Random Snippets. The Rocky Mountain News

Apparently Philip Anschutz is pondering reviving the Rocky Mountain News.

I hope he does.  I always liked the news much better than the Denver Post.

Mid Week At Work: Merchant Marine Recruiting Poster.

Lex Anteinternet: A Day In the Life: Today In Wyoming's History: De...

Yesterday we took a look at December 7, 1941, in this series.  That was, of course, the day the United States was attacked by the Japanese Empire and it remains one of the most significant and well remembered days in recent American history.  We looked at that topic here:

Lex Anteinternet: A Day In the Life: Today In Wyoming's History: De...: Today in this series we take a look at our entry from  Today In Wyoming's History: December 7 : on the topic of the Japanese Attack on ..

But perhaps for many people December 8 was nearly as momentous.  People were making decisions that would impact their lives for ever. What would we have been doing on that momentous Monday?  That's what we look at here.

First of all, for a little background.  My concept of this, in this thread or series of threads, is to look at ourselves in a fashion relatable to where we actually are in life in our modern lives.  It's always fun to imagine that in any one era, we'd be in the thick of things, but for most people, most of the time, on the day of any one big event, that's probably not true.

So, in order to put a little structure to this historical exercise, I'll put some basic facts to it that relate to may life now. So, I'll assume that I'm looking at December 1941 in a manner relatable to December 2014.  If that's the case, I'd be a lawyer, age 51, with two kids and a wife, living in Casper Wyoming.

That would also mean that I would have graduated from high school 33 years ago, which is a bit problematic here as 33 years prior to 1941, there wasn't a high school in in Casper Wyoming.  There would be soon after that, but there wasn't then. There were some public schools, however.  Assuming a basic 33 year prior date, would have put me, in this historical exercise, in the Class of 1908.

Going from there, in 1981, when I graduated from high school, I joined the Army National Guard, and I went to the local community college for three years before going on to the University of Wyoming.  Assuming a kindred path isn't really certain, however, as in 1908 the Homestead Act was still in effect, and would be for some time, and it'd be hard to imagine not availing myself of that.  But then, we do have cattle now, so perhaps I can work that into the mix somehow here.  So I'll assume some connection with cattle in 08.  I'll also assume that I decided to go on to the University of Wyoming in 08, which was an open institution, when Casper College wasn't around (and still wasn't in 1941).  And I'll assume that I graduated after five years, like I did, putting me in the UW class of 1913.  I stayed in the  Guard as an artilleryman for six years, and oddly enough, the Guard at that time was also artillery.  If I went on a similar path that'd put me in the Guard until 1914, but people tended to stay in it then, so I'll extend this imaginary exercise until 1915, which would have put me into the Punitive Expedition and the mobilization for World War One.  My guess is that I would have served as an officer in World War One, mostly because being a college graduate was unusual here at that time. And I would have mustered out with the entire National Guard following the Great War, and probably wouldn't have gone back into it.

 National Guardsman, 1915.

U.S. artillery in the field, Punitive Expedition.

Of course, I've omitted law school here, and if I graduated from UW in 1913, and had a gap of a year as a geologist as I did, that doesn't quite work out.  So, to really make this work out I have to put myself in the UW graduating class of 1912 (not unrealistic) and going on to law school.  At the time I graduated in in 1986 from UW, the oilfield economy had tanked (just like its threatening to do right now), so I went on to law school.  Would I have done that in 12?  The oilfield wasn't tanking in 12, but I can imagine reasons I might have done that.  On the other hand, I might have not gone until after World War One, at which time the oilfield had definitely tanked.

Okay, so in this imaginary exercise I'm making myself dull and typical.  In 1941 I would have been a 51 year old lawyer who owned cattle too, which is exactly what I am now.  I'd have been a veteran of the National Guard, which I also am now, but I would almost certainly have been a combat veteran, which I definitely am not.

Okay, so on Monday, December 8, 1941, after an exciting and scary evening on December 7, what would I have done?

Well, at age 51 I'd be beyond regular service age, but having had prior service in this scenario (08 to 18 or 19), I would probably been able to get back in.  The Army, Navy and Marine Corps did take back in veteran NCOs and officers under certain conditions, either because they had experience or because they had specialized training in their civilian life that was applicable to a big war. And I'm in pretty good shape, so the general advancement of age that otherwise took people in this category out of returned service, I'd probably have been okay. Things like transportation, logistics, and industry were often applicable and those guys could get in even without prior service.  A law degree, on the other hand, would not fit this category,a s lawyers were of such sufficient supply that later in the war lawyers drafted into the Army often ended up as privates.

Anyhow, given that, what I've set out here, and knowing myself, my guess is that on this day I'd have probably planned on calling on the Army recruiter to see if I could get back in.  By all accounts, a lot of other people had the same idea on that day..  In 1990 when the first Gulf War was up and rolling, I did contact my old Guard unit in case they were activated, but they were not.  I didn't take that action after 9/11, but frankly like a lot of guys who have some service time, I've felt sort of guilty about it ever since, even though at the time there didn't seem to be a real service to offer in what looked like it'd probably be a short specialist campaign in Afghanistan.  I think I'd feel like a slacker if I hadn't sought to go in World War Two. Indeed, knowing myself, and given that I have a fair number of Canadian relatives, I might have felt like a slacker by December 1941, given that Canada had been at war since September 1939.

 

Canadian poster seeking the reenlistment of older, prior service, soldiers.

Anyhow, in 1941, the Army recruiter was in the Federal Courthouse, one block from my office, which also hosted the post office at that time.  Federal Courthouses were sort of one size fits all affairs in that day.

 

 Wintry view of the Federal Courthouse, as seen from my office.

I'd have probably have gotten to work about the usual time, around 8:00, and I can actually see the courthouse from one of the office windows.  My guess is, however, that there was probably a line out the front door that morning, so I'd have probably tried again around 11:00 or so to see what that looked like.  I'd care for lines much, and knowing that this was going to last awhile, I'd have just planned on later in the week if I couldn't have gotten in.

 Newsstand, December 8, 1941.

But my guess is also that a person wouldn't have been able to get in to see the recruiter that morning, or maybe all day.  Maybe I'd have gotten in later in the day, or maybe later that week, depending upon how things went.  As for my son, no way I would have let a 17 year old enlist in the service.

Anyhow, because of my current age, chances are high that I'd end up in some administrative role in the U.S. or perhaps one in the service overseas, should I have succeeded in getting in. There's a ton of jobs of this type in the service, and they are necessary, but it isn't the sort of thing a person normally imagines themselves doing, and they don't make movies about it.  In terms of film, the only example of such a portrayal I can think of is the clerk figure in 12 O'clock High, who interestingly enough is supposed to have been a lawyer who is a veteran of World War One.  Occasionally, you'll read of the rare older individual who had a combat role in the age range I'm in, but frankly, World War Two, more than World War One, and certainly more than any war before or since, was a young man's war in terms of officers.  Oddly, enlisted men were older than we sometimes suspect, with the average troop in the 20s or 30s, but that's the case with officer also.  Officers over 50, at least in combat roles, were quite rare.  Even general officers over age 50 were rare in the U.S. Army.

On December 8, however, I'd probably have spent most of the day at the office, or most of it, depending if I could have gotten in to the recruiter or not.  And even if I had been able to, I suspect for that guys in my category, they'd have said come back in a couple of weeks when we have our act more together.  It would have made for a pretty unproductive day at work, followed by a return home that evening that would have been both interesting and uncomfortable.  I don't think the news of a person's intent in these regards would necessarily have been happy news, but it would have also been a tense evening of listening to the war news on the radio, and the news of the town from the family.

