Timeline of Events: 1913, May-July

Timeline of Events: 1913, May-July ​

May 1st: Negotiations begin in the American Senate for the passage of the Underwood Tariff and Revenue Act, which would establish a federal income tax and halve tariff rates. If the act passes, it wile change the main source of Government funds from import duties to income taxes.

Though the bill easily passes the house, it faces resistance in the Senate. While there is a fairly broad consensus on the need for a Federal Income Tax, the 2.5% tax on incomes over 2,000 dollars and halving of tariff rates both strike some Senators as unduly radical. The Democrats also have a much slimmer majority in the Senate, and though there are some Republican progressives supportive of the increase in the income tax, few are willing to sign onto the tariff reduction.

May 7th: Serbia and Greece secretly agree to fight jointly against Bulgaria, their ally in the first Balkan War.

May 11th: The California State Senate is unable to bring the Alien Land Act to a vote following a filibuster by Democratic State Senators. The legislation is soon thereafter withdrawn, with Bryan receiving many accolades in the Japanese press.

May 12th: Arizona passes a bill even more radical than that proposed in California, prohibiting any alien who has not declared their intention of becoming a citizen of owning land. Despite Bryan’s best efforts, the Republican-dominated Arizona House Assembly passes the bill on a party-line vote.

May 24th: The Turkish-American Steamship Nevada sinks after being struck by a Greek mine in the harbor at Smyrna. President William Jennings Bryan privately instructs Secretary of State Andrew Carnegie to see if the European Powers might be receptive to an American presence in Balkan arbitration.

May 27th: The Underwood Tariff and Revenue Act does not appear to have the votes necessary to pass the Senate. At the suggestion of Vice President Woodrow Wilson, the act will be split into two separate bills: The Revenue Reform Act and the Underwood Tariff Act. With support from progressive republicans for the Reform Act, it passes Congress quickly and has the votes in the Senate. With progressive republicans backing the bill, it now also includes a provision placing a 2.5% tax on corporations earning an annual revenue of 2,000 dollars or more. The bill is anticipated to generate a budget surplus, leaving open the question of what it might be spent on.

May 28th: The European diplomats involved in the drafting of a peace treaty between the belligerent powers of the First Balkan War inform Carnegie that the negotiations are close to completion, so there is little reason to involve the United States. Nonetheless, as a sop to Bryan, a role in negotiations is promised in the event of an outbreak of future hostilities.

May 30th: The Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which mandates the popular election of U.S. Senators, officially comes into effect.

June 1st: The Revenue Reform Act passes the Senate and is signed by President Bryan.

June 2nd: The Treaty of London is signed, ceding most of the Ottoman Empire’s European territories to Bulgaria, Serbia, and Greece.

June 5th: The Underwood Tariff fails in the Senate, with several Western and Southern Democrats refusing to endorse a bill they believe would endanger domestic sugar and wool industries. Outraged, Bryan gives a speech denouncing the ubiquity of lobbyists in Washington, promising that he will personally campaign against any candidate who voted no on the bill while having “Any financial interest in its rejection”. Directed by Bryan, the Democratic Senate Judiciary committee soon begins compiling a list of lobbyists thought to be influencing the passage of the bill.

June 7th: The list of lobbyists is read aloud by Bryan in his weekly address, along with the Senators they are thought to have connections to. Notably, on Wilson’s advice Bryan does not name any of the Democratic Senators who voted against the bill.

June 9th: The United Mine Workers President John Philip White is indicted in a Federal Grand Jury for violating the Sherman Antitrust Law.

June 13th: Serbia and Bulgaria accept Russian arbitration of their territorial dispute. Carnegie’s attempt to involve America in the negotiations is rebuffed by Russia, which sees itself as having a special interest in the region.

June 15th: After the US Senate Committee on Woman Suffrage reports favorably on an amendment in favor of Women’s suffrage, Bryan requests his political advisors to determine if a public endorsement of the suffrage movement would harm his prospects for re-election.

June 17th: Following the pacification of the Moro Rebellion, Bryan asks the diplomatic corps to canvas how soon a loyal client regime might be put in place in the Philippines.

June 19th: After forcing all ninety-six Senators to swear under oath that they have no financial interest in the Underwood Tariff Act, a slightly weakened version of it passes the Senate and becomes law with Bryan’s signature. It lowers the average tariff from forty to twenty-four percent. While Bryan was pushing for a halving of tariff rates, the revised version of the bill (in combination with the more radical revenue reform act) will provide the Government with a very large budget surplus over the next few years.

June 22nd: American diplomats and military commanders meet with Bryan to discuss the Philippines. They largely re-iterate the “findings” of the Schurmann Commission, which concluded that the Phillippine people were not prepared for Democratic self-rule. Bryan decides to bide his time on this matter.

June 24th: A meeting between Bryan and the Congressional Leadership of the Democrats occurs to decide on their next legislative priorities. While Bryan wants to pass a new slate of regulations to increase the bargaining power of Labor and permanently shift the Northern working class into the Democratic camp, the Congressional leadership believes that the creation of a Federal Reserve system to allow the country greater flexibility during financial emergencies is of paramount importance. Bryan reluctantly agrees to prioritize passing this legislation, while extracting from the leadership a promise that labor reform will be next on the agenda.

