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.