Showing posts with label Oregon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Oregon. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 6, 2024

Monday, March 6, 1944. "Black Monday"

The first large scale daylight bombing raid on Berlin occured.  The raid, remembered as Black Monday, involved 814 bombers and 944 fighters from bases in southern England.  69 bombers were lost.

Miss Donna Mae II sustaining damage after the B-17 drifted under another B-17 dropping its bomb load. The plane would go down with all eleven crewmen.

P-51 pilot Donald Blakeslee would fly the first such aircraft over the city.  An early American fighter pilot, he first joined the RCAF in 1941, he served in the USAF until 1965 and passed away in 2008 at age 80.

For those watching Masters of the Air, it is depicted in Episode 7.

The Red Army took Volochysk.

Finland rejected a Soviet peace proposal that included interning German troops that were inside of Finland and restoring the 1940 borders.  The proposal was very similar to what the Finns would accept the following September and represented, effectively, a defeat, which is likely why it was not accepted, in part, at this time, although it was also surprisingly generous on Moscow's part.


Company B, 2nd Chemical Bn. Cassino area, Italy. 6 March, 1944.

The U-744 was sunk in the Atlantic, and the U-973 was sunk in the Arctic.

Orderlies from 25th Field Hospital loading wounded Chinese soldiers into airplane.

Albanian partisan Ramize Gjebrea age 20, was executed by a partisan firing squad for "immoral behavior", that being having intercourse with a male partisan.  She was engaged to another person.  The charge was denied by both parties, but she was convicted and, on this day, shot.


This is interesting partially as Albanian partisans were Communist dominated, but as was often the case with Communist partisan groups, and even Communist societies, traditional morality was strictly observed even though Marx had expressly rejected it and Communist revolutionaries most definitely did not observe them.

Baker City, Oregon, weather station.


Sunday, April 23, 2023

Friday, April 23, 1943. Good Friday.

Today was Good Friday in 1943. 

Churchgoers leaving Methodist Church after Good Friday service in San Augustine, Texas, April 23, 1943.

While church attendance on Good Friday is not required in the Catholic or Orthodox churches on Good Friday, or any other Christian church of which I'm aware, it is a day of fast and abstinence from meat.  In the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church, it's one of only two such days all year long, the other being Ash Wednesday.

Today in World War II History—April 23, 1943: Allied Combined Chiefs of Staff establishes COSSAC (Chief of Staff to the Supreme Allied Commander) for planning the invasion of western Europe (D-day).

From Sarah Sundin's blog.

She also reports that the US commenced its final drive in Tunisia.

Yesterday we reported

The Battle of Longstop Hill commenced in Tunisia.

Bringing down the wounded at Longstop Hill.  Note Churchill tank in the background.

Churchill tanks played a critical role in the battle, which ended on April 23 and oddly contributed to the Allied war effort in an odd way.  A Churchill disabled a Tiger I, Tiger 131, which was then captured and heavily studied.

Tiger 131.

Of note, in this late stage of the war in North Africa armor upgrades were becoming a significant factor.  Earlier much of the fighting had been done with late pre-war tanks, but now it was being done by tanks developed during the war itself, including the new heavy tanks.

That battle concluded on this day.

The SS commenced burning the buildings in the Warsaw Ghetto.

The Oregon coast was buffeted by a strong, unusual April windstorm.

Saturday, March 18, 2023

Going Feral: Salmon Season Suspended.

Going Feral: Salmon Season Suspended.

Salmon Season Suspended.


From UPI:

March 13 (UPI) -- The recreational and commercial salmon fishing season has been canceled along the coasts of Oregon and California, through the middle of May, due to dwindling numbers of Chinook salmon in the states' largest rivers following years of drought.

Not good.  Not good at all. Even with all this years rain and snow. 


Thursday, December 8, 2022

Friday, December 8, 1922. States of Unions.

Warren G. Harding delivered his 1922 State of the Union address, in which he stated:

MEMBERS OF THE CONGRESS:

So many problems are calling for solution that a recital of all of them, in the face of the known limitations of a short session of Congress, would seem to lack sincerity of purpose. It is four years since the World War ended, but the inevitable readjustment of the social and economic order is not more than barely begun. There is no acceptance of pre-war conditions anywhere in the world. In a very general way humanity harbors individual wishes to go on with war-time compensation for production, with pre-war requirements in expenditure. In short, everyone, speaking broadly, craves readjustment for everybody except himself, while there can be no just and permanent readjustment except when all participate.

The civilization which measured its strength of genius and the power of science and the resources of industries, in addition to testing the limits of man power and the endurance and heroism of men and women-that same civilization is brought to its severest test in restoring a tranquil order and committing humanity to the stable ways of peace.

If the sober and deliberate appraisal of pre-war civilization makes it seem a worth-while inheritance, then with patience and good courage it will be preserved. There never again will be precisely the old order; indeed, I know of no one who thinks it to be desirable For out of the old order came the war itself, and the new order, established and made secure, never will permit its recurrence.

It is no figure of speech to say we have come to the test of our civilization. The world has been passing – is today passing through of a great crisis. The conduct of war itself is not more difficult than the solution of the problems which necessarily follow. I am not speaking at this moment of the problem in its wider aspect of world rehabilitation or of international relationships. The reference is to our own social, financial, and economic problems at home. These things are not to be considered solely as problems apart from all international relationship, but every nation must be able to carry on for itself, else its international relationship will have scant importance.

Doubtless our own people have emerged from the World War tumult less impaired than most belligerent powers; probably we have made larger progress toward reconstruction. Surely we have been fortunate in diminishing unemployment, and our industrial and business activities, which are the lifeblood of our material existence, have been restored as in no other reconstruction period of like length in the history of the world. Had we escaped the coal and railway strikes, which had no excuse for their beginning and less justification for their delayed settlement, we should have done infinitely better. But labor was insistent on holding to the war heights, and heedless forces of reaction sought the pre-war levels, and both were wrong. In the folly of conflict our progress was hindered, and the heavy cost has not yet been fully estimated. There can be neither adjustment nor the penalty of the failure to readjust in which all do not somehow participate.

