Monday, October 11, 1915. Recognizing Carranza.

The US was rushing up on recognizing Carranza, who hated the US and who had sponsored guerilla action against it in Texas, as the de facto leader of Mexico.

Wilson was a terrible President.

The Red Sox took the third game of the world series.

Realizing that the battle had become a hopeless stalemate, area commanders began planning for an Allied withdrawal.

The second Neutral Socialist Conference was held in Copenhagen.

Last edition:

Sunday,Labels: 1910s, 1915, Angolan Civil War, Australia, Australian aborigines, Australian Army, transgenderism, World War One October 10, 1915. Cooee.

Sunday Morning Scene: St. John the Baptist Church, Buffalo Wyoming.

St. John the Baptist Roman Catholic Church, Buffalo Wyoming

This extraordinary church is located in Buffalo Wyoming. Construction was completed on this long dreamed of Roman Catholic Church in 1950. The architecture is quite unique for Wyoming, and very striking. Adding to it, the church sits on fairly spacious grounds.

Sunday, October 10, 1915. Cooee.

The first Snowball March, shoeleather recruiting drives, commended in New South Wales when 26 men left Gilgandra on the "Cooee" March, so named for their recruitment call as they proceeded.

The word "cooee" originates from the Dharug language of Aboriginal Australians in the Sydney area. and was a cry to attract attention.

Elsewhere in Australia, the German Club in Sydney was targeted by anti-German sentiment in an editorial in The Mirror of Australia claiming that the club was housing Germans who had been ejected from their lodgings.

In spite of the view generally expressed here, the notable figure of Albert Cashier, Civil War veteran, died on this day.

Cashier had been born in Ireland as Jennie Irene Hodgers and was, in fact, female, but she enlisted as a man and assumed a male identify until her death at age 71.  She had assumed a male identify prior to the war.  There were several instances after the war when her true sex was discovered, but for the most part, until 1914 when dementia set in, those who knew it chose to ignore it.

An interesting aspect of this story, which isn't wholly unique, is that her sex was not discovered during her military service.  Having served in the military myself, this is really hard to grasp, but is apparently the case.  In her old age, when her sex was discovered and it endangered her pension, her wartime comrades came to her aid.

Last edition:

Saturday, October 9, 1915. Boosting Casper.

Labels: 1910s, 1915, 1915 World Series, Agriculture, baseball, Cameroon, Central Powers, Fall of Belgrade. Serbia, It was because of World War One, Venustiano Carranza, World War One, Wyoming (Casper), Wyoming (Natrona County)

Wyoming Fact and Fiction: Sign the Pledge - Carry the Mail

Wyoming Fact and Fiction: Sign the Pledge - Carry the Mail: Sign the Pledge - Carry the Mail In today’s world, the idea of making a pledge has been nearly lost. Although in my little part of the ...

Lex Anteinternet: Trimming $200,000,000: the hiring freeze

Yesterday when I posted this:

Lex Anteinternet: Trimming $200,000,000:   Rainy Day in Cheyenne . Yesterday Governor Mead announced that he intends to trim $200,000,000 from next year's budget.

I failed to note that the State also put in place a hiring freeze.

What all that exactly means, I don't know, but it seems to mean that no vacant positions will be getting filled, which is a fairly drastic measure that will apparently save $18,000,000.  I'm not sure what I think about that, as if an agency is short handed, it's short handed, and making the working conditions of those remain accordingly worse may not be a great idea.  It is a fairly drastic measure.

Saturday, October 9, 1915. Boosting Casper.

The Central Powers took Belgrade.

The French and British began a second campaign to take Jaunde, German Cameroon.

It was a Saturday.

The Casper Daily Press issued a huge Saturday edition, much of which featured the local economy and opportunities a region that was booming due to World War One, although the paper didn't categorize it that way.  It was too large to run the whole thing, so we'll just put a snippet of it up, with the pages in the original order even though some of that doesn't quite make sense, and although the entire paper was quite interesting, then and now, for what it portrayed.

