Army air service officers are in hot water with the Coolidge administration, facing a full investigation by War Department Secretary Davis into whether they're secretly organizing opposition to the president's aviation policies. Anonymous circulars have been distributed through National Guard and Reserve Officer organizations, urging recipients to 'get busy' lobbying their senators and representatives for a separate air corps bill, declaring 'this is your party as much as ours; we must all get busy and do it now!' The investigation comes on the heels of the Billy Mitchell court martial scandal that rocked military aviation circles. Meanwhile, America's most famous divorced couple is back together aboard the S.S. Olympic, heading to Europe on what's being called their 'second honeymoon.' James A. Stillman and his 'titian haired' wife are dining together nightly in the ship's restaurant, she in gorgeous evening gowns, he in dinner coats, completely reconciled after their bitter public divorce battle. They're traveling under false names - she as 'Henrietta Fuller,' he as 'Ben Smith' - trying to avoid curious fellow passengers who might recognize the principals in America's most sensational marital scandal.

These stories capture America in 1926 wrestling with military modernization and celebrity culture. The army air service investigation reflects the bitter debates over military aviation that would prove prophetic - these officers understood air power's future importance even as traditional military brass resisted change. The Billy Mitchell court martial had already exposed these tensions, and this investigation shows the controversy wasn't over. The Stillman reconciliation represents the era's fascination with wealthy scandals and the growing celebrity culture of the Roaring Twenties. Their story had captivated America like a real-life soap opera, complete with accusations of infidelity and questions about paternity that played out in newspapers nationwide.

• Someone in Cordele placed a classified ad asking to borrow 'a small aquarium containing two or three gold fish' for a short while - readers should call U.V. Whipple at phone 392
• The city of Cordele has an ordinance requiring all vehicles to be removed from paved streets between midnight and 5 a.m., strictly enforced after February 20th, 1926
• Local cream market shows standard butterfat selling for 48 1/2 cents, while choice No. 1 peanuts cost $290 per ton
• A Cordele physician, Dr. Hiram J. Williams, is leaving Wednesday for New Orleans to do post-graduate work at Tulane University, then plans special study in New York
• The paper reports finding 'a man without an appendix' in Chicago, which the Gorgas Memorial Institute thinks has important bearing on whether the appendix serves any useful function

• The army air service officers being investigated were ahead of their time - within 20 years, air power would prove decisive in World War II, vindicating exactly the kind of separate air force they were secretly lobbying for
• James A. Stillman was president of National City Bank (now Citibank) and one of America's most powerful financiers, making this reconciliation major financial news as well as gossip fodder
• The anonymous circulars urging lobbying for aviation bills foreshadowed modern grassroots political organizing - these officers were essentially running a covert influence campaign against their own commander-in-chief
• That Georgia peach grower hearing in Macon was part of the broader agricultural struggles of the 1920s, when farmers faced declining prices while the rest of the economy boomed - a key factor in the eventual stock market crash
• Premier Mussolini's threat to Germany of 'two eyes for one eye and a whole set of teeth for one tooth' shows the growing tensions that would eventually lead to World War II