November 18, 1919. Bill Carlisle. He's everywhere.

The newspapers in southern Wyoming were now fully on the story, if not very accurately, about escaped train robber Bill Carlyle.

In reality, he wasn't surrounded.

He was wounded, however, as he tried to rob a train on this day but couldn't bring himself to rob the passengers, soldiers returning from World War One.  In the course of that, a young man pointed a pistol at him and he knocked it away.  It discharged in the process and wounded his hand.

Elsewhere, the Prince of Wales was back in uniform and touring the United States.  Today he was in New York City.

November 17, 1919. News of the Carlyle Escape Breaks

News broke on this day in 1919 that William Carlisle, the train robber, had escaped from the penitentiary.  He'd broken out on Saturday.

He would not be out for long.

The coal strike, of course, was the headline news.  I haven't followed that here on a day by day basis (and indeed, there's been a lot fewer posts here recently), but that was of major national concern.

The coal strike made its appearance in Gasoline Alley on this day in 1919 as well.

New Orleans was photographed.

New Orleans, Louisiana.  November 17, 1919

Sunday Morning Scene: Churches of the West: Laramie Valley Chapel, Laramie Wyoming.

Churches of the West: Laramie Valley Chapel, Laramie Wyoming.: 

Laramie Valley Chapel, Laramie Wyoming.

 

This is the Laramie Valley Chapel, a Baptist church which is an extraordinary large example of a Prairie Gothic church.  The church must be relatively new as it did not exist when I lived in Laramie, although that's quite a few years ago.

Best post of the week of November 10, 2019.

The best post of the week of November 10, 2019.

An odd thought on Veterans Day

November 15, 1919. Near Beer.

Norman Rockwell's portrayal of rural children playing graced the November 17, 1919, cover of the Country Gentleman.

On this day in 1919, Budweiser announced what it was going to do with its brew now that Prohibition was coming on.

Beyond light beer, as it were.

Currently there's actually a growing selection on non alcoholic beers on the market, at least a couple of which are of such good quality that they rival their alcoholic fellows.  Heiniken and St. Pauli Girl, for example, are both as good as their regular product.  There's a prejudice against them, but for people who like the taste of beer but don't necessarily want the alcohol in them, they're a growing viable choice.

Actress Ruth Gordon was photographed on this day sporting one of the affectation's of her time, a monocle.

Monocles are frankly bizarre, but they were a popular mid 20th Century affectation.  Originally designed to be sort of a handy reading glass for people who didn't otherwise need glasses, by this period they were being worn in this fashion.  In reality, if you need corrective lenses, this option is just silly. Wear glasses.

Gordon was an established actress by this date.  She'd been acting since 1915 and would continue to act until 1987.  While a serious actress, many may remember her for her late role in Any Which Way But Loose.  This photograph was taken prior to her undergoing a radical treatment for bow leggedness, which she had her entire life, which was to break the legs and reset them. That was done in December 1920.

Gordon's long career is unusual and so is the fact that she survived what could have been a scandal.  Her first husband, actor Gregory Kelly, died of heart disease at age 36 and two years later she became pregnant by way of an affair with producer Jed Harris.  She lived with Harris and their son for several years out of wedlock, which was amazingly kept secret and when revealed did not operate to destroy her career.  The relationship ultimately failed and she married Garson Kanin, a fellow actor, who was 18 years her junior. They remained married until her death in 1985.

On this day, the Doctor in Gasoline Alley came around to pretty much the same decision I have.

Why do all the Neo Agrarians feel that they have to look like hippies?

Don't be an idiot.

One of the websites we link in here is the "Young Agrarians" blog, a Canadian blog that seeks to link aspiring Canadian agrarians to agriculture.

I'm not really sure why I link it in here other than that it's an agrarian blog of the North American type.  I think that topic interesting, so I've linked it in.

Note the guy in the t-shirt and shorts, with red hair. . .just begging for a case of skin cancer.

There's a reason that cowboys work with their sleeves rolled down year around and why they wear broad brimmed hats.

FARM JOB: GIBSONS, BC – PERSEPHONE BREWING CO, FULL-TIME FARMER

Today In Wyoming's History: November 15, 1919

Today In Wyoming's History: November 15:

1919.  William Carlyle, train robber, escaped from the Wyoming State Penitentiary.

Southern Rockies Nature Blog: The Walls of the Old Ones — Old Cowboys, That Is

Southern Rockies Nature Blog: The Walls of the Old Ones — Old Cowboys, That Is: Not too far from where I live, a steep ridge crowned with rimrock separates two drainages.  On the right hand side (upper photo) or ...

