Wednesday, August 7, 1901. White Australia.

Australian Prime Minister Edmund Barton introduced the Immigration Restriction Act 1901 into the Australian House of Representatives as the Federation's first legislation to further the "White Australia policy", the policy that came into being to preclude people of non-European ethnic origins, Asians and Pacific Islanders, from immigrating to Australia.  The goal was to create a  "White/British" country.

The concept had obviously been around for awhile, but this was the first legislative effort at it.

The policy remained in effect until well after World War Two, although in the post war period, starting in 1949, it began to be dismantled.  By 1973 it had been completely.

On this date, Barton stated: "We are guarding the last part of the world in which the higher races can live and increase freely for the higher civilization. I place before the House a measure of definite and high policy."

World War One anti conscription poster.  It was feared by backers of the White Australia concept that conscripting Australians would necessitate the importation of foreign labor from other cultures.

This obviously racist  policy is, frankly, pretty much what National Conservatives and MAGA imagine to be ideal now, for the United States.  National Conservatives would imagine it ideal for Australia as well as the US, whereas MAGA can't spell Australia.  The racist nature of it, in contemporary National Conservative circles, would be thought of in cultural terms, which is why they tend to lecture Europeans on that continents immigration policies.  The more racist ones are why MAGA freaks out about things like Moroccans crossing into a Spanish North African city.

Often missed by NatCons on things such as this, many cultures other than European ones have claims on the Christian virtues they imagine themselves to be protecting, and in fact many of the darker cultures that Stephen Miller fears are actually, in 2026, every bit as European and Christian, if not more so, than Europeans and Americans are.  Central Africa is, for example, deeply Christian in many locations.  Central and South Americans, who MAGA fears, is uniformly Christian.

FWIW, this same sort of view was common in other regions of the British Empire.  Perhaps the ultimately expression of it was Rhodesia.

At any rate, the old racism is much like the new racism.

Higher civilization in the form of the British Army, through Field Marshal Kitchener, issued a proclamation giving all Boer soldiers until September 15 to surrender, or to be exiled permanently from South Africa if captured and to have their property confiscated at war's end.

It had no effect.

The RMS Oceanic rammed and sank the Irish vessel Kincor off of Tuskar Rock.

The U.S. Navy gunboat Machias was dispatched to Colon, Panama, Colombia to be on standby during the war between Colombia and Venezuela..

Last edition:

Tuesday, August 6, 1901. Lawton, Oklahoma.

Location: Lawton, OK, USA

China is Closing In on Taiwan.

With China having just been visited by our extraordinarily weak, and increasingly demented chief executive, this really bears watching.

Trump's illegal war on Iran has depleted US weapons reserves massively and wasted them on hard ground targets, something military analysts know is ineffective.  We have less of an ability to counter a Chinese invasion of Taiwan now than at any point since. . . well. . . probably 1947.

The likelihood of it happening his high.

The likelihood of Trump doing utterly nothing if it does happen is also high.

In 1949, when mainland China fell to the Communists, Republicans howled over "who lost China?"  In 2026 or 2027 when Taiwan falls, they'll probably just kneel to their beloved, Donald Trump.

The question will be, why?

The Third Man - Lime's Introduction

Friday, October 12, 1945. Operation Beleaguer.

I missed this when it started, which was October 10, so I'll note it here. This was day two of Operation Beleaguer, the Marine Corps occupation of northeastern China's Hebei and Shandong provinces from 1945 until 1949.

Members of the 1st Marine Division in China.  Two Chinese women appear in this photograph, one dressed in Western clothing, even though the Marine Corps attempted to strictly prevent romances breaking out between Marines and Chinese civilians.  People are people, so such interactions are essentially impossible to stop, but this particular story is very understudied, in part because Asian women were not covered by the War Brides Act, but marriages nonetheless occured. 5,132 Chinese women entered the United States as spouses of servicemen after World War Two, which included women who married Army Air Corps servicemen who had served in China during the war.  This is, overall, a small number, and indeed its must smaller than the number of Japanese women who married U.S. servicemen after 1950, which reflects official policy, cultural differences, and lingering US prejudice in the period against the Chinese.