Of course, it caught Game 2 of the 1915 World Series.

The paper also noted the impending U.S. recognition of Carranza as the de facto head of the Mexican government, even though that was still in contest.

It was 1917 that really saw the apex of the region's Great War oil expansion which made Casper what it is today, but it was starting by 1915.

Agriculture was still acknowledged to be vital to the region's economy, which sadly isn't a focus anymore, even though it's still there.  Agriculture would boom in the US, and the region, during the great war.

The Rhinoceros Hotel was located where a sushi restaurant now is on Center Street.  The building came down at some point and became Sunrise Sporting Goods, and then Dean's Sporting Goods, which is what it was most of the time I was growing up.

The Elkhorn Bar, which was a frequent advertiser, became the Wonder Bar later on, which it was for decades.  It's now Wyoming Rib and Chop, but it still has a full bar.  The bar isn't in the original location within the structure, however, as it was moved some years ago during reconstruction.

The Wonder Bar was where I had my first legal drink, a Budweiser, at age 19, which was the drinking age at the time.

And the paper covered development of the City of Casper, much of which isn't recognizable now, but some of which is.

Only one of the church's noted, St. Mark's, remains in the building depicted, even though the congregations remain.  After the war, and because of it, much more substantial structures were constructed.

Homesteading was of course still ongoing.

A major advertiser at the time wsa Casper Brewing Co., which offered Wyoming Light Lager.  The brewery hasn't been that for many decades, but its building is still there.  When I was a kid, it was a potato chip "factory" for Cooks Potato Chips.  The father of one of my friends owned it, but his parents were divorced and the mother remarried, so I can only recall meeting hom once.

Last edition:

Friday, October 8, 1915. Game One of the 1915 World Series.

Labels: 1910s, 1915, 1915 World Series, Actions of the Hohenzollern Redoubt, baseball, Montana, Sports, World War One

Turning Point Documentary

Holscher's Hub: Southern Wyoming Barn

Southern Wyoming Barn

Trimming $200,000,000

 Rainy Day in Cheyenne.

Yesterday Governor Mead announced that he intends to trim $200,000,000 from next year's budget.  That's $200,000,000 from a $9,300,000,000 budget, so while its a decline, it's still not a decline that even takes a billion out of the budget.  It's also, it should be noted, a budget that reflects revenue from more than one source.  I.e., not just coal and oil.

But those coal and oil revenues are dropping, and the budgetary chickens are starting to come home to roost. 

What will be trimmed hasn't really been announced yet, although there's some concern that the University of Wyoming will be among the state institutions hit. And it unfortunately comes at a time when a judiciary study shows that several Wyoming judicial districts could really use additional judges.

Even now I find some people in denial about the slow down having an impact, and I will say that in some cities around the state it seems construction is still going on like mad.  But certain signals are hard to ignore.

Friday, October 8, 1915. Game One of the 1915 World Series.

Five German regiments attempted and failed to take the remaining ground of the Hohenzollern Redoubt, suffering 3,000 casualties in the effort.  Foggy weather conditions and bad artillery accuracy contributed to the defeat.

Game 1.

Far northeaster Montana.

Last edition:  

Wednesday, October 6, 1915. Central Powers invade Serbia.

Labels: 1860s, 1869, 1910s, 1915, 1940s, 1945, Central Powers, Personalities, Serbia, World War One

Lex Anteinternet: Toyota Landcruiser: The Prime Mover of the Third ...

Following up on our entry here:  Lex Anteinternet: Toyota Landcruiser: The Prime Mover of the Third World we reads today that the Treasury Department in investigating how it is that ISIL manages to have so many Toyota Hilux trucks.

I suspect that they just send agents in to dealerships in the Middle East and buy fleets.  It's not like that's illegal.  But I guess we'll see.

