed, firmly
entrench his own ideology in it due to the fact that it did not
accurately depict the demographic makeup of the nation.

Thus, in December of 1913, Congress passes the Residence Act, formally
establishing Chicago, Illinois, as the permanent capital of the United
States. Congress authorizes the appropriate funds to the construction
of a new Capitol and a new Presidential residence in Chicago, or, more
accurately, in the middle of Grant Park (formally renamed Lake Park
[ironically, its original name] since the government wishes to
discourage any thoughts of civil war, old or new).

Washington is allocated the appropriate funds to rebuild its museums
and monuments. The city of Washington is essentially relegated to the
role of a living memorial to the history of the United States, housing
the nation's museums, records, and monuments. The government
buildings, on the other hand, will never be rebuilt in Washington and
no critical government function will return to the city on the
Potomac.

- Meanwhile, in early January, a Constitutional Commission is convened
in Chicago to discuss the various merits of Congress's proposed
amendments. While the Sixteenth Amendment (that to create a permanent
and indivisible State Cabinet passes with relative ease), the other
two hit a loggerhead when Theodore Roosevelt comes down hard against
the creation of a Congressionally elected head of government and the
castration of the Presidency.

The states divide roughly in half on the issues of the creation of a
First Secretary and the elimination of the current office in
President. Without the necessary two-thirds majority, the Commission
comes close to ending a couple of times. Finally, though, noticing
that, despite his own personal popularity, public sentiment is turning
in favor of the amendments, President Roosevelt brokers an agreement,
forever known as the "Gentleman's Agreement," with his friend (and
Commission Chairman) Henry Cabot Lodge.

Essentially, in exchange for his support, Congress will allow
Roosevelt to retain much of his current powers, allowing him great
input in domestic affairs and almost complete control over the
international affairs. In general, this will be the line drawn between
the State President and the First Secretary. The President will
generally control foreign affairs, with all but Roosevelt having only
a slight input in domestic affairs, which will be controlled by the
First Secretary.

The two amendments narrowly gain the two-thirds majority required to
pass a Constitutional amendment and entire the books as the
Seventeenth (Office of State President) and Eighteenth (Office of the
First Secretary) Amendments.

- Shortly after the passage of the amendments, Congress convenes to
elect the very first First Secretary of the United States. Elected
from a field of candidates nominated by the State President, the newly
re-inaugurated Theodore Roosevelt, competition in the first election
is between nominees House Speaker Nicholas Longworth and Senators
Lodge and Dawes.

Despite the popularity of the revolutionary leader, Nicholas Longworth
and the relative power of former Senate Majority Leader Charles Dawes,
Roosevelt's full support of current Majority Leader Henry Cabot Lodge
is enough to tip the balance. Senator Lodge is elected First Secretary
of the United States Congress by a razor-thin margin, beginning a new
era in American history.

[G.Bone]

Umm.... I was reading this passage:

Constitutional amendment and entire the books as the

What does the word 'entire' mean in that sentence?

[Beck Reilly]

What does the word 'entire' mean in that sentence?

Typo. Should be "enter."

[Coriolanus]

Love this TL, Beck Reilly. I certainly hope to see more.

[Beck Reilly]

A Loose Bandage Pt. 23

March 1914 – September 1914

- First Secretary Henry Cabot Lodge creates an executive commission to
investigate the involvement of United States military personnel and
government bureaucrats in the atrocities committed by the Hearst
regime. Consisting of ten Representatives and Senators from all ends
of the political spectrum the National Commission on the Conduct of
the Hearst Administration becomes better known as the Holmes
Commission, after its Chairman, Senator Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., of
Massachusetts.

The Commission is founded to determine the extent of the military and
bureaucracy's involvement in the treasonous, unconstitutional acts
committed by the Hearst regime. It is not designed to determine the
extent of an individual's guilt but, rather, merely to identify
individuals or organizations heavily involved in the acts and target
them for potential legal action by the government. It is a
fact-finding group, not a courtroom.

- Meanwhile, in a courtroom in New York City, William Randolph Hearst
goes on trial. Represented by the nation's greatest legal mind,
defense counsel Clarence Darrow, he faces his former political mentor
and Secretary of State, William Jennings Bryan, who acts as the
prosecutor in the case.

United States v. Hearst is the biggest media event in the history of
the nation. Hundreds of witnesses, bystanders, and reporters pack into
the New York courtroom to get a glimpse and maybe even a photo of the
most (in)famous man in America. And not just the American press.
Foreign correspondents jam in alongside their American counterparts,
furiously taking notes on the criminal trial of a former head of
state.

