Ostensibly exploring the practice of law before the internet. Heck, before good highways for that matter.
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
The Cheyenne Leader for December 7, 1916: Wyoming Guard coming home before Christmas?
The proverbial soldier "home before Christmas" story was running in the Leader. Would it be true?
And given the rest of the news, how long would that be true for, if it was true?
Farmer Al Falfa's Blind Pig released, December 7, 1916
1916 saw the release of an entire series of Farmer Al Falfa cartoons. This film was the eleventh to be released this year (there's some dispute on the date, some sources claim the release date was December 1).
The series continued all the way through 1956, making it a very successful cartoon.
This particular cartoon is not on line, and it might largely be lost, like many films of this period.
The series continued all the way through 1956, making it a very successful cartoon.
This particular cartoon is not on line, and it might largely be lost, like many films of this period.
Farmer Al Falfa in Tentless Circus, a cartoon released earlier in 1916.
Farm based cartoons would make up an entire genre of cartoons for a very long time and show the curious nature of the United States in regards to its rural population. If we look at the 1920 census, the closest to the year in question, the US was 51.2% urban. That's really remarkable actually as it meant that the US was already a heavily urban society at the time. It might be more telling, however, to look at the 1900 census. That would reveal that, at that time, the US was 39.6% urban and 60.4% rural. In other words, the US had gone from having a population that was clearly majority rural in 1900 to one which was slightly majority urban by 1920.
Like a lot of things about this era, almost all of which are now unappreciated, this meant that the society was undergoing massive changes. We like to think of our current society experiencing that, and indeed it is, but arguably the period of 1900 to 1950 saw much more rapid changes of all types, a lot of which would have been extremely distressing to anyone experiencing them. Indeed, carrying on the US would be 56.1% urban by 1930, meaning that in a thirty year period the US had effectively gone from heavily rural to heavily urban, with the percentage effectively reversing themselves in that time period. Indeed, while not the point of this entry, this would really call into question the claims by folks like James Kunstler that the Great Depression was not as bad as it seems because everyone came from a farm family and had a farm to go back to. The nation had more farm families, to be sure, during the Great Depression than now, but the nation had been rocketing into an urban transfer during that period for a lot of reasons, a lot of which were technological in nature.
None of which is what this entry is about.
Rather, what we'd note is that Farmer Al Falfa is an early example of a rustic depiction of farm life for movie goers. Cartoons were shown before movies at the time and would be for a long time. Depictions of farmers as hicks, but somewhat sympathetic hicks, were common in cartoons throughout the this period and on into the 1950s. That's interesting in that it was a cartoon depiction of the American duality of thought in regards to farmers. On the one hand, as people moved from the farms into the cities, they wanted to view their new lives as more sophisticated in every way over rural life, even if that meant running down rural residents. On the other hand, rural life remained familiar enough to the viewing audience that really rural characters were familiar to them and the depictions, even if condescending, had to be at least somewhat sympathetic. Depictions like this would last for a long time, even if they began to change a bit by the 1940s when urbanites began to show more interest in rural life. Even at that time, however, the depictions could run side by side, as with the introduction of Ma and Pa Kettle in The Egg and I.
Big Metal Bird: Episode 3 – Inflight Dining
I almost always skip the meals on airplanes, but anyhow, there's a lot, no doubt, that goes into it.
Tuesday, December 6, 2016
Cheyenne State Leader for December 6, 1916: Wyoming Guardsmen in New Mexico had turkey for Thanksgiving
Yes, there was other news than the turkey in New Mexico, but the Leader was following the Guard in New Mexico, which no doubt a lot of Wyomingites were very interested in.
Today In Wyoming's History: December 6, 1916: Wyoming v. Colorado argued in front of the Supreme Court.
Today In Wyoming's History: December 6:
1916 Wyoming v. Colorado, dealing with apportionment of water from the Laramie River, argued in front of the United States Supreme Court. It would be re argued twice and decided in 1922.
As this was an original action in front of the Supreme Court, i.e., a trial, it was presented over three days, concluding on the 8th.
The opinion would be issued after rehearing, in 1922.
1916 Wyoming v. Colorado, dealing with apportionment of water from the Laramie River, argued in front of the United States Supreme Court. It would be re argued twice and decided in 1922.
