Showing posts with label Iowa. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Iowa. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 17, 2024

What's the matter with Wyoming (and Iowa)?


The other day Robert Reich, whose writing I have a love/hate relationship with, wrote this article:

What’s the matter with Iowa?

I'll admit that I was prepared to dismiss it when I started reading it, but I can't. It's a well reasoned article.

I don't think it sums up everything that's "wrong" with Iowa, but it gets some things right.  This could just as easily be said, about Wyoming, however:

I saw it happen. When I was helping Fritz Mondale in 1984, I noticed Iowa beginning to shift from family farms to corporate agriculture, and from industrialized manufacturing to knowledge-intensive jobs.

The challenge was to create a new economy for Iowa and for much of the Midwest.

I didn’t have any good ideas for creating that new economy, though — and neither did Mondale, who won Iowa’s Democratic caucuses that year but lost the general election to Ronald Reagan in Iowa and every other state, except his own Minnesota.

Yet not until George W. Bush’s reelection campaign in 2004 did a Republican presidential candidate win Iowa again.

When Tom Vilsack was governor of Iowa in the early 2000s and flirting with the idea of a presidential run, he told me he worried that Iowa’s high school valedictorians used to want to attend the University of Iowa or Iowa State, but now wanted the Ivy League or Stanford or NYU. Even Iowa’s own college graduates were leaving for Chicago, Minneapolis-St. Paul, and New York.

Vilsack wanted to know how to keep Iowa’s talent in Iowa — a variant of the question I couldn’t answer for Mondale. By this time I had a few ideas — setting up high-tech hubs around major universities, blanketing parts of the state with free wi-fi, having community colleges supply the talent local industries needed — but they all cost money that Iowa didn’t have.

As The New York Times’s Jonathan Weisman noted recently, Iowa continues to lose more than 34 percent of its college graduates each year. Illinois, by contrast, gains 20 percent more college graduates than it produces. Minnesota has about 8 percent more college grads than it produces.

This talent migration has hastened America’s split into two cultures, not just in Iowa and the Midwest but across the nation.

But not entirely.

The thing people like Reich don't get is that much of the country doesn't want to become an upper middle class urban cesspool.  Places that people like Reich worship are largely abhorrent in living terms.  There's a reason that people look to rural areas and an idealized past.

But people also lash themselves to a dead economy as if it'll come back, even if it means losing track of reality at some point, or even if it means becoming something they claim to detest, welfare recipients. This has happened all over the US.

Something needs to be done to revitalize the main street economy, and people like Reich don't have the answers because at the end of the day, all American economists see things the same way.  Everything is corporate, the only question is how much, if any, restraint you put on corporations.

Distributism would cure a lot of this.

If we had a more Distributist economy, we'd have a more local one.  For rural areas, that'd mean much more local processing of locally produced goods.  There's no reason for the concentration of the meat packing industry, for example. Beef could be packed locally.  At one time, my family did just that. And that's only one example.

If the economy was reoriented in that fashion, local industry would expand a great deal.  The thing is, of course, not all of those jobs would be the glass and steel mind-numbing cubicle jobs that all economists love.

But here's the other thing.  As long as the economy is oriented the way it is, rural states are going to be colonies of urban areas, just as much as, let's say, French Indochina was a colony of France, or Kenya a colony of the United Kingdom.  Exploitative, in another word.  It's not intentionally so, it is an economic reality.

The problem there is that in those sorts of economies everything is produced for export alone, and everything is precarious.  That gets back to my Distributist argument above.

But it also gets to a certain cultural thing in which those deeply aligned with the economy, which includes most people, can't see anything thing else. As long as the economy keeps working, that's okay. But when changes come, that can be a disaster.

Wyoming's very first economy was the fur trade, if we discount the native economy (which is a real economy, and accordingly should not be discounted).  Contrary to the popular belief, the fur trade was not displaced, it just was never really very large, and therefore it diminished in importance when other things came in.

The other things were 1) agriculture, which came first, followed by the 2) extractive industries.  Both are still with us.  Agriculture has suffered to a degree as the naturally distributist industries that support it have been sacrificed on the altar of corporate economics and consolidation.  The state, for its part, did nothing to arrest that trend and simply let it happen.  In part, that's because the state has always deeply worshiped the thought that the extractive industries will make us all rich and nothing is to be interfered with, including losing local production of the raw resources that are first produced here.  I.e., we don't refine the oil as much as we used to, we don't pack the meat, we don't process the wool. . . . 