It's scary, somewhat, for a person my age to ponder this out.  That's because, as noted, my son is 17. There's no way he would have escaped a titanic war like World War Two.  And he would have been of the age in which really seeing the action would have been darned near inevitable. That's a scary thing to ponder.

And how about you?  How would your day have gone.

‘Lawyer Bubble’ author discusses what the future looks like for today’s new lawyers

‘Lawyer Bubble’ author discusses what the future looks like for today’s new lawyers

Interesting interview with the author of a book called "Lawyer Bubble" about the current practice and the future of the practice.  Interesting angle on his view of different generations of lawyers.

The Big Picture:

A Day In the Life: Today In Wyoming's History: December 7

Today in this series we take a look at our entry from  Today In Wyoming's History: December 7: on the topic of the Japanese Attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, in 1941.  When I posted this last year, I put in Mountain Time as well as Hawaii Time. Here I'll insert how my day likely would have gone had I been my current age, in my current location, on that Sunday, instead of this one.

December 7

Today is, by State Statute, WS 8-4-106, Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day.  The Statute provides:

(a) In recognition of the members of the armed forces who lost their lives and those who survived the attack on Pearl Harbor, territory of Hawaii on December 7, 1941, December 7 of each year is designated as "Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day". The day shall be appropriately observed in the public schools of the state.

(b) The governor, not later  than September 1 of each year, shall issue a proclamation requesting proper observance of "Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day".

(c) This section shall not affect commercial paper, the making or execution of written agreements or judicial proceedings, or authorize public schools,businesses or state and local government offices to close.

Your Recollections:  What about you?

Do you have any personal recollections about December 7, 1941?  Either first hand, or that you recall hearing from family and friends?  And, by that, not just Pearl Harbor stories, but I'd be very interested to learn of any family recollections from those at home, on that day.  Wyoming is three hours ahead of Hawaii, did your family hear it that morning, or later in the day?  Just after church, or while tuning in fora football game?  Any recollection is welcome.

1941  US military installations were attack in Hawaii by the Imperial Japanese Navy bringing the US formally into World War Two.

It was a surprisingly warm day in Central Wyoming that fateful day.  The high was in the upper 40s, and low in the lower 20s.  Not atypical temperatures for December but certainly warmer than it can be.

Events played out like this:

0342 Hawaii Time, 0642 Mountain Standard Time:  The minesweeper USS Condor sighted a periscope and radioed the USS Ward:   "Sighted submerged submarine on westerly course, speed 9 knots.”

I would have been up at that time of the day, probably shepherding the family towards getting them out the door for Mass.

USS Condor

0610 Hawaii Time, 0910 Mountain Standard Time:  Japanese aircraft carriers turn into the wind and launch the first attack wave.

Chances are by this time, I'd be just about to leave Mass, or would have left Mass.  Now we usally swing by a grocery store and buy donuts, then go home, but at that time I'm not sure if there was a grocery store that was open here on Sundays.  I somewhat doubt it, in which case we'd all just head home.

0645-0653:  Hawaii Time, 0945-0953 Mountain Standard Time:  The USS Ward, mostly staffed by Naval Reservists, sights and engages a Japanese mini submarine first reported by the USS Connor, sinking the submarine.The Ward reports the entire action, albeit in code, noting:  "“We have dropped depth charges upon sub operating in defensive sea area" and “We have attacked, fired upon, and dropped depth charges upon submarine operating in defensive sea area.”

We'd probably have just been finishing breakfast and reading the newspaper.

 USS Ward

At this point in time, most Wyomingites would be up and enjoying the  day.  A large percentage would have gone to Church for the Sunday morning and have now started the rest of their Sundays.

0702 Hawaii Time, 1002 Mountain Standard Time:    An operator at the U.S. Army's newly installed Opana Mobile Radar Station, one of six such facilities on Oahu, sights 50 aircraft hits on his radar scope, which is confirmed by his co-operator.  They call Ft. Shafter and report the sighting.

If possible, I'd have headed out the door with my son to go duck and goose hunting.  But if the weekend went exactly like this weekend, in which I branded yesterday, have some work that I probably ought to do today, and where my wife wishes to put up a Christmas tree, maybe not.  We'll see, perhaps.

0715 Hawaii Time, 1015 Mountain Standard Time:  USS Ward's message decoded and reported to Admiral Kimmel, who orders back to "wait for verification."

0720 Hawaii Time, 1020 Mountain Standard Time:  U.S. Army lieutenant at Ft. Shafter reviews radar operator's message and believes the message to apply to a flight of B-17s which are known to be in bound from California.  He orders that the message is not to be worried about.

Hopefully, I'd be checking the creeks and ponds for ducks.

0733 Hawaii Time, 1033 Mountain Standard Time, 1233 Eastern Time:  Gen. George Marshall issues a warning order to Gen. Short that hostilities many be imminent, but due to atmospheric conditions, it has to go by telegraph rather than radio.  It was not routed to go as a priority and would only arrive after the attack was well underway.

0749  Hawaii Time, 1049 Mountain Standard Time:  Japanese Air-attack commander Mitsuo Fuchida looks down on Pearl Harbor and observes that the US carriers are absent.  He orders his telegraph operator to tap out to, to, to: signalling "attack" and then: to ra, to ra, to ra: attack, surprise achieved.  This is interpreted as some as Tora, Tora, Tora, "tiger, tiger, tiger" which it was not.  Those who heard that sometimes interpreted to be indicative of the Japanese phrase; "A tigergoes out 1,000 ri and returns without fail.” 

0755 Hawaii Time, 1055 Mountain Standard Time:  Commander Logan C. Ramsey, at the Command Center on Ford Island, looks out a window to see a low-flying plane he believes to be a reckless and

improperly acting U.S. aircraft.  He then notices “something black fall out of that plane” and realizes instantly an air raid is in progress.  He orders telegraph operators to sendout an uncoded message to every ship and the base that: "AIR RAID ON PEARL HARBOR X THIS IS NOT DRILL"

We'd probably still be out, checking ponds and creeks.

0800 Hawaii time, 11:00 Mountain Standard Time.  B-17s which were to be stationed at Oahu begin to land, right in the midst of the Japanese air raid.

0810  Hawaii Time, 11:10 Mountain Standard Time.  The USS Arizona fatally hit.

 USS Arizona

0817 Hawaii Time:  11:17 Mountain Standard Time.  The USS Helm notices a submarine ensnared in the the antisubmarine net and engages it.  It submerges but this partially floods the submarine, which must be abandoned.

 USS Helm

0839  Hawaii Time.  1139  Mountain Standard Time. The USS Monaghan, attempting to get out of the harbor, spotted another miniature submarine and rammed and depth charged it.

 USS Monaghan

0850 Hawaii Time.  11:50 Mountain Standard Time.  The USS Nevada, with her steam now up, heads for open water.  It wouldn't make it and it was intentionally run aground to avoid it being sunk.

USS Nevada

0854  Hawaii Time.  1150 Mountain Standard Time.  The Japanese second wave hits.

0929 Hawaii Time.  1229 Mountain Standard Time.  NBC interrupts regular programming to announce that Pearl Harbor was being attacked.

If we had a truck with a radio (and of course it'd have been a two wheel drive truck), this is when we first would have learned of anything out hunting. But most pickups didn't have radios, and as my seven year old truck is the most basic one I could find, I doubt a truck I would have owned in 1941 would have had one.  If I'd been driving a rough equivalent, say a 1934 Dodge, probably not.

At home, however, my wife would have had the radio on, she would have learned of the attack and started worrying right then. We have, after all, a 17 year old son.

0930  Hawaii Time.  1230  Mountain Standard Time.  CBS interrupts regular programming to announce that Pearl Harbor was being attacked.