As this was an original action in front of the Supreme Court, i.e., a trial, it was presented over three days, concluding on the 8th.
The opinion would be issued after rehearing, in 1922.
Monday, December 5, 2016
Woodrow Wilson delivered his State of the Union Address for 1916.
Woodrow Wilson addressing Congress (but not necessarily on this occasion).
GENTLEMEN OF THE CONGRESS:
In fulfilling at this time the duty laid upon me by the Constitution of
communicating to you from time to time information of the state of the
Union and recommending to your consideration such legislative measures as
may be judged necessary and expedient, I shall continue the practice, which
I hope has been acceptable to you, of leaving to the reports of the several
heads of the executive departments the elaboration of the detailed needs of
the public service and confine myself to those matters of more general
public policy with which it seems necessary and feasible to deal at the
present session of the Congress.
I realize the limitations of time under which you will necessarily act at
this session and shall make my suggestions as few as possible; but there
were some things left undone at the last session which there will now be
time to complete and which it seems necessary in the interest of the public
to do at once.
In the first place, it seems to me imperatively necessary that the earliest
possible consideration and action should be accorded the remaining measures
of the program of settlement and regulation which I had occasion to
recommend to you at the close of your last session in view of the public
dangers disclosed by the unaccommodated difficulties which then existed,
and which still unhappily continue to exist, between the railroads of the
country and their locomotive engineers, conductors and trainmen.
I then recommended:
First, immediate provision for the enlargement and administrative
reorganization of the Interstate Commerce Commission along the lines
embodied in the bill recently passed by the House of Representatives and
now awaiting action by the Senate; in order that the Commission may be
enabled to deal with the many great and various duties now devolving upon
it with a promptness and thoroughness which are, with its present
constitution and means of action, practically impossible.
Second, the establishment of an eight-hour day as the legal basis alike of
work and wages in the employment of all railway employes who are actually
engaged in the work of operating trains in interstate transportation.
Third, the authorization of the appointment by the President of a small
body of men to observe actual results in experience of the adoption of the
eight-hour day in railway transportation alike for the men and for the
railroads.
Fourth, explicit approval by the Congress of the consideration by the
Interstate Commerce Commission of an increase of freight rates to meet such
additional expenditures by the railroads as may have been rendered
necessary by the adoption of the eight-hour day and which have not been
offset by administrative readjustments and economies, should the facts
disclosed justify the increase.
Fifth, an amendment of the existing Federal statute which provides for the
mediation, conciliation and arbitration of such controversies as the
present by adding to it a provision that, in case the methods of
accommodation now provided for should fail, a full public investigation of
the merits of every such dispute shall be instituted and completed before a
strike or lockout may lawfully be attempted.
And, sixth, the lodgment in the hands of the Executive of the power, in
case of military necessity, to take control of such portions and such
rolling stock of the railways of the country as may be required for
military use and to operate them for military purposes, with authority to
draft into the military service of the United States such train crews and
administrative officials as the circumstances require for their safe and
efficient use.
The second and third of these recommendations the Congress immediately
acted on: it established the eight-hour day as the legal basis of work and
wages in train service and it authorized the appointment of a commission to
observe and report upon the practical results, deeming these the measures
most immediately needed; but it postponed action upon the other suggestions
until an opportunity should be offered for a more deliberate consideration
of them.
The fourth recommendation I do not deem it necessary to renew. The power of
the Interstate Commerce Commission to grant an increase of rates on the
ground referred to is indisputably clear and a recommendation by the
Congress with regard to such a matter might seem to draw in question the
scope of the commission's authority or its inclination to do justice when
there is no reason to doubt either.
The other suggestions-the increase in the Interstate Commerce Commission's
membership and in its facilities for performing its manifold duties; the
provision for full public investigation and assessment of industrial
disputes, and the grant to the Executive of the power to control and
operate the railways when necessary in time of war or other like public
necessity-I now very earnestly renew.
The necessity for such legislation is manifest and pressing. Those who have
entrusted us with the responsibility and duty of serving and safeguarding
them in such matters would find it hard, I believe, to excuse a failure to
act upon these grave matters or any unnecessary postponement of action upon
them.
Not only does the Interstate Commerce Commission now find it practically
impossible, with its present membership and organization, to perform its
great functions promptly and thoroughly, but it is not unlikely that it may
presently be found advisable to add to its duties still others equally
heavy and exacting. It must first be perfected as an administrative
instrument.