The case, even before it begins, is scheduled to take at least one
year. Hundreds, if not thousands, of witnesses plan to testify before
the jury and a representative of the Holmes Commission is going to
make biweekly updates in front of the court, as new and more atrocious
activities of the Hearst regime are uncovered. Even the State
President of the United States, Teddy Roosevelt, himself, is planning
on testifying.

At the same time, in Chicago, government officials worry and fret over
the outcome of the trial. After all, Hearst was a former President
and, thus, he cannot be dealt with too harshly (no matter how much
Roosevelt would like to put a bullet in Hearst, himself).
Unfortunately, though, public sentiment demands that Hearst be
punished severely. After all, his administration was directly
responsible for the death of roughly 65,000 Americans and untold
numbers of Mexican citizens.

- In August of 1914, Congress passes the National Military
Readjustment Act. In the works since the Second Revolution ended back
in May of the previous year, the Readjustment Act is designed to
scale-down the post-Hearst military. The military establishment,
despite the wishes of both President Roosevelt and First Secretary
Lodge, is punished for its behavior under the Hearst government.

The NMRA set the authorized size of the United States Army at only
150,000, a tenth of those who served under arms during the Second
Mexican War. Much of the funding for new weapons systems is also cut
from the Army's budget, although development continues on individual
weaponry, machine guns, and armored cars, which the government hopes
will eliminate future problems with machine guns and trenches (as they
wreaked havoc on the US forces around Washington, during the closing
days of the war).

The act creates the United States Volunteers, a successor to the
National Guard program. The Volunteers are, as their name implies, an
all-volunteer force recruited from within the individual states and
placed under the control of state governors. The major difference
between the National Guard and the Volunteers is that the Volunteers
are much more federally regulated. All Volunteer officers must
complete training at any of several local military institutions in
order to receive a commission. The Volunteer force is designed to be
integrated into the Army in the event of war.

The Navy's appropriations are cut, although funding for various ships
already under construction is continued, for the time being. The
greatest result of the NMRA is the final construction of the
Virginia-class battleships and the commencement of the next-generation
New York-class all big-gun battleships, which, in the coming years,
will be the most powerful ships in the US Navy.

The Capital Guard, meanwhile, receives its first budget. The amount of
money lavished upon the Capital Guard by its controllers in Congress
is almost ridiculous when placed proportionately next to the Army's
appropriations, despite rules regulation such proportions. The Capital
Guard is given enough money to arm all of its infantry platoons with a
machine gun, to fund several cavalry and even motorized infantry, and
to fund the creation of a small maritime force to sail the waters of
southern Lake Michigan, despite treaties with Canada demilitarizing
the Great Lakes, characterizing the Capital Guard as a "police force,"
despite its decidedly military nature.

- With the Congressional elections approaching, a new political party
is founded by rogue Congressmen to rival the dominating Republican
Party. The Progressive Party is founded by none other than former
Wisconsin governor and current Senator Robert M. La Follette, Sr., who
begins to court Theodore Roosevelt to join the party.

Despite Roosevelt's inclination to do just that, as the Progressive
Party more wholly represents what he believes in than the Republican
Party, Roosevelt remains loyal to the party that had gotten him
elected Vice President, rejected him, and then gotten him elected
State President back in 1912, before that title had even come into
existence.

The Progressive Party soon becomes, as its name implies, the more
liberal of the two parties, although both are considerably more
conservative than either had been before the election of William
Randolph Hearst, the Second Mexican War, and the Second American
Revolution. Candidates are fielded in September for the upcoming
November election which will determine the course of the nation for
the next two years, at the very least.

[G.Bone]

Good- it reads more of a review/state of affairs rather than "something new" posts. I like the explanation of the Progressive Party and the bit about the Capital Guard. Will they be filling in the duties of the Secret Service as well in the near time future? Has there been motions of the U.S. Army merging with the Capital Guard and the Volunteers (a clunky name)? Please keep up the story!

[Beck Reilly]

I seem to be struggling from a severe case of ADD in terms of getting this thing done. Anyways, as an update, here's the list of Presidents (and First Secretaries) that I'm currently toying with...

[G.Bone]

huh. To overthrow one's President only results in more chaos. I like the bit about the military involved but wouldn't that spread the "wealth" that the US had in OTL to other regions? What happens to Europe given that the US is akin to Argentina or Brazil? (aka prone to military coups)

[Beck Reilly]

Does anyone know of a website where one can read the Color-Coded War Plans of the United States Army from the '20s and '30s? (Preferably not Red or Orange, which I already have). Thank you.