0930 Hawaii Time.  1230 Mountain Standard Time.  The bow of the USS Shaw, a destroyer, is blown off.  The ship would be repaired and used in the war.

 Explosion on the Shaw.

0938 Hawaii Time, 1238 Mountain Standard Time.  CBS erroneously announces that Manila was being attacked.  It wasn't far off, however, as the Philippines would be attacked that day (December 8 given the

International Date Line).

Out hunting, we wouldn't have been back yet. At home, the anxiety would have been increased.

10:00 Hawaii Time, 13:00 Mountain Standard Time

The USS West Virginia at Pearl Harbor on this day.

1300 Hawaii Time.  1600 Mountain Standard Time.  Japanese task forces begins to turn towards Japan.

A third wave was by the Japanese debated, but not launched.

Wyoming is three hours ahead of Hawaii (less than I'd have guessed) making the local time here about 10:30 a.m. on that Sunday morning when the attack started..  The national radio networks began to interrupt their programming about 12:30.  On NBC the announcement fell between Sammy Kaye's Sunday Serenade and the University of Chicago Round Table, which was featuring a program on Canada at war.  On NBC the day's episode of Great Plays was interrupted for their announcement. CBS had just begun to broadcast The World Today which actually  headlined with their announcement fairly seamlessly.

We would probably have come home about 3:00 or 4:00, maybe 5:00, and have learned of the days events then.  It'd be a stressful, and dare I say it, exciting night, as the future was pondered.  Including the future of "what will I do tomorrow morning".

And how about you and yours?  How would this day have played out for you? 

Random Snippets: Today In Wyoming's History: December 7

Today In Wyoming's History: December 7:

I also note, at least according to an engineer who explained it to me, that December 7 is also a date involving an astronomical anomaly, that being that it is the day of the year which, in the Northern Hemisphere, features the earliest sunset.  That doesn't, of course, make it the shortest day of the year, it's just that the sunsets the earliest on this day, or so I am told

Sunday Morning Scene: Churches of the West: Community Presbyterian Church, Shoshoni Wyoming

Churches of the West: Community Presbyterian Church, Shoshoni Wyoming:

Catching the Mail on the Fly

Lex Anteinternet: Levis

A little over a year ago I blogged on Levis with this entry:

Lex Anteinternet: Levis: Rancher, wearing blue jeans, in the early 1940s. The roll up cuff was extremely common at that time. At the time I started this entr...

I was reminded of this as last week I heard a newstory in which theives rammed a car into a store and stole jeans.

Yes, jeans.

That a person would ram a car into a story and steal jeans surprised me, but what really surprised me is that the value of the jeans was reported to be $700.00 a pair.

I'm sorry, but $700.00 for blue jeans is insane.  A person shouldn't be buying what are essentially work pants, no matter how dressed up or fancified, for $700.00 a pair. Shoot, a really good men's suit cost about that, and they're practically hand made for a particular purpose.

That there even are blue jeans that are priced at that level, and that people buy them, is disturbing really.  There's something just not right about that.  Basically, if you want to wear blue jeans, and I do a fair amount, the sane thing to do would be to buy a good pair at a reasonable price.  Levis, Lees, Wranglers, all fit that bill.  They're relatively expensive, it seems to me, but not at the unreasonable rate.  $700 is so high a person is buying them for some reason other than that they like blue jeans, and that ought to be reconsidered.

WHEELS THAT WON THE WEST®: Wyoming Sheep Wagons

WHEELS THAT WON THE WEST®: Wyoming Sheep Wagons: This year marks the 130 th Anniversary of the construction of the first sheep wagon built by James Candlish.  Many have attributed the inv...

No 'Misteak': High Beef Prices A Boon For Drought-Weary Ranchers : The Salt : NPR

No 'Misteak': High Beef Prices A Boon For Drought-Weary Ranchers : The Salt : NPR

NCHS seeks $350,000 for John F. Welsh auditorium

NCHS seeks $350,000 for John F. Welsh auditorium

I realize it isn't in any way related to the failed effort to get a pool, but I guess I don't want to let that one go.  Here there's a campaign to improve the auditorium, and the more power to them, but what about the pool?

Of course, they're only seeking $350,000 here, not an unreasonable amount, but if a private drive for the auditorium seems wise, why not one for the pool, while there's still space to put it in?

Holscher's Hub: Curious cow, and changing a tire

Holscher's Hub: Curious cow, and changing a tire

$40/barrel?

 

Driven by Saudi Arabian efforts, the price of petroleum oil is falling through the floor.  When I last checked, it was down under $70/bbl.  I read a prediction the other day that it may actually fall as low as $40/bbl. While I haven't checked to make sure, at $40/bbl, it will be at a historic low in real terms.  That is, in actual value, it would never have been that cheap before.

I've been sort of waiting for something like this to happen for awhile, but not quite in this fashion. That's mostly due to having a long term memory.  I have lived here my entire life, and I well remember the last time the price of oil went through the floor.  The irony of our local economy has long been that if the price of oil is high, the times are good here, and the economy super heated.  If the price is low, we locally slide into a recession or even a depression.  For those who experienced this in the early 1980s, a recollection of an oilfield depression is pretty strong.  For those of us who are older with good memories, or who had parents who recalled it, a similar event was also strongly recalled that occurred in the 1960s.  And for students of history, we now that another one happened right after World War One, in the 1930s, and again in the 1940s following World War Two.

Now, not all of these events were the same in scope or impact, although they were all big deals locally. The size of some towns decreased by about 80% following the one in the late 1940s.

Of course, some things have changed.  For one thing, the cause and circumstances of the prior falls were all a bit different than what we're currently seeing.  The declines after World War One and World War Two came during an era when we were a net oil exporter and there was a sudden global decline in demand due to the end of the wars.  The decline in the 1930s was due to a global depression when all economic output drastically declined.

The most recent decline, of the early 1980s, was due to increased Arabian production combined with a fall at the pump, as OPEC began to become a bit unraveled and also as it became clear to the Saudi Arabians that a distressed American economy was bad for its long term economic stability.  That came in an era when we were desperately dependant on Arabian oil, something that came about unnoticed during the 1960s but which became obvious in 1973 when OPEC enacted an embargo on export to the U.S. due to our support of Israel during the Yom Kippur War.  Every year after that the US tried to become more independent of foreign oil but failed, leading to a decade of rising oil prices, until OPEC, or really Saudi Arabia, fearing American economic instability, dropped the prices, and as OPEC lost a lot of its steam in the wake of the Iranian revolution.

The decline of the early 1980s lead to an oil patch depression that really only slowly began to go away in the late 1980s, going into an oil patch recession that really lasted up until the mid 1990s at least. There was some stability after that, and then a boom erupted in the last decade that remains unabated.  Local economist debate if there is a boom, but there is.  Anyone can see it with their naked eyes.  The cost of anything land related has shot up, as its become scarce, and we're up over 100% statistical full employment.

But that's how things were around 1980-1982 as well, and hence the waiting for the other shoe to drop that long term locals have had, and indeed that some in the industry have had.  It can't go on forever, it would seem.  But recently people have sort of dared to think it sort of might, even though that clearly cannot happen. Once all the fields are drilled, they're drilled. That creates its own infrastructure, of course, which must be serviced, but still, it isn't the same as when all the regional rigs are working.