The railway strike accentuated the difficulty of the American farmer. The first distress of readjustment came to the farmer, and it will not be a readjustment fit to abide until he is relieved. The distress brought to the farmer does not affect him alone. Agricultural ill fortune is a national ill fortune. That one-fourth of our population which produces the food of the Republic and adds so largely to our export commerce must participate in the good fortunes of the Nation, else there is none worth retaining.

Agriculture is a vital activity in our national life. In it we had our beginning, and its westward march with the star of the empire has reflected the growth of the Republic. It has its vicissitudes which no legislation will prevent, its hardships for which no law can provide escape. But the Congress can make available to the farmer the financial facilities which have been built up under Government aid and supervision for other commercial and industrial enterprises. It may be done on the same solid fundamentals and make the vitally important agricultural industry more secure, and it must be done.

This Congress already has taken cognizance of the misfortune which precipitate deflation brought to American agriculture. Your measures of relief and the reduction of the Federal reserve discount rate undoubtedly saved the country from widespread disaster. The very proof of helpfulness already given is the strongest argument for the permanent establishment of widened credits, heretofore temporarily extended through the War Finance Corporation.

The Farm Loan Bureau, which already has proven its usefulness through the Federal land banks, may well have its powers enlarged to provide ample farm production credits as well as enlarged land credits. It is entirely practical to create a division in the Federal land banks to deal with production credits, with the limitations of time so adjusted to the farm turnover as the Federal reserve system provides for the turnover in the manufacturing and mercantile world. Special provision must be made for live-stock production credits, and the limit of land loans may be safely enlarged. Various measures are pending before you, and the best judgment of Congress ought to be expressed in a prompt enactment at the present session.

But American agriculture needs more than added credit facilities. The credits will help to solve the pressing problems growing out of war-inflated land values and the drastic deflation of three years ago, but permanent and deserved agricultural good fortune depends on better and cheaper transportation.

Here is an outstanding problem, demanding the most rigorous consideration of the Congress and the country. It has to do with more than agriculture. It provides the channel for the flow of the country’s commerce. But the farmer is particularly hard hit. His market, so affected by the world consumption, does not admit of the price adjustment to meet carrying charges. In the last half of the year now closing the railways, broken in carrying capacity because of motive power and rolling stock out of order, though insistently declaring to the contrary, embargoed his shipments or denied him cars when fortunate markets were calling. Too frequently transportation failed while perishable products were turning from possible profit to losses counted in tens of millions.

I know of no problem exceeding in importance this one of transportation. In our complex and interdependent modern life transportation is essential to our very existence. Let us pass for the moment the menace in the possible paralysis of such service as we have and note the failure, for whatever reason, to expand our transportation to meet the Nation’s needs.

The census of 1880 recorded a population of 50,000,000. In two decades more we may reasonably expect to count thrice that number. In the three decades ending in 1920 the country’s freight by rail increased from 631,000,000 tons to 2,234,000,000 tons; that is to say, while our population was increasing, less than 70 per cent, the freight movement increased over 250 per cent.

We have built 40 per cent of the world’s railroad mileage, and yet find it inadequate to our present requirements. When we contemplate the inadequacy of to-day it is easy to believe that the next few decades will witness the paralysis of our transportation-using social scheme or a complete reorganization on some new basis. Mindful of the tremendous costs of betterments, extensions, and expansions, and mindful of the staggering debts of the world to-day, the difficulty is magnified. Here is a problem demanding wide vision and the avoidance of mere makeshifts. No matter what the errors of the past, no matter how we acclaimed construction and then condemned operations in the past, we have the transportation and the honest investment in the transportation which sped us on to what we are, and we face conditions which reflect its inadequacy to-day, its greater inadequacy to-morrow, and we contemplate transportation costs which much of the traffic can not and will not continue to pay.

Manifestly, we have need to begin on plans to coordinate all transportation facilities. We should more effectively connect up our rail lines with our carriers by sea. We ought to reap some benefit from the hundreds of millions expended on inland waterways, proving our capacity to utilize as well as expend. We ought to turn the motor truck into a railway feeder and distributor instead of a destroying competitor.

It would be folly to ignore that we live in a motor age. The motor car reflects our standard of living and gauges the speed of our present-day life. It long ago ran down Simple Living, and never halted to inquire about the prostrate figure which fell as its victim. With full recognition of motor-car transportation we must turn it to the most practical use. It can not supersede the railway lines, no matter how generously we afford it highways out of the Public Treasury. If freight traffic by motor were charged with its proper and proportionate share of highway construction, we should find much of it wasteful and more costly than like service by rail. Yet we have paralleled the railways, a most natural line of construction, and thereby taken away from the agency of expected service much of its profitable traffic, which the taxpayers have been providing the highways, whose cost of maintenance is not yet realized.

The Federal Government has a right to inquire into the wisdom of this policy, because the National Treasury is contributing largely to this highway construction. Costly highways ought to be made to serve as feeders rather than competitors of the railroads, and the motor truck should become a coordinate factor in our great distributing system.

This transportation problem can not be waived aside. The demand for lowered costs on farm products and basic materials can not be ignored. Rates horizontally increased, to meet increased wage outlays during the war inflation, are not easily reduced. When some very moderate wage reductions were effected last summer there was a 5 per cent horizontal reduction in rates. I sought at that time, in a very informal way, to have the railway managers go before the Interstate Commerce Commission and agree to a heavier reduction on farm products and coal and other basic commodities, and leave unchanged the freight tariffs which a very large portion of the traffic was able to bear. Neither the managers nor the commission tile suggestion, so we had the horizontal reduction saw fit to adopt too slight to be felt by the higher class cargoes and too little to benefit the heavy tonnage calling most loudly for relief.