[Archangel Michael]

Does anyone know of a website where one can read the Color-Coded War Plans of the United States Army from the '20s and '30s? (Preferably not Red or Orange, which I already have). Thank you.

Wikipedia has a nice page about the US Army War Plans. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Color-coded_War_Plans)

[Beck Reilly]

Wikipedia has a nice page about the US Army War Plans. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Color-coded_War_Plans)

Thanks, but I'm looking for the specific plans themselves. Such as: War Plan Red (http://www.glasnost.de/hist/usa/1935invasion.html).

[Beck Reilly]

This is Europe at the end of the First Global War (1917-1920).

[davekohlhoff]

This is Europe at the end of the First Global War (1917-1920).

The Netherlands in the German Empire?!?!?!?

A lot of things on that map look very fishy but I won't say anything until you reveal how it happens.

[Beck Reilly]

The Netherlands in the German Empire?!?!?!?

A lot of things on that map look very fishy but I won't say anything until you reveal how it happens.

Could you name these problems? (As I imagine it's going to be awhile before the whole plot is revealed and if there are, indeed, serious problems, I would like to know about them.) If I cannot adequately explain the reason behind the problem, I'd like the opportunity to rework the war before I go to the trouble of writing it all.

[Straha]

very interesting ATL especially with the junta america.

[G.Bone]

Nice map although I am still waiting on for updates.

[davekohlhoff]

Could you name these problems? (As I imagine it's going to be awhile before the whole plot is revealed and if there are, indeed, serious problems, I would like to know about them.) If I cannot adequately explain the reason behind the problem, I'd like the opportunity to rework the war before I go to the trouble of writing it all.

The Netherlands had their own distinct culture and national identity by 1900. They aren't going to be peaceful inside of a German Empire.

If Germany is strong enough to take the Netherlands which is distinct from Germany, it ought to be able to take Bohemia and Moravia which are culturally assimilated with 1/3rd of the population German.

Your Greater Hungary is majority Slavic. Why such a nation would form and would ally against Germany which militarily surrounds it, is difficult to fathom.

None of these things are impossible individually but taken together the map seems highly implausible.

I'm interested in how you intend to pull it off.

[Beck Reilly]

I'm interested in how you intend to pull it off.

I'll briefly explain, but the majority will have to wait until I can finally gather all my thoughts onto paper (or computer).

Anyways, the trigger for TTL's First World War (a.k.a. the First Global War, not really the most imaginative of names, but that doesn't really matter) is the death of Franz Joseph and the succession of Franz Ferdinand to the Austro-Hungarian throne. Within months of the succession, he begins to call for the reforms he called for earlier in OTL, mainly the creation of a third, primarily Croat, Slavic kingdom as an equal to Austria and Hungary in the Empire.

This outrages Magyar nationalists (who, at the moment, hold down the Slavs of the kingdom in order to retain some type of dominant position within the Empire). Over the course of months, support within Hungary builds for the nationalists, who, when FF calls in earnest for the creation of a third kingdom, secede from the Empire.

The Austrians, of course, are equally bullshit. They're empire is being torn apart and, indeed, Austrian lands are soon separated from Austria proper by an unfriendly Hungary. The solution: Austria is going to use military force to subdue the rebellion, thus polarizing opinion in Hungary further in favor of the Magyar government. Of course, Austria (just Austria, the "-Hungary" part gone, obviously) would not act without the consent and support of the Kaiser (Wilhelm, that is), who pledges unconditional support.

The Hungarians, predictably, are scared shitless. They are sitting upon a restless Croat population within their own borders and are surrounded by two unfriendly powers. The solution of course, is that friends are needed. Hungarian emissaries slip across the border into Russia and Italy (and from there into France, as well).

The Russians (or perhaps, just the Tsar, is more appropriate), seeing an opportunity to weaken their Germanic neighbors (who, BYW, are becoming increasingly powerful), pledges support to Hungary, despite the fact that Hungary seceded simply because the Austrians wanted to grant greater rights to the Slavs in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, thus sucking the powers in.

Now, you got one hell of a sticky situation. Austria and Germany stand poised to crush the Hungarian rebellion, but suddenly the Russians are massing on their borders (despite the fact that serious civil problems are occurring within the Russian Empire). Meanwhile, the French stand ready to honor their treaty obligations to the Russians, and the Swedes are preparing to move against Russia, who has placed itself across the ring from Swedish ally Germany (boy, wouldn’t the Swedes like Finland back?).