It was not a combat operation, although some combat would ultimately occur, but focused on the repatriation of more than 600,000 Japanese and Koreans that remained in China at the end of World War II to their homelands.  Having said that, the looming crisis in post war China in which a seemingly defeated Communist Party began to advance in the country's civil war was not far from anyone's mind and the primary mission of force was to prevent the People's Liberation Army from accepting the surrender of Japanese soldiers in Northern China and to secure that region of China for the Nationalist Government, which had been an American ally throughout the war.  Landings actually commenced as early as September 30. By the end of the operation in 1949, the 1st Marine Division would be a covering force for the evacuation of foreign nationals.

 

U.S. Marines had been in China well before World War Two, but in this instance the it was effectively a different Marine Corps than the one that had existed up until 1940.  The Marine Corps had only been a major combat force once previously, and that had been during World War One when the 4th Marine Brigade had been part of the US Second Division.  The 1st Marine Division dated back only to February 1, 1941 when the military started to enormously expand in anticipation of going to war.  Given its prior history, only the Marines themselves really anticipated being a major ground combat element in the war, ultimately expanding to six divisions.  Six divisions is a huge Marine Corps, but the Corps was dwarfed in size by the Army, even in terms of Pacific combat, where the Army deployed twenty two divisions.

With the end of the war the service began to return men quite rapidly to civilian status and members of the Marine Corps, the vast majority of whom were wartime volunteers, anticipated the same.  Prior to the war Marines tended to be career oriented to a high degree, and frankly about as rough of set of characters as could be imagined.  By 1945 most of them were toughened civilians in uniform, comparable to volunteers in the U.S. Army, and some were conscripts.  Nobody anticipated being sent into China, even though prior to the war Marines had served there.

Because the military was in fact demobilizing, this would prove to be a problem for the 1st Marine Division in China, as it soon began to suffer attrition due to members being discharged.  It's combat efficiency dropped, and at the same time, it became increasingly obvious that the Communists were going to win the Chinese Civil War.

While going to China was a surprise to the Marines, the found when they arrived that the Chinese were wildly enthusiastic about their appearance.  No doubt their showing up meant not only that they were liberated from the Japanese, but also from the Communists and the Nationalist, at least for a time.

On this, while we're jumping way ahead of our story, it's also worth noting that this points out a problem in the "who lost China" line of the Republican Party following the evacuation of the Chinese Nationalist from the mainland.  There are a lot of elements to that story, but the GOP at the time, suddenly shocked following the Berlin Blockade and then the fall of the Nationalist government in China, looked for somebody to blame.

It might be noted at first, that they should have looked at themselves.  The GOP had been actively highly isolationist prior to World War Two and evcen leading up the last year before the war there were strong elements within the party that opposed entering the war.  The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor followed by the German declaration of war on the U.S. solved that for a time, but upon the restoration of peace, the main branch of the GOP returned to isolationism.  The US didn't become isolationist as the 79th Congress remained controlled by Democrats.  The 80th Congress did not, but it was somewhat ineffectual for that period (which is nothing compared to today).  The 80th Congress, however, notably presided over the fall of China.

Be that as it may, some have suggested that US inaction over China was due to the penetration of the US by Soviet spies in the 1930s, and there may be a little to that, but only a little.  M. Stanton Evans hinted at that in his revisionist biography of Joseph McCarthy, which is quite well done and a good read. But even there, the suggestion was that Communist elements managed to hold up arms shipments to the Nationalist.  Even were that true, any follower of this site could see that in 1945 China was awash in arms and yet at the same time the Nationalist were losing battle after battle.

It is something worth exploring.  Before the war with Japan, the Nationalist were winning.  After the war, it just took five years for them to lose.

Anyhow,, realistically, looking at Operation Beleaguer, what really could have been done?  The US was not going to be able to send U.S. troops into a Chinese Civil War right after World War Two. There was no public will for that at all and no moral within the U.S. military that would have allowed for that to have occured.

Elsewhere in China, the Shangdang Campaign ended in communist victory.

German general Anton Dostler was sentenced to death in Rome for war crimes.

The Norwegian Supreme Court upheld the death sentence imposed on Vidkun Quisling.

Last edition:  

Thursday, October 11, 1945. Racism in "the good old days".

Thursday, August 23, 1945. The Red Army and the Japanese.

The Battle of Shumshu ended with the Red Army defeating the Imperial Japanese Army on the island.

The Red Army took Port Arthur.

Stalin ordered Japanese POWs in the hands of the Red Army to be transported to the USSR.  The Japanese would start repatriating them the following year, but in 1949 some were transferred to Communist China, and the final Soviet repatriation was accomplished in 1950.  At that time there were over 2,000 remaining who were not repatriated.  Some of them returned after the collapse of the Soviet Union, but some chose to voluntarily remain in Russia as, by that time, they'd integrated into Russian society and had families.