November 14, 1969. Apollo 12 launched.

It was, of course, a mission to the moon.

Lightening struck the Saturn rocket twice as it was lifting off, taking all three fuel cells offline.  Irrespective of that, it flew normally.

The front row television seats on the impeachment hearings.

Sometime around noon I had a break in the day and checked Twitter.  I don't know why, but I did.

And when I did, I found that some folks whose feeds I receive had spent the entire day watching the impeachment hearings.

Perhaps it's because I'm busy, but frankly, with limited exceptions, I'm appalled.  How can any working age adult be so idle as to have time to nothing else but watch impeachment proceedings?

Time, indeed, is a luxury, and apparently some people really have it.  Most working people do not.  If I did, absent a gigantic blizzard keeping me indoors, I wouldn't watch the impeachment hearings.

This is not to say that they're not important.  Clearly they are very important.  But there's something really odd in the thought that some folks have so much time on their hands they can watch them all day long.

Now, there are exceptions.

One exception is that some people have jobs where a television is constantly on.  People who work in certain types of cafes, or airports, or bars, work in that environment.  I get that.

Students and academics are another.  Student's days are different and so are academics.  I can see where they'd have them on in some, but certainly not all, circumstances.

Some folks are retired and don't have to work, and may just enjoy watching the proceedings.

And then there are people who are idle for one reason or another.

But I suspect that some people just sit at work streaming impeachment hearings. And that's not working.

I guess for idle people, watching is their option.  And I'm not saying that the whole thing isn't theater or a certain type.  It probably speaks poorly of me that if I was at home and had nothing (and it would have to be nothing) to do, I wouldn't sit and watch the hearings.  But I likely wouldn't sit there for hours and watch them.

Finally, I note that impeachment proceeding watchers are much like the proceedings themselves. They don't really need to watching, as their views are already made up.  People comment, aghast, on what they regard as horrors reflecting their preconceived judgment.

Now, there's been a lot of news on the events that lead up to this, and that entitles people to have reached their own conclusion.  But logging on in real time to comment that some Congressman is a jerk for his behavior or that some witness is wrong for some reason simply begs the question of why, if you know your end view already, you'd do this to yourself.  You can skip this and wait for the impeachment trial itself.  Or so it would seem.

Finally, if you are a political junkie and just have to watch it. . . don't watch it. . .listen to it. 

Radio is ideal for a thing like this.  If you are one of those people who can listen to the radio and do something else at the same time, for goodness sake do that.  Less is wasted.

The Non Judicial Nature of Impeachment

It didn't really strike me until the opening statements.

These are hearings, of course, but they have the false air of a judicial proceeding.  The most analogous thing to them, I suppose, would be a grand jury, with the Congressmen being the jurors.

Except they're completely partisan.

It would be as if the prosecution fielded it's own jurors and the defense its own jurors, with the presiding judges being members of the prosecution and the defense.

It's rather odd, and frankly unfair by design.

By that I don't mean to be seem to take sides in the matter.  But the Wall Street Journal, which basically has a side, was correct in its opening remarks on this impeachment.

House Democrats went public Wednesday with what the media are calling “historic” impeachment hearings, but what strikes us is the pre-cooked nature of the exercise. This isn’t a search for truth. It’s a set-piece production to promote a foregone conclusion.

The same can likely be said for the last impeachment exercise, that being the one that resulted in the impeachment trial of Bill Clinton.

And hence we're really exposed to a Constitutional weakness in our system.  Andrew Johnson was subject to an impeachment trial as members of his own party didn't think him radical enough in the wake of the Southern surrender in the Civil War (they were right on his not being radical enough, but wrong to subject him to the trial).  Bill Clinton went through that as the Republicans just didn't like him.  Whether or not Trump's actions in regard to Ukraine amount to enough to really consider impeaching him is something we  have yet to see, but Democrats have been crying for his removal from the moment he entered office.  The fact that smug Adam Schiff is in the prosecutorial seat makes a mockery of any pretense of a fair inquiry, just as the GOP's presiding Congressman clearly has his mind made up as well.  This is simply a strange vote of no confidence with cause.

In retrospect, a different system of impeachment, with a real trial, would be a better way to go about this. There's still be a political element of some sort.  But if it was in front of the senior jurists of the combined Courts of Appeals, or something, it would be a better system.

At least that's the way this one looks if you are familiar with court proceedings. 

I'm not opining on the evidence one way or another.  Indeed, I haven't watched or read of it yet, which brings me to my next post. . . .

