Whining, crying, panic in the editorial room of the New York Times, and waiting for that shoe to drop

Following the flood of analysis following the recent election of Donald Trump I stopped doing my after action reports.  There's just too much writing on the topic and I'm sure everyone is sick of it. Still, some things do and will call out for commentary and I can't help myself.  So, a collection of things will be posted here.

The Delusional Whining.  Not a day goes by, it seems, where one of the large newspaper organizations doesn't seemingly confirm what Republicans claimed about them, they're relationship to the Democratic Party equates with Pravda's relationship with the Communist Party.  It's absurd.

The New York Times and similar organs are just screaming with "Trump Not A Democrat?  Will he appoint the ghost of William Jennings Bryan to the Supreme Court?"  Get real.

The absolutely babyish reaction to a President who isn't a Democrat and who isn't an establishment Republican has just been fantastically juvenile.  And it probably is serving to cement the views of somebody who seemed to relish taking them on.

The irony, I suppose, is that the NYT and print media has been in a decline of disastrous proportions for a long time, so for the most part, its message is not only not getting through, it's symptomatic of a big city Democratic Party that things everyone in the world lives in a big city and is a Democrat.

Nope, nothing wrong here.  The item in the last paragraph is very nicely demonstrated by the Democratic reaction to the election, now that it has time to absorb it.

It isn't absorbing it.

The Democrats failed to gain either house in Congress.

They lost the Presidency.

They now control only 18, yes that's right, 18, of the State Legislatures.

18.

And they now hold 17 of the 50 Governorships.

Yes, 17.

The Democrats have been sort of smugly sitting back for years thinking "demographics is history", which assumes a linear demographic trend (very much in doubt) while the actual trend was a decline into extinction.

A party normally experiencing this would really clean house. The Democrats are doing the polar opposite.

And in the Senate, they're going with Chuck Schumer as a spokesman constantly.  You know, the New York Democrat who sounds just as abrasive to people who don't live in New York as all the other New York politicians (yes, including Trump). Good idea that. After running one ersatz New Yorker, Clinton, against an expat New Yorker, Sanders, and getting beat by a Manhattanite, sticking with annoying Schumer is the obvious choice.

Couldn't they even perhaps have considered Amy Schumer?  She's at least as left wing and isn't annoying.

Nancy Pelosi is actually retaining her position in the House.  Schumer hasn't been sent packing.  Amazing.  By comparison the GOP cycled over last year in the House. . . and its in control. Problem with losing the House and Senate again?  Apparently not.  "We'll just keep on keeping on with the leader whose been so freaking successful so far.  Go Team!"

This has caused one on line journal to state:

What does a professional sports team do after 6 straight losing seasons? Among other things, it usually fires the coach and looks for new blood, new leadership, and new strategies.

But not if you’re the minority House and Senate democratic leadership... Or the Politburo of the Soviet Communist Party shortly before the collapse of communism.

Instead, the failed, and increasingly geriatric leadership holds onto its fading power with increasing tenacity.

The highest ranking elected Democrats are now... drum roll... Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (who has served in Congress for 35 years since 1981) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (who has served in Congress for 30 years since 1986. 

Some conservative cyber screed?  No, that was the very liberal Huffington Post.

The Washington Post recently ran a headline that stated:

The next generation of Democratic leaders is, um, nonexistent

Well, as they say, you don't want to abandon a gasping drowning horse as it sinks under the waives in the middle of a stream. . . oh wait, it's a river. . .

Well there's more hope at the Democratic National Committee, right?

Actually there is.  And if they were smart about this one, they'd choose the guy who made sort of a pitch sub silentio for it the other day . . .Barack Obama.

President Obama didn't come out swinging for the fences for it, but he did sort of express some interest, for those paying attention, and he'd be a really good choice. A widely liked politician (he'd have beat Trump if he could have run for a third term), who isn't 150 years old.  But he won't get it

There are some other good choices however.

One of them isn't Keith Ellison, however.

I know very little about Ellison personally but he's the wrong choice.  In interviews he sounds like he's straight out of the party circa 1973. Another one of those guys.