This behavior was typical for Communist countries, which tended to regard POWs as criminals and hold them for long periods of time after hostilities ceased.

"Captain Leekins, G-2 Island Commander, Colonel Haregawa and party leaving, USS Amick (DE 168), Palau Islands, 23 August 1945."

In contrast, Douglas MacArthur ordered, on this day, the release of 5,000 Filipinos held for security reasons.

President Truman awarded the Medal of Honor to twenty-eight servicemen.

The PLA prevailed in the Battle of Baoying.

Last edition:

Wednesday, August 22, 1945. Surrenders.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, Displaced Persons, Imperial Japanese Army, Japan, Marshall Islands, Red Army, Romania, The Holocaust, World War Two

Blog Mirror: From Barrister to Movie Actor, 1949

 

From Barrister to Movie Actor, 1949

M47 Tank. National Museum of Military Vehicles.

The tank in the photograph above is a M47 "Patton" tank, the successor to the M26 Pershing.  The tank had a limited production run, entering service in 1951 during the Korean War, and being declared a limited standard in 1955.  Production ceased in 1953, and the tank was deployed to Korea in small numbers for testing.

The tank was the third tank to be based on the M26, including the M26. The second was the M46 "Patton", which was an upgraded M26 which was used during the Korean War.

A M5 Stuart light tank is in the background.

Related threads:

The M26 and its children

Last edition:

Japanese Type 7 305mm gun, National Museum of Military Vehicles.

Labels: 1930s, 1940s, Artillery, Imperial Japanese Army, Japan, National Museum of Military Vehicles, World War Two, Wyoming (Dubois)

Today in World War II History—November 10, 1939 & 1944

Today in World War II History—November 10, 1939 & 1944: 80 Years Ago—Nov. 10, 1944: Japanese take US Fourteenth Air Force air bases at Kweilin and Liuchow in their drive through southern China.

Sunday, August 31, 1924. Back in North America.

The around the world flyers landed at Indian Harbour, Labrador (which was not yet part of Canada), thereby having arrived again in North America.

United with Newfoundland, Labrador would not become part of Canada until 1949.

Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich of Russia proclaimed himself heir to the Russian throne.

Wine was released, which featured Clara Bow in her first leading role.

Last edition:

Saturday, August 30, 1924. Late summer scenes.

Labels: 1920s, 1924, Art, Calvin Coolidge, Currency, French League of Nation Mandates, German Weimar Republic, Illinois, inflation, It was because of World War One, Ku Klux Klan, Lebanon, Monarchy, Norman Rockwell

Wednesday, May 4, 1944. Japanese Command Changes.

 

Soemu Toyoda (豊田 副武) was made Commander in Chief of the Imperial Japanese Navy Combined Fleet.

Toyada became a full Admiral only shortly before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and was opposed to it from the onset, believing that a war with the United States was unwinnable.  He figured in late war Imperial Conferences on finding an end to the war, which he was in favor of ending but he wished for better terms for Japan, even after the atomic strikes on the country.  He was in favor of defending the home islands to the last man.

Arrested and charged with war crimes in 1948, he was acquitted in 1949, the only member of the Japanese armed forces to prevail in a war crimes trial.  He died in 1957 at age 72.

The British 14th Army captured the heights above the Maungdaw-Buthindaung road in the Arakan.

The USS Donnell was heavily damaged by a strike by the U-473. Towed to Scotland, she became a total loss.

The U-852 was scuttled on the Somali coast.

Harvard scientists announce the ability to produce synthetic quinine.

The French Resistance burned 100,000 liters of acetone at the Lambiotte plant.

2nd Lt. John W. Garrett, age 19, was killed making an emergency landing of a B-24 at Rentschler Field, East Hartford, Connecticut. 

Sarah Sundin has some interesting entries on her blog, Today in World War II History—May 3, 1944.

She reports, for instance, that Going My Way was released.

I've never seen the film, but according to some its the best in Bing Crosby's career.  I probably should catch it.

The movie is really from the golden age of the portrayal of Catholic clerics in American films.  It interestingly came before the point at which Catholics had crossed over into the American cultural mainstream, and remained their own ethnicity to a strong degree.  The era, which started in the 1930s and continued into the 1950s, basically ended after the American Catholic integration occured following John F. Kennedy's election to the White House.