Blog Mirror: Driving an 'underwater' car is no fun

PURCELL: Driving an 'underwater' car is no fun

I agree.

Solid logic, I think, for keeping the paid off ones I have.

What’s the best car on the road? One that’s paid off.

Blog Mirror. Samuelson, Philippon and Chesterton

Has America gone soft on competition?

So asks Washington Post columnist Robert J. Samuelson.

He doesn't really answer the question, as this is really a review of a book by Thomas Philippon which suggests that what Chesteron noted long ago, that the problem with capitalism isn't too many capitalist, but too few.

Philippon, who is French, isn't new to these views.  He recently published on them himself in The Atlantic, where he started his comments off with:

When I arrived in the United States from France in 1999, I felt like I was entering the land of free markets. Nearly everything—from laptops to internet service to plane tickets—was cheaper here than in Europe. 

Twenty years later, this is no longer the case. Internet service, cellphone plans, and plane tickets are now much cheaper in Europe and Asia than in the United States, and the price differences are staggering. In 2018, according to data gathered by the comparison site Cable, the average monthly cost of a broadband internet connection was $29 in Italy, $31 in France, $32 in South Korea, and $37 in Germany and Japan. The same connection cost $68 in the United States, putting the country on par with Madagascar, Honduras, and Swaziland. American households spend about $100 a month on cellphone services, the Consumer Expenditure Survey from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics indicates. Households in France and Germany pay less than half of that, according to the economists Mara Faccio and Luigi Zingales.

What's going on?

Well, according to Philippon, big corporations have worked to establish themselves as monopolies and have created administrative barriers to competition.  This is hardly a new thesis, distributist have been stating this for a century.

Philippon, whom Samuelson doesn't fully endorse, makes direct and interesting comparisons with his region of origin, Europe, which since the 1990s has done things to foster competition.  He argues we aren't.

There's more than a little irony in what he notes in that Philippon is the second French born economist in recent years to come in and make arguments, in the form of "capitalism", that are Distributist in nature.  Of course, Distributism is a form of capitalism, something that even some of its loose adherents don't always appreciate, and its unfortunate name attracts the like of those who'd like to appropriate it in the name of their wackadoodle nut job concepts such as Proudhonism, which its early lights such as Chesterton and Belloc would have found blisteringly laughable (as likely would have Proudhon as well, if he took time out from provoking arguments at French cafes).

Anyhow, as Philippon implicitly notes, a nation founded on agrarian concepts and a natural Distributist economy early on, and which gave us such early legislative acts as the Sherman Anti Trust Act, can't seem to find that anymore.  Competition is accordingly suffering, he maintains.

So, on this Mid Week At Work, some essays and essayist to consider. . . something new, which turns out to be something old.

November 12, 1919. Crowds

Gunston Hall students awaiting the Prince of Wales departure from the French Embassy, Washington, D.C.  The Gunston Hall School for Girls was a highly respected girls school in Washington D. C. that closed at the start of World War Two.

Edward, the Prince of Wales, continued his tour of Washington D. C. on this day in 1919 and was drawing admiring crowds.

Leaving the French Embassy.

I frankly don't really "get" royalty, so the crowds baffle me.  I'd be inclined to try to contrast this to our current era, but you really can't. The English Royal Family continues to draw crowds wherever it goes today.

Prince of Wales at Walter Reed

Edward came close to bringing that royal family down.  He'd be crowned King Edward VIII in January 1936 and occupy that office for less than a year, when he abdicated due to his intent to marry American divorcee Wallace Simpson. 

Arriving at Walter Reed.

A dedicated womanizer, the Prince's earlier relationships had caused so much stress to the Royal Family that his father held the view that it would be better if his brother, George, became king. There was some speculation that Edwards suffered from a psychological problem that contributed to his reckless behavior with women, although he may simply have been a bored lech.  His father was known to have stated that he hoped Edward would remain childless so that the crown could be inherited by George or one of his descendants.

Miss Dorthy Brown Priming of the Red Cross and the Prince.

As it happened, the relationship with Simpson in fact lead to that result. His intent to marry the difficult Simpson made his occupation of the position of monarch impossible as the Church of England did not recognize, and at least technically still doesn't approve of, divorce.  Due to that a church marriage should have been a technical impossibility, although a willing Anglican priest was found for the service in France, and his role as head of the Church of England, which the monarch occupies, would have been problematic at best.

The relationship with Wallace Simpson had an odd Wyoming connection as it seems that the couple may have been introduced, oddly enough, by Mildred Harris, Charlie Chaplin's first wife, at a party.