The disappearnce of the bridging company and the reappearance of infantry.

Yesterday a spokesman for the Wyoming Army National Guard announced that the 1041st Multi-Role Bridge Company will soon cease to exist.

The units is, rather obviously, just of company size, but it was somewhat unique for the Wyoming Army National Guard. The unit was created, if I recall correctly, back in the 1980s.  I can't recall if it existed or not while I was in the Guard, but I don't think it did.  I recall it existing at the time of the First Gulf War, however, but by that time the two battalions of the 49th Field Artillery here in Wyoming had been consolidated into a single battalion, which in turn meant that they had significantly fewer men than they had just a few years earlier. That reflected the downsizing in the military that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War.  When that occurred, some armories were closed and in some regions of the states there were no more positions for artillerymen.  That was the case in southwestern Wyoming, which is where the bridging company was put in.  A friend of mine who was a career Guardsmen was in it for a time. The unit was activated for the First Gulf War, and the Second Gulf War, which the newly consolidated artillery was not, but because the wars did not develop as planned they were not deployed into combat.  If I recall correctly, during the second war the unit was held up due to problems with its anticipated deployment (i.e, it might have been anticipated that it would be sent to Turkey).  By all accounts it was a good unit.

"Engineers from the South Carolina Army National Guard’s 125th Multi-Role Bridge Company (MRBC), train to slingload the unit’s Bridge Erection Boats (BEB) with a U.S. Army CH-47 Chinook on Strom Thurmond Lake at the Clarks Hill Training Site in Plum Branch, S.C., June 18, 2014. The airlift operations were part of the unit’s annual training where platoons trained to transport their boats by air in response to a natural disaster when transportation by road was not possible. (U.S. Army National Guard photo by Sgt. Brian Calhoun/Released)".  The Wyoming Army National Guard's MRBC unit had boats of this type and indeed was this type of unit.

It was announced that soldiers in the unit would be folded into a new Wyoming Army National Guard infantry company.

All this is really interesting in regards to what now calls itself "the Cowboy Guard" (when they were bigger, when I was in it, they didn't use that nickname).  

To start of with, this is an interesting example of the further contraction of the Army, even while we are fighting a war, which is fairly amazing. Granted, we aren't engaged in heavy combat to the same extent we were just a few years ago, but we are still fighting and yet we're still shrinking the military.  No doubt it's not anticipated that we'll need to deploy bridging units against ISIL, but none the less, this is fairly surprising.

On the other hand, the folding of the unit into infantry is perhaps telling.  In our recent wars the fighting has been done by infantry.  Indeed, we've gone from the situation of World War Two and Korea, in which infantry were heavily used and always in short supply, but where the majority of casualties inflicted in combat by the U.S. Army were inflicted by artillery, to a series of wars starting with Vietnam were infantry, and indeed small unit actions, have become increasingly important.  In terms of a long cycle, we've actually seen the reemergence of infantry, and indeed infantry squads, as perhaps the most significant element of our current wars.

"U.S. Army Soldiers wait to be picked up by UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters south of Balad Ruz, Iraq, March 22, 2009. The Soldiers are assigned to the 25th Infantry Division's 1st Battalion, 24th Infantry Regiment, 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team. DoD photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Walter J. Pels."  Modern U.S. Army infantry.

It's also interesting as it is the first time that the Wyoming Army National Guard will have infantry in over 100 years.

I'm not exactly sure when the last Wyoming Army National Guard infantry unit was disbanded, but I suspect it was just prior to World War One.  The state's Guard was mostly infantry from statehood up until some point just prior to the Great War.  Artillery entered the Wyoming Guard nearly from the onset, and there were artillery units in the Guard here at least as early as the Spanish American War, but there were infantry units as well.  Oddly, the existence of the infantry units is hardly ever noted and even the State's Guard today doesn't list them in its official on line histories, but they were there.  Photographs of infantry units mustered for the Spanish American War and just prior to World War One are available at the State Archives and I've seen them.  I suspect that there were some infantry units right up through the mobilization for the border crisis with Mexico, but the one source I've seen that mentioned them is one that I don't own.  During World War One, however, the Wyoming Guard served as heavy artillery.  Infantry did not reappear here again until just now.

