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Wembley Stadium hosted its first event.
Williams ran a wordless classic.
Lex Anteinternet: Lex Anteinternet: Chuk Gray again attempts to int...: the Attorney General and Governor tell him to go back to his office and do his job. Our last entry on the far fight wing populist who clearl...
And today an open debate has spilled on to the pages of the Tribune, as Secretary of State Gray, who normally likes to accuse the media of having a radical leftist agenda, texted the Trib with his supposed rationale as to why he should be admitted to the suit, which include distrusting Attorney General Hill to fully represent the wishes of the residents of the State against "the radical left". He also uses the thin excuse that he has taken an oath to the Constitution and its laws, which of course every state official has. That oath provides, pursuant to Wyoming's constitution:
Senators and representatives and all judicial, state and county officers shall, before entering on the duties of their respective offices, take and subscribe the following oath or affirmation: “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support, obey and defend the constitution of the United States, and the constitution of the state of Wyoming; that I have not knowingly violated any law related to my election or appointment, or caused it to be done by others; and that I will discharge the duties of my office with fidelity."
Governor Gordon's point is that intervening as the Secretary of State in an action in which the Governor is a named defendant is not part of Gray's duty to "discharge the duties of [his] office.", which of course it absolutely is not.
Gray maintained his distrust against Hill stems from the failed suit against Washington over coal ports, something we noted was a doomed effort at the time.
Governor Gordon accused Gray of grandstanding and stated what was quoted above; "Grandstanding for the public does not sway judges or win court cases — strong legal arguments do". Gordon also defended Hill and said the blame, for the coal port suit, was if anything the fault of a "Trump appointed" solicitor. I'd place the blame on the effort clearly not being supported by the law, which is also the case for Gray's attempted intervention in this suit failing.
Gray's effort here is, at best, misguided, and at worst, an effort at political grandstanding as Gordon suggests. That Gray, who probably has no interest in the real work of the Secretary of State's office and every interest in remaining in the spotlight to advance himself, would clash with Gordon was inevitable, as Gray clearly intends to be the far right, populist Governor of a state that he moved into just slightly before starting to seek office. If a Democrat used this office this way, people in Gray's camp would scream that he should be impeached.
This is linked in from the Dumbest Blog Ever, which we have linked in in our General Interest blog categories but, while most of the enteries there are a certain species of satire, this one is not:
Well worth reading, and spot on.
This is, I admit, inspired by some Twitter outrage about an outrageous comment by a Congressman who is not a serious person. I'm not going to engage in that topic, as people who are not serious people, do not deserve to be taken seriously.
Rather, I started to wonder how many people, say before 1950, and then again before 1900, grew up in a household where at least one of their parents was not their "natural born parent".
I know of nobody in my family, but I'll bet it's incredibly common. And for that matter, as my mother came from Quebec, chances are really high that part of our ancestry stems from orphans on the Coffin Ships. No formal adoption of such orphans was ever done. It wasn't even really possible. The Parish Priest just told the Québécois Parishioners that ships were coming in from Ireland, and there would be orphans on them, as their parents would have died crossing the Atlantic. They just went down to the docks and took them home, raising them as their own. They were French, the children were Irish, but more than anything, they were all Catholic. Their parentage would not have been kept secret from them, probably, but over time, with French surnames, Irish ones forgotten, nobody would have remembered.
Indeed, while I have some French ancestry, my DNA tracks back nearly 100% to Ireland, even though I know that I have German and French ancestors.
Chances are high . . .
Lex Anteinternet: Chuck Gray again attempts to intervene in abortion...: along with some legislators. The legislators make sense, as they were backers of the bill under consideration. Chuck does not, as he left th...
The AG and the Governor have filed a brief opposing his attempt to be an intervenor in the abortion suit, which states, amongst other things:
In his official capacity, Secretary of State Gray cannot intervene in this case unless a Wyoming statute authorizes him to do so.
Gray actually hired a nephew of Congressman Hageman, also a lawyer, to work in his office, after dissing his primary opponent for being a lawyer. Some lawyerly review might be well received now, including what the duties of his elective office actually are.
It might be considered here by those supporting the law that Gray's intervention, while probably helping to keep Gray in the spotlight, likely don't do much to help the cause of the bill.