The country cannot and should not consent to remain any longer exposed to
profound industrial disturbances for lack of additional means of
arbitration and conciliation which the Congress can easily and promptly
supply.
And all will agree that there must be no doubt as to the power of the
Executive to make immediate and uninterrupted use of the railroads for the
concentration of the military forces of the nation wherever they are needed
and whenever they are needed.
This is a program of regulation, prevention and administrative efficiency
which argues its own case in the mere statement of it. With regard to one
of its items, the increase in the efficiency of the Interstate Commerce
Commission, the House of Representatives has already acted; its action
needs only the concurrence of the Senate.
I would hesitate to recommend, and I dare say the Congress would hesitate
to act upon the suggestion should I make it, that any man in any I
occupation should be obliged by law to continue in an employment which he
desired to leave.
To pass a law which forbade or prevented the individual workman to leave
his work before receiving the approval of society in doing so would be to
adopt a new principle into our jurisprudence, which I take it for granted
we are not prepared to introduce.
But the proposal that the operation of the railways of the country shall
not be stopped or interrupted by the concerted action of organized bodies
of men until a public investigation shall have been instituted, which shall
make the whole question at issue plain for the judgment of the opinion of
the nation, is not to propose any such principle.
It is based upon the very different principle that the concerted action of
powerful bodies of men shall not be permitted to stop the industrial
processes of the nation, at any rate before the nation shall have had an
opportunity to acquaint itself with the merits of the case as between
employe and employer, time to form its opinion upon an impartial statement
of the merits, and opportunity to consider all practicable means of
conciliation or arbitration.
I can see nothing in that proposition but the justifiable safeguarding by
society of the necessary processes of its very life. There is nothing
arbitrary or unjust in it unless it be arbitrarily and unjustly done. It
can and should be done with a full and scrupulous regard for the interests
and liberties of all concerned as well as for the permanent interests of
society itself.
Three matters of capital importance await the action of the Senate which
have already been acted upon by the House of Representatives; the bill
which seeks to extend greater freedom of combination to those engaged in
promoting the foreign commerce of the country than is now thought by some
to be legal under the terms of the laws against monopoly; the bill amending
the present organic law of Porto Rico; and the bill proposing a more
thorough and systematic regulation of the expenditure of money in
elections, commonly called the Corrupt Practices Act.
I need not labor my advice that these measures be enacted into law. Their
urgency lies in the manifest circumstances which render their adoption at
this time not only opportune but necessary. Even delay would seriously
jeopard the interests of the country and of the Government.
Immediate passage of the bill to regulate the expenditure of money in
elections may seem to be less necessary than the immediate enactment of the
other measures to which I refer, because at least two years will elapse
before another election in which Federal offices are to be filled; but it
would greatly relieve the public mind if this important matter were dealt
with while the circumstances and the dangers to the public morals of the
present method of obtaining and spending campaign funds stand clear under
recent observation, and the methods of expenditure can be frankly studied
in the light of present experience; and a delay would have the further very
serious disadvantage of postponing action until another election was at
hand and some special object connected with it might be thought to be in
the mind of those who urged it. Action can be taken now with facts for
guidance and without suspicion of partisan purpose.
I shall not argue at length the desirability of giving a freer hand in the
matter of combined and concerted effort to those who shall undertake the
essential enterprise of building up our export trade. That enterprise will
presently, will immediately assume, has indeed already assumed a magnitude
unprecedented in our experience. We have not the necessary
instrumentalities for its prosecution; it is deemed to be doubtful whether
they could be created upon an adequate scale under our present laws.
We should clear away all legal obstacles and create a basis of undoubted
law for it which will give freedom without permitting unregulated license.
The thing must be done now, because the opportunity is here and may escape
us if we hesitate or delay.
The argument for the proposed amendments of the organic law of Porto Rico
is brief and conclusive. The present laws governing the island and
regulating the rights and privileges of its people are not just. We have
created expectations of extended privilege which we have not satisfied.
There is uneasiness among the people of the island and even a suspicious
doubt with regard to our intentions concerning them which the adoption of
the pending measure would happily remove. We do not doubt what we wish to
do in any essential particular. We ought to do it at once.