It's interesting, in that there are an entire series of really sympathetic portrayals of Catholic priests and Catholicism in general from this era, including Boys Town (1938), The Song of Bernadette (1943), The Bells of Saint Mary's (1945), The Keys of the Kingdom (1944), The Quiet Man (1952) On The Waterfront (1954), and The Left Hand of God (1955).  These were all major motion pictures, not niche pictures such as For Greater Glory (2012).  They came on pretty strongly in the late 1930s and continued on into the mid 50s, but really disappeared after that.  By the 1970's M*A*S*H the portrayal of priests had declined to the point where the portrayal was entirely satyric.

Sundin reports that meat rationing was temporarily relaxed, which brings up this post that we pondered the topic in from a few years back:

Hunting (and fishing), Stateside, during World War Two.

Owning a packing house, as they did, I wonder what was table fare for my father and his family during the war?

Last prior edition:

Tuesday, May 2, 1944. Sensing a change.

1940s, 1944, boats and ships, French Resistance Movements, Red Army, Romania, Second Battle of Târgu Frumos, Spain, U.S. Navy, Vichy France

My father's side.

Lex Anteinternet: I had always thought my grandfather on my mother's...: but it turns out, he died in 1958. He was, therefore, about 67 years of age. Still not ancient by current standards, but not 58 years of age...

Carrying this forward, or over, or whatever it would be just a bit, my father's father died on October 9, 1949.  He was 47.  I'd been told by one of my aunts that it was on her birthday, but it was the day after her birthday when he died.  Close enough to burn in an indelible mark, I'm sure.

That aunt was born in 1931, which would have made her 17 or 18 at the time of his death.

His youngest son, my father's brother, was born in 1936, which would have made him 12 or 13, which is a bit older than I recalled.  It's still pretty young, however.  My father was born in 1929, which would have made him 19 or 20, older than I recalled, but it makes sense in context.  In both these instances, I think it's the younger age, 12 and 19, that would be correct.  My father would have just completed junior college, as they called it at the time.  His oldest sister, born in 1926 (the same year my mother was born) had been married three years and was living in Nebraska.  She was the only married sibling, naturally enough, at the time.

My married aunt would come back to Casper when her husband graduated from dental school.  He'd grown up at least partially in Nebraska, but had strong Casper family connections, but I'm not sure how that had come about.

My other aunt would go on to the University of Wyoming, something unusual for the time.  She didn't graduate.  I never thought much of that, but as the family story developed following her death the rest of us ultimately learned of a trauma that would have been about the time of her senior year there, so her failure to graduate, surprising for an extremely intelligent women, make sense.

My father's mother died in 1973, she was 71 at the time. That'd definitely older than I recalled (I had thought it was 65).  Somewhat unusually, both she and my father's father were born in the same year, 1901, making them about a decade younger than my mother's parents.  They married in 1923, when then both would have been 21 or 22.  It's interesting that the oldest of their children wasn't born until 1926, which at that time was a little bit of a delay.

I would have been ten when she died.  I can definitely recall it, and having been up at the hospital while she was ill.

Related thread:

I had always thought my grandfather on my mother's side died at age 58. . .

Friday, July 13, 1923. Doubling down.

 

France, undeterred by criticism and results, determined to into German deeper.

And there was an attempted jail break at the Natrona County jail.

What became the famous Hollywood sign, which originally said Hollywoodland, was dedicated.  It promoted a housing development.   The sign would read in that fashion until 1949 when it was shortened.

Paleontologist lead by U.S. expeditionist Roy Chapman found fossilized dinosaur eggs in Mongolia, the first people to do so and realize what they were.

Hermann Ehrhardt, being held by Germany on high treason for his role in the Kapp Putsch, escaped.

Ehrhardt, back left of car, during putsch.

Ehrhardt, an Imperial German naval officer, lead the Marine Brigade Ehrhardt during the attempt to overthrow the government.  Ehrhardt fled to Switzerland, but returned in September.  This would establish a pattern for the rest of his active life, as the German government later sought to arrest him again, and then finally he feld to escape the Night of the Long Knives. As that would indicate, while he was in the far right, and anti Semitic, he was also opposed to the Nazis.

Tuesday, June 19, 1923. the Little Old Log Cabin.