One of the things about infantry is that it's always needed, and while it isn't cheap, any longer, to train and equip infantry, it's cheaper to do so than other units, and a bit easier to train as well.  All of that is probably why infantry shows up in a state like Wyoming, which you would otherwise suspect to have been cavalry, early on, and the Wyoming Army National Guard was horse cavalry, and then horse mechanized cavalry, from the early 1920s up into World War Two, when it became mechanized cavalry.  Artillery came and stayed after that.  Now, with the  Guards continuing to shrink, infantry has returned, although only as a company.

In that took, however, the Guard sort of oddly recalls the Guard prior to World War One.  After World War One, the Guard existed in fairly large, statewide units.  Following the Cold War, it seems, the Guard here started to see the reemergence of small single purpose units, although some always existed. The reappearance of infantry in this fashion strongly resembles this old form.  Of course, the return to a small American military also recalls the historic norm. So in terms of trends, the past is sort of repeating, or rather perhaps echoing, the past here.

Mid Week at Work: Paleo-Zamboni

Railhead: The Denver City Cable Rail Way Buidling, Denver Co...

We recently posted this item on our blog about railroads and railroad structures:

The Denver City Cable Rail Way Building, Denver Colorado.

 

It's interesting to see how this sort of urban transportation has changed over the years.  Many cities, such as Denver, had cable cars or horse drawn trollies (the two being quite different, of course).   They later removed them.  My uncle once told me me about riding on the back of trollies into downtown Denver, but when I was a kid, there was no transportation in Denver at all, or at least none that I can recall from when we'd visit the city for some reason. That is, no public transportation.

Downtown, however, by the 1970s Denver's RTD ran a bus line up and down 16th Street, which was otherwise closed to traffic.  Within the last 20 years a light rail system has been put in, and the city is now putting in a rail system that will run out to Denver International Airport.

All these methods of transportation in Denver are similar in a way, of course. But notably dissimilar as well.

On another note, it's nice to see this interesting old building preserved and still in use, albeit for much different purposes, today.

The Big Picture: "At the Hejaz railroad near Baṭn al-Ghū, 514 km from Damascus, 1152 m above sea level." 1916

The war in Syria

ISIL has reported destroyed the ancient arches at Palmyra. 

As everyone knows, the bitter civil war in Syria continues on, with a growing humanitarian crises as the result.

Russia has now intervened, and in the past week the Russian air force has flown 60 combat missions in support of the Syrian government.  Western forces, in the same time period, report having flown about 16 against ISIL.  The Russian ones are directed at enemies of the Assad regime in general.

The Russians are taking a lot of Western criticism for propping up Assad, and their support has likely kept him from falling so far.  But close observers of this situation know that the Russians are gravely worried about ISIL recruitment of Chechen Islamic fighters, with those fighters returning to Chechnya.  They have reason to be concerned, as it does seem to be occurring.  The Russian position in Syria is no doubt self serving, but they may have a more realistic view of the potential victors than we do.

We seem to have thought, early on, that any opponent of a fascistic regime is a democrat. We certainly now know that's not true, as one of the primary victorious forces, so far, in Syria has been ISIL.  Chances are very good that should Assad, whom we justifiably have no love for, falls, the replacement will be some species of radical Islamic theocracy.  In the current environment, that may well prove to be something that's worse than Assad, and unlike Egypt, where we briefly saw that occur to a lesser degree, there's no long standing army with its own traditions and institutions that would be ready to step in and effect a coup in the name of some species of reason.  Should Assad go down, his army is going down with him, and if he goes down to ISIL, which is what seems the most likely outcome should he fall, that army's equipment will equip ISIL. 