At the last session of the Congress a bill was passed by the Senate which
provides for the promotion of vocational and industrial education, which is
of vital importance to the whole country because it concerns a matter, too
long neglected, upon which the thorough industrial preparation of the
country for the critical years of economic development immediately ahead of
us in very large measure depends.
May I not urge its early and favorable consideration by the House of
Representatives and its early enactment into law? It contains plans which
affect all interests and all parts of the country, and I am sure that there
is no legislation now pending before the Congress whose passage the country
awaits with more thoughtful approval or greater impatience to see a great
and admirable thing set in the way of being done.
There are other matters already advanced to the stage of conference between
the two houses of which it is not necessary that I should speak. Some
practicable basis of agreement concerning them will no doubt be found an
action taken upon them.
Inasmuch as this is, gentlemen, probably the last occasion I shall have to
address the Sixty-fourth Congress, I hope that you will permit me to say
with what genuine pleasure and satisfaction I have co-operated with you in
the many measures of constructive policy with which you have enriched the
legislative annals of the country. It has been a privilege to labor in such
company. I take the liberty of congratulating you upon the completion of a
record of rare serviceableness and distinction.
Monday at the Bar; Courthouses of the West: Sublette County Courthouse, Pinedale Wyoming
Courthouses of the West: Sublette County Courthouse, Pinedale Wyoming:
This is the Sublette County Courthouse in Pinedale, Wyoming. The courthouse is the seat, for Sublette County, of the two courts of Wyoming's 9th Judicial District.
I'm unsure of the vintage of this courthouse, but I'm guess it dates to at least the 1950s, although I could be in error. The court is in a Federalist style.
The USS West Virgina Ordered.
The USS West Virginia was ordered for construction.
The USS West Virginia, San Francisco, 1934.
She would be launched on November 19, 1921.
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.
Jarbridge Stage Robbery.
While the last train robbery was yet to come (and would come in Wyoming) the last stage robbery found itself occurring on this date in 1916.
On this day a two horse mail wagon was robbed, and the driver killed, so that the stage could be robbed, resulting in a very brief $4,000 gain to the thieves. The advance of technology intersected with the antiquated nature of the crime as one of the perpetrators was convicted on the bases of his palm prints, the first person in the United States to meet their fate by that means.
On this day a two horse mail wagon was robbed, and the driver killed, so that the stage could be robbed, resulting in a very brief $4,000 gain to the thieves. The advance of technology intersected with the antiquated nature of the crime as one of the perpetrators was convicted on the bases of his palm prints, the first person in the United States to meet their fate by that means.
Ben Kuhl, whose palm prints would convict him.
The location of the robbery, Jarbridge Nevada, was remote in the extreme and was nearly in Idaho. Snowy weather aided the criminals in their endeavor. The luck of the criminals, three in number, soon ran out however and they were rapidly apprehended. One turned state's evidence, and Kuhl received the death sentence which as later commuted to a live sentence. He was released in 1945.
Sunday, December 4, 2016
Signs of the times from the New York Times (the times being 1916)
On today's 100 Years Ago Today Subreddit we learn a couple of interesting things.
One is that the head of New York City's fire department was proposing to convert the last horse drawn engine companies to automobiles. Most already had been in NYC, but 700 fire horses remained with an average age of 13, apparently.
End of an era.
Secondly we learn that a study at Columbia University had found that it was perfectly possible to work your way through university. Interesting to see that concern then, when many fewer attended it and they tended to be from classes with means as a rule. Clearly the times were truly changing.
The study listed various jobs finding that shoveling snow lead the pack but posing as an "art model" came in second, although only one woman opted for that job. Of various occupations listed, one curiously labelled one was "companion", which was a role performed by one female student. Quite a few women worked as stenographer and typists which, although we hardly think of it that way now, were jobs that were actually new to women.
Horse drawn fire engine, New York City, 1916
One is that the head of New York City's fire department was proposing to convert the last horse drawn engine companies to automobiles. Most already had been in NYC, but 700 fire horses remained with an average age of 13, apparently.
End of an era.
Secondly we learn that a study at Columbia University had found that it was perfectly possible to work your way through university. Interesting to see that concern then, when many fewer attended it and they tended to be from classes with means as a rule. Clearly the times were truly changing.
Columbia library, 1915.