He is younger, young even in Democratic political terms, as he's only 53 (hey! now suddenly I'm young too, go Keith!).  But he's the wrong choice.

Why?  Well his 1973 rhetoric for one thing, and the principal thing. It's not 1973 anymore.

And then there's the fact that he's drawing flak for having represented the Nation of Islam as a lawyer years ago.  Ellison is a convert to Islam from Catholicism, which is quite rare and a bit odd, but he's never been a member of the Nation of Islam which isn't conventionally Islamic.  Nonetheless he's drawing some flak from some Jewish groups. And oddly, he's now getting flak from Louis Farrakhan, head of the Nation of Islam, whom he's denounced for years, who is calling him a coward.  This is the sort of stuff the DNC doesn't need.  Close attention to religious affiliation hasn't been a factor, supposedly, since 1963 but I'd question if that's fully true now (I doubt it) and picking somebody whose drawing these odd problems so early on may not be a really good idea.  Chances are some Democrats will feel that it has a "look. . .see how diverse we are" feel to it but it isn't likely to come across the way that they think, particularly when the GOP looks at least as diverse anymore. The Democrats look 1973 diverse. . the GOP looks 2016 diverse. Diversity isn't necessarily liberal.

Speaking of 1963, I see where television is going to run something on Jackie Kennedy, with Jackie played by Natalie Portman.  I'll not watch it, but apparently it touches on Jack's personal behavior only barely, or so I read.  When we're talking about guys with unsuitable behavior for the Presidency, how come JFK keeps getting a pass?  Seriously.

Anyway, if you want to send a message that the election meant nothing, picking the same old crew in Congress and a guy who sounds like he's from 1973 as the DNC chairman would be a really good approach to that.  "Let's run the same winning team with the same winning message we have since 1973, team, because demographics his history. . . hey. . . why isn't there anyone in the stands?"

The Post Clue Era.  Amongst those on the liberal left who are recreating, Weimar Republic style ("we didn't loose the war with the Allies, we were stabbed in the back. . . let's try it again") the recent election is the press itself about the press.

Recently, for anyone paying attention, there's been a news story about there being fake news on Facebook.

Gee, really.  What a shock.

This isn't news.

Everyone with a critical eye knows this. This as been known from approximately 30 seconds after Facebook came into being.

This does allow, however, comfort to the liberal downtrodden, as in "Oh, they don't disagree with me, they were befuddled by fake news. . . I need not change".

No doubt some votes were changed by fake news, but I'll bet not much.  Most of the fake news I saw, and it was from the left and the right, was obviously pitched to the already committed.  And its still going on.  News like that just goes to those whose minds are made up already.

And speaking of made up minds. . .

Picking up the loaded gun.  Speaking of not getting the point, one lesson the Democrats really should have taken from this election was to knock off the talk about gun control.

President Obama wisely basically didn't talk about gun control. 

That's because he is smart.

This didn't keep the NRA from picking on him anyhow, which I was convinced was a poor strategy.  Perhaps Clinton did as well, as she went gun control in the primaries and stuck with it, in an oatmeal fashion, in the general election. Well, the NRA put in an all out effort and it can take big time credit for the results, whether you like them or not, this past season.

Which is likely to mean a big roll back on what gun control there is.

Indeed, the NRA must push on this.  It would have anyhow, but as a practical matter, it must.  The NRA was consistent on Obama being the worst thing ever, second only to Hillary Clinton, for years.  Having assisted in getting in a Republican President when many, including  me, thought that was a mistake, and there being a GOP House and Senate, it it rest on its laurels its doomed.  In truth, Obama did nothing much on gun control until the very end of his presidency, at which time there was no point in him not trying to do something, as he was never going to get any NRA love anyway.  But, for the NRA, you cannot decry a person for eight years as hideously awful and then allow his successor to pretty much do nothing, which is pretty much what Obama was doing. So the NRA has to argue for roll back on gun control and national right to carry.  It has to.