 

John Carson

"Fiddlin" John Carson recorded "The Little Old Log Cabin" in the Lane in what is now inaccurately regarded as the first "country" music recording.  The flipside was "The Old Hen Cackled and the Rooster's Going To Crow."

It was "country", but not in the country pop or modern C&W understanding, but rather in the "Hill Billy" music understanding of the word. That type of music, often highly evolved, is still within the "country" genre, but much, indeed most, of modern C&W music is as much related to pop music than anything else.

Carson would record off and on until 1935.  He died in 1949 at age 81, spending his final years as an elevator operator.

The US and the UK came to an agreement on the UK's war debt.

Friday, June 4, 1943. Giraud takes command.

Henri Giraud was appointed Commander In Chief of the Free French Forces.

Giraud was a career French Army officer, as we would of course expect, who had entered the army in 1900.  He was serving with the Zouave's in North Africa when World War One broke out and was badly wounded leading a Zouave charge earlier in the war, resulting in his capture by the Germans after he'd been left for dead.  He'd escaped German captivity posing as s circus roustabout after his recovery.

He was captured by the Germans a second time in May 1940, and escaped again in November 1942, as we discussed here:

Saturday, November 7, 1942. Giraud escapes France.

The British submarine Seraph smuggled French general Henri Giraud out of France.

Giraud was an opponent of the Vichy regime and had escaped German captivity, for Switzerland, back in April.  Vichy tried to lure him back, but he demurred.

While all in anticipation of Torch, the submarine took Giraud to Gibraltar, where he remained until November 9.  Relationships between the Free French officers were always highly complicated and tense, in part because their legitimacy was really legally questionable, which their organization, supported by the Allies, reflected. The Allies always tried to split the difference between outright firebrand rebels, like DeGaulle, and those who still held some ties to Vichy as the legal government.  Those in a position in between, like Giraud, were in an odd spot.

He received Allied support as the leader of the Free French following the assassination of Admiral Darlan. At the time, the Allies were trying to balance the personalities in the French leadership which varied from DeGaulle, who had gone into rebellion against Vichy from the onset, to individuals like Darlan who had not been sympathetic with the Nazis but who were unwilling, at first, to rebel against the established legal government.  Giroud appeared to be a good compromise between the two.  In that, he may have been misread.  An early sign of that was when Gen. Eisenhower asked him to take command of French troops in North Africa during Operation Torch, and he declined at first as he felt his honor demanded command of Torch itself, although he soon relented.

As it was, French forces in North Africa refused to recognize Giraud and instead continued to follow the orders of Admiral Darlan.  Darlan was accordingly recognized by the Allies as the head of French forces in North Africa, in spite of his association with Vichy.  Giraud's position was thereafter under Darlan.  Upon Darlan's assassination, Giraud's overall leadership of the French forces was forced through by the Allies.

Giraud had not been, however, a perfect choice, as he wished to retain French racial laws and he had made comments sympathetic to the accomplishments of Nazi Germany.  He'd ultimately fell when he acted independently of the Allies in sending French ships to help French resistance movements in Corsica in September without informing the Allies.  At this point, it was learned that he was maintaining an independent intelligence service.  This led to his wartime retirement.  

He served in the Assembly after the war, and died in 1949 at age 70.

Argentina's government fell in a coup d'etate which removed Ramon Castillo, who had maintained a strict neutrality position over World War Two, in favor of Gen. Arturo Rawson, who yielded nearly immediately to Gen. Pedro Ramirez, who continued the neutrality policy.  As this might demonstrate, the coup and Argentine politics were in a highly confused state, and would remain that way for many years.  Its military was clearly a danger, however, to civilian leadership of the country.

Belle and Kermit Roosevelt.

Kermit Roosevelt, serving as a Major in the U.S. Army, but also suffering from years of illness and alcoholism, committed suicide in Alaska.  He was 52 years old.

Adventuresome, like his father, but subject to alcoholism like his uncle.  He served in the British and American armies during World War One.  He'd accompanied his father on the legendary River of Doubt expedition in South America before the war, an event which contributed to Theodore Roosevelt's late in life declining health.  Like his father, Kermit Roosevelt nearly died during the expedition and also like his father, a branch of the river was named for him.

He served a second hitch in the British Army early in World War Two, participating in the Battle of Narvik.  He resumed heavy drinking after an injury in that battle, which he had previously given up, and was plagued by liver problems that was compounded by malaria. He was subsequently medically discharged from British service.  His drinking was so bad that Archie Roosevelt sought to place him in a sanitarium for a year upon his return, and he agreed to a four-month stay.  He took a commission in the U.S. Army as a major at that time and was stationed at Ft. Richardson, Alaska.