The Kaiser thinks the Russians are bluffing and, in July of 1917, German and Austrian forces cross the border into Hungary. The Russians are not, and soon launch an invasion of Germany and Galicia. The Austrians and Germans declare war, as do the Swedes (the Italians are noticeably absent). The French hesitate, but once German forces are engaging the Russians, declare war on the Centrals, and begin the buildup.

Soon, Russian forces have sufficiently distracted the Germans so that the Hungarians fight the Austrians to a standstill. Meanwhile, the French launch a bloody invasion of Alsace-Lorraine, running into German fortified positions. The Russians are knocked out within five months, when massive military defeats in OTL Poland, combined with labor strikes pent up since the Russian victory in the Russo-Japanese War explode. Russian troops begin the defensive and the Tsar is overthrown in February of 1918. Johnny-come-lately Romania declares war on Hungary, Russia, and France.

Meanwhile, with Russian forces effectively out of the fight, Germany launches the Schlieffen Plan, in the capable hands of Erich Ludendorff, who, unlike, von Moltke the Dumber, executes it with the full force of the German Army, sweeping through swaths of the Netherlands and Belgium (instigating a British declaration of war). The British entry emboldens the Italians, who renege on their treaty obligations and declare war on Austria and Germany.

However, the British arrive in time to act as speed bumps in the German march on Paris, which just barely escapes encirclement in the summer of 1918. Another, smaller, expeditionary force lands in Hungary to shore them up, although, with both Austrian and German forces distracted by graver threats, they’ve been doing all right on their own.

America enters the war in August of 1918, with the sinking the SS Columbia, an American steamship by a German U-boat. The United States Expeditionary Force is quickly gathered up and sent to France, consisting of almost the entirety of the regular army.

On the eastern front, the Treaty of Riga is signed, which is, in some ways, similar to OTL’s Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. German forces continue to push to the outskirts of Paris when the Americans arrive, shoring up the Parisian defense. This is when the Germans launch their masterstroke. The Mexicans, German allies since the 2nd M-A War, declare war on the US and invade, beyond what the Americans thought possible of the revamped and retrained Mexican Army.

America is forced to withdraw the USEF from Europe, as its own territorial integrity comes first and foremost. With the Americans gone, the defense cracks and a renewed offensive sees German soldiers eating in Parisian cafes by Easter of 1919. France bows out of the war, as does Britain a couple of weeks later.

The Germans and, especially, are too exhausted by the war to reoccupy Hungary, which wins its independence. Since the beginning of the war, Austria has fractured furthermore into two nations, Austria and Czechoslovakia. Austria, so severely weakened by war that they actually fear the Italians, ask to join the German Empire, while the Czechs retain their independence by special request. The Germans aren’t going to risk renewing the war by invading what is already a virtual puppet. Austria loses much of her Adriatic possessions to the Serbians, who take much of Bosnia with the support of the British. Poland and Lithuania are created, as per OTL, as a buffer between the Fatherland and the Motherland. The Germans are sufficiently frightened by the new Soviet state as to allow the nominal independence of German-dominated nations to the east.

Meanwhile, the Germans continue to occupy northern France, Belgium, and the Netherlands. The Treaty of Amsterdam sees the end of the French and Belgian occupation, while the (admittedly, troublesome [for the moment]) Netherlands are retained. Seeing how the lack of coast hampered the operation of the German Navy against the British, the Kaiser sees the Dutch ports as a mighty handy thing to have.

The war in Europe (although not North America) is over, with the non-border related details still to be worked out.

I think this sufficiently explains the reasoning behind the map. I don’t see too much in this which is truly unsound, given the background of the war and the previous events of TTL. But, I might be wrong. Comments are welcome.

[Bill Cameron]

Beck,

Great TL and great thread. Thank you for sharing it with us.

One question:

... Austria has fractured furthermore into two nations, Austria and Czechoslovakia.

Why not three nations; Austria, a Czech nation, and a Slovak nation? We have that now in the OTL. Why knit the Czechs and Slovaks together into one nation as one done at Versailles?

In your ATL and despite their 'winning', the Germans (both in Germany proper and Austria) don't seem to mind an explosion of independent nations across central and eastern Europe. So why not Czech and Slovak nations?

Thanks again for sharing with us.


