JFK+50: Volume 7, No. 2290
UPTON SINCLAIR SAYS CZAR SHOULD BE PUT ON CATALINA ISLAND
Pasadena, California (JFK+50) One hundred years ago this evening, April 25, 1917, socialist Upton Sinclair* sent a wire to the Chicago Daily Tribune saying that he had written a letter to the Russian socialist minister of justice in which he suggested the ousted Russian Czar Nicholas II** and his family "be entrusted to the American republic for permanent safekeeping."
Mr. Sinclair went on to recommend Catalina Island*** be made into "an island for kings to be used as a refuge for rulers abdicating or dethroned after the war."
The socialist writer's wire concluded with this...
"The island has a salubrious climate and is populated by sheep, the proper subjects for autocracy."
*Upton Sinclair, Jr. (1878-1968) was born in Baltimore, MD & studied law at Columbia University. His novel, "The Jungle", about conditions in the meatpacking plants of Chicago became a best seller.
Although a socialist, US supported the nation in WWI. In 1920, he founded the California chapter of the ACLU. US wrote nearly 100 books & won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1943.
**Nicholas II was the last Russian emperor. He ruled from 1894 to 1917. The Czar & his family were executed by Bolshevik troops on July 17, 1918.
***(Santa) Catalina Island is a rocky island 22 miles SSW of Los Angeles. It is 22 miles long & is 8 miles at its widest point. The island had 4096 residents in 2010 & has 50 endemic species which are seen no where else in the world.
SOURCE
"WANTS CZAR PUT ON U.S. ISLAND," The Chicago Daily Tribune, April 26, 1917, www.archives.chicagotribune.com/
LBJ & Upton Sinclair
UPTON SINCLAIR SAYS CZAR SHOULD BE PUT ON CATALINA ISLAND
Pasadena, California (JFK+50) One hundred years ago this evening, April 25, 1917, socialist Upton Sinclair* sent a wire to the Chicago Daily Tribune saying that he had written a letter to the Russian socialist minister of justice in which he suggested the ousted Russian Czar Nicholas II** and his family "be entrusted to the American republic for permanent safekeeping."
Mr. Sinclair went on to recommend Catalina Island*** be made into "an island for kings to be used as a refuge for rulers abdicating or dethroned after the war."
The socialist writer's wire concluded with this...
"The island has a salubrious climate and is populated by sheep, the proper subjects for autocracy."
*Upton Sinclair, Jr. (1878-1968) was born in Baltimore, MD & studied law at Columbia University. His novel, "The Jungle", about conditions in the meatpacking plants of Chicago became a best seller.
Although a socialist, US supported the nation in WWI. In 1920, he founded the California chapter of the ACLU. US wrote nearly 100 books & won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1943.
**Nicholas II was the last Russian emperor. He ruled from 1894 to 1917. The Czar & his family were executed by Bolshevik troops on July 17, 1918.
***(Santa) Catalina Island is a rocky island 22 miles SSW of Los Angeles. It is 22 miles long & is 8 miles at its widest point. The island had 4096 residents in 2010 & has 50 endemic species which are seen no where else in the world.
SOURCE
"WANTS CZAR PUT ON U.S. ISLAND," The Chicago Daily Tribune, April 26, 1917, www.archives.chicagotribune.com/
LBJ & Upton Sinclair
December 15, 1967
Photo by Yoichi Okamoto
LBJ Library Image