Saturday, April 14, 1923. Waiting Dates, Young Couples, Racist Organizations Where You Wouldn't Expect Them.

It was Saturday, and the Saturday Evening Post chose to run an illustration of a woman waiting, presumably on a date.

The Country Gentleman illustration depicted a young couple applying for a marriage license, with a caption below that would be regarded as racist today, but which was still common for complete independence when I was young.

The Lansing-Ishii Agreement which had defined Japanese and American spheres of influence in China was abrogated after six years of being in effect due to Chinese objections regarding the agreement.

The Tribune reported on a tidal wave in Japan, and Irish plots against the British, but the really shocking news was the visitation of the Ku Klux Klan to the Emmanuel Baptist Church in Casper at 15th and Popular Streets.  There is no church there today, that location featuring a gas station, two apartment buildings, and a traffic island..

An Emmanuel Baptist Church still exists in Casper, but it's in North Casper today.  I have no idea of there being any connection between the two or not.

Emmanuel Baptist Church, Casper Wyoming

Not the best photograph, by any means, we admit.

Emmanuel Baptist Church in North Casper, Wyoming.

Apparently the same group had visited the Baptist church located at 5th and Beech street earlier.  That Church structure is no longer there either, but a subsequent structure built in 1949 remains, however it is no longer a Baptist Church.

First Baptist Church, Casper Wyoming

This is the First Baptist Church in Casper, Wyoming. It's one of the Downtown churches in Casper, in an area that sees approximately one church per block for a several block area.

This particular church was built in 1949, and sits on the same block as Our Savior's Lutheran Church.

Changes in Downtown Casper. First Presbyterian becomes City Park Church, the former First Baptist Church.

I debated on whether to put this entry here or on our companion blog, Lex Anteinternet.  In the end, I decided to put it up here first and then link it over. This will be one of a couple of posts of this type which explore changes, this one with a local expression, that have bigger implications.

When we started this blog, some of the first entries here were on churches in downtown Casper.  These included the First Presbyterian Church and the First Baptist Church, with buildings dating to 1913 and 1949 respectively.  First Baptist, it should be noted, has occupied their present location, if not their present church, for a century.

Indeed, while I wasn't able to get it to ever upload, I have somewhere a video of the centennial of the First Presbyterian Church from 2013, featuring, as a church that originally had a heavy Scots representation ought to, a bagpipe band.  Our original entry on that church building is right below:

First Presbyterian Church, Casper Wyoming

This Presbyterian Church is located one block away from St. Mark's Episcopal Church and St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church, all of which are separated from each other by City Park.

The corner stone of the church gives the dates 1913 1926. I'm not sure why there are two dates, but the church must have been completed in 1926.

Well, since that centennial, First Presbyterian has been going through a constant set of changes, as noted in our entry here:

Grace Reformed at City Park, formerly First Presbyterian Church, Casper Wyoming

This isn't a new addition to the roll of churches here, but rather news about one of them.  We formerly posted on this church here some time ago:

Churches of the West: First Presbyterian Church, Casper Wyoming: This Presbyterian Church is located one block away from St. Mark's Episcopal Church and St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church, all of whi...

People who have followed it would be aware that the Presbyterian churches in the United States are undergoing a period of rift, and this church has reflected that.  The Presbyterian Church, starting in the 1980s, saw conflict develop between liberal and more conservative elements within it which lead to the formation of the "moderate conservative" EPC.  As I'm not greatly familiar with this, I'll only note that the EPC is associated with "New School Presbyterianism" rather than "Old School" and it has adopted the motto  "In Essentials, Unity; In Non-Essentials, Liberty; In All Things, Charity. Truth in Love.".

The change in name here is confusing to an outsider in that this church is a member of the EPC, but it's no longer using its original name.  As it just passed the centennial of its construction, that's a bit unfortunate in some ways. 

We'd also note that the sought set of stairs is now chained off.  We're not sure why, but those stairs must no longer be used for access.

The changes apparently didn't serve to arrest whatever was going on, as there's a sign out in front of the old First Presbyterian, later Grace Reformed, that starting on February 23, it'll be City Park Church.