Bill

[Beck Reilly]

Why not three nations; Austria, a Czech nation, and a Slovak nation? We have that now in the OTL. Why knit the Czechs and Slovaks together into one nation as one done at Versailles?

In your ATL and despite their 'winning', the Germans (both in Germany proper and Austria) don't seem to mind an explosion of independent nations across central and eastern Europe. So why not Czech and Slovak nations?

The idea of a Czechoslovak Union goes back to the late 1800s, before the Treaty of Versailles. Indeed, the nation was founded in October of 1918, when the Austro-Hungarian Empire collapsed. And I wouldn't exactly call it an "explosion." There are only 3 new states in Central and Eastern Europe.

Thanks for the compliments.

Btw, I changed the map slightly. In exchange for Czechoslovak independence, Germany receives the Sudetenland.

[DuQuense]

Germany retains a Med outlet,- COOL- thru stuck up that narrow Adriatic sea It may have troubles.

Yugoslavia would probably be broken up into several smaller pieces. And with Blue to the North and South, but Green to the East, The politics would be Interesting. Especially as They are Natural Red Partners.

Sweden getting Finland Back means No Neutrality in GW2.

?How did the Japs Make out in all this?

[Michael Canaris]

Thoughts?
Why hasn't Italy done better against Austria ITTL than it did against Austria-Hungary IOTL?

[Beck Reilly]

Why hasn't Italy done better against Austria ITTL than it did against Austria-Hungary IOTL?

The war in Italy is, by necessity, much more defensive in nature than in OTL (i.e. the Austrians are on the defensive). With help from the Germans, they are able to hold back the tide on their 1917 border and, since they do not overextend themselves with any offensive, they are never decisively defeated. Plus von Hoetzendorf has other things to worry about (such as his hatred of the Magyars) and thus never gets involved enough on the Italian Front to drive many of the strategic and tactical blunders of the Austrian armed forces.

[Bill Cameron]

The idea of a Czechoslovak Union goes back to the late 1800s, before the Treaty of Versailles. Indeed, the nation was founded in October of 1918, when the Austro-Hungarian Empire collapsed.


Beck,

I knew about the age of the 'Czechoslovakia' idea, I just wondering about it being applied in practice in your ATL.

Sure, the Czechs and Slovaks have had the idea for a union for centuries, but it came apart relatively quickly once applied. That unified nation lasts for ~20 years between 1918 and 1938, when it is submerged under first Nazi and then communist occupation. When it re-emerges in the early 90s, it lasts less than a few years before splitting into its Czech and Slovak portions.

So the idea may be centuries old, but in practice it lasted less than one generation; ~25 years. Why assume a union in your ATL then? Or was it they way their Nazi and Communist occupiers treated both Czch and Slovak that made the idea of political union no longer feasible?

It's a teeny-weeny quibble, I admit. But those teeny-weeny bits are sometimes the ones that make an ATL really stand out from the herd.

And I wouldn't exactly call it an "explosion." There are only 3 new states in Central and Eastern Europe.

A rhetorical flourish! ;)

Thanks for the compliments.

No need to thank me for the compliments, you EARNED them after all!


Bill

[FederationX]

Anymore of the timeline?

[Archangel Michael]

Nice map of Europe.

[G.Bone]

Anymore of the TL? You there Beck Reilly?

[Justin Pickard]

I agree. Any chance of an update?

[KeithPatton]

War Plan Crimson was the Invasion of Canada. Try requesting it from the National Archives.

[Wendell]

Why would a member of the Senate be made First Secretary? It is safe to assume that the composition of the senate stays the same? Isn't Union President, or President a better title than "State President"?

[pacifichistorian]

"What Really Happened on December 7, 1911?"
...
fateful Sunday night in December of 1911.
*sigh* There is such a fascination with that date among Americans. Nobody bothers to look at a calendar (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_year_starting_on_Sunday). 7 Dec 1911 was a Thursday...

And could you have done a more transparent ripoff of the Reichstag fire?:rolleyes:

America enters the war in August of 1918, with the sinking the SS Columbia, an American steamship by a German U-boat.
*sigh* That is so tired. And the real reason the U.S. entered the war had damn all to do with Lusitania, anyhow.

BTW, your suggestion Cadillac is more successful than Ford, & Henry ends up "failed", is simply not credible. It was Henry who wanted to sell cheap cars, & was proven extremely right; if anything, it should've been William Murphy or Lemuel Bowen (OK, I looked it up (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadillac)) who failed, since they wanted to sell expensive cars...