Railways are not to be expected to render the most essential service in our social organization without a air return on capital invested, but the Government has gone so far in the regulation of rates and rules of operation that it has the responsibility of pointing the way to the reduced freight costs so essential to our national welfare.

Government operation does not afford the cure. It was Government operation which brought us to the very order of things against which we now rebel, and we are still liquidating the costs of that supreme folly.

Surely the genius of the railway builders has not become extinct among the railway managers. New economies, new efficiencies in cooperation must be found. The fact that labor takes 50 to 60 per cent of total railway earnings makes limitations within which to effect economies very difficult, but the demand is no less insistent on that account.

Clearly the managers are without that intercarrier, cooperative relationship so highly essential to the best and most economical operation. They could not function in harmony when the strike threatened the paralysis of all railway transportation. The relationship of the service to public welfare, so intimately affected by State and Federal regulation, demands the effective correlation and a concerted drive to meet an insistent and justified public demand.

The merger of lines into systems, a facilitated interchange of freight cars, the economic use of terminals, and the consolidation of facilities are suggested ways of economy and efficiency.

I remind you that Congress provided a Joint Commission of Agricultural Inquiry which made an exhaustive investigation of car service and transportation, and unanimously recommended in its report of October 15, 1921, the pooling of freight cars under a central agency. This report well deserves your serious consideration. I think well of the central agency, which shall be a creation of the railways themselves, to provide, under the jurisdiction of the Interstate Commerce Commission, the means for financing equipment for carriers which are otherwise unable to provide their proportion of car equipment adequate to transportation needs. This same agency ought to point the way to every possible economy in maintained equipment and the necessary interchanges in railway commerce.

In a previous address to the Congress I called to your attention the insufficiency of power to enforce the decisions of the Railroad Labor Board. Carriers have ignored its decisions, on the one hand, railway workmen have challenged its decisions by a strike, on the other hand.

The intent of Congress to establish a tribunal to which railway labor and managers may appeal respecting questions of wages and working conditions can not be too strongly commended. It is vitally important that some such agency should be a guaranty against suspended operation. The public must be spared even the threat of discontinued service.

Sponsoring the railroads as we do, it is an obligation that labor shall be assured the highest justice and every proper consideration of wage and working conditions, but it is an equal obligation to see that no concerted action in forcing demands shall deprive the public of the transportation service essential to its very existence. It is now impossible to safeguard public interest, because the decrees of the board are unenforceable against either employer or employee.

The Labor Board itself is not so constituted as best to serve the public interest. With six partisan members on a board of nine, three partisans nominated by the employees and three by the railway managers, it is inevitable that the partisan viewpoint is maintained throughout hearings and in decisions handed down. Indeed, the few exceptions to a strictly partisan expression in decisions thus far rendered have been followed by accusations of betrayal of the partisan interests represented. Only the public group of three is free to function in unbiased decisions. Therefore the partisan membership may well be abolished, and decisions should be made by an impartial tribunal.

I am well convinced that the functions of this tribunal could be much better carried on here in Washington. Even were it to be continued as a separate tribunal, there ought to be contact with the Interstate Commerce Commission, which has supreme authority in the rate making to which wage cost bears an indissoluble relationship Theoretically, a fair and living wage must be determined quite apart from the employer’s earning capacity, but in practice, in the railway service, they are inseparable. The record of advanced rates to meet increased wages, both determined by the Government, is proof enough.

The substitution of a labor division in the Interstate Commerce Commission made up from its membership, to hear and decide disputes relating to wages and working conditions which have failed of adjustment by proper committees created by the railways and their employees, offers a more effective plan.

It need not be surprising that there is dissatisfaction over delayed hearings and decisions by the present board when every trivial dispute is carried to that tribunal. The law should require the railroads and their employees to institute means and methods to negotiate between themselves their constantly arising differences, limiting appeals to the Government tribunal to disputes of such character as are likely to affect the public welfare.

This suggested substitution will involve a necessary increase in the membership of the commission, probably four, to constitute the labor division. If the suggestion appeals to the Congress, it will be well to specify that the labor division shall be constituted of representatives of the four rate-making territories, thereby assuring a tribunal conversant with the conditions which obtain in the different ratemaking sections of the country.

I wish I could bring to you the precise recommendation for the prevention of strikes which threaten the welfare of the people and menace public safety. It is an impotent civilization and an inadequate government which lacks the genius and the courage to guard against such a menace to public welfare as we experienced last summer. You were aware of the Government’s great concern and its futile attempt to aid in an adjustment. It will reveal the inexcusable obstinacy which was responsible for so much distress to the country to recall now that, though all disputes are not yet adjusted, the many settlements which have been made were on the terms which the Government proposed in mediation.

Public interest demands that ample power shall be conferred upon the. labor tribunal, whether it is the present board or the suggested substitute, to require its rulings to be accepted by both parties to a disputed question.

Let there be no confusion about the purpose of the suggested conferment of power to make decisions effective. There can be no denial of constitutional rights of either railway workmen or railway managers. No man can be denied his right to labor when and how he chooses, or cease to labor when he so elects, but, since the Government assumes to safeguard his interests while employed in an essential public service, the security of society itself demands his retirement from the service shall not be so timed and related as to effect the destruction of that service. This vitally essential public transportation service, demanding so much of brain and brawn, so much for efficiency and security, ought to offer the most attractive working conditions and the highest of wages paid to workmen in any employment.

In essentially every branch, from track repairer to the man at the locomotive throttle, the railroad worker is responsible for the safety of human lives and the care of vast property. His high responsibility might well rate high his pay within the limits the traffic will bear; but the same responsibility, plus governmental protection, may justly deny him and his associates a withdrawal from service without a warning or under circumstances which involve the paralysis of necessary transportation. We have assumed so great a responsibility in necessary regulation that we unconsciously have assumed the responsibility for maintained service; therefore the lawful power for the enforcement of decisions is necessary to sustain the majesty of government and to administer to the public welfare.

During its longer session the present Congress enacted a new tariff law. The protection of the American standards of living demanded the insurance it provides against the distorted conditions of world commerce The framers of the law made provision for a certain flexibility of customs duties, whereby it is possible to readjust them as developing conditions may require. The enactment has imposed a large responsibility upon the Executive, but that responsibility will be discharged with a broad mindfulness of the whole business situation. The provision itself admits either the possible fallibility of rates or their unsuitableness to changing conditions. I believe the grant of authority may be promptly and discreetly exercised, ever mindful of the intent and purpose to safeguard American industrial activity, and at the same time prevent the exploitation of the American consumer and keep open the paths of such liberal exchanges as do not endanger our own productivity.

No one contemplates commercial aloofness nor any other aloofness contradictory to the best American traditions or loftiest human purposes. Our fortunate capacity for comparative self-containment affords the firm foundation on which to build for our own security, and a like foundation on which to build for a future of influence and importance in world commerce. Our trade expansion must come of capacity and of policies of righteousness and reasonableness in till our commercial relations.

Let no one assume that our provision for maintained good fortune at home, and our unwillingness to assume the correction of all the ills of the world, means a reluctance to cooperate with other peoples or to assume every just obligation to promote human advancement anywhere in the world.

War made a creditor Nation. We did not seek an excess possession of the world’s gold, and we have neither desire to profit Unduly by its possession nor permanently retain it. We do not seek to become an international dictator because of its power.

The voice of the United States has a respectful hearing in international councils, because we have convinced the world that we have no selfish ends to serve, no old grievances to avenge, no territorial or other greed to satisfy. But the voice being heard is that of good counsel, not of dictation. It is the voice of sympathy and fraternity and helpfulness, seeking to assist but not assume for the United States burdens which nations must bear for themselves. We would rejoice to help rehabilitate currency systems and facilitate all commerce which does not drag us to the very levels of those we seek to lift up.

While I have everlasting faith in our Republic, it would be folly, indeed, to blind ourselves to our problems at home. Abusing the hospitality of our shores are the advocates of revolution, finding their deluded followers among those who take on the habiliments of an American without knowing an American soul. There is the recrudescence of hyphenated Americanism which we thought to have been stamped out when we committed the Nation, life and soul, to the World War.

There is a call to make the alien respect our institutions while he accepts our hospitality. There is need to magnify the American viewpoint to the alien who seeks a citizenship among us. There is need to magnify the national viewpoint to Americans throughout the land. More there is a demand for every living being in the United States to respect and abide by the laws of the Republic. Let men who are rending the moral fiber of the Republic through easy contempt for the prohibition law, because they think it restricts their personal liberty, remember that they set the example and breed a contempt for law which will ultimately destroy the Republic.

Constitutional prohibition has been adopted by the Nation. It is the supreme law of the land. In plain speaking, there are conditions relating to its enforcement which savor of nation-wide scandal. It is the most demoralizing factor in our public life.

Most of our people assumed that the adoption of the eighteenth amendment meant the elimination of the question from our politics. On the contrary, it has been so intensified as an issue that many voters are disposed to make all political decisions with reference to this single question. It is distracting the public mind and prejudicing the judgment of the electorate.

The day is unlikely to come when the eighteenth amendment will be repealed. The fact may as well be recognized and our course adapted accordingly. If the statutory provisions for its enforcement are contrary to deliberate public opinion, which I do not believe the rigorous and literal enforcement will concentrate public attention on any requisite modification. Such a course, conforms with the law and saves the humiliation of the Government and the humiliation of our people before the world, and challenges the destructive forces engaged in widespread violation, official corruption and individual demoralization.

The eighteenth amendment involves the concurrent authority of State and Federal Governments, for the enforcement of the policy it defines. A certain lack of definiteness, through division of responsibility is thus introduced. In order to bring about a full understanding of duties and responsibilities as thus distributed, I purpose to invite the governors of the States and Territories, at an early opportunity, to a conference with the Federal Executive authority. Out of the full and free considerations which will thus be possible, it is confidently believed, will emerge a more adequate, comprehension of the whole problem, and definite policies of National and State cooperation in administering the laws.

There are pending bills for the registration of the alien who has come to our shores. I wish the passage of such an act might be expedited. Life amid American opportunities is worth the cost of registration if it is worth the seeking, and the Nation has the right to know who are citizens in the making or who live among us anti share our advantages while seeking to undermine our cherished institutions. This provision will enable us to guard against the abuses in immigration, checking the undesirable whose irregular Willing is his first violation of our laws. More, it will facilitate the needed Americanizing of those who mean to enroll as fellow citizens.

Before enlarging the immigration quotas we had better provide registration for aliens, those now here or continually pressing for admission, and establish our examination boards abroad, to make sure of desirables only. By the examination abroad we could end the pathos at our ports, when men and women find our doors closed, after long voyages and wasted savings, because they are unfit for admission It would be kindlier and safer to tell them before they embark.

Our program of admission and treatment of immigrants is very intimately related to the educational policy of the Republic With illiteracy estimated at front two-tenths of 1 per cent to less than 2 per cent in 10 of the foremost nations of Europe it rivets our attention to it serious problem when we are reminded of a 6 per cent illiteracy in the United States. The figures are based on the test which defines an Illiterate as one having no schooling whatever. Remembering the wide freedom of our public schools with compulsory attendance in many States in the Union, one is convinced that much of our excessive illiteracy comes to us from abroad, and the education of the immigrant becomes it requisite to his Americanization. It must be done if he is fittingly to exercise the duties as well as enjoy the privileges of American citizenship. Here is revealed the special field for Federal cooperation in furthering education.

From the very beginning public education has been left mainly in the hands of the States. So far as schooling youth is concerned the policy has been justified, because no responsibility can be so effective as that of the local community alive to its task. I believe in the cooperation of the national authority to stimulate, encourage, and broaden the work of the local authorities. But it is the especial obligation of the Federal Government to devise means and effectively assist in the education of the newcomer from foreign lands, so that the level of American education may be made the highest that is humanly possible.

Closely related to this problem of education is the abolition of child labor. Twice Congress has attempted the correction of the evils incident to child employment. The decision of the Supreme Court has put this problem outside the proper domain of Federal regulation until the Constitution is so amended as to give the Congress indubitable authority. I recommend the submission of such an amendment.

We have two schools of thought relating to amendment of the Constitution. One need not be committed to the belief that amendment is weakening the fundamental law, or that excessive amendment is essential to meet every ephemeral whim. We ought to amend to meet the demands of the people when sanctioned by deliberate public opinion.

One year ago I suggested the submission of an amendment so that we may lawfully restrict the issues of tax-exempt securities, and I renew that recommendation now. Tax-exempt securities are drying up the sources of Federal taxation and they are encouraging unproductive and extravagant expenditures by States and municipalities. There is more than the menace in mounting public debt, there is the dissipation of capital which should be made available to the needs of productive industry. The proposed amendment will place the State and Federal Governments and all political subdivisions on an exact equality, and will correct the growing menace of public borrowing, which if left unchecked may soon threaten the stability of our institutions.

We are so vast and so varied in our national interests that scores of problems are pressing for attention. I must not risk the wearying of your patience with detailed reference.

Reclamation and irrigation projects, where waste land may be made available for settlement and productivity, are worthy of your favorable consideration.

When it is realized that we are consuming our timber four times as rapidly as we are growing it, we must encourage the greatest possible cooperation between the Federal Government, the various States, and the owners of forest lands, to the end that protection from fire shall be made more effective and replanting encouraged.

The fuel problem is under study now by a very capable fact-finding commission, and any attempt to deal with the coal problem, of such deep concern to the entire Nation, must await the report of the commission.

There are necessary studies of great problems which Congress might well initiate. The wide spread between production costs and prices which consumers pay concerns every citizen of the Republic. It contributes very largely to the unrest in agriculture and must stand sponsor for much against which we inveigh in that familiar term—the high cost of living.

No one doubts the excess is traceable to the levy of the middleman, but it would be unfair to charge him with all responsibility before we appraise what is exacted of him by our modernly complex life. We have attacked the problem on one side by the promotion of cooperative marketing, and we might well inquire into the benefits of cooperative buying. Admittedly, the consumer is much to blame himself, because of his prodigal expenditure and his exaction of service, but Government might well serve to point the way of narrowing the spread of price, especially between the production of food and its consumption.

A superpower survey of the eastern industrial region has recently been completed, looking to unification of steam, water, and electric powers, and to a unified scheme of power distribution. The survey proved that vast economies in tonnage movement of freights, and in the efficiency of the railroads, would be effected if the superpower program were adopted. I am convinced that constructive measures calculated to promote such an industrial development—I am tempted to say, such an industrial revolution would be well worthy the careful attention and fostering interest of the National Government.

The proposed survey of a plan to draft all the resources of the Republic, human and material, for national defense may well have your approval. I commended such a program in case of future war, in the inaugural address. of March 4, 1921, and every experience in the adjustment and liquidation of war claims and the settlement of war obligations persuades me we ought to be prepared for such universal call to armed defense.

I bring you no apprehension of war. The world is abhorrent of it, and our own relations are not only free from every threatening cloud, but we have contributed our larger influence toward making armed conflict less likely.

Those who assume that we played our part in the World War and later took ourselves aloof and apart, unmindful of world obligations, give scant credit to the helpful part we assume in international relationships.

Whether all nations signatory ratify all the treaties growing out of the Washington Conference on Limitation of Armament or some withhold approval, the underlying policy of limiting naval armament has the sanction of the larger naval powers, and naval competition is suspended. Of course, unanimous ratification is much to be desired.

The four-power pact, which abolishes every probability of war on the Pacific, has brought new confidence in a maintained peace, and I can well believe it might be made a model for like assurances wherever in the world any common interests are concerned.

We have had expressed the hostility of the American people to a super government or to any commitment where either a council or an assembly of leagued powers may chart our course. Treaties of armed alliance can have no likelihood of American sanction, but we believe in respecting the rights of nations, in the value of conference and consultation, in the effectiveness of leaders of nations looking each other in the face ace before resorting to the arbitrament of arms.

It has been our fortune both to preach and promote international understanding. The influence of the United States in bringing near the settlement of an ancient dispute between South American nations is added proof of the glow of peace in ample understanding. In Washington to-day are met the delegates of the Central American nations, gathered at the table of international understanding, to stabilize their Republics and remove every vestige of disagreement. They are met here by our invitation, not in our aloofness, and they accept our hospitality because they have faith in our unselfishness and believe in our helpfulness. Perhaps we are selfish in craving their confidence and friendship, but such a selfishness we proclaim to the world, regardless of hemisphere, or seas dividing.

I would like the Congress and the people of the Nation to believe that in a firm and considerate way we are insistent on American rights wherever they may be questioned, and deny no rights of others in the assertion of our own. Moreover we are cognizant of the world’s struggles for full readjustment and rehabilitation, and we have shirked no duty which comes of sympathy, or fraternity, or highest fellowship among nations. Every obligation consonant with American ideals and sanctioned under our form of government is willingly met. When we can not support we do not demand. Our constitutional limitations do not forbid the exercise of a moral influence, the measure of which is not less than the high purposes we have sought to serve.

After all there is less difference about the part this great Republic shall play in furthering peace and advancing humanity than in the manner of playing it. We ask no one to assume responsibility for us; we assume no responsibility which others must bear for themselves, unless nationality is hopelessly swallowed up in internationalism.

The recent rail strike was obviously very much on the President's mind.

One area where the union's state was not well was in racial violence, with the ongoing feature of lynching continuing on.  On this day, two consecutive lynch mobs in Perry, Florida murdered two black suspects who were being transported by the authorities for suspicion of being involved in the murder of a white teacher.