The study listed various jobs finding that shoveling snow lead the pack but posing as an "art model" came in second, although only one woman opted for that job. Of various occupations listed, one curiously labelled one was "companion", which was a role performed by one female student. Quite a few women worked as stenographer and typists which, although we hardly think of it that way now, were jobs that were actually new to women.
Female typist, 1917. In this case the typist is 15 years old.
Sunday Morning Scene: Churches of the West: Boston Avenue United Methodist Church, Tulsa Oklahoma
Churches of the West: Boston Avenue United Methodist Church, Tulsa Oklahoma
This is the Boston Avenue United Methodist Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The church combines Gothic features with Art Deco features, reflectingits construction in 1929.
This is the Boston Avenue United Methodist Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The church combines Gothic features with Art Deco features, reflectingits construction in 1929.
Saturday, December 3, 2016
The Cheyenne State Leader for December 3, 1916. Carranza sets to take on Villa and Teachers take on booze.
On Sunday December 3, readers in Cheyenne were perhaps a bit relieved to find that Carranza's forces seemed to be rallying, perhaps meaning that National Guardsmen at the border wouldn't be finding Villistas crossing back over into the United States.
At the same time, teachers came out in favor of Prohibition.
That doesn't really surprise me, and indeed strikes me as natural. I'm not a teetotaler but its rather obvious that alcohol creates a flood of societal problems, quite a few of which teachers have to deal with daily.
Along those lines, it amazes me that in our current era we've not only come to regard the concerns that lead to Prohibition as being quaint and naive, but we're out trying to legalize ever intoxicant we can. Related back to the concerns of the teachers in 1916, just this past week a 19 year old died in this town of, it appears, complications due to the ingestion of an illegal drug. It would seem that the intoxicants that are legal now are quite enough really.
Friday, December 2, 2016
Injured players get full pay for their contracts in baseball.
On this day in 1916 the National Commission in baseball ordered that injured baseball players get full pay for the duration of their contracts. Prior to that the injury clause in their contracts allows clubs to suspend players after fifteen days. The Players League had pressured for the change.
The Laramie Republican for December 2, 1916: Maybe there's nothing to worry about on the border.
Residents of Laramie would have been less disturbed by border news today than those in Cheyenne would have been.
Thursday, December 1, 2016
The Casper Weekly Press for December 1, 1916: White Slavery and Boom on in Casper
While the Cheyenne papers warned of bodies burning in the streets of Chihuahua and Villa advancing to the border, as well as the ongoing horrors of World War One, the Casper Weekly Press hit the stands with tales of white slavery.
White slavery, for those who might not know (we don't hear the term much anymore) was basically the kidnapping of young women and forcing them into prostitution.
Headlines like this are easy to discount, and seem lurid, fanciful, and sensationalist, but in reality they give us a view into the hard nature of the past we'd sometimes completely forget. White Slavery, i.e., the kidnapping of women and the forcing them into prostitution, was actually a bonafide problem, and to some extent, it remains one.
I've spoken to one now deceased woman who escaped an attempt to kidnap her on a large East Coast city when she was a teen and who was convinced that she was almost a victim of such an effort. And it wasn't all that long ago that it was revealed there was an Hispanic white slavery ring in Jackson Wyoming, where very young Mexican teenage girls were being brought up to that Wyoming resort town as prostitutes, working in an underground economy there focused on single Mexican laborers. That one was discovered, oddly enough, through the schools. Still, the evil practice, fueled by money and drugs, is with us still, although with advances in technology, and just more knowledge on such things, it wasn't what it once was, thankfully.
We don't want to romanticize the past here, so we've run this, although with all the news on bodies burning in the streets, etc, we probably can't be accused of romanticism anyhow.
Meanwhile an oil boom was on in Casper causing housing shortages.
Page two of the Casper Weekly informed us that a Ford had become a necessity. If it wasn't quite true at the time, it soon would be.
The Wyoming, a store apparently took a shot at Prohibitionist by advertising that they had "everything a Prohibitionist likes."
The Wyoming Tribune for December 1, 1916: Carranza prepares to fight at the border
Just a few days ago the news was reporting that US forces would be able to withdraw from Mexico and an agreement with Carranza was on the verge of being signed. Today the Tribune was reporting fears that Villa would advance to the US border.
And former Governor Osborne, presently U.S. Assistant Secretary of State, we're told, was contemplating running for the Senate.
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