June 26th: Carnegie meets with Japanese Ambassador Chinda Sutemi in Washington. They agree on the renewal of the abritration treaty, and also discuss the prospects for a bilateral trade agreement which would offer American industrial assistance in return for lowered Japanese tariffs on American goods.

June 29th: The Second Balkan War begins as Bulgaria attacks Greco-Serbian forces at Slatovo and Salonica. Desiring a public display of America’s credibility as an international broker, Bryan sends Carnegie to Sofia.

July 2nd: The House of Representatives begins drafting the Federal Banking Reform Act.

July 5th: Carnegie arrives in Sofia. Romania has begun mobilizing against Bulgaria, but has thus far not declared war. Carnegie offers to arbitrate.

July 7th: In a closed-door meeting, Carnegie, Charles Vopicka (American Minister to Bulgaria, Romania, and Serbia), and diplomats from both Bulgaria and Romania try to hash out a deal that will avert Romanian entry into the war.

July 8th: Romanian mobilization continues but war planning is temporarily slowed as negotiations continue.

July 10th: Negotiations to avoid Romanian entry into the war have reached several stumbling blocks. While Bulgaria is willing to cede Silistria, it will not give away Southern Dobrudja. Romania also fears the possibility of Bulgarian hegemony in the Balkans in the event of a decisive Greco-Serbian defeat. Bulgaria cannot do much to allay this latter worry, though the defeat and retreat of several of its armies in the face of a Greek and Serbian offensives has helped.

July 12th: Carnegie floats the prospect of American aid to Romania in the form of agricultural equipment, artillery, and small arms financed through low-interest American loans. The shipments would allow for Romania to equip several divisions with more advanced rifles and machine guns and increase the amount of artillery supporting each battalion.

July 13th: Romanian entry into the war is avoided with the cession of Silistria and a bit over a third of Southern Dobrudja. Bulgaria and Romania sign a five year non-aggression pact. Romanian non-entry into the war is largely purchased through the promises of American aid, which will allow the Romanian military to become a sufficient deterrent to even a victorious Bulgaria. The announcement is a vital political victory for Bryan’s foreign policy strategy, but when news breaks out of the promise of low-interest American Loans, he is lampooned in the Press for “Buying peace in the Balkans with the hard-earned dollars of Americans”.

July 14th: Railroad workers overwhelmingly vote to begin a nation-wide strike for better wages.

July 15th: Most of the small Bulgarian force active on the Danube and in Silistria begin the journey Southeast toward the fronts with Serbia and Greece, where the Bulgarian Army has been put on the defensive.

July 16th: Carnegie, preparing for the return journey to Washington, cancels as news arrives informing him of a potential Ottoman mobilization against Bulgaria.

July 19th: Serbian counter-offensives begin grinding to a halt as Bulgarian forces entrench. The Serbian Army takes increasingly punitive casualties in its attempt to break-through the Bulgarian lines around Kalimanci, and on the 19th the Serbs also settle into a more defensive posture. The Greeks continue to build pressure toward the Kresna Pass.

July 21st: Ottoman mobilization proceeds more slowly than expected. It becomes clear that the Government is more interested in using the threat of war to secure the cession of Adrianople than it is in actually fighting one. The Ottomans hope to repeat the coup of the Romanians, and request a summit hosted by Carnegie.

July 22nd: The nation-wide railway strike is averted through negotiation between the Federal Government, railway workers, and railway trusts. The near-fiasco convinces Bryan of the urgent need for a more robust system of federal labor arbitration.

July 23rd: Greek attempts to take the Kresna pass fail. A Bulgarian counter-attack by forces diverted from the Serbian and Romanian fronts nearly encircles three Greek divisions, but only succeeds in partially destroying two. Bulgarian forces begin a counter-offensive, and shortly thereafter are once again outside of Salonica.

July 25th: Bryan’s political advisers convince him that openly campaigning on women’s suffrage is inadvisable. Bryan nonetheless writes a private letter to many of the organizers of the upcoming suffrage demonstration at the Capitol, thanking them for their service to the country and activism on behalf of the gentler sex.

July 26th: Despite the failure of negotiations, Ottoman mobilization halts in the face of Bulgarian successes against the Greek Army and an Austrian declaration of sympathy with Bulgaria.

July 28th: The Japanese-American Friendship Treaty, also known as the Honolulu Accord, is agreed to by the Japanese and American governments. The treaty will lower Japanese tariffs on American agricultural goods in return for American industrial and ship-building assistance. This sends waves of anxiety through the British Foreign Policy establishment, who fear that if Japan becomes closely aligned with America, it will no longer serve as a counter-weight to Russia in the Pacific. Nonetheless, the steady improvement of Russo-British relations following the Anglo-Russian convention of 1907 eases these anxieties somewhat.

July 29th: Britain announces it will not participate in the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in protest of America’s decision to impose tolls on the use of the canal. Several newspapers note a chilling in Anglo-American relations since Bryan became President.

July 30th: The United States formally recognizes the government of Yuan Shikai in China.

July 31st: After preparing for a vote on the Federal Bank Reform Act, Congress is forced to return to the drawing board as President Bryan announces he will veto the act in its current form due to the undue control which it affords private banks over the Federal banking system.