One of the reasons that the Democrats should stay away from this entire topic as they don't know what they are talking about. Voters who vote on gun issues do know what they are talking about.  Democrats, when they speak about gun control, come across as ignorant or liars.

They probably don't know that. But when they speak about guns, if they do at all, as opposed to gun control, they generally demonstrate a profound ignorance on the topic.  And when they speak of gun control they tend to speak about stuff like "common sense gun safety" which means, to anyone listening, "I don't know anything about guns, but I'm going to assume that you will agree to me that we can make all guns Nerf Guns and that this makes sense".  When they do that, they come across like somebody who is trying to lie.

Most of this is, again, because the Democratic Party is heavily urban and it thinks of all guns being snubnosed revolvers from the movie Shaft, that early 70s things again, or it thinks of every gun being a true, selective fire, assault rifle (which are exceedingly rare and heavily regulated in civilian hands).  Most firearms users, and the numbers are growing, don't see firearm that way at all.

Anyhow, if the Democrats had brains, they'd not try to talk about "common sense" gun control or "gun safety" or any of that baloney.  They'd be a lot better off taking some other approach, if they really want to discuss this at all.  If they must discuss it, frankly, they'd be a lot better off just stating the truth, which his "I don't ever get outside of Greenwich Village and I think the only legitimate activity of a decent person is reading Vanity Fair".

No matter, I'm sure they won't listen.  Indeed the NYT (remember that journal, its noted above?) just published an article about lawyers and law firms volunteering their time on gun control.

Yawn.

That's not going to do diddly except make lawyers look even more like left wing weenies than they already do.  Indeed, just recently I heard a young person disparage the entire profession of the law in a way that was graphic, but suggested that all lawyers were a bunch of wimps in the most dramatic fashion.  Some people don't credit the opinions of the young, but I do.  People's opinions on professions and activities change over time.  A lot of older lawyers even now imagine that they're Al Pacino in With Justice For All, just as an older generation yet thought all lawyers were Atticus Finch.  Apparently we're now looking more like Zippy the Pinhead however and the smiling firm portraits in the article do sort of come across like "look at us. . . we're afraid to go outdoors!"

Gritting my teeth and waiting for the shoe to drop.  All this might lead some to think I'm a Trump supporter.  For regular Democrats, they probably have concluded I am, and for the Greewhich village crowd that seemingly runs the party they're probably hiding under their cafe tables with their tofu sandwiches and free trade coffee by now, crying.  But actually, I'm not.  As noted way back during the election, I voted for a third party candidate, and an obscure one at that. 

Which means even though, unlike the NYT I accept the election, and unlike the Democratic Party, I actually know it occurred, I'm not a Trumpite now or before. And I'm gritting my teeth on the upcoming Secretary of the Interior nomination.

So far, I've seen Trump's picks for various posts as mixed.  People crying in their free range, free trade, buttermilk about picking various generals about things haven't impressed me.  I haven't thought those picks bad.  I'm okay with his pick for Secretary of Defense.  That position used to be called the Secretary of War, and a former Marine Corps general who probably isn't impressed by the attempt to ignore physics and nature in the military is plenty okay by me. Likewise I'm okay with Kelly for Homeland Security, although I wonder why we need a Department of Defense and a Department of Homeland Security (I know, let's have a. . .um. . War Department!)

And I'm not going to freak out, or even get particularly excited, or even interested, with Nikki Haley at the UN.

I'm also okay with Jeff Sessions for Attorney General.  I know he's taken flak, but Trump would have had to pick the Barrista at the 9th and Centre Metro Station in Greenwich Village to please his opponents on this one, so why bother?

Betsy DeVos at the Department of Education bothers me a bit, but I'll wait to see how that plays out.  It wouldn't surprise me if some corrective actions are needed there, but that isn't a department I pay much attention to.

And picking Ben Carson to anything strikes me as a really poor idea.  I guess we'll see.

Scott Puritt at the EPA, strikes me as a poor choice.  No surprise, but a poor choice.  I'm worried about what that will mean.

And I'm really worried about the Interior.

So far, for potential Interