Tuesday, May 18, 1943. Reaching out.

The Allies commenced bombing Pantelleria, 100 miles from Tunis and 60 miles off of Sicily.  

On a clear day, Tunisia is actually visible from Pantelleria.  The island, while it has had some occasional human residences since pre historic times, has been continually occupied since taken by the Carthaginians at the beginning of the 7th Century, B.C.

Pope Pius XII

Pope Pius XII appealed to Franklin Roosevelt to spare Rome from bombing.

Thursday, February 2, 1922. The birth of Checker Cab.

Washington D. C., February 2, 1922.

 

The Checker Cab Manufacturing Company was created on this day Morris Markin, a Russian immigrant, who assembled the company form the failed ruins of several others.  He was only 28 years old.

An incredible figure, he had a gift for business that had demonstrated itself both in Imperial Russia and the United States, with the Russian Jewish immigrant succeeding at nearly everything he touched in spite of the long odds involved.

Checker's were the default American cab for decades, in their final years taking on a 1950s appearance that would last until the last one was produced in 1982.

Checker cab from Wikipedia commons.

The College of Cardinals gathered in Rome to begin the selection process for a new Bishop of Rome and head of the Catholic Church.

This is, I'd note, also the 100th anniversary of the publication of James Joyce's Ulysses, timed for his 40th birthday.

You probably haven't read it.

And if you tried, you probably gave up.

And that's probably because it's crap.

Those are harsh words for a book that's widely heralded, but often people forget why a book makes a splash in the first place.  I suspect that's the case for this book.  A common reaction of people who try to read it is to find that it's "hard going" and they put it down.

This is, I'd note, the same thing that people say about Mein Kampf, which I haven't read, and I'm not going to.  I note that as these two tomes are roughly contemporaneous and lots of copies have been printed that nobody read.  I'm not saying the content is the same.  I am saying that they're both probably crap.

As for Ulysses, it's probably gathering more dust than readers, as it's just not that great.

My exposure to Joyce is from one short story of his I read eons ago while in high school, and frankly it wasn't great.

And while I'm at it, Liam O'Flaherty's short story The Sniper, which we had to read, also isn't great.  M'eh.

Anyhow, Joyce fits in the same category I'd place Hemingway.  He obtained a reputation early on and that made his reputation.  People when they read their books secretly, I think, say "hmmm. . . . not great" as whatever made them "great" in the first place applied only to their time and place, if it even applied to the time and place.  They're preserved today because of that early reputation and because English departments continue to imagine they're great.  But for English departments, they'd be forgotten.  This book, and Finnegan's Wake, are basically not read, based on the commentary you see from honest people who attempted to.

Boars

Wild board have invaded Rome.

And Barcelona, apparently, where singer Shakira had to take one on for stealing her purse.

Today is the Feast of Saint Monica of Hippo.

She was a Catholic Berber, married to a Roman Pagan, in North Africa. Devout throughout her life, she struggled with a dissolute difficult husband who none the less held her in respect.  Mother to three sons and a daughter, one of the sons was Augustine, who himself lived a life that caused her endless distress.

She followed him to Rome when he left for their, pursing a career in the law.  He converted to Christianity there, prior to her death at age 55. After her death, he would take holy orders, and rise to become St. Augustine of Hippo, one of the greatest Fathers of the Church.

June 5, 1944. The Canadians pass through Rome.

Hearkening back to yesterday's entry, on this day Canadian troops fighting in Italy passed through Rome. By late that night the world's attention would be directed elsewhere as the first airborne operations of Operation Overlord commenced.

Americans are fond of the formulation of one war or another being "the forgotten war", some of which are, and some of which are not.  Canadians, however, have by and large forgotten that they even have a distinct martial history.

Canada's role in World War One and World War Two was enormous.  It's participation as part of the British Commonwealth forces was outsized and Canadians fought in every theater of the war, something that's been forgotten to a large degree. Even in the Pacific, which is not commonly associated with Canada in World War Two, there was a Canadian contribution, first in the form of Canadian troops attached to the British in the early stages of the war, and then as part of the largely American effort in the Aleutians, where one in six of the soldiers committed to that effort was Canadian.