But the times aren't quite what they were in the early 80s either.  For one thing, and apparently the cause of the current Saudi effort, the US is not really that dependant on foreign oil anymore.  Advances in technology have opened up vast resources in the U.S., and the U.S. is an energy, albeit not oil, exporter.   As prices have stabilized at a fairly high, by historical standards, pump rate, it's also been the case that Americans acclimated to it, which nobody expected, making the demand fairly stable.  And as that's occurred, its actually declined.  A new generation of Americans is not car enamored.  And the historical memory of foreign oil enslavement remains strong such that there is widespread support for increased CAFE standards and even from shifting away for oil entirely, if possible, for fuel.  So price stability hasn't resulted so far in a price fall, exploration has kept on keeping on bringing more resources to the global supply at what was the existing rate, thereby increasing the profitable supply while decreasing the foreign imports. And, as North American is one continent and one giant oil province, the technological advances that have made this possible in the United States, that being horizontal drilling, have also made it possible in Canada, which has pretty much supplanted Arabia as our go to source for petroleum.

It took the Saudis a long time to awaken to this, and they probably just didn't believe it would last, but they're awake now and according to what I've read, and what industry insiders have told me, this is a calculated Saudi effort to shut down American exploration.  The thesis is that by depressing the price it'll fall below the level at which it will be profitable to explore in the United States and Canada, and it seems to be working.  According to what I'm reading, drilling is in fact being postponed.  It isn't as if the newly known fields are going to go away, but contrary to what some of the news was on these fields earlier in the recent boom, it isn't as if all of these fields weren't known in some way before.  Some are wholly new, however.

The long term impact of this will be really interesting.  Chances are pretty good that in the new oil provinces in the United States and Canada there will be an economic downturn.  My guess is that it might be pretty stout in North Dakota, which hadn't seen exploration of this type since the Williston Basin days of the late 1970s and early 1980s, and which otherwise had a relatively depressed farm economy.  In Wyoming and Montana, where the boom has been very real but somewhat muted, the impact is unlikely to be as severe.  This will mean, I suspect, that the percentage of oil the U.S. imports will rise, but my guess is that it won't rise as spectacularly as the Saudis hope it will.  Perhaps showing how severe it was, the memory of the import crisis of the 1970s has not really ever gone away and there remains pretty strong support for more and more fuel efficient vehicles, a movement that's also tied into increasing environmental concerns.  Somewhat related in terms of impact, it appears that the American cultural fascination with automobiles is ending, and that also means that cars are viewed increasingly as only one of several utilitarian options for getting around, and not one that's seen as glamorous or even desirable by younger people, who are willing to buy what's economical and abandon cars altogether if economically rational.  Moreover, given the advance in technology in oil production, the United States will retain at this point an ability to increase production, which will mean that the Saudis will have to keep the price low in order to keep their share of production high. That has long term impacts on them, as even though they'll be making money, they have to do it through low prices and high production, a program that has long term impacts on their reserves and their own economy.

Being Consumed - Catholic Stuff You Should Know

Being Consumed - Catholic Stuff You Should Know

In one of the occasional examples of synchronicity that pops up, the other day I posted on National Small Business Saturday and mentioned Distributism, the economic theory applying the principal of subsidiarity in my post. Then I ran across this podcast entry on Consumerism.

This is posted on Catholic Stuff You Should Know, and therefore it does address some religious themes, but only barely really, mostly focusing on Consumerism through a Distributist lens.  To a slightly aggravating degree, early in the podcast the speakers excuse of their comments by noting Communism when in fact those comments that they feel might be controversial aren't Communist or Socialist at all, but rather purely Distributist.  That they'd discuss Distributism isn't too surprising on one hand, as the economic philosophy was developed by Catholic thinkers, but to hear it discussed is fairly surprising as so few people know what it is.

Anyhow, for a really Distributist discussion of Consumerism, here's one.

Today In Wyoming's History: December 3 Updated

Today In Wyoming's History: December 3:

2014  Colorado's Governor Hickenlooper apologized to the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes for Colorado's actions leading to the November 29, 1864 Sand Creek Massacre.

Rail Transportation

Very early locomotive, on display on the back of a railroad flat car.

Recently we've been posting a lot about transportation. We've done horses and mule, walking, water transportation and bicycles so far.  Here we're considering trains.

 

Late oil fired steam engine, on display in Douglas Wyoming.

Locomotives, or at least steam engines, are so associated with the second half of the 19th Century that it's a shock to realize that the first steam locomotive was built in 1784 and the first railway model was built in the US in 1794.  Amazingly early.  The first actual working railway was built just a few years later, in 1804, in the United Kingdom.  That early line was an industrial ore hauler, so at least from the US prospective, trains have ended up where they started, hauling things, rather than people, for the most part.  Sort of a case of the past being prologue to the future, really.  The first working railroad in the US came on in 1830, with Baltimore and Ohio.  It was a hopeless crude thing, but it was a start, and from there on trains developed rapidly.

The first locomotives basically looked like a boiler, with gears, on a platform, because that's what they were. They soon began, however, to more closely resemble things we'd recognize as trains.

 

Really early train on display on the flatcars of a train in 1900.  Note that the passenger cars on the old train are coaches with wheels altered for rails.

 

Locomotive, 1850.  In the twenty years between the top photograph and this one, locomotives started to take on a more familiar form, and they'd grown larger.

By 1860, in North America, they'd not only taken on a familiar form, but their rails now stretched throughout the settled East.  In just 20 years the United States and Canada had gone from all roads and water ways to having an interconnected rail transportation system in the East.  Railways had already become an inseparable part of North American life.

 

Locomotive in California, 1865.

And not only that, but a major undertaking in the United States would, as is well known, link the West and East by rail, in the Transcontinental Railway, where the two sections of the rail would join on May 10, 1869.  Indeed, that accomplishment came in the context of an early example of the government sponsoring a business, something that we rarely think of occurring in the 19th Century, but which the Lincoln Administration, which got it started, recognized as a national need, or at least laudatory goal, that was beyond the means of private enterprise for a wide variety of reasons. The inducement in that 19th Century context involved the Federal government giving to the two building railroads what it had a lot of, land, with the railroad acquiring a swath of sections (square miles) across the path of their lines, which allowed them to have a certain economic payoff in the future, and which also accordingly encouraged the railroads to sponsor development.  The railroads descendants today still retain much of that original grant along what had been the Transcontinental line.

 Massive Union Pacific railyard in Laramie Wyoming, a town built on the Union Pacific.

As monumental achievement as that was, it was only the beginning in a seemingly ceaseless and relentless expansion of rail lines that would see rail penetrate nearly every section of the West by the mid 1880s.  What had taken days to achieve before the rail lines came in, accordingly shrunk in time, sometimes to just hours. And rail continued to be put down relentlessly in the late 19th Century and early 20th Century in the U.S.

North of the border, in Canada, the Canadians would have a trans Canadian railway completed by 1885, linking the two coasts of a nation that still had not yet taken its full continental form, and which struggled with a national identity that really started to fully form about that time.  Railways were being built all over Europe at the same time, of course, with national and trans European lines put down everywhere.  The Russians achieved a monumental chore with the completion of the Trans Siberian in 1916, achieving what is arguably the greatest railroad in the world, but doing so only one year before the fall of the government that backed it.  Railroad penetrated into China from Russia, and into Arabia from Turkey.  The British built them in Africa and Australia.  The trans Australia railway was completed in the midst of World War One, being completed in 1917, and bringing yet another example of continental expanses being closed by rail.

Railroads were the long distance land transportation of their era, and they dominated everything about it.  By the 1860s they'd revolutionized the transportation of people and goods.  Americans and Canadians were made into a continental people by the railroads, or at least more completely so, and the Russians could aspire to be the same.  Australia, a nation whose unification was completed by World War One found its coasts united during it.

 

Former Union Pacific Depot in Cheyenne Wyoming, on the line of the original Transcontinental Railroad.