The monarchy of course managed to survive the scandal and King George VI went on to be a great example of a modern English king.  His daughter, Elizabeth II, remains the Queen.  But the entire event does give ample evidence both of the absurdity of modern monarchy and how teetering all monarchies were following World War One.  Edward gives a blatant example of how the assumptions made by the fans of monarchy are so far off the mark.  Edward was situated to be head of the English nation and its state church when at least up until his marriage his personal conduct would lead a person to really question his suitability for either role.  The near collapse of the monarchy in 1936 due to his marriage to Simpson shows how badly damaged all monarchies were following the Great War.

Elsewhere, the events in Centralia Washington were taking headlines all over the country. We noted that event a bit yesterday.

But only a bit.

This was an inexcusable omission, but readers here are already aware that this was a period of massive civil strife. The Centralia event was an extreme example of it.

It's also example of how such things achieve mythical status from which they can't be separated. What's clear is that hostility between the IWW and the American Legion erupted on Armistace Day resulting in five members of the Legion being killed and IWW leader Wesley Everest being lynched by being seized by a mob and hung off a bridge. The entire thing was brutal.  Newspapers of the day sided with the Legion on the matter, but rather obviously the entire thing was out of hand.

An odd thought on Veterans Day

I'm now the only veteran in the office.

When I first worked here, we had two World War Two veterans and one Vietnam War veteran.

Now, I'm it. 

They've all passed on.

Since I've worked here, we've had two women who had been in the Marines. They're still very much with the living, but no longer work here.  One of them was married to a serving Marine, and she of course travels with him.

But something that was common for men at one time now no longer is.  And so, there's not another veteran here.

Armistice Day, 1919.

Today was the first Armistice Day, now converted into Veteran's Day, in U.S. history.  It came, of course, one year after the Armistice that had brought about an end to the fighting on the Western front in November, 1918.

Plans had been made in advance to celebrate the day, which of course was celebrated around the country.

In Central Wyoming the day's events were muted by the arrival of snow.

Which makes the day in 2019 a nice bookend.  Snow again.

In Washington, the Prince of Wales was visiting and marked the day, which was likewise being celebrated in English speaking countries around the world.

In Centralia, Washington, violence erupted between the American Legion and the Industrial Workers of the World, resulting in six deaths.

Blog Mirror: The Last WWI Pilot from Wyoming

Blog Mirror:

The Last WWI Pilot from Wyoming

November 10, 1919. First flights, births and observances.

"Henry Lee Milledge, the 16 month old son of Maj. John Milledge, Air Service, is believed to be the youngest passenger every carried in an Aeroplane. The flight was made at Bolling field in the Curtis "Eagle." The baby was carried in the arms of Maj. Milledge"

It isn't the intent of this blog to be the "100 Years Ago Today Blog", or something like that, but as we close in on the last year that's the central focus of this site, 1920, we continue to note some interesting items that occurred a century ago, as they occurred.  Some are just things that are interesting, like little Henry Lee Milledge's first flight. 

He's crying, and I don't blame him.

Others are more significant.

Of the significant, the United States Supreme Court upheld the conviction of Russian Jewish immigrant Jacob Abrams, who was sentenced to twenty years in prison for distributing leaflets opposed to American intervention in the Russian Civil War.  The conviction was harsh and would clearly be regarded as unconstitutional today.  There were two dissents, including one by Oliver Wendell Holmes which signaled the direction the Court would take on free speech in the future.

NVA soldier participating in Vietnam War prisoner exchange.  The stamped receiver would indicate that this is most likely a AKM although it could be a second generation Soviet AK47.

In Revolutionary Russia itself, Mikhail Kalashnikov was born.  He'd become famous as the inventor of the assault rifle archetype, the AK47.

The AK series of weapons were introduced by the Soviet Union in 1947 and went on to replace the rifles and submachineguns used by that country.  Ultimately, it went on to be the standard weapon of all Communist nations everywhere and was the basic arm of every Soviet and Chinese sponsored revolutionary movement all around the globe.  It's likely the most distributed weapon ever made.  It's cheap, inaccurate, but functions.  

It's inventor was born of a father who was ultimately sentenced to Siberia as kulak.  Sentenced to Siberia, the family had to supplement its table by hunting, something that people generally don't realize was allowed in the Soviet Union but was.  Mikhail accordingly became a lifelong hunter at an early age.

His early dream was to become a poet, but this was interrupted by World War Two.  He entered the Red Army as a tanker and was wounded in action.  He conceived of his design while convalescing.  The weapon's design is simplistic, building upon a concept that had already been pioneered by the Germans during the war and in fact bearing a superficial resemblance to wartime German designs, but having no mechanical similarity to them at all. The cartridge that the rifle fired was designed for another weapon and preexisted it.