The United Kingdom concluded the forced expulsion of the Chagossians from the Chagos Archipelago.
The extremely remote mid-ocean Indian Ocean islands were originally uninhabited, but came to have a population when under French administration. The original population was enslaved, and brought by the French from Madagascar and other African locations. They were emancipated in 1840, the islands having belonged to the United Kingdom since 1814. They were employed as workers on coconut plantations, that being the primary economy of the islands.
The British depopulation campaign was undertaken for the United States, which sought to use the islands for military purposes. The best known of the islands is Diego Garcia, which remains a U.S. Naval installation.
L. Patrick Gray resigned as Interim Director of the FBI after it was revealed he destroyed materials removed from E. Howard Hunt's safe. He spent the next seven years providing testimony regarding Watergate.
Gray was a 1940 Naval Academy graduate who attended law school while still in the Navy. His naval career was distinguished, and he was discouraged from leaving the service when he did in 1960, meaning that at that time he'd had a twenty-year Naval career.
He was a recent appointee to the FBI when the Watergate scandal broke out. Initially he was heavily involved in the investigation and pursued it vigorously. When it became clear the administration was involved, he turned the matter over to his deputy, Mark Felt, who later turned out to be the famous leaker to the press, "Deep Throat".
According to Gray, who does seem to have had no involvement with the Watergate conspiracy or its cover up, the papers he removed were told to him to be of national security significant. Prior to destroying them, he examined them, and later stated that one set of papers were "false" secret cables indicating that the Kennedy Administration was involved with the Diem assassination and the second set papers written by Kennedy about his "peccadilloes".
The Battle of Hill 609 commenced, in which the U.S. II Corps took on and defeated the Afrika Korps in the first clear-cut US victory against the European Axis of World War Two. The II Corps in Tunisia by that time was commanded by Omar Bradley.
Bradley entered the military only due to the education opportunity West Point afforded, having originally intending to go to the University of Missouri to study law. Born into poverty, with his father dying when he was 15, he was employed as a boilermaker prior to entering West Point. Taking the admittance examination was suggested by a Sunday School teacher. An excellent athlete, he was offered positions in professional baseball while in West Point.
Heinrich Himmler directed concentration camps to cease murdering inmates capable of working in order to use them for labor. The mentally ill incapable of working were moved to priority execution status.
Sarah Sundin notes on her blog:
Today in World War II History—April 27, 1943: Radar-jamming devices become operational in eastern England. British & Indian Chindits cross the Chindwin River in return to India from raids in Burma.
The Chindits were a special long range penetration unit made up of British, Gurkha and Burmese soldiers. They were officially the 3d Indian Infantry Division. They were named after lions, using a corruption of the Burmese name for lions, Chinthe (Burmese: ခြင်္သေ့). Lions are a popular symbol in Burma. Asiatic Lions do still exist, although we do not tend to think of lions in Africa, but in fact they once had a much wider range.
Having already effectively ceased combat operations, as they'd already lost the war, Éamon de Valera announced that the Irish Republican Army was prepared to agree to a ceasefire.
On the same day, Cumann na nGaedheal ("Society of the Gaels) a political party of pro treaty former members of Sinn Féin was formed. It would merge into Finn Gael in 1933.
For residents of Casper, familiar with the Country Club, the origins of it were in evidence in this day in 1923.
Quite an assortment of other news as well.
And not just in Casper, but all around, it would seem.
The horse jumping over car photograph, probably last popular as horse jumping over Jeep during World War Two, was in vogue.
Jack Prestage on Tipperary in this case.
President Harding, whom we now know should probably have been in a clinic, visited the Tri State Clinic.
This is really a major political and economic development, but it hasn't received much press:
_of_Hunters_Point_1944.jpeg)
The USS Intrepid was launched in Newport News. The aircraft carrier would serve throughout World War Two and two following wars, and be decommissioned in 1974. She is a museum ship today, docked in the Hudson in New York, and served as the FBI operations center following the September 11 attacks on New York.
Riots broke out at Uppsala, Sweden between Swedish Nazis and anti-Nazi demonstrators.
Note how well dress the crowd is.
The future King and Queen Consort of England, Prince Albert and Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon were married.