In the U.S, and Canada, an economy that was mostly local prior to 1860s ceased being so by the end of the Civil War, when railroads penetrated into Kansas, and for the first time goods, and perhaps more significantly beef, could be transported across the nation by rail car.  A nation that had been principally a local pork consumer prior to 1865 in short order became a beef consuming nation, particularly as refrigerator rail cars came in about  the same time.  The great cattle drives that followed the Civil War, inspired in part by a huge increase in cattle in Texas during the war, were only made economically possible as the railheads had penetrated as far west as Kansas.

Refrigeration and rail also allowed the nation to have its first really national beverage company, Anhauser Busch, which made use of rail and refrigeration to ship beer all over the United States by the 1870s.  A nation which before had tended to look for everything to be local, now became accustom to every sort of good being shipped across the nation, even something as routine as something to drink.

And rail was glamorous, and would in some ways always remain so. Certain trains, and even railroad men, became famous, and were celebrated in song.  Casey Jones, a real railroad engineer, was for example celebrated in song for his dramatic effort to stop his train to stop his train to avoid a collision, and thereby save lives.  Working on the railroad was celebrated by a song dedicated under that title.

Rail occupied and dominated long distance travel, and even intrastate travel, for decades and decades. Rails continued to expand in the country throughout the first half of the 20th Century and rail transportation was the critical national means of transportation throughout the first half of the 20th Century.  When people traveled any distance at all, they normally traveled by rail.   My father, for example, traveled from Casper Wyoming to Lincoln Nebraska, where he was attending university, by rail, not by car, in the late 1940s and early 1950s.  U.S. troops were moved from coast to coat during World War One and World War Two by rail, not by truck as a rule, and not by plane.  Railroad labor troubles during World War One were so disruptive to the war effort that the Federal government took over the rail lines during the war.

And the situation was largely the same in other nations.  In Germany, the military was in control of the rail lines prior to World War One, and German mobilization was based on strict railroad timetables.  The rail lines themselves became lines of combat in World War One, and to a certain extent World War Two, inside of Russia and the Russian civil war saw the odd use of armored trains, which made a reappearance in Soviet use during World War Two.

Rail came to not only serve towns and cities, of course, but to impact their features and even their locations. This is well known in the West, as towns competed to be railheads, which could spell the difference between economic isolation and elimination and prosperity.  Locally, for example, Casper Wyoming beat out Bessemer Wyoming in these regards, meaning that Casper, which was established literally just days prior to the railroad entering Natrona County Wyoming would go on to become one of the largest cities in Wyoming and the county seat, while Bessemer passed away and is now a farm field.

 

Burlington Northern Depot, Casper Wyoming.

This meant that any significant town, and even many insignificant ones, had rail lines and features associated with them, such as depots. But now often missed, and often now neglected, it also mean that a towns hotels, including its best hotels, were typically within walking distance of a railroad depot. The same was true of anything requiring shipping of anything heavy.

 

 Parco Hotel, in Sinclair Wyoming.  Just a block or two from the main line of the Union Pacific Railroad.  This hotel is no longer an operating hotel.

 

 Union Station in Delver Colorado, photo taken from the front of the Oxford Hotel.

 

Virginian Hotel in Medicine Bow, Wyoming and Union Pacific station.

Consider then the state of the railroads in relation to nearly every society, just after World War Two.  Troops who had gone to training stations by rail and then to points of embarkation by rail, came home largely by rail.  All materials of any significant nature, except for short hauls as a rule, were moved by rail, with perhaps the only exceptions being intrastate hauling and oil and gas pipelines.  People traveling from one city to another traveled by rail.

World War Two era poster urging people not to travel if it wasn't necessary. This photo shows the inside of a packed train car.

But then, something began to happen to rail, and that something was two things really. The Interstate Highways and Air Travel.

Air travel changed everything about how Americans, and ultimately everyone else in the developed world, thought about traveling long distances. Acclimated to long trips by train as a rule, planes became an option. Expensive at first, as time went on traveling by air became more and more affordable, particularly when the time element was considered.  Even by the early 1950s air travel was displacing train travel. Businessmen started traveling by air.  The military switched from shipping men locally from their duty station to another duty station by train, to air.  Ultimately air became so efficient, that it displaced the train as a fast mail carrier for letters and small packages, with that becoming so efficient that large sections of that business were wholly privatized.

 Western Airlines airliner, Casper Wyoming, early 1950s.  Sailor is boarding aircraft.  This scene says a lot about the change after World War Two, as this airport was built as an Army Air Corps training base during World War Two, with enormous runways.  Post war, it became an international airport, replacing the much smaller local airport that had existed up until that time.

This didn't happen all at once, of course, and in this late era, there were a series of efficient locomotives designed just for fast passenger service. Streamlined steam engines yielded to streamlined diesels, as the internal combustion engine began to take over the rails. But for most of the country, the 1950s and 60s would see the end of passenger train service. The only exceptions were in densely populated sections of the country were commuter rail hung on.

And, also in the 1950s, a new threat to rail arrived in the form of greatly improved highways, particularly the Interstate Highway system.  With Federal funding for highways, under the guise of defense spending for highways designed to speed military mobilization, supposedly, tax funded highways provided a means for trucking companies to compete with privately owned raillines, albeit rail lines that had in some instances been put in with incentives, particularly land incentives, in the 19th Century.  The new Interstates boosted the commercial trucking fleet enormously, and over the road trucks took over quite a bit of commercial hauling.  Without having to pay for their "rails", and able to go anywhere there was pavement, the trucks were liberated from steel rails and could deliver more easily  from port to port.

So, slowly in this same period freighting saw major inroads from trucking, with some sectors of shipping, such as livestock shipping, going over to trucks entirely.  By the 1970s trains were no longer hauling, for the most part, mail, people, and livestock, as well as many other items.  By the late 1990s tracks were being abandoned in some locations, and the old rail lines converted to walkways under "rails to trails" programs.

Pedestrian path in Casper Wyoming, converted from the line of the Great Northwestern Railroad.  Old depot on the right, now an office building.

But rail is persistent, and in spite of the inroads it remains important to us today, even if its faded into a the background to such an extent we can hardly recognize it.  It remains the heavy hauler for the nation, transporting good far more cheaply, and far more environmentally benign, to the extent that anything is, today, carrying more pounds per gallon of feul cheaply than any of its competitors.  And in the expensive fuel world in which we've been recently living (but which seems to be potentially fading back out today), its seen a bit of a revival.  New lines have been put in, in the West, where it remains vital for heavy hauling.  Major coal hauling lines have been built, and even here locally a major petroleum loading hub was just constructed.  In Denver, as in many other cities, a local light rail service for passengers has dramatically expanded, and it will soon run from Union Station to the Denver airport.  Rail hasn't yielded easily, and even in North America, the domain of the automobile, it has kept on.

Lex Anteinternet: Distributist of the world unite! National Small B...

Lex Anteinternet: Distributist of the world unite! National Small B...: Saturday, November 29, is National Small Business Saturday, a holiday, of sorts, oddly enough thought up American Express.  This follow...

Since posting this I've been impressed by the seemingly endless series of days that follow Thanksgiving, dedicated or observed in some informal fashion.  The sales frenzy following Thanksgiving is, of course, Black Friday. Then we have now National Small Business Saturday.  I'd forgotten that the following Monday is Cyber Monday, but saw reporting on it, on the news, yesterday.  And today is apparently something like C heritable Tuesday.  An interesting series of competing, or perhaps compatible, forces at work there.

The Raging Debate, looking back on Lex Anteinternet: Standards of Dress: Office, city and town wear ov...

Some time ago I posted this item on daily dress of, I suppose, yore:

Lex Anteinternet: Standards of Dress: Office, city and town wear ov...:  A motivational poster from the 1920s.  By modern standards, nearly any city worker would "look the part", even if they didn&#...