City Park Church, it turns out, is the name that the congregation that presently occupies another nearby church, First Baptist Church, will call its new church building, which is actually a much older building than the one it now occupies, which is depicted here:

First Baptist Church, Casper Wyoming

This is the First Baptist Church in Casper, Wyoming. It's one of the Downtown churches in Casper, in an area that sees approximately one church per block for a several block area.

This particular church was built in 1949, and sits on the same block as Our Savior's Lutheran Church.

What's going on?

Well, it's hard to say from the outside, which we are, but what is pretty clear is that the rifts in the Presbyterian Church broke out, in some form, in the city's oldest Presbyterian Church to the point where it ended up changing its name, and then either moving out of its large church, and accompanying grounds, or closing altogether.  I've never been in the building but I'm told that its basement looked rough a couple of years ago and perhaps the current congregation has other plans or the grounds and church are just too much for it.  At any rate, the 1949 vintage building that First Baptist occupies is apparently a bit too small for its needs and it had taken the opportunity to acquire and relocate into the older, but larger, church.  It can't help but be noted that both churches have pretty large outbuildings as well. Also, while they are both downtown, the 1913 building is one of the three very centrally located old downtown Casper churches, so if church buildings have pride of place, the Baptist congregation is moving into a location which has a little bit more of one.

While it will be dealt with more in another spot, or perhaps on Lex Anteinternet, the entire thing would seem to be potentially emblematic of the loss that Christian churches that have undergone a rift like the Presbyterian Church in the United States has sustained when they openly split between liberal and conservative camps.  The Presbyterian Church was traditionally a fairly conservative church, albeit with theology that was quite radical at the time of its creation.  In recent years some branches of that church have kept their conservatism while others have not and there's been an open split.  As noted elsewhere this has lead in part to a defection from those churches in a lot of localities, and a person has to wonder if something like that may have happened here, as well as wondering if the obvious fact that a split has occurred would naturally lead to a reduction in the congregation as some of its members went with the other side.  We've noted here before that the Anglican Community locally not only has its two Episcopal Churches in town, but that there are also two additional Anglican Churches of a much more theologically conservative bent, both of which are outside of the Episcopal Diocese of Wyoming.

A person can't really opine, from the outside, if something like this is "sad" or not, but it's certainly a remarkable event.  We've noted church buildings that have changed denominations of use before, but this is the first one where we've actually witnessed it.  And in this case, the departing denomination had occupied their building for a century.

In both instances, the small KKK group was there for the odd purpose of noting something they approved of.  

On the changes in the linked in article, while I'm not completely certain, I believe that no congregation is presently using the old First Baptist Church, and the old Presbyterian Church continued to undergo denominational changes.  It's something affiliated with Presbyterianism in some fashion, but I don't know how.

Amalgamated Bank, the largest union owned bank, forms.

The National League of Women's Voters voted against endorsing the League of Nations while simultaneously urging the US to associate with other nations to help prevent war, a mixed message.

Thursday, February 15, 1923. Forbes quits from long distance, Veterans gather, Greece compounds the injustice.

Gathering at USS Maine memorial on the 25th anniversary of its sinking.

Charles R. Forbes, the Director of the U.S. Veteran's Bureau, resigned the position from his self-appointed refuge of Europe, following suspicions that he had been selling surplus supplies at huge discounts to contractors for kickbacks.  His confrontation with Harding on the matter had resulted in a physical altercation, with Forbes reportedly begging Harding to be allowed to depart for Europe prior to resigning.

The Scottish born Forbes had lived a colorful life, having been a Marine Corps musician at age 16, an engineer, a soldier in the Army charged with desertion and ultimately discharged as a Sergeant First Class after only eight years of service, employed in the construction field, and a Lieutenant Colonel in World War One.

He'd be prosecuted for conspiracy to defraud the Federal Government and end up serving 20 months in prison.  He'd live until 1949, dying at age 74.

Greece expropriate additional dwellings from the Albanian Cham Muslims in order to free up dwelling space for expelled Greeks from Turkey, thereby compounding the injustice.

Albanians had nothing to do with Greece's situation and the event signals out how Greece, in some ways, set the table for the disaster it was experiencing.  Turkey was being barbarous to the Anatolian Greeks, but the Greeks had not been kind to the Anatolian Muslims.

And this also demonstrates how something that began in World War One with good intention, independent nation states comprised of free peoples, was morphing into expelling minorities from lands they'd occupied for eons.

Margaret Lindsey Williams, working on her portrait of President Harding.