Northeastern University in China was founded by warlord and provincial ruler Zhang Zuolin.
Easter occurred on the latest possible calendar date of the year in 1943, the last time it had done so being April 25, 1886. This will next occur on April 25, 2038, which I probably won't be around to see in my temporal form.
President Roosevelt attended Easter services at Ft. Riley, Kansas. His wife Edith was in Los Angeles.
My parents would have attended Easter Mass, assuming they had not the night prior, and likely have enjoyed a celebratory midday Easter meal.
Due to nitrate decomposition, all copies of it were tossed out by the company in 1948.
Turkey demanded that the Soviet Union be able to participate in the Conference of Lausanne.
Governor Gordon Calls on Public to Participate in Marton Ranch BLM
Comment Period
CHEYENNE, Wyo. - Today, Governor Mark Gordon called for Wyoming
citizens to provide comments on the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM)
preliminary environmental assessment (EA) that provides supplemental analysis
to the Marton Ranch Acquisition EA. On Friday, April 21, the BLM Casper Field
Office released their supplemental analysis of the Marton Ranch purchase and
announced a 21-day public comment period, closing Friday, May 12, 2023.
This announcement by the BLM is a result of a settlement agreement
between Wyoming and the BLM following the BLM’s purchase of the 35,670-acre
Marton Ranch. The State of Wyoming appealed the BLM’s decision with the
Department of Interior’s Interior Board of Land Appeals (IBLA) in June 2022 and
reached a settlement with the BLM and IBLA in October 2022. The BLM agreed to
provide additional opportunities for state agencies and public comments and
supplement its environmental analysis.
“Embracing multiple use principles, which in this case includes
increased public access, on public lands has many benefits to the public and
Wyoming. That is why I did not oppose this project but opposed the process
used. Meaningful public input and environmental analysis are critical steps in
any federal land acquisition process, and this public comment period is
necessary to fulfill the agreement between the BLM and the State of Wyoming,”
Governor Gordon stated. “I encourage interested members of the public to take
advantage of this time to be involved. I also appreciate the cooperation and
communication with the Wyoming and Casper BLM offices, who have ensured our
state agencies were consulted during the supplemental analysis. I look forward
to the future land-use planning process and seeing what opportunities the
future of this land may hold.”
From the BLM’s announcement: Comments will be accepted in writing
or through the BLM’s ePlanning website linked below. To review the preliminary
EA or to submit comments, visit https://eplanning.blm.gov/eplanning-ui/project/2018049/510. Hard
copy comments can be mailed or hand-delivered to the BLM Casper Field Office,
Attn: Mike Robinson, 2987 Prospector Dr., Casper, WY 82604. For more
information, please call the Casper Field Office at (307) 261-7600.
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Executive Order 9337—AUTHORIZING THE SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR TO WITHDRAW AND RESERVE LANDS OF THE PUBLIC DOMAIN AND OTHER LANDS OWNED OR CONTROLLED BY THE UNITED STATESApril 24, 1943EXECUTIVE ORDER 9337AUTHORIZING THE SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR TO WITHDRAW AND RESERVE LANDS OF THE PUBLIC DOMAIN AND OTHER LANDS OWNED OR CONTROLLED BY THE UNITED STATESApril 24, 1943By virtue of the authority vested in me by the act of June 25, 1910, ch. 421, 36 Stat. 847, and as President of the United States, it is ordered as follows:Section 1. The Secretary of the Interior is hereby authorized to withdraw or reserve lands of the public domain and other lands owned or controlled by the United States to the same extent that such lands might be withdrawn or reserved by the President, and also, to the same extent, to modify or revoke withdrawals or reservations of such lands: Provided, That all orders of the Secretary of the Interior issued under the authority of this order shall have the prior approval of the Director of the Bureau of the Budget and the Attorney General, as now required with respect to proposed Executive orders by Executive Order No. 7298 of February 18, 1936, and shall be submitted to the Division of the Federal Register for filing and publication: Provided, further, That no such order which affects lands under the administrative jurisdiction of any executive department or agency of the Government, other than the Department of the Interior, shall be issued by the Secretary of the Interior without the prior concurrence of the head of the department or agency concerned.Section 2. This order supersedes Executive Order No. 9146 of April 24, 1942, entitled 'Authorizing the Secretary of the Interior to Withdraw and Reserve Public Lands'.FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELTTHE WHITE HOUSE,April 24, 1943.Exec. Order No. 9337, 8 FR 5516, 1943 WL 4090 (Pres.)