A design can't be blamed on its inventor, and at the time of the first work on the weapon the Soviet Union was engaged in the titanic struggle against Nazi Germany.  It went on to be an inexcusably prolifically distributed weapon, however, and virtually defines the misery caused by the mass distribution of weapons of war by major countries.  While much of that misery was shared by the United States, and still is given that the weapon remains in common use around the world, Klashnikov went on, oddly, to be admired in some quarters in the United States.

The misery of a recent war was on people's minds on this November 10 as people were getting set for the nation's first Armistice Day the next day.

The news from the Casper paper reflected hat, but it also reflected something we haven't dealt with here which was the degree to which Casper was a corrupt mess.

People always look back on earlier eras romantically, but the early history of Casper can hardly be justifiably looked upon that way.  Prior to the big World War One oil boom Owen Wister had already noted it to be a real hole.  The World War One petroleum boom had transformed the town overnight, but it had also brought in a flood of vice.  As the nation headed towards Prohibition that wouldn't go away, and in fact it really wouldn't until after World War Two when returning veterans were so disgusted with it that they dedicated themselves to eliminating it, something that would take all the way until the 1970s to really achieve.

The byproduct of all that petroleum, automobiles, was the topic of today's Gasoline Alley a century ago.

I've been running a lot of these, linking them in from the Crittendon Automotive Library website. They're public domain due to their age.

I'm not a huge fan of the modern Gasoline Alley by any means, but these 100 year old ones do provide an interesting insight to the times, including prices of things.  Some things are quite familiar today, including the topic of a wife preferring to trade in a car over the view of the husband, or at least its familiar in this household.  Receiving a cigar for buying a tire, however, is almost unimaginable.

Sunday Morning Scene: Churches of the West: First Catholic Mass in Wyoming

Churches of the West: First Catholic Mass in Wyoming:

First Catholic Mass in Wyoming

This entry would also probably make more sense in our Today In Wyoming's History entries, but here is the location of the first Catholic Mass in Wyoming, which was offered by Father Pierre DeSmet in 1840.

Today In Wyoming's History: November 10, 1969

Today In Wyoming's History: November 10: 1969  Judge Ewing T. Kerr heard testimony in the action brought in support of the Black 14.  The Court took the matter under advisement.

Best Posts of the Week of November 3, 2019

The best posts of the week of November 2, 2019.

St. Hubert's Day.

The Demise of the Necktie

Blog Mirror: WHAT KILLED OFF THE MANUAL TRANSMISSION?

Mid Week At Work. November 4, 1919

November Shipping

November 9, 1919. Edgar S. Paxson died.

November 9, 1919. Edgar S. Paxson died.

On this date in 1919, Edgar S. Paxson, Montana based Western painter, died at age 67.

Paxson was born and grew up in New York, but moved to Montana shortly after marrying.  He remained in Montana the rest of his life and worked as a self taught painter, painting Western themes.  He's best remembered today for his spectacular Custer's Last Stand which is held by the Buffalo Bill Museum in Cody, Wyoming.

Paxson volunteered to serve with the Montana National Guard during the Spanish American War. His son Harry had also volunteered to serve.  Paxson was 47 years old at the time.  He jointed as a private but left as a lieutenant, serving in the Philippines.  His wartime service likely shortened his life as he contracted malaria while serving.  It was while convalescing in Butte that he started work on Custer's Last Stand.  During this period of time he designed the triumphal arch that Butte built for its returning veterans of the war.  It was not until this period that Paxson was able to work full time as an artist.

While he is best remembered for Custer's Last Stand, which took a long time to create, he also created a substantial body of work on the Corps of Discovery.  His wife outlived him by twenty years, although Harry, whom he served within the Philippines, did not, having died in a mine electrocution accident some time prior.  He left three other adult children at the time of his death.

While in his 60s at the time, he'd attempted to join the Army again, unsuccessfully, during World War One.

He's less well known today than his contemporaries Russell and Remington, and indeed that was also true during his lifetime.  But he was a major Western artists of his day, and a friend to fellow Montana artist, Charles Russell.

On the dame day, the Chicago Tribune worried about the plight of underpaid college professors.

The cartoon was odd in that it compared them to apparently well off labor, which probably isn't how labor saw things.

And the Army Air Corps, which was responsible for air mail, had acquired a new twin engine aircraft for that purpose, shown here at Bolling Field outside of Washington, D. C.

Blog Mirror: How Much Heat Is in that Firewood?

How Much Heat Is in that Firewood?

Blog Mirror: Southern Rockies Nature Blog: Chemical "Stewardship" and Vanishing Shelterbelts

Southern Rockies Nature Blog: Chemical "Stewardship" and Vanishing Shelterbelts: Hunter walking a North Dakota tree row. Beginning in the 1930s, government programs helped prairie farmers to plant shelterbelts (a/k/a ...

Saturday, November 8, 1919.

Friday Farming. November Shipping

November Shipping

November Shipping

But even the new Unimogs only come with automatic transmissions.

Yes. Sad but true.

Having said that, my suspicion is that the automatic on a Unimog isn't even remotely similar to one on an American pickup. 

Unimogs are 4x4 first. 

Today In Wyoming's History: November 7, 1969. Death of Thurman Arnold.

Today In Wyoming's History: November 7:

1969  Thurman Arnold, Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust actions in the Roosevelt Administration from 1938 to 1943, and former Mayor of Laramie, born in Laramie, died on date.  The Thurman Arnold Building in Washington D. C. is named after him.  He was later a Justice of the D. C. Circuit.

November 6, 1919. Congress offers citizenship to Native American veterans.

American Indian soldier on sentry duty in Europe, World War One.

On this day in 1919 Congress passed legislation allowing the approximately 9,000 American Indians who served in the Armed Forces during World War One and who had obtained an honorable discharged to apply for citizenship.

BE IT ENACTED . . . that every American Indian who served in the Military or Naval Establishments of the United States during the war against the Imperial German Government, and who has received or who shall hereafter receive an honorable discharge, if not now a citizen and if he so desires, shall, on proof of such discharge and after proper identification before a court of competent jurisdiction, and without other examination except as prescribed by said court, be granted full citizenship with all the privileges pertaining thereto, without in any manner impairing or otherwise affecting the property rights, individuals or tribal, of any such Indian or his interest in tribal or other Indian property.

Few of them actually applied.

This is a bit of a confusing story in that some Indians already were citizens, and had been for decades, but the means by which they became citizens is not clear.  As a basic rule of thumb, Indians in the East tended to be regarded as citizens and this was all the more the case the greater their degree of assimilation.  Indians who came from reservations in the West were almost uniformly not American citizens.

This is one of those odd areas that tend to really shock people as the basic assumption is that American Indians were always citizens as they were Americans.  In fact, this wasn't the case and it still wasn't in 1919.  This gets into the topic of tribal sovereignty, which is somewhat complicated, but for our purposes here we'll simply note that on this date in 1919 Congress offered citizenship to those Indians who had served in the Great War and who wanted to apply for it. As noted, very few did.

Also on this day, Arthur Eddington made his presentation to the Royal Society and Royal Astronomical Society regarding his observations during a solar eclipse which confirmed Einstein's theories of special and general relativity.  Einstein would learn this while ill and bedridden due to wartime deprivation.  He was famous by the following day as a result of headlines around the world which announced the confirmation of his revolutionary theories.

Doc was seeking advice on whether to trade in a car or not. . . something that we're debating here a century later at the present time.

Mid Week At Work. November 4, 1919

Ahem.. . well have you actually driven one of the new automatics?

Yes I have.

And not just a new one, I've owned two automatic transmission 4x4s myself, and there's been an automatic around here ever since my wife convinced me, or at least wore me down, into accepting that our standard transmission Nissan Pathinder should be replaced by a Chevrolet Suburban.

A 1974 Dodge D150 and the Suburban are the only two vehicles I've had transmission problems with. . .ever.  Well, if I don't count a leak, covered under a silent warranty, on a 1990 Ford F150 (a ZK manual transmission). 

The D150 was well used, and a good truck, but it was an automatic and it developed transmission problems shortly before it engine blew up.  Make of that what you will.

The Suburban's simply failed.

Our neighbor's did as well, and we were forewarned about that.

Frankly, I didn't like the Suburban much and its replacement, a Tahoe, I'm not keen on either.  Part of that is the automatic transmission.  Indeed, the only automatic transmission vehicle I've driven in recent years was on a Ford Expedition.  I liked it, but I don't want one.

But I have test driven the new 3/4 ton trucks with automatic transmissions.  And I've driven the 1 ton ones.  I'm sure their transmissions are excellent.  But not for what I want them to do.

History Repeating Itself On the Border

I'm not really going to comment in depth about this story, but rather comment on something completely tangential to it.

First, the headline from the Washington Post:

Nine members of Mormon family with U.S. citizenship killed in attack in northern Mexico; Trump offers military support

Put in Wilson in place of Trump, and this story could have appeared in a 1919 issue of the Post, or certainly a 1916 issue.

This is an awful tragedy.  It appears to be a case of mistaken identify visited upon a group of people in a most violent way.  Chances are, we're only reading about it in the U.S. because those killed were dual citizens of the United States and Mexico and had extremely close connections with the United States. Had they been simply regular Mexican citizens we'd likely not be reading that much about it.

None of which diminishes the tragedy.

Mormons have had a fairly long presence in Mexico.  We last read about that here in the context of Mormon agricultural communities in Mexico coming under distress during the Mexican Revolution.  Poncho Villa seems to have uniquely disliked them for some known reason.  Maybe it was because they were closely connected with the U.S, maybe its because their religion was strange to him even though he was an irreligious man, maybe its just because they were different, or maybe it was because Villa was basically unstable.  At any rate, many of them fled to the United States during that period, although some remain.  I'm uncertain about these folks, but they were in the right Mexican state to have been descendants of those earlier colonies.

Anyhow, this blog has focused intensely on the 1915 to 1920 time period, and its often ran real time century delayed items from the 1916 raid on Columbus, New Mexico forward. Those have slowed up a lot recently (and readership has accordingly dropped off), but something like this reminds us, in a very tragic way, that the past is still with us.  Indeed, the present is merely a developed past.

Blog Mirror: WHAT KILLED OFF THE MANUAL TRANSMISSION?

A question I've pondered myself.

WHAT KILLED OFF THE MANUAL TRANSMISSION?

This article does as good of job explaining it as any I've seen.

Frankly, whatever it was, I hate the fact that it's happened.

Underlying it all, however, is the fact that a lot of modern trucks are; 1) used in cities, and 2) just haul toys.  That's the real problem.

For those who use their trucks in the out back, and yes I've heard the arguments that have been around for ever (including the absurd one "you can rock with the transmission when stuck with an automatic) there's no doubt that manuals are superior transmissions.  Allowing the driver, rather than a bunch of liquid, to choose the gears in tight spots, while climbing, or going through a mud hole is infinitely better.

But then, for that matter, so are mechanical, rather than vacuum and electronic controls.

Again, no matter. The Big Three caters to the market and the truck market is driven by urbanites who are more likely to haul a boat to a lake than an elk from the high country. And even 1-ton and 3/4 ton work trucks are likely to be driven now by a workman who has no real exposure to manual transmissions and can't really use one.  Besides, in dense town traffic, automatics are better.

I've been pondering this because, as readers here know, my 07 diesel is at the point where I have to.  It needs new tires, all four, it has a cracked windshield and its starting to rust above one of the wheel wells.

Added to the problems I face, however, finding the time to simply address all of that is problematic.

And the truck has had certain issues that are long lasting, the most particular one being that even though it's a 1-ton 4x4 truck, the clearance isn't what it should be.

So what to do.

Based upon a little research, including this article, I'm now aware that the calendar year 2019 is the last year Chrysler has made an standard transmission for its trucks. Even its off road "Power Wagon" (not a real Power Wagon but only a truck appropriating the honored name) is fitted with a slushbox more appropriate for a Barbie Jeep than a real truck.  Indeed, I wouldn't regard it as a real off road vehicle for that reason.

The 2019 manuals fitted by Dodge are available in their 1 ton trucks but in the 2018 model. That's right, Dodge oddly made 2018s and 2019s in 2019, and so far as I know, it has't made 2020s yet.

I knew that earlier in the year, somewhat, when I looked on the lot.  I found a nice used one, but it sold quickly, belying the "manual's don't sell" story that the manufacturers are putting out.  There were several standards on the lot, but they were all plain Jane tradesmen models with street tires that would have required thousands of dollars in investment just to make them prairie ready.

Making one last effort to find an option to ponder, I entered the material details on the "build your own" option in the Chrysler site last night, and that site claims this can still be done.  We'll see.  I suspect that the answer will disappoint.

And even if it doesn't, the cost will likely detract from the option.

Which orphans my options.  I may have reached the point where what I've been pondering is the only option.

The 2007 is a decade old and has over 175,000 miles on it.  It has some downsides.  Those include its lack of clearance, but it doesn't have locking differentials and manual hubs.  Those can be retrofitted.

And the retrofits I might want would cost a lot less than sinking money into a new truck that still had the defects the existing one does.

And I'm not buying an automatic.  I know that everyone else, including the newer ranch trucks, are automatics, and that you have to go down to the light off road sport trucks, or up to to commercial haulers, to get a manual, but I'm not going there.  They're a bad option.