Canadians are best remembered in World War Two for their role in the Dieppe Raid and their following large role in Operation Overlord and the campaign in France. But they were part of the Commonwealth effort in Italy prior to that.

June 4, 1944. The Allies Take Rome

Americans and at least one soldier (or perhaps a partisan) from some other army fighting in Italy in 1944.

We don't commemorate that many World War Two anniversaries here, but we would note a significant one that's likely to get lost with all of the focus on a huge World War Two anniversary this week.

On this day, in 1944, the Allies took Rome.

Fighting in Italy, which had commenced with the invasion of Sicily in 1943 and then spread to the Italian mainland with Allied landings in September 1944, had been a hard slog all the way.  The Italians collapsed but the Germans put up a stout resistance, although the fact that it was a resistance and that they proved incapable of pushing the Allies off of the Italian peninsula pointed inevitably towards how the war would resolve.

The Allies had been pushing towards and around Rome for months and attempted the infamous seaborne landings at Anzio in an attempt to accomplish it.  It's occupation on this day in 1944 was actually a strategic blunder as in order to accomplish it Gen. Mark Clark allowed the German 10th Army to escape.

Americans entered Rome on this day in 1944.  The Canadian Army passed through the city without stopping the following day. The German Tenth Army would be responsible for doubling Allied casualties in the following weeks, so while the occupation was momentous, it wasn't without significant delayed costs that would have been avoided to some degree if a different more strategic approach had been taken.

January 4, 1919. Wilson tours Rome.

Woodrow Wilson and King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy.

He'd just been in the United Kingdom, and now he was in the Kingdom of Italy.  Woodrow Wilson was being hailed as a hero wherever he went.

And at the Coliseum.

It's also odd to think that King Victor Emmanuel III would be the King of Italy until 1946, meaning that he was the sovereign when Italy sided with Germany in the Second World War, and then changed sides in 1943.

Persistent Myths VII: The Roman Edition

The Roman Edition

I was reminded today of a couple of popular myths regarding the Romans.

I suppose it would be surprising if the Romans weren't subject to all sort of myths, after all, they were a major power forever.  Given that, some baloney is going to stick to them.  Let's take a look

A. The Romans Never Lost a Battle

There's apparently a popular myth that the Romans never lost a battle.  Oh yes they did.  You can't be a military power that long and not loose a few, that's for sure, and they lost their fair share.

What's more the like it is that the Romans had really deep military pockets, so they were able recover from their losses, but loose they did.

B.  Rome Fell because it was corrupt.  

This myth is extremely persistent, but completely in error.

Students receive this myth in some classrooms today, and its no surprise as it was a thesis advanced by Gibbons, who was the first really major modern historian (1700s) who addressed the topic of Roman history.  Gibbons, however, was not free from inserting his own beliefs and agendas into his writing, and while the world owes him a debt of thanks for tackling the topic, it is burdened by his outlook.  

Gibbons was English and living in an era when the ruling class of the United Kingdom was quite anti Catholic, as was Gibbons himself.  This is significant in that it seems to have colored Gibbons views of 5th Century Rome.  It doesn't seem to answer, however, why Gibbons went on in his work, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, to cover the Byzantine Empire as well, which is typically forgotten about him.

Anyhow, the popular myth is that Rome had become debauched and was reveling in vice which is why the robust Germans busted in and shut the whole thing down.  In actuality, Rome had been pretty debauched since day one and was actually living at the height of its virtue at the time it fell.  The Romans did a fairly good job of actually cleaning up its early history, in terms of what it told about itself, but in reality the town had been founded by bands of roving, fleeing ,thieves and had at first been a pretty much all male criminal enclave.  It became a real town when it acquired a female population, but it did that by taking its female population by force, not a very admirable thing to do.  In its imperial period Rome did all sorts of nasty icky things, but that didn't cause it to fall.

With Constantine the  Great, who ruled from Byzantium, the empire became Christian, but retained a large pagan population.  But its character really began to change. By the mid 400s when Rome fell its official religion was Christianity and it was at an all time high in moral behavior.