The Fascist Grand Council voted to approve Benito Mussolini's motion to place all the Fascists into a national militia, categorizing them as volunteers, so they didn't have to be paid. That gave the Italian army a 500,000 men reserve, albeit not one trained as a fighting military, which was officially called the Voluntary Militia for National Security (IMilizia Volontaria per la Sicurezza Nazionale) and unofficially the "black shirts" for their attire.
The militia contributed over 300,000 men to the Italian forces during World War Two, and its hard-line elements were sent to Spain during the Spanish Civil War. The movement was the partial inspiration for many other fascists paramilitary organizations of the time, although in much of Europe military wings of political parties were already common.
It's interesting how authoritarian movements acquire their own militias, which glorify supposed martial values to the extreme. Now, for the first time since the Civil War, the US finds itself, effectively, with Black Shirts.
Beverly Hills voted not to be annexed by Los Angeles and remain an independent municipality.
The Oval Office has released a budget. It's not balanced, but at least it's done that.
The Republicans have not.
Nonetheless, Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy, in an effort to pitch to the base on why holding the debt ceiling hostage is a good idea, is busy spouting off on Twitter.
And hence one of the major problems with American politics.
It's packed with liars and deceivers.
And, apparently, people who can't grasp an analogy.
Let's start there. Here's one McCarthy put out this past week:
Kevin McCarthy@SpeakerMcCarthy Apr 21
If you gave your child a credit card and they kept maxing it out, you wouldn’t blindly raise their limit—you’d help them change their behavior and figure out where to cut back on their spending.
The approach to our national debt should be no different.
First of all, for that analogy to make sense, the Executive branch would have to be a kid and Congress the parent, which is a weird analogy to start with. It's make a lot more sense to view the two coequal branches of government as spouses.
Indeed, for this analogy, it really would.
Looked at that way, the spouse who does the family budget is looking at the credit card the family uses and debating, and that is what Congress is debating, not paying the credit card bill.
Go ahead and try that, Kevin. Rack up a huge credit card debt, declare yourself fiscally irresponsible, and see if that means your budgetary problem magically gets better.
Of course, he doesn't think it will, which makes this more like an enraged drunken husband yelling at his wife that if she doesn't quit spending on shoes, he's going to let the house's household income go down the tubes, and probably beat her black and blue, while the child, in this case the American public, stands by and watches in horror. All why he racks up credit card debt for sporting goods or something.
That's abhorrent.
But that's the real analogy.
Some budget basics which serve, sadly, to point out that we're dealing with liars and deceivers.
Balancing the budget and starting to pay down the debt is perfectly possible. Here's how you do it.
1. Decide what the Federal Government really needs to do for us.
The dirty little secret of the Federal Budget, or one of them, is that people like it when somebody like McCarthy says we need to cut expenditures, until they realize the expenditures he's going to cut are the ones they really like.
Then they hate it.
School lunches? Local problem.
Bad bridges? Local problem.
Highways? Local problem.
Department of Defense? Way too big.
Entitlement? Let's not even go there.
Now that list probably makes people gasp, or some people gasp. That's because like it or not, 100% of Americans have some things that they like the Federal Government doing that aren't really the Federal government's job, and where they are the Federal Government's job, they don't want the Government doing less of the job.
And that's the dirty secret of what the Republicans tried to do here. They knew that many such things were popular with the public, and years ago they adopted the strategy that if they cut taxes as much as possible, only the absolutely necessary things would be paid for, and the rest would whither and die. Starve the government of money, the thought went, and programs will die all on their own, and we'd return to the mythical golden age of fiscal Nirvana.
The problem with that strategy was that it was idiotic and anti-historical.
Apparently the Tea Party, Club For Growth folks didn't relieve that if they were budgeted for, the Government would just borrow the money.
Indeed, it had no other choice. Things are budgeted for, it can borrow, so it has to.
D'uh.
So unless you pass a law that precludes the government from borrowing, all the crap about lower taxes is just that, a steaming pile. No tax money? The Federal Government will borrow. It actually must under those circumstances.