So making the 3500 a project it may be.  Which would make 100% of my own vehicles projects.

Sigh.

Blog Mirror: FORDSON PROTOTYPE – FORD’S FIRST HEAVY-DUTY 2 TON TRUCK

FORDSON PROTOTYPE – FORD’S FIRST HEAVY-DUTY 2 TON TRUCK

The Demise of the Necktie

Arrow collar advertisement, 1920.

The necktie is dead.

Well, not really dead, but clearly on life support and barely hanging on.

I started practicing law in 1990. At that time, most lawyers wore a necktie to work even if they were going to be in the office all day.  There were plenty of exceptions even then, particularly in the summer, and already by that time there were lawyers who almost never wore neckties in the office unless they were meeting with someone.  During the summer months, many lawyers didn't wear neckties to work if they were in the office.

High school shop students, 1917.  Not only are they wearing ties, they've made artillery shells in shop class.

Indeed, back then during the summer I'd wear polo shirts, but otherwise I'd wear button down shirts with a necktie.  The allowance for polo shirts was apparently new, as an older lawyer's long time secretary (he wore coat and tie every single day) who conceived of herself as the firm policeman commented to me about wearing polo shirts back then in a very pointed way.  However, a partner, who wore polo shirts in the summer, had specifically told me it was okay, so I kept on doing it.

At that time, 100% of male lawyers going to depositions wore ties and usually coat and ties. "Summer Rules", which had once existed for courts prior to air conditioning, remained informally in effect and you could actually go to court hearings, which were normally in the judge's chambers, with just shirt and tie and no coat, although I never tried that myself.  Now, Summer Rules are a thing of the past and for that matter so is going into the judge's chambers.

Lawyer as they dressed every day, 1944.

Anyhow, nobody would have conceived of going to depositions without a tie, and probably with coat and tie.

No longer.

I just did a series of depositions in a case which features a lot of them.  On the first day, I wore a tie and the plaintiff's lawyer did. Nobody else.

The big city lawyers who were older wore sports coats with button down shirts, but no ties.  The younger big city lawyers didn't even do that.  One wore a plaid shirt.

The caption claims these are "U.S. Troops" on the border in 1915, but they're almost certainly National Guardsmen. National Guardsmen are troops, of course, but the caption is not specific.  This assumption is made as all three of these troops are wearing an obsolete pattern of campaign hat and the one of the far left as viewed is carrying a revolver rather than a M1911 pistol.  The uniofrm of the one in the center is confusing and appears to be mixed, with the soldier wearing an obsolete pattern of khaki service dress jacket.  Note the ties.

That would have never have occurred when first started.  Even the big city lawyer defending the deposition didn't wear a tie.

On the first day of this week in which I was taking a deposition, I wore, as usual, a tie.  Nobody else did.  The second day I didn't plan on going to a deposition but I was wearing a tie, so I had one on anyhow.  I was the only one.  On day three, I found that my button down university stripe oxford shirt wouldn't button at the neck as its shrunk a bit (truly) so I omitted a tie.

Nobody wore a tie that day.

Yesterday, one lawyer wore a tie but he dispensed with it early on.

Sic transit Gloria Mundi.

I don't really like ties. They're odd.  But something in this trend bothers me.  Whereas lawyers looked like lawyers and dressed fairly formally to do depositions at one time, now some dress like slobs (none in this series).  I was shocked the first time I saw a lawyer dressed like that in a deposition, but now if a lawyer walks in with dirty jeans and a messy sweater, it's no surprise.



Indeed, I'm now finding that some concept of proper dress escapes certain classes of people entirely.

Recently I was going to take a summer intern to court with me for something and noted it to him. The next day, he showed up as per usual.  No tie, and a shirt that looked like he'd slept in it.

I left him in the office.

I've heard that some students at UW in the business college have a class, or classes, where they must appear in coat and ties.  This wasn't the case when I was there, so this is a new development.  It must have occurred to some professor that students don't know how to present themselves once they're out in the work world.

Whoever that is, is right.  Unfortunately, or not, depending upon your view, that's the case for a lot of adults as well.

Of course, a person can dress nicely and omit a tie.  But the tie was a placeholder of sorts.  With it nearly gone, nothing seems to be taking that place.  Maybe the sports coat. . .barely.

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Related threads:

The Necktie (and inevitably the suit somewhat as well).

Monday at the Bar: International Law Class, Columbia University. October 2, 1918. Observations on dress, then and now.

Standard of Dress and Casual Friday.

Wyoming Lawyer February 2014: Standards of Dress.