The Irish union was getting off to a bad start.

The Irish Free State carried out the execution of the four Irish Republican Army leaders who had led the takeover of the Four Courts in Dublin in April of that year, the same being. Rory O'Connor, 39; Joe McKelvey, 24; Liam Mellows, 30; and Richard Barrett, 32. 

The death warrant was signed by Irish Free State Justice Minister Kevin O'Higgins who had seen O'Connor as the best man at his wedding fourteen months prior.

I'm not a fan of the Irish Republicans, but a true irony of the Irish Free State is that it started off being every bit as repressive on radical minoritarian views as the United Kingdom had been.

A horrible fire destroyed thirty blocks of Astoria, Oregon.


New York born frontier New Mexican lawyer and territorial Governor L. Bradford Prince died in Queens.


Like so many frontier figures, he wasn't from the West, and he didn't stay in it either.

B actress Jean Porter was born on this day in 1922.


Never a big star, she's notable for her long marriage to director Edward Dmytryk who was blacklisted in the 40s and who refused to testify in Congress in the 40s.  He would return to the US with his wife, with whom he ultimately had three children and testify.  In spite of his having admitted to having briefly been a Communist, his career rehabilitated, with The Caine Mutiny being an example of that.

Jean Ruth Ritchie, the "Mother of Folk", was born in Viper, Virginia.

Tuesday, December 6, 2022

The 2022 Election Part XIV. The Results.

November 8, 2022

And now the results are coming in.

Chuck Gray, ascending to Secretary of State, mounted on the Myth of Stolen Election.

The votes are cast, the counting is underway.  Here are the results as they come in.

16:42.

Governor.

Mark Gordon has won, as everyone knew that he had well before today.

November 9, 2022

The proverbial morning after.

U.S. House of Representatives

Harriet Hageman wins with 132,172 votes. 47,241 were cast for her Democratic opponent, Lynette Gray Bull, who frankly underperformed in my view. Towards the end of her campaign, Gray Bull began to raise her ethnicity in a fairly aggressive manner, which likely didn't help her in a state where such things generally do not win votes.

Governor.

Mark Gordon has won, as noted last night.

This race was emblematic of the current political sickness in the state. Gordon isn't a bad Governor, and is no doubt better than some we've had in the now somewhat distant past.  But the Democrats couldn't even find a real contender.  Yes, they ran somebody, but that's about all you can say. 

His real opponents, therefore, were from his own party in the primary.

Gordon took the office in the general election with over 143,000 votes, with his Democratic opponent taking about 30,000.   The Libertarian took around 8,000 votes, less than the 11,000 write ins that were cast.

Secretary of State.

Chuck Gray, as noted above, ascends to this office, with 147,368.  He had no opponent, but 13,574 votes were for write ins.

State Auditor

Kristi Racines won with over 161,000 votes against no opponent.

State Treasurer

Curt Meier won with 159,000 votes against no opponent.

State Superintendent of Public Instruction

Megan Degenfelder took the office against Serge Maldonado, who barely campaigned.  The vote counts were 142,511 to 43,251, which means that Maldonado did nearly as well as Gray Bull in this race.

Constitutional Amendment A

This amendment received 101,000 votes, and therefore passed, but not by a comfortable margin.  In order to pass, an amendment must receive a yes vote based on the total number of cast ballots, which was 198,000. So this based, but barely.

Constitutional Amendment B

This bad idea failed, making it the only bright spot in the election.  115,000 people voted no.  I thought this likely to fail, but only for not getting enough yes votes based on total ballots cast, not on an outright "no" vote.

Other Races

Locally, two of the "Mom's For Liberty" were elected to the school board.  One was not.

The 1 Cent and Lodging Taxes passed easily.

Nationwide

Donald Trump, who isn't running for anything, actually gave a victory speech last night.

A "red wave" (no, not a Communist wave, which would make more sense as a "red" analogy) was expected to take place, but it doesn't really appear to be happening in my view. The Senate will likely remain Democratic. The House is likely to go over to the GOP as expected.

So we'll get split government from a government again.   The Democrats have themselves mostly to blame for this as they have, as per usual, been singularly inept at getting their message across or acting quickly on anything.

United States Senate

While it's still too early to tell, it appears that the Democrats have retained control of the Senate.

John Fetterman beat out Dr. Oz in a particularly odd race in Pennsylvania. Fetterman goes on to the Senate.

The much followed Georgia race was too close to call and appears to be certain to go into a runoff between two candidates, which is silly, but there you have it.

JD Vance won his bid for the Senate in Ohio. The author of Hillbilly Elegy had turned Trumpist during the campaign, which for a while appeared likely to sink him.

House of Representatives

Also, too early to tell, but it looks as if the Republicans will take the House of Representatives.

While it's too early to tell, it appears that Lauren Boebert may lose her race in Colorado, and is losing at this time.

Marjorie Taylor Greene was reelected.

Cont:

A Reuters headline:

Race for U.S. Congress is tight, no Republican 'red wave'

At this point, given the last several elections, it ought to be abundantly clear that polls are no longer accurate.

Cont:

It appears that Trump endorsed Kelly Tshibaka will narrowly defeat incumbent Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski in a state that uses ranked choice voting, so both of them are competing against the Democratic candidate as well.  They're pretty much neck and neck, which shows that in this instance this operated in favor of the Trumpite challenger.

Where it didn't was with the Congressional race in which newly elected Democrat Mary Peltola easily defeated two Republican challengers, including Sarah Palin.