So here's the first chore. What do we really want the Federal Government to do?
Contrary to what the GOP likes to say, the Federal Government has been involved in the economy since the beginning of the 19th Century. As the Senate's website notes:
Henry Clay's "American System," devised in the burst of nationalism that followed the War of 1812, remains one of the most historically significant examples of a government-sponsored program to harmonize and balance the nation's agriculture, commerce, and industry. This "System" consisted of three mutually reinforcing parts: a tariff to protect and promote American industry; a national bank to foster commerce; and federal subsidies for roads, canals, and other "internal improvements" to develop profitable markets for agriculture. Funds for these subsidies would be obtained from tariffs and sales of public lands. Clay argued that a vigorously maintained system of sectional economic interdependence would eliminate the chance of renewed subservience to the free-trade, laissez-faire "British System."
OH MY GOSH!
Subsidizing things to avoid subservience to free trade?
Pack of dirty Communists!
Well, whatever. That's the system we've had now for 200 years. Apparently, all those folks who want to "Make America Great Again" skipped history.
But that doesn't mean we need to pay for everything we currently do.
We need to keep paying for things we've promised and people rely on. Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare, Veteran's benefits, etc. People rely on them. If we didn't want people to rely on them, we shouldn't have created a system they'd immediately come to rely on.
Which is, I'd note, why the concept of a Universal Basic Income is insane.
We need to decide if we want to pay for other things. Do we continue to subsidize, for example, the highway system at a national level, or pass that on to the states?
As part of the latter, we need to decide what part of the system can pay for themselves. Some things, like the U.S. Fish and Wildlife and its programs, already do. Maybe the Park Service can. Highway systems certainly can. Those would involve excises and user fees. So be it.
And there are a lot of things that the Federal Government really doesn't need to do. Free and reduced lunch programs it doesn't need to do. The National Labor Relations Board has overgrown itself.
But after we do all of that, the budget still won't balance, and that's because of the Defense Department and entitlements.
They're most of the budget.
2. Raise the cash
Using the family analogy again, our Federal parents are like two well-educated people who have intentionally taken part-time jobs, so they can spend the rest of the day blogging from the basement while day drinking. They need to get out of the house and get real jobs.
Which is to say, they need to raise taxes.
There is no way to balance the budget without raising taxes, and anyone who claims that there is, is lying. That's where guys like Kevin McCarthy are completely full of bullshit. He knows that he can't cut his way out of the deficit unless he's going to wipe out entitlements and have a military of three men and a Boy Scout.
American taxes have to be raised. At the very upper wealth category and corporate category, there's plenty of room for it.
And at the tariff level there is too. Tariffs have had a bad name ever since the Great Depression, but that was before everything we bought came in through the Port of Los Angeles from China. If we put on stout tariffs now, reflecting the added cost to American industry for environmental and labor laws, it would not only raise a lot of money, but encourage the rebirth of American industry as well.
3. Create a Liars Penalty.
This, I admit, simply won't happen.
Republicans know that if you admit you have to raise taxes, some semi employed fool wearing a MAGA hat is going to yell at you, even though his taxes aren't going to be raised. But the GOP is beholden to interest that are tax hostile.
Democrats know that not only will they get yelled at if they cut school lunches, but that guys like Robert Reich and Bernie Sanders cry if the Federal Government won't pay for free plates of kibble for stray cats.
So they'd rather cash their checks while things go down the tubes and post crap on Twitter.
Maybe a balanced budget Constitutional Amendment is a necessity.
While it's a pipe dream, what I'd like to see is a provision that nobody in Congress got paid if the budget wasn't balanced. There's a cut we can all get behind. And, if not balanced, their personal assets and property is attached for the debt forever for that year.
I'd bet that we'd have balanced budgets.
Today was Good Friday in 1943.
Today in World War II History—April 23, 1943: Allied Combined Chiefs of Staff establishes COSSAC (Chief of Staff to the Supreme Allied Commander) for planning the invasion of western Europe (D-day).
From Sarah Sundin's blog.
She also reports that the US commenced its final drive in Tunisia.
Yesterday we reported
The Battle of Longstop Hill commenced in Tunisia.