And the extractive industries certainly have made a lot of people and entire communities rich, there's no question of it.

But the handwriting is on the wall.  Coal is declining and will continue to do so.  And a massive shift in petroleum use is occurring, which Wyoming cannot stop.  Petroleum will still be produced far into the future, but its use as a fuel is disappearing.  Petrochemicals, on the other hand, are not.

We seemingly like to think we can stop those things from changing in any form.  We've tried to through lawsuits and legislation.  And yet it turns out that people buying EV's don't listen to our litigation or legislation, any more than they do to Nebraska's Senator Deb Fischer's whining about recharging station funding.  Like some who can't face death due to illness, we'll grasp at what we can, rather than adjust.

Part of that is listening to people who tell us what we want to hear.  A lot of politicians have tried to gently tell us the truth of what we're facing.  Governor Gordon did just recently. When they do that, they're castigated for it.

In 1962's The Days of Wine and Roses the plot follows a man who is a social drinker and introduces alcohol to his girlfriend. They marry, and over time they become heavy drinkers.  He finally stops drinking, his wife having left him, and finds her in an apartment, where she is now a hardcore alcoholic.  He resumes drinking then and there, in order to be with her.

In the end, however, he reforms and quits. She doesn't. We know how that will end.

That's a lot like Wyomingites in general.  We've received the hard knocks and blows.  Some of us are going to put the bottle down and face the day, some are not going to under any circumstances.

For some, it's easier to believe that a "dictator for a day" can order the old economy restored and reverse fifty years of demographic change, while reversing supply, demand, and technology to sort of 1970s status.  In other words, go ahead and have another drink, it won't hurt you.

But in reality, it might, and probably will.

Tuesday, January 2, 2024

Wednesday, January 2, 1924. Kings in Exile.

Bulgaria gave former King Ferdinand, who had been in exile since 1918, permission to return to Sofia.


He had been living in Coburg, Germany, oddly enough, given that the German monarch was also in exile.  He noted, while there:
Kings in exile are more philosophic under reverses than ordinary individuals; but our philosophy is primarily the result of tradition and breeding, and do not forget that pride is an important item in the making of a monarch. We are disciplined from the day of our birth and taught the avoidance of all outward signs of emotion. The skeleton sits forever with us at the feast. It may mean murder, it may mean abdication, but it serves always to remind us of the unexpected. Therefore we are prepared and nothing comes in the nature of a catastrophe. The main thing in life is to support any condition of bodily or spiritual exile with dignity. If one sups with sorrow, one need not invite the world to see you eat.

Yugoslavia issued an ultimatum objecting to his return.

He in fact did not return, and having taken steps to secure his fortune, lived a quasi bucolic life, marked by family tragedy, and carried on in Germany, dying in 1948.  The prior year, he married a third time, to his secretary, age 26.  

Simon & Schuster, the legendary publishing house, was formed.

The U.S. Winter Olympic team left for the first Winter Olympics.

1924 Winter Olympics including Beatrix Loughran, Joe Moore, Valentine Bialis, Richard Donovan, Harry Kaskey, Charles Jewtraw, and William Steinmetz aboard the ship SS President Monroe on January 2, 1924. 

The Constitutionalist government of Mexico reported that is forces had achieved a victory over the rebels of Adolfo de la Huerta at Zacualpan.

The war in Mexico, and other age-old lethal vices, were making headlines far away:


Flooding in Paris closed the railroads.

Sabine Baring-Gould, composer of "Onward, Christian Soldiers", died at age 89.  Clara Abbott, American businesswoman who had been the first woman to serve on the board of a major American corporation, Abbott Laboratories, died at age 66.

United States Senators Frazier and Johnson were photographed working.









A new flag for Iowa was unveiled.

It is, frankly, ugly.

It had been adopted in 1921. Iowa had lacked one before that.

Monday, August 21, 2023

Towns and Nature: Dubuque, IA: IC Depots, Freight House and Roundhouse

Towns and Nature: Dubuque, IA: IC Depots, Freight House and Roundhouse: 1888 and 1945 Depots: ( HABS ;  Satellite , south of Jones Street. The land is now used by Arby's andUS-61.) 1873 Freight House: ( HABS ...

Posted due to being part of the old family stomping grounds. 

Monday, December 19, 2022

Saturday, December 19, 1942. The storm ends.

Today in World War II History—December 19, 1942: 80 Years Ago—Dec. 19, 1942: Free French take Pichon, Tunisia from Germans.

From Sara Sundin's blog.

Today saw the high water mark of Operation Winter Storm, the German effort to relieve Stalingrad.  German troops advanced to a point 30 miles south of Stalingrad, which is not close in military offensive terms.  They could not advance further, and the trapped forces had insufficient fuel to commence an effort to break out.


Sunday, September 11, 2022

Can somebody wake up Cowboy Joe?

From a recent Benzinga news story:

What Happened: North Dakota Attorney General Drew Wrigley shot off a letter to the Gates-linked Red River Trust this week, reported KFYR, Bismarck, North Dakota-based T.V. station.

Wrigley asked the company how they intend to use the land and if they meet exceptions to the state’s corporate farming laws.

"All corporations or limited liability companies (LLC) are prohibited from owning or leasing farmland or ranchland and from engaging in farming or ranching," the letter states, as per the report.

"In addition, the law places certain limitations on the ability of trusts to own farmland or ranchland."

The company has 30 days to respond to the letter dated June 21. Public reaction to the Red River purchase has not been positive, reported KFYR. 

North Dakota is practically right next door. They're prohibiting corporate ownership of ag land, in the interest of protecting local farmers and ranchers.

Iowa requires ag land to be owned by people actually farming it.

So does Quebec.

I'm not saying that no corporate ownership must be the rule, as there are corporations made up of farming and ranching interests.  But remote, disant, investment, ownership with no local ties. . . ?

Related threads:

The Invaders



"This land is my land, but shouldn't be your land". Misbegotten hostility to ranchers using the public lands

Sunday, April 11, 2021

April 11, 1921. Glass Arm Eddie, First Broadcast Lightweight Boxing Match, 67th Congress, Transjordan, Cigarettes in Iowa.

Eddie Brown.

On the same day that Eddie Brown, Centerfielder, was photographed, the first radio broadcast of a lightweight boxing match may, or may not have, been done:

Old Radio: April 11, 1921: The First Lightweight Boxing Match...: April 11, 1921: The first lightweight boxing match on radio between Johnny Ray and Johnny Dundee was broadcasted live on this day ...
Pity the poor blogger on something like this. . . 

On this Monday of April, 1921, the 67th Congress was sworn in.


The United Kingdom established the Emirate of Transjordan, which today is the Kingdom of Jordan. Abdullah, the future king, was the Emir.  His grandson is the present king. 

The kingdom has been in the news recently as it may be that a case of sibling rivalry has popped up, and is even potentially dangerous.  

Iowa lifted a prohibition on the sale of cigarettes, a retrograde act that shows the could happen.  

Indeed, cigarette prohibition was an early 20th Century thing that shows the dangers of tobacco, while not really fully understood, weren't completely unknown either.  Prior to Iowa three other states had banned the sale, and even the possession, of cigarettes.


World War One, however, hadn't helped matters.  Indeed, while the Great War had helped push alcohol over the top in terms of being passed, the same factors were somewhat at work.  Thousands of men had been exposed to young drinking during the war and to societies in which, at that time, alcohol was simply part of life and a matter of routine daily consumption.  And cigarettes had poured into the trenches during the war in no small part due to the stress of the situation, and the fact that cigarettes were easier to smoke than their competitors.

1919 cigarette advertisement with  youthful smoking veteran.

For whatever reason, cigarettes really are more dangerous than pipes or cigars, health wise, which doesn't mean any of them are safe.  Lung cancer rates would start to spike in the 1930s due to them.

It's odd to think that my father's father, who was from Iowa originally, was a lifelong Camel cigarette smoker, albeit "life long" is deceptive as he died in his 40s.

On the same day, telephone service was established from Florida to Cuba, and as that lays on the path to cell phones, it was also a retrograde movement. A look at somebody in a distant land, from what seems to be the distant past:

Monday, July 29, 2019

July 29, 1919. 1919 Motor Transport Convoy. Council Bluffs Iowa to Omaha Nebraska, 5 miles in 2 hours

Omaha in 1914.

On this day in 1919, the transcontinental Motor Transport Convoy drove across the Missouri at Council Bluffs and into Omaha, which is just across the river from Council Bluffs.
The crossing was a parade and only five miles were achieved that day, which no doubt was a planned slow advance.  The convoy camped at Ft. Omaha, which was just north of the city. Today it is principally the site of Metropolitan Community College.  During World War One the fort was the site of a balloon school for part of the war, and this entry notes the presence of balloons at Ft. Omaha, but the location was determined not to be suitable for that use during the war and the school itself was transferred to Camp John Wise, Texas.

The stand down on this day was apparently used for maintenance, which graphite lubricants removed.  I don't know what the thought was but those sort of lubricants, while they work, traditionally also caused concern as they cause wear.  What may have been occurring is that dust laden grease was simply being changed out.

The Dixon graphite lubricant was a popular lubricant for automobiles at the time, and was made by the Dixon Crucible Company, a company that had been in existence since the late 18th Century and which made pencils.  It still does, its most notable product being the legendary Ticonderoga pencil.  The graphite lubricant was likely a byproduct of what they were already doing in making pencils.

1912 Dixon's pencil advertisement. The company that manufactures these pencils, while now merged with another company, is one of the oldest companies in the United States.

This entry also gives the reader a nice example of RHIP, i.e. Rank Has Its Privilege.  Officers dined at the new Omaha Athletic Club.  Enlisted men. . . probably just a mess hall at Ft. Omaha.

Sunday, July 28, 2019

July 28, 1919. Motor Transport Convoy travels 72 miles in heavy dust, Estes Park photographed.

The 1919 Motor Transport Convoy departed Denison Iowa for Council Bluff, making the 72 miles in 9.25 hours.  It was a typical day on the transcontinental voyage, with warm weather and heavy dust on dirt roads.

Further to the south, at Estes Park, Colorado, this photo was taken in what was likely cooler weather.


Saturday, July 27, 2019

July 27, 1919. Riots, halts and finishes.

White mob during the Chicago riot.

On this day in 1919 the Red Summer came to Chicago when race riots broke out following a young black man accidentally wondering onto the white area of an informally segregated beach.  This caused whiles to react, resulting in their throwing rocks at black swimmers.  The young man was killed in the process.  Things descended from there with white mobs invading black areas. Authorities were intentionally slow to react. By the time the matter concluded on August 3, 23 blacks had died and 15 whites.

Illinois State Guardsman and Chicago policemen.  Authorities were slow to call out the State Guard, but when 6,000 Guardsmen were deployed to the city the riots came to an end.

The riots in Chicago, which had a large black population and which was a target destination of the Great Migration, are generally regarded as the worst of the Red Summer.  The city had been a powder keg all summer long and when violence erupted, white youth gangs were a major contributor to it, including the Hamburg Athletic Club which the then 17 year old future Mayor Daley was part of (his activities during the riots are unknown).

Ultimately the State of Illinois deployed the Illinois State Guard, deployment of the National Guard being impossible due to its not existing following its conscription during World War One. The State Guard forces, equipped largely with Spanish American War era arms, were not unsubstantial and the slowness in committing them and the lack of cooperation of the City of Chicago in addressing the violence contributed to the disaster.

Given the events, the cartoon run in the Chicago Tribune on this Sunday seems odd.

Cartoon from the Chicago Tribune, July 27, 1919.

Another disaster occurred at St. Ignatius Montana when fire destroyed the town.

In Iowa, the 1919 Motor Transport Convoy took the day off from moving, but not maintenance.

Apparently the quality of the food was becoming a concern.

Progress itself was a concern in the Round the Rim trip of the Air Corps, as reported in the Cheyenne paper. The bomber detailed to the effort had done a nose digger the prior day in Jay, New York.



In France, Firmin Lambot came out the winner in that years Tour de France.

Firmin Lambot

Friday, July 26, 2019

Saturday, July 26, 1919, The 1919 Motor Transport Convoy goes to Denison and to a dance, the USS Wyoming goes through the Panama Canal.

The Saturday Evening Post for this day had a scene that was a bit out of season.

The Army's Motor Transport Convoy made 69 miles, a reduction over recent lengths, on this Saturday, July 26.
In making that distance over 7.5 hours they went from Jefferson, Iowa to Denison, Iowa.  The Mack trucks had trouble on this day.

In Denison they were treated to the largest crowd in the town's history, a temporary shower bath in Washington Park, and a dance at the Courthouse Square.

On the same day, the USS Wyoming was going through the Panama Canal.


Blog Mirror: 1919 TRANS-CONTINENTAL MOTOR CONVOY – 100 YEARS LATER

1919 TRANS-CONTINENTAL MOTOR CONVOY – 100 YEARS LATER

Wednesday, May 8, 2019

May 8, 1919: Wide Photographs and Transatlantic flights.


Camp Dodge, Iowa, was a photographic subject.

The U.S. Navy started its transatlantic stage flight, with the first stage being Halifax, Nova Scotia, where the NC-3 used for the effort then spent a couple of days.