Cont:

Reuters take:

Control of both the House and Senate is up in the air. There’s still a lot we don’t know, but one thing we do know is that Republicans did not have the night they were hoping for. 
Here are six takeaways:
 
1️⃣ The Senate is undecided and will take a while to know. Democrats flipped Pennsylvania and Republicans now need a net gain of two pickups to take the Senate. 
2️⃣ Republicans underperformed in the House, and there’s going to be a lot of finger-pointing. They're looking at a possible net gain of only about eight seats, which is on the low end of forecasters’ projections. This could threaten Republican House Leader Kevin McCarthy’s plans to be speaker of the House.
3️⃣ There’s also going to be blame directed at Trump. The former president weighed in heavily on these elections, but a lot of his candidates underperformed, raising questions about how effective his brand is in purple states.
4️⃣ Florida might be the new Ohio. The state that decided the 2000 election and has been a swing state since is looking like it’s firmly in GOP hands now with wins by Ron DeSantis and Marco Rubio.
5️⃣ Democrats appear to slip again with Latino voters. Despite a decent night overall, exit polls showed Democrats won about 60% of Latinos overall, down from 65% in 2020, which was already considered a decline.
6️⃣ The cross-currents of this election between abortion rights and inflation were real. Abortion rights clearly fired up voters who cast ballots for Democrats and helped stem a Republican wave. Abortion rights appear to have succeeded in the four states where they were on the ballot, including in Michigan and Kentucky.
Cont:

Well, it's the end of the day, and we still don't know if we'll have a Republican Congress, a Democratic Congress, or a split.

One thing we do know. Donald J. Trump's association with the Republican Party caused it to underperform at an epic level. While some Trump backed candidates such as J. D. Vance or Harriet Hageman owe their positions to Trumpism, others went down in defeat due to their association with him.  By and large, Trump was a liability to the party.

It'll make no difference in the GOP. While this wake-up call should finally be one, it won't be.  What may finally be is a 2024 Presidential Election defeat, something that is now all but certain if Trump runs in 2024.

Ironically, perhaps, Wyoming has gone full bore personality worship into Trump at the exact same time that the Trump brand promises irrelevance.  If the House is Democratic, Hageman will be a nullity.  If it's Republican, she'll be a near nullity.

The Fort Worth Star Telegram posed this question:

Republicans, you can follow Donald Trump into the abyss or win elections. Choose wisely

The Star Telegram is right.  A sane GOP, or rather one that had a modicum of courage, would now purge the Trumpites.  Keven McCarthy would be sent to do nothing. Hageman would be ignored.  Ted Cruz would have his batteries removed and become a depowered robot.

But it doesn't seem to be exhibiting courage in regard to Trump.  Rather, it continues to fear him, even though now the last illusion of Trumpism has been stripped away.  He has no influence with the real voters, outside of Wyoming.

Speaking of a candidate associated with Trumpism, Lauren Boebert, at the time of this posting, trails her opponent by 62 votes, showing that in fact, every vote does count.

Oregon has passed a very strict firearms purchasing bill requiring a state permit that also includes the requirement that a person pass an approved class before obtaining a permit.  While I'd be unable to say this with certainty, this would appear to be the strictest purchase statute in the US.  It will undoubtedly be tested in court, and my guess is that it will fail to past Constitutional muster.

The statute barely passed.

November 10, 2022

Wyoming's turnout in the election was the lowest since 2014.

I wondered if this might occur, due to so many races being determined in the Primary.

It looks as if control of the Senate is going to end up with the Georgia runoff, again.

The truly amazing thing is we don't know who won the House yet.  That shows how massively in error the "Republican Wave" predictions were.

Kevin McCarthy, anticipating that the GOP will get enough seats in the House to be the majority party there, has announced his bid to be Speaker of the House.  Given the massive underperformance of Republicans in the election, combined with McCarthy's hostility to some Republicans who didn't tow the "ignore what happened on January 6" line, and his cozying up post disaster to Trump, its likely he'll receive competition.

November 13, 2022

In no small part thanks to Donald Trump, the Senate will remain in Democratic hands.

And in no small part due to Donald Trump, who will control the House remains up in the air.  Trump managed to potentially buck a decades long trend and it's possible, at this point, that the Democrats may remain in control of the House after the midterm election.

The Great Wave. . . what didn't happen.

Kari Lake, MAGA candidate for Arizona Governor, appears to have lost in a tight race and is now attacking the vote counting and even asserting that people did not vote for her opponent.

November 15, 2022

Katie Hobbs beat extreme election denier Kari Lake for the position of Arizona's Governor, giving Arizona its first Democratic governor in 14 years.

Lake stated regarding the results, "Arizonans know BS when they see it" and, in spite of what she apparently meant, it would appear at least over half of them do.

November 16, 2022

And the GOP, as of tonight, has 218 seats in the House, with the Democrats at 211.  There still remains races which are not decided, but this means the GOP controls, barely, the House.

And this thread now closes.

November 24, 2022

Well, maybe not quite closes.




Lisa Murkowski retained her Senate seat in Alaska, beating a Trump backed opponent.  This seat remains in GOP hands, as it was known it would, but it followed the general tone of the election in rejecting Trumpism, contrary to the direction in Wyoming.

Mary Peltola retained her seat in the House for Alaska. Peltola is a Democrat.

Alaska, readers will recall, went to a new, more democratic, system of choosing candidates this year which operates to lessen the impact of party affiliation. Wyoming has considered adopting such a system.

Right now, with some races still not decided, the balance in the House is 213 Democrats to 220 Republicans.

December 6, 2022

The election is now over.  Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock, in a special runoff election in Georgia, defeated Republican challenger Herschel Walker.

With this, the Democrats actually gained in the Senate in an off year.

Last Prior Editions:

The 2022 Election Part XIII. Some pre election predictions.



Friday, September 9, 2022

Wednesday, September 9, 1942. The Japanese raid on Mt. Emily, Oregon.


A Yokosuka E14Y launched from the Japanese submarine I25 near Cape Blanco, Oregon dropped incendiary bombs on Mount Emily, Oregon, in an attempt to start a forest fire.

Pilot Nobuo Fujita who bombed Mt. Emily.

The effort did in fact result in a small fire, but the rain drenched bush wasn't conducive to a conflagration.  One small fire was put out by the Forest Service.

No damage was done, but Franklin Roosevelt ordered a news blackout of the event.  