Bringing down the wounded at Longstop Hill. Note Churchill tank in the background.Churchill tanks played a critical role in the battle, which ended on April 23 and oddly contributed to the Allied war effort in an odd way. A Churchill disabled a Tiger I, Tiger 131, which was then captured and heavily studied.Tiger 131.Of note, in this late stage of the war in North Africa armor upgrades were becoming a significant factor. Earlier much of the fighting had been done with late pre-war tanks, but now it was being done by tanks developed during the war itself, including the new heavy tanks.
That battle concluded on this day.
The SS commenced burning the buildings in the Warsaw Ghetto.
The Oregon coast was buffeted by a strong, unusual April windstorm.
I continue to be amazed by how the Tribune, in 1923, routinely issued headlines that were largely irrelevant locally.
Cannabis was added to the Canadian list of prohibited narcotics.
Banning marijuana was part of the spirit of the times, just like liberalizing marijuana laws are part of ours. This act in Canada nationalized a ban long before this was done in the United States.
Hyeongpyeongsa was organized in Korea by merchants and social leaders with the goal of eliminating the Korean caste system. At that time, Korea had a class of untouchables known as Baekjeong.
Poland opened up the Port of Gdynia on the Baltic in order to attempt to avoid the labor problems the country had been having in Danzig.
Women appeared in Turkish film for the first time.
Kodak introduced 16mm film.
Delaware authorized the Delaware State Police.
Hoover helped break ground for a model house.
The best posts of the week of April 16, 2023.
Governor Gordon Calls on Public to Participate in Marton Ranch BLM Comment Period
CHEYENNE, Wyo. - Today, Governor Mark Gordon called for Wyoming citizens to provide comments on the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) preliminary environmental assessment (EA) that provides supplemental analysis to the Marton Ranch Acquisition EA. On Friday, April 21, the BLM Casper Field Office released their supplemental analysis of the Marton Ranch purchase and announced a 21-day public comment period, closing Friday, May 12, 2023.
This announcement by the BLM is a result of a settlement agreement between Wyoming and the BLM following the BLM’s purchase of the 35,670-acre Marton Ranch. The State of Wyoming appealed the BLM’s decision with the Department of Interior’s Interior Board of Land Appeals (IBLA) in June 2022 and reached a settlement with the BLM and IBLA in October 2022. The BLM agreed to provide additional opportunities for state agencies and public comments and supplement its environmental analysis.
“Embracing multiple use principles, which in this case includes increased public access, on public lands has many benefits to the public and Wyoming. That is why I did not oppose this project but opposed the process used. Meaningful public input and environmental analysis are critical steps in any federal land acquisition process, and this public comment period is necessary to fulfill the agreement between the BLM and the State of Wyoming,” Governor Gordon stated. “I encourage interested members of the public to take advantage of this time to be involved. I also appreciate the cooperation and communication with the Wyoming and Casper BLM offices, who have ensured our state agencies were consulted during the supplemental analysis. I look forward to the future land-use planning process and seeing what opportunities the future of this land may hold.”
From the BLM’s announcement: Comments will be accepted in writing or through the BLM’s ePlanning website linked below. To review the preliminary EA or to submit comments, visit https://eplanning.blm.gov/eplanning-ui/project/2018049/510. Hard copy comments can be mailed or hand-delivered to the BLM Casper Field Office, Attn: Mike Robinson, 2987 Prospector Dr., Casper, WY 82604. For more information, please call the Casper Field Office at (307) 261-7600.
Today is Earth Day for 2023.
It's also the first weekend day of Spring Turkey Season, which I should be doing, but I'm in the office working, as the law never sleeps.
Or takes a weekend off.
And today is also Independent Record Store Day.
Today is Earth Day for 2023.
It's also the first weekend day of Spring Turkey Season, which I should be doing, but I'm in the office working, as the law never sleeps.
Or takes a weekend off.
And today is also Independent Record Store Day.
The thing that surprises me here is that it never occurred to me that there were human manned railroad crossings, but as this photo shows, they existed into the 1940s at least:
Indeed, in looking it up, it seems like the modern type of crossing with the lowering arms came about in the 1950s. An earlier automatic type called a "wig wag" was patented in 1909, but it must not have had universal use.