Since that time I've read an interesting debate, often quite heated, about modern "standards of dress".  This particular debate was centered on what people should wear, or do wear, to church.  It was interesting in that some people strongly argue for a heightened standard, and others maintain that it doesn't matter at all.

One of the most interesting comments I saw was from an engineer, who in the debate maintained that there was no need to dress in any special way to attend church, and that a person was better off not attempting to do so if their clothes were in any way older or ill fitting, but then admitted he'd recently testified as an expert witness in a trial and of course had dressed the part. He wanted to look professional, while maintaining in his daily profession, he of course didn't dress that way.

That's sort of interesting in that it shows a retained concept that in certain places there's a standard of dress we must meet, even if there's no formal enforcement of it.  However, at the same time, it suggests that we can skip the standard in places were otherwise fully acclimated and comfortable with, while perhaps in an earlier era, the standard was the standard.

Now, I'll note that I don't wear a suit, to be sure, most days and I'm really only commenting in general.  I don't wear a coat and tie to Mass either. But I do think that suggests that even now there actually is a standard in people's minds. 

It's also interesting to read where people think that standard is enforced, which is usually somewhere else.  In reading the comments, many people think that "only lawyers" dress that way, which of course isn't true any way you look at it.  Others have other occupations they believe dress in a certain fashion.  Everyone, somehow, is acclimated to broadcast newsmen dressing in that fashion, which is curious as originally they were only dressing to the standard of the day.  One person believed only Hipsters dressed in that fashion, which is really curious.  I don't know if Hipsters dress in ties or not, I meet so few, but its interesting that in the minds of at least some, the trendy wear ties.

Another interesting thing about this is how deeply some people feel about this topic. I suspect most don't, but some really do. Those who feel that a certain standard of dress should be met in various settings, or the equivalent for females, are really adamant about it. Oddly, those who feel strongly the opposite are also really adamant about that too.  Some feel that anyone arguing for a standard of any kind, any where, is some sort of fascist, and others who feel the opposite feel just as strongly about their views.  Those who argue for no standard are steadfast in their refusal to recognize that society in general is going to recognize a standard, like it or not, even if they themselves do in fact recognize it in their own conduct.

All of which means nothing in particular, really.  Just interesting to see how this is viewed.

Water Transportation

After walking, but only barely, and before the horse, there were the rivers and streams.  And the oceans.

And they were the highways.

Recently, I posted a thread on equine transportation.  Sometimes it will be claimed that, before the train, nothing moved faster than the horse. That is very true, but with qualifiers.  Horses can cross streams, and they can swim too, but they're limited in these regards. Beyond that, even with a horse, the rider is working more than non riders suppose.  Indeed, riding a horse, particularly riding a horse the way working riders ride them, is pretty good exercise.  One old infantry general of the 20th Century noted that cavalry officers outlived infantry officers, which he attributed to their constant riding.

And of course one horse can only carry so much.

But water is different.  One boat, even one canoe, can carry quite a bit, and for efficient transportation, water courses are hard to beat, as long as the water goes where you also want to go.

In our paved and engineered world of today, water transportation isn't really appreciated.  People who want to go from North Platte Nebraska to St. Louis would not think of trying that by canoe, and people who wanted to go from St. Louis to the Pacific would look at the Interstate Highway routes, not the watercourses.  But that wasn't always so.

I'll confess that, unlike walking, which I like to do, and unlike horses, which I like, I'm not a huge fan of watercraft, and for that reason, even though I know that rivers were the highways of antiquity, this is a historical topic I'm not really that familiar with, or even interested in.  But the purpose of this blog is to explore the past as it really was, not as we'd have it, and therefore this matters in this context.  And, while the only boat I own is a canoe, and that's the only boat I want to own, perhaps this is more interesting that I figure it is.  So let's take a look.

The boats of antiquity were undoubtedly canoes or boats that we can regard as canoes. Crude compared to the Old Town canoe that you would look at over at the sporting goods store, their efficiency and utility is demonstrated by the fact that they're still with us, and like the horse, even though most of us don't require them for the outback, a lot of us like them.  I like mine for that matter.

Canoes are fun, and apparently the temptation to take a photograph from one has been around for a long time.

Canoes have existed pretty much in every culture, everywhere.  Whether they were burnt out or dug out logs, or manufactured with hide and frame, the canoe is basically boat 1.0, and it's hard to replace.  Whether made of wood, fiberglass, or aluminum, the basic canoe is still pretty much the basic canoe.  And that applies to what are basically canoes 2.0, the kayak, as well.

Canoes in antiquity served to move people over long distances.  Whole tribes of people moved hundreds of miles on rivers via canoes, and really bold folks took ocean going varieties distances that would scare most of us, for good reason.  In our country, the canoe was the basic vehicle of the fur market for a long time.  Indian tribes had them and used them, and so did fur trappers.  It's popular to imagine the trapper riding from St. Louis, or Quebec, to the Rocky Mountains, but they didn't do that.  They rowed upstream, hard work, but efficient, and traded for horses when they got where they were going.  When they turned around to go the other direction, they traded the horse away and floated downstream.

 

 Outrigger canoe on Maui, the early variants of which took the Polynesians clean across the Pacific.

As technology improved, boats did too of course, and all manners of boats were developed over time.  It was a long time before rivers ceased to be highways.  In Medieval England the rivers were the highways, and while the well to do had horses, they were very limited by the vast quantity of water that Great Britain features. To really get somewhere, for a long time, you took the boat.  Chances are that you leased a boat from somebody whose occupation that was. The water taxi, has a long origin.

And if you were taking goods to market, you probably took them by boat, at least if they were substantial in quantity.  Packing goods in no doubt occurred, but floating them in is easier.  And so it was in our own country for much of its history.  River ports were very important means of transporting every manner of goods, and to some extent, on truly major rivers, they still are.

But not like they once were.  Consider that in 1876, when the Army engaged in its famous summer (stretching into fall) campaign on the Northern Plains, part of the Army went by boat.  We don't think of it that way, but the River boat The Far West went all the way up the Yellowstone River.  It was, indeed, a specially designed shallow bottom river boat made for traveling the shallow rivers of the west, with a gin pole that allowed it to muscle its way past or over shallow shoals.  Cavalrymen charging into the Little Big Horn valley that summer were attired in part in straw boaters, brought upstream and sold by a trader on the Yellowstone.  Nothing plies the Yellowstone commercially today.

And so efficient was inland travel by water that artificial watercourses were created everywhere. They were the highways of their day.  Interior canals for transportation were created right up to the railroad days in Europe, when the railroads suddenly made them obsolete.  In this US, this was done to some extent as well, with some still in use.  The most famous of all American canals, and one of the most important in our history, amazingly remains in use, having been enlarged and improved over, time.  That canal inspired a song that remains in The American Songbook.

The Erie Canal crossing the Genosee River, by bridge.  1900.

I've got an old mule and her name is Sal
Fifteen years on the Erie Canal
She's a good old worker and a good old pal
Fifteen years on the Erie Canal
We've hauled some barges in our day
Filled with lumber, coal, and hay
And every inch of the way we know
From Albany to Buffalo

Chorus:
Low bridge, everybody down
Low bridge for we're coming to a town
And you'll always know your neighbor
And you'll always know your pal
If you've ever navigated on the Erie Canal

We'd better look 'round for a job old gal
Fifteen miles on the Erie Canal
'Cause you bet your life I'd never part with Sal
Fifteen miles on the Erie Canal
Git up there mule, here comes a lock
We'll make Rome 'bout six o'clock
One more trip and back we'll go
Right back home to Buffalo

Chorus

Low bridge, everybody down
Low bridge for we're coming to a town
And you'll always know your neighbor
And you'll always know your pal
If you've ever navigated on the Erie Canal

Oh, where would I be if I lost my pal?
Fifteen miles on the Erie Canal
Oh, I'd like to see a mule as good as Sal
Fifteen miles on the Erie Canal
A friend of mine once got her sore
Now he's got a busted jaw,
'Cause she let fly with her iron toe,
And kicked him in to Buffalo.