And ISIL in turn will turn towards killing the Christians and likely anyone who is not a Sunni.

It's nice to believe, as Americans do, that at heart everyone is a democrat. But that can't be the basis for an international policy, as it isn't true.  In Syria, there's only one combatant with a serious chance of winning the war that's somewhat Western in its outlook. Unfortunately for us, that Western outlook is fascistic, which of course was a product of the West.  But we have to serious question whether we would prefer a fascist regime or an Islamic radical regime in power, and those are the choices.  Chances are, quite frankly, we're better off, or at least were better off before completely alienating it, with the fascistic one, which we could at least pressure and which would at least not have been an anti Christian, anti Druze, anti Shiia, anti Alowite, theocracy.

Lawyer population growth

The ABA reports:

The ABA chart generally measures the population of both active and resident lawyers as of Dec. 31, 2014. It shows the 10-year growth in Texas lawyer population was 24.6 percent, below that of Florida (53.3 percent), Utah (46.1 percent), North Carolina (33.7 percent), Arizona (30.6 percent), North Dakota (27.9 percent), Tennessee (27.8 percent), Wyoming (27.6 percent), Pennsylvania (27.4 percent, though a shift in the reporting agency yielded more accurate numbers), Georgia (25.7 percent), and Delaware ( 25.4 percent).

27.6% for Wyoming?

It'd be interesting to know what percentage of that was made up of actual Wyoming lawyers, as opposed to lawyers gaining admittance via the UBE but who don't actually live here.  At least based upon fairly well informed sources, recently what we are tending to see here are UBEers, that is lawyers who live elsewhere and get in simply because they've taken a test that doesn't actually test on Wyoming's law.  Many of them do not live here and do not intend to.  That's the real story, or at least a potential real story, behind these figures. And that's something that's worth looking at.

Including worth looking at, in that story, is whether the growth in "Wyoming" lawyers means there's been a demand within the state for legal services that has correspondingly grown.  If that's the case, should we restore a state test so as to make sure that those legal consumers' needs are being served.  And should we also seek to make certain that those needs are filled by lawyers actually living withing the communities that they're serving, i.e., by Wyoming lawyers whose ties to the state are direct, as they live there.

Size, geography, facts and figures

"It only take the German post office one day to take a letter across Germany. . . why can't the U.S. Post office do that?"

Well, because Germany is the size of my state, not the United States.  Think about it.

"The U.S. has so much more violence than Australia or Canada, why don't we adopt their laws and then we'd have just as little crime as they do. . . "

No, we wouldn't.  The US has over ten times the population of Canada or Australia.

Ten times.

Given that, we should have ten times the crime. We don't.

"Cars only cost $4,000 back then, why don't they cost that now, darn it?"

Because $4,000 back then equates to about $30,000 now, and those cars were dead by the time they had 60,000 miles on them.  So the ones now are a better buy.

Just think, if we sell this house we bought 20 years ago, we'll have so much money we'll be able to buy a really expensive new one! 

No you won't.  If your house costs a lot more than when you bought, so will any replacement house, even an equivalent one.  Getting more for something that's going to cost you just as much more to replace isn't a good deal.

Wednesday, October 6, 1915. Central Powers invade Serbia.

German, Austro Hungarian and Bulgarian troops invaded Serbia.  The Central Powers forces were under the command of 66 year old August von Mackensen.

Mackensen had been born in Prussia and entered the German military in 1869.  He died in November 1945, having outlived the Prussian Empire, the German Empire, the Weimar German Republic and Nazi Germany.  He was not an active supporter of Nazism and did issue some post 1940 statements to associated expressing concern over the actions of German troops.

Last edition:

Monday, October 4, 1915. Dinosaur National Monument Established.

Labels: 1910s, 1915, Colorado, nature, Paleontology, Utah

Monday at the Bar: Reading the (War's) Laws