Rome really fell because of a series of odd events, which is often how such things occur.  For one thing, Rome had overextended itself, which it knew.  It had withdrawn from its most northerly advances some time prior and was working on trying to consolidate its holdings.  Its grip on Britain was slipping.  Administering the Empire from Rome had proven too difficult and the administration of the Empire had been split in two.  It had suffered from internal armed strife since the time of Caesar which continually drug it down.  And, most significantly here, Germanic peoples from Eastern Europe were being driven west by invading Slavs, which caused them to push by necessity on Rome's northern and eastern borders. They were coming in no matter what, and there was little Rome could do stop that.  Having said that, the Romans botched it specifically by ineptly handling Germans crossing the Rhine, giving unnecessary rise to invasion, and the end of the Western Empire.

C.  The Vomitorium isn't what you've heard.

As a minor one, a Vomitorium wasn't where people went to throw up, in their debauchery.  It's a big exit.  That's because it derives from   a word meaning to spew forth, as to pour out, as in to pour out a lot of people.  Think stadium exist.

The Big Speach: Nomen est omen

Nomen est omen.

Roman proverb.  "Names are destiny", or more correctly, Names are omens.  Taken from the play Persa in which a character says, about a slave girl for sale who is named Lucris (Profits), "Nomen atque omen quantivis iam est preti".

So, any merit to that claim?

Wednesday, April 9, 1924. Dawes Plan released.

The Dawes Committee released its plan for the Allies to restructure the method of reparations payments being made by the Germans.

Pope Pius XI canceled plans to leave the Vatican in order to dedicate a new building for the Knights of Columbus in Rome, which would have made him the first Pontiff since 1870 to travel outside of the Vatican's walls.

Cancelled on thirty minutes notice, Papal Secretary of State, Cardinal Gasparri, appeared in his place. The cancellation was over the issue of Vatican sovereignty, but was spurred on due to this intended departure of the place being a major matter in the local press.

Senator Smith of South Carolina in 1924.  He'd serve until 1944, when he was defeated for reelection.  He took the news on his farm and stated: Well, I guess I better go out and look at the pigs."  He died several days later, in the same bed in which he'd been born.  His Senatorial career had spanned from 1909 to 1944, the same span as our look back posts today.

Senator Ellison Smith delivered his "Shut The Door" speech.

It seems to me the point as to this measure—and I have been so impressed for several years—is that the time has arrived when we should shut the door. We have been called the melting pot of the world. We had an experience just a few years ago, during the great World War, when it looked as though we had allowed influences to enter our borders that were about to melt the pot in place of us being the melting pot.

I think that we have sufficient stock in America now for us to shut the door, Americanize what we have, and save the resources of America for the natural increase of our population. We all know that one of the most prolific causes of war is the desire for increased land ownership for the overflow of a congested population. We are increasing at such a rate that in the natural course of things in a comparatively few years the landed resources, the natural resources of the country, shall be taken up by the natural increase of our population. It seems to me the part of wisdom now that we have throughout the length and breadth of continental America a population which is beginning to encroach upon the reserve and virgin resources of the country to keep it in trust for the multiplying population of the country.

I do not believe that political reasons should enter into the discussion of this very vital question. It is of greater concern to us to maintain the institutions of America, to maintain the principles upon which this Government is founded, than to develop and exploit the underdeveloped resources of the country. There are some things that are dearer to us, fraught with more benefit to us, than the immediate development of the undeveloped resources of the country. I believe that our particular ideas, social, moral, religious, and political, have demonstrated, by virtue of the progress we have made and the character of people that we are, that we have the highest ideals of any member of the human family or any nation. We have demonstrated the fact that the human family, certainty the predominant breed in America, can govern themselves by a direct government of the people. If this Government shall fail, it shall fail by virtue of the terrible law of inherited tendency. Those who come from the nations which from time immemorial have been under the dictation of a master fall more easily by the law of inheritance and the inertia of habit into a condition of political servitude than the descendants of those who cleared the forests, conquered the savage, stood at arms and won their liberty from their mother country, England.