Chorus

Low bridge, everybody down
Low bridge for we're coming to a town
And you'll always know your neighbor
And you'll always know your pal
If you've ever navigated on the Erie Canal

Don't have to call when I want my Sal
Fifteen miles on the Erie Canal
She trots from her stall like a good old gal
Fifteen miles on the Erie Canal
I eat my meals with Sal each day
I eat beef and she eats hay
And she ain't so slow if you want to know
She put the "Buff" in Buffalo

Chorus

Low bridge, everybody down
Low bridge for we're coming to a town
And you'll always know your neighbor
And you'll always know your pal
If you've ever navigated on the Erie Canal

This all deals, of course, with interior transport, where waterways were once incredibly important.  They still are, of course, and barges and even ships still run everyday on the nation's most significant rivers.  But this hasn't dealt with external transport, i.e., ocean going ships.

Ocean going ships remain the most important factor, rather obviously, in international trade.  Anything of any significance, except people, tends to nearly always go by ship if it has any size to it at all.  Prior to transoceanic air travel, everything in international commerce went by ship, including people.  The importance of the oceans to commerce has been so vast that it's formed a primary focus of international law and national diplomacy.  Being a seafaring nation, whether we think of ourselves that way or not, we've been in the forefront of keeping sea lanes open from day one.  We may like to think that we stayed out of other countries affairs up until World War Two forced us on t the international stage, but this isn't so.  We went to war when the country was in its infancy against local forces out of Algiers over the issue of freedom of the seas.  We fought a naval small scale spat with the Japanese while we were fighting each other in the Civil War.  We indeed "opened" Japan, and as is being explored in the 1870 to 1918 blog we dabbled in Hawaiian affairs pretty darned early.  So, even as an infant nation, we plied the seas internationally and would fight over the right to do so when we felt we had a right to do so.  We did just that in World War One, when we were horrified by German unrestricted submarine warfare, the German decision that may have resulted in the loss of the war for the Germans, and the downfall of the German Empire.

Troop ship, World War One. This ship is an ocean liner, at one time the basic means, and in fact the only means, of getting across the Atlantic or Pacific.  Now, they're really a thing of the past, replaced by "cruise ships" which are similar, but which are taken in part for the experience itself.

The importance of the oceans to commerce, while still vast, didn't diminish at all until after World War Two, when for the very first time commercial air travel started up.  Moving at first people and mail, commercial air travel expanded into packages and even larger items, and now occupies the field in transporting people, who would rather endure a flight of hours rather than weeks or days.  Who could blame them?  But what's interesting about that, while it is a huge change, it also means that on the oceans, less has been changed by technology, no matter how advanced it may have become, than perhaps in other areas that we've discussed.  Certainly modern transportation has cut down on continental port to port shipping, but on the high seas, ships still dominate over anything else. 

The technology has certainly changed, and massively.  And quickly as well. Sailing vessels remained a viable commercial ship, with augmented coal fired steam engines, well into the 20th Century.  The largest of these ships ever built, the massive six masted schooner Wyoming, was launched in 1909, not even a century ago.  It tragically broke up in heavy seas in 1924.  As late as the 1940s some vessels of this type, although smaller, still sailed.

The Wyoming.

By that time, and indeed for quite some time prior, big ocean going steam powered ships had become common, so ships like the Wyoming and other fast clipper ships seem to be an anachronism, even if they were not. But the big ship era had really taken over, and had been a strong presence for quite some time by then.  For commercial shipping, they've grown even larger, with current commercial ships being unbelievably large.  As noted, they don't move very many people, however, and indeed a modern ocean going ship has a crew so small its almost unbelievable.  Oil tankers, for example, just have a handful of crewmen.  Only fighting ships and cruise ships have significant numbers of crewmen.

So, here we have the second oldest means of getting around still being one of the most important.  As an average person, you aren't too likely to take a boat somewhere because you need to, unless its a ferry to cross a river, or something of the kind.  But they're still hugely significant commercially, and as present as ever.  And like horses, our association with them is so strong, we still cling to them, naturally, for enjoyment.

_________________________________________________________________________________

Related Threads.

Horsepower

Riding Bicycles

Walking

Sunday Morning Scene: Churches of the West: Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church, Casper Wyoming...

Churches of the West: Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church, Casper Wyoming...:

Distributist of the world unite! National Small Business Saturday.

Saturday, November 29, is National Small Business Saturday, a holiday, of sorts, oddly enough thought up American Express.  This follows what's come to be known as "Black Friday", the huge shopping day that sees many businesses go into "the black" for the first time all year, which is a bit of a scary thought really.  The calendar year is almost up, which is the average businesses fiscal year, so it's spooky to think that a lot of businesses don't see a profit until now.

Black Friday is pretty recent in origin.  Not all that long ago the Friday after Thanksgiving was just the Friday after Thanksgiving, and indeed a lot of people who weren't in retail would take it off, just like they take off Boxing Day, the day following Christmas.  Now, however, that's no longer true and all sorts of sales and whatnot occur on that day, for both big business and small.  That likely got started because retail establishments were aiming for the many people who took the day off, and apparently had nothing else to do.  Now some stores even open at midnight of Thanksgiving Day, which is a bit of a sad thought.

American Express, in a move recognizing that even now a tremendous number of businesses are small businesses, decided that the day after Black Friday was a good day to focus on small businesses.  They wisely chose to avoid focusing on that Friday itself, which is already dominated by sales euphoria, and which is also the focus of some philosophical backlash by people who note that perhaps that's taking consumerism a bit too far.  A "stay at home" movement has existed for quite some time in reaction to Black Friday.  As for me, if I'm not actually at work on that day (which I often am) I'm usually using it to try to catch up on elk hunting, or perhaps on goose hunting.

What I'm often doing on Black Friday.

Or where I otherwise am on Black Friday, if not. . . .

here.

That is, I figure, probably much more in keeping, I'd note, with where most generations of Thanksgiving Day celebrants were following Thanksgiving Day.

Anyhow, the interesting thing about this is that while we often hear that small businesses are the backbone of the American economy, and that they really do employ more Americans than anyone else, they really don't get very much attention from anyone. They aren't the focus of big retail frenzies, and they are pretty much ignored in real terms by society and our governmental institutions.  It shows how acclimated we are to the big retail, and big industrial, economy that we have. American Express, which isn't a midget by any means, deserves some praise for focusing the spotlight on them

I'm not going to go big into a detailed economic and legal discussion of our economy, but it is important to note that we've adopted an economic model that favors consolidation.  Indeed, one of the ironies of our economic system is that even though we adopted this partially by accident, we've adopted it so completely that any discussion o fit usually brings in shouts of "Socialist", when in fact our system requires government maintenance and support to even exist.  That's because, in spite of what we think, we don't have a capitalist free market economy, but a corporatist free market economy.

Now right away, I can see the hackles raise on the back row, but this is simply a fact.  While we no longer have a managed economy, as we did from the 1930s through the 1970s, we don't have a true free market economy either, and our economy is state supported in a way we're so used to, we don't recognize it.

What we fail to recognize is that our economy is corporate capitalist, as we think of corporations as natural.  Of course, they were not.  Corporations are creatures of the state.  We're used to the because they've been around so very long.