It was the first areal bombing of the continental United States.

The pilot, Nobuo Fujita, survived the war and later visited nearby Brookings.  He donated his family's 400-year-old samurai sword to the city.  He died in 1997 at age 85.

Hitler relieved Wilhelm List of command of Army Group A and took over command of it personally.  List never returned to service.  He was charged with war crimes after the war and sentenced to life imprisonment.  However, he was released in 1952.  He died in 1971 at the age of 91.

The British landed at Majunga in western Madagascar in order to end remaining Vichy French resistance on the island.

Tuesday, June 21, 2022

Sunday, June 21, 2022. The Japanese shell Ft. Stevens. Tobruk falls.

The I25 followed up on the action by the I26 of yesterday's date and shelled Ft. Stevens, Oregon, at the mouth of the Columbia River.  It failed to hit anything.  Ft. Stevens did not return fire for a variety of reasons, including the problems of firing at night, worrying about whether the fire was simply from a reconnaissance mission, and a concern that the guns mounts made firing on the I25 impossible.

Crater from the I25.

The failure to return fire caused the Army to start reevaluating coastal artillery.

The I25 was sunk by the US the following year.

Tobruk fell to the Afrika Korps, with the Germans taking over 25,000 prisoners of war.  Rommel was rewarded with the Field Marshall's baton on the same day.

The temperature in Tirat Zvi Palestine, now Israel, reached 129.2 F, which remains the record for that location.

Monday, January 13, 2020

January 13, 1920. Strife and change

German soldiers guarding the Reichstag following violent Communist demonstrations on January 13, 1920.  The troops ultimately ended up opening up on the crowd with lethal effect.

In Germany a massive demonstration in front of the Reichstag took a turn for the worse when violence erupted and troops opened fire.  Over forty people were killed.

And in Oregon ratified the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution.  

The New York Times, always on the right side of history, published a cartoon lampooning Robert Goddard for claiming that a rocket could make it to the moon.

Saturday, April 13, 2019

Federal Hunter, Oregon 1908


There's some interesting details in this photograph, which I was originally going to post without comment.

The hunter, J. T. Jardine, is carrying the archetypal Winchester 94, the American rifle of the period.  If I had to guess, it's probably a .30-30.

The two saddles that are visible are classic A fork saddles.  Saddles of that period were nearly always 7/8s rigged A forks with high cantles and high pommels,  like the ones in this photograph.

Monday, December 5, 2016

Laura Stockton Starcher elected mayor of Umatilla, Oregon.

The suffragist era came to Umatilla, Oregon with a vengeance when Laura Stockton Starcher was elected mayor, defeating her incumbent husband, though write in votes and, additionally, women further took the majority of the town council seats.

Their administration proved to be a progressive one.

Friday, June 24, 2016

Railhead: Fantasy worlds and rail transportation. . . limiting conveyance by rail

Fantasy worlds and rail transportation. . . limiting conveyance by rail.

Of our various blogs, this one has been, by far, the least likely to see a commentary post.  Indeed, this appears to be the very first one.  But as this one involves rail transportation, I'm going to post it here.

Readers of the blog where I typically post commentary, Lex Anteinternet, know that I've posted a lot of comments on the hard times in the petroleum and coal industries, particularly in Wyoming.  As part of those, I've categorically rejected the popular thesis in Wyoming that the Federal government is engaged in a "war" on the energy industry, or that there's some gigantic conspiracy to do the energy industries in.  In this post, however, I will comment on a type of "not in my backyard" effort that's really shortsighted, and which give credence to those who feel ignored and oppressed in this area.

Recently there was a big derailment in Mosier, Oregon. That occurrence has lead to an effort, centered in the Pacific Northwest but focused nationally, to ban the transportation of petroleum oil by rail.


That's just flat out absurd.

I guess its obvious that I'm a railroad fan, why else, after all, would a person have a blog dedicated to railroad features, so perhaps I'm partisan.  But campaigns of this type strike me as very ill informed in some ways. The concept seems to be that, because all of the cars are on a single train, a train purposes a unique danger that other  means of transportation do not.  That's simply not correct.  The other means are truck and pipeline.  The hundreds of trucks that replace a single train pose a danger as well, and arguably a much greater one as the risk would have be assessed for each single truck, not just one as if it were a train.  Pipelines are probably safer, although pipeline spills do occur, and the are basically permanent. Rail lines have other uses for other types of trains.

I suspect that much of this movement doesn't even directly relate to safety, but rather is part of an environmental movement on the Pacific Coast that has been pretty successful in shutting down the loading of coal by sea.  Given the current economics of coal, I'm not nearly as convinced, however, that this has been that detrimental to coal.  It's the low price and declining use that has been.  But I suspect there's a poorly thought out concept that if the shipping of oil by rail is stopped, people quit using it.

Not hardly.

This view, I'd note, is supported by some comments from a Pacific Coast environmental activists, who is quoted as saying in a newspaper as follows:

On the evening of June 6, more than a hundred climate activists met at the First Unitarian Church in downtown Portland to discuss their response to the oil train derailment in the Columbia River Gorge three days earlier, said 350PDX director Adriana Voss-Andreae. 
“The call for a temporary moratorium on oil trains is a call for a shred of decency for the Mosier community, but it does nothing to meet the magnitude of the problem,” she said. “If the government won’t stop the bomb trains, then we must do so ourselves. There will be a mass direct action in the coming two weeks. We encourage all to join.”
Climate activists claiming its a "bomb train"?  Well, I'm skeptical. Either they simply oppose the shipping of all fossil fuels by any means, or their activism is unfocused.

Well, whatever a person might think about climate change, pretending that preventing shipping by rail is going to have some impact on the use of fossil fuels is just fooling yourself.  And, ironically, trains are by far the most efficient, and hence the most "green", of any means of transportation we have.  Putting the same oil on the road in trucks is at least as dangerous and a lot dirtier.  And that's probably what would happen if the oil wasn't shipped by rail.