I think we now have sufficient population in our country for us to shut the door and to breed up a pure, unadulterated American citizenship. I recognize that there is a dangerous lack of distinction between people of a certain nationality and the breed of the dog. Who is an American? Is he an immigrant from Italy? Is he an immigrant from Germany? If you were to go abroad and some one were to meet you and say, “I met a typical American,” what would flash into your mind as a typical American, the typical representative of that new Nation? Would it be the son of an Italian immigrant, the son of a German immigrant, the son of any of the breeds from the Orient, the son of the denizens of Africa? We must not get our ethnological distinctions mixed up with out anthropological distinctions. It is the breed of the dog in which I am interested. I would like for the Members of the Senate to read that book just recently published by Madison Grant, The Passing of a Great Race. Thank God we have in America perhaps the largest percentage of any country in the world of the pure, unadulterated Anglo-Saxon stock; certainly the greatest of any nation in the Nordic breed. It is for the preservation of that splendid stock that has characterized us that I would make this not an asylum for the oppressed of all countries, but a country to assimilate and perfect that splendid type of manhood that has made America the foremost Nation in her progress and in her power, and yet the youngest of all the nations. I myself believe that the preservation of her institutions depends upon us now taking counsel with our condition and our experience during the last World War.

Without offense, but with regard to the salvation of our own, let us shut the door and assimilate what we have, and let us breed pure American citizens and develop our own American resources. I am more in favor of that than I am of our quota proposition. Of course, it may not meet the approbation of the Senate that we shall shut the door—which I unqualifiedly and unreservedly believe to be our duty—and develop what we have, assimilate and digest what we have into pure Americans, with American aspirations, and thoroughly familiar with the love of American institutions, rather than the importation of any number of men from other countries. If we may not have that, then I am in favor of putting the quota down to the lowest possible point, with every selective element in it that may be.

The great desideratum of modern times has been education not alone book knowledge, but that education which enables men to think right, to think logically, to think truthfully, men equipped with power to appreciate the rapidly developing conditions that are all about us, that have converted the world in the last 50 years into a brand new world and made us masters of forces that are revolutionizing production. We want men not like dumb, driven cattle from those nations where the progressive thought of the times has scarcely made a beginning and where they see men as mere machines; we want men who have an appreciation of the responsibility brought about by the manifestation of the power of that individual. We have not that in this country to-day. We have men here to-day who are selfishly utilizing the enormous forces discovered by genius, and if we are not careful as statesmen, if we are not careful in our legislation, these very masters of the tremendous forces that have been made available to us will bring us under their domination and control by virtue of the power they have in multiplying their wealth.

We are struggling to-day against the organized forces of man’s brain multiplied a million times by materialized thought in the form of steam and electricity as applied in the everyday affairs of man. We have enough in this country to engage the brain of every lover of his country in solving the problems of a democratic government in the midst of the imperial power that genius is discovering and placing in the hands of man. We have population enough to-day without throwing wide our doors and jeopardizing the interests of this country by pouring into it men who willingly become the slaves of those who employ them in manipulating these forces of nature, and they few reap the enormous benefits that accrue therefrom.

We ought to Americanize not only our population but our forces. We ought to Americanize our factories and our vast material resources, so that we can make each contribute to the other and have an abundance for us under the form of the government laid down by our fathers.

The Senator from Georgia [Mr. Harris] has introduced an amendment to shut the door. It is not a question of politics. It is a question of maintaining that which has made you and me the beneficiaries of the greatest hope that ever burned in the human breast for the most splendid future that ever stood before mankind, where the boy in the gutter can look with confidence to the seat of the Presidency of the United States; where the boy in the gutter can look forward to the time when, paying the price of a proper citizen, he may fill a seat in this hall; where the boy to-day poverty-stricken, standing in the midst of all the splendid opportunities of America, should have and, please God, if we do our duty, will have an opportunity to enjoy the marvelous wealth that the genius and brain of our country is making possible for us all.

We do not want to tangle the skein of America’s progress by those who imperfectly understand the genius of our Government and the opportunities that lie about us. Let up keep what we have, protect what we have, make what we have the realization of the dream of those who wrote the Constitution.

I am more concerned about that than I am about whether a new railroad shall be built or whether there shall be diversified farming next year or whether a certain coal mine shall be mined. I would rather see American citizenship refined to the last degree in all that makes America what we hope it will be than to develop the resources of America at the expense of the citizenship of our country. The time has come when we should shut the door and keep what we have for what we hope our own people to be.

South Dakota experienced floods on the Belle Fourche.