The essence of corporations is to take what would be naturally a partnership, business combinations of more than one person (although we now even recognize one person corporations) and treat them as a legal entity unto itself. By this means, the partners become shareholders and those shareholders are insulated against personal liability for the actions of the entity.  That's radically different from partnerships, where in their conventional form each partner is liable for the actions of the corporation.  The corporation, in turn, is regarded as a "person" under the law.

This system strongly favors consolidation, as it favors the growth of business entities by shielding the owners of those entities from liability. It'd be extremely doubtful, for example, that Walmart would have grown to its present massive size if the owners of that company were each individually exposed to liability.  I very much doubt it.  But because of that liability shield, corporations can grow massive, distribute their profits to their shareholders, and except where the shareholders work for the entity and commit a tort or breach within it and for it, their own assets are never exposed.

Corporations aren't new by any means, but their role in the local economy is relatively new, and well within the time frame of this blog's focus.  Indeed, determining exactly when corporations arose is really difficult, as there are various competing claims to that title, but they've been around for a long time.  At least in the Western world, those early corporations were different from the current ones, however, as they typically had royal charters which either simply licensed them to operate, or in some instances conferred upon them a monopoly on certain activities. So, in the mercantilist economy that preceded the American Revolution, corporations were basically anti competitive.

No matter who may be the oldest, it's pretty clear that the oldest ones that mattered early in our history were those organized in the United Kingdom basically for monopolistic or trading purposes.  One such entity, that still survives, was the Hudson's Bay Company, a giant in its era that owned darned near half of North America north of Spanish America.  That company's reach was so vast and so long that when The Corps of Discovery went to look for a route to the Pacific, what it was really doing was covering a vast stretch of ground that the Hudson's Bay Company was already managing as part of its corporate empire. Really, HBC was a pretty darned good sport about it.  Another giant was the East India Company, which controlled much of the trade in the English speaking world that plied the seas, and of course controlled the tea market to American displeasure.  Even colonial enterprises, early on, were often a sort of chartered merchanilist enterprise, so none of this was regarded as odd or unusual at the time.

By the time of the Revolution Americans were displeased with this sort of thing and we didn't have any real big corporations for a while, but those that did arise were basically big fur trading enterprises that were in competition with the Hudson's Bay Company.  HBC was already a model, so organization for corporate enterprises into the vast West were already established as a successful  model. Today we tend to look back on the trappers and mountain men as wild aboriginal free agents, and to some extent that's true, but in reality they were also the working end of vast corporate enterprises.

None the less, corporations as a major factor in the American economy didn't really get rolling until the Industrial Revolution hit our shores.  Before that, most people were some sort of yeoman really.

The Industrial Revolution changed all of that, and by necessity.  After all, large scale manufacturing isn't really well suited for privately owned enterprise, even though you can find rare, and they are rare, exceptions.  It took the corporate form to build big foundries, big smelters, big factories, and the like.  So with the Industrial Revolution, came in the corporation.

With that, came a whole host of other concerns and problems, including the separation of workers from their employer, and all that goes with that.  It also gave us monopolistic behavior, which previously had been encouraged by governments but which was now seen as a threat.  This gave us an entire era of struggle of one kind or another, with the government, in the Theodore Roosevelt era, stepping into control Capitol, and workers forming unions and even radial political movements in some places.  Marx wouldn't have appealed much to a bunch of farmers (and indeed, he sure didn't to Russian farmers), but he did to workers on the European factory floor.

Still, what this really meant is that industrialization and industrial products came in, replacing smaller artisans to some extent, or even to a large extent in some industries, but also spreading material wealth, albeit highly unevenly.  What it didn't do, at first, was to do much to how and where people bought things.

That came in slowly, as chain stores first popped up in the late 19th Century.  But as communications and transportation improved in the late 19th Century, new chain retail stores and mail catalog stores came in. Golden Rule, J. C. Penny's, Woolworths', Montgomery Wards, and the like, all became staples of American life.

These stores were always in competition with local businesses, but for some reason, perhaps mostly just self restraint, or perhaps due to local laws, or perhaps simply due to other factors, they didn't entirely displace them.  A big store like K Mart, for example, might sell a lot of the same items that local appliance store did, but they'd both still be there.

This too has changed over time, somewhat replicating the process that happened with manufacturing.  Manufacturing reached a point where it formed trusts and combines that were anti competitive, and then the government had to step in and bust them up.  Somehow, retail outlets have grown and grown to where now certain ones are such giants that they too have tended to squeeze out competition in many instances. Wal Mart is the classic example, which is such a giant that in recent years its been able to influence prices on the whole sale supply end as well as the retail end, and according to its critics its influenced the quality of some items, negatively, as well.

This is not to say that the slow erosion of small business is all due to Wal Mart or is all a recent phenomenon. But it has definitely occurred.  By the mid to late 19th Century it was already well the case that certain items were manufactured industrially and remotely.  Wagons and coaches, for example, weren't local builds, but made by national firms, like Studebaker.  Home spun clothing gave way, although not fully, to manufactured clothing by the turn of the prior century.  Horseshoes were made by large industrial firms.  Firearms, which saw the first assembly line manufacturing in the United States in the 18the Century were largely made by large industries by the mid 19th Century.  The trend, while not overnight, was definitely real.  Including in retail. Grocery stores, which had all been local affairs, started to become less and less local by the mid 20th Century.

Colorado Bakery and Grocery, a local store of the past in Ft. Collins Colorado.  It's now a brew pub.

For the most part, while the disappearance of small local enterprises may have been locally lamented, its' only been recently in the United States when this has sparked real concern.  Perhaps this is just because its gone so far, and now is stretching into areas that nobody ever considered possible, and perhaps also because we live at a time when it seems that an era when no local business at all is actually possible.  It probably won't happen, but local business do have to constantly worry about a big national or international concern coming in and squeezing them out.  A concern like that must have gave rise to the American Express campaign.

That campaign is sort of Distributist in its philosophical content, whether it realizes it or not.  It's interesting to see that advanced by a national outfit however, particularly one that's a as big as American Express.  Its uniquely American in some ways.

Distributism has been mentioned here before, but basically its a philosophy based on the principal of subsidiarity that holds everything should be centered on the smallest economic unit possible, down to the family if possible.  First really advanced by European Catholic writers of the late 19th and early 20th Centuries as an alternative to Socialism and Capitalism, both of which seemed set to destroy the lives of the average man at the time, and later on which seemed doomed to expire in the crisis of European politics of the early to mid 20th Century, it has been used to some extent, and often by accident, in various countries here and there. It also varies from adherents to back a government sponsored variety, and who would probably ultimately attack the necessity of corporations being as broad as they currently are, to radicals who would espouse a variant backed by Theodore Roosevelt in his later years that would have seen large corporations be regulated as public utilities with state ownership of a certain percentage of shares, to those who take a softer approach and just urge that people should act with Distributist hearts in their marketplace choices. That latter variant is the most widespread in actual practice, if not in philosophical discourse, and its the approach that American Express, probably ignorant of that fact, urges.

Front piece from a book by G.K. Chesterton, who together with Hillaire Belloc, was one of the two primary champions of European Distributist thought. Belloc's and Chesteron's Distributism was focused on agrarianism, which isn't universally the case for all Distributist, and was focused on the very small scale indeed.

Well, its interesting to see this now become an established American movement.  In that fashion, maybe it really is entering American public thought. Indeed, this seems to be how a lot of public thought enters to the American discourse, at least at first.  There are "shop local" movements everywhere, which now even extent do people who "get to know your farmer".  And there are anti big box adherents everywhere as well, indeed, I've met quite a few here and there.  It's not like a revolution, by any means.  Nor is it dominant in American thought at the present time, but it's surprisingly widespread.

Well, no matter what a person thinks of it one way or another, American Express deserves a little applause for its efforts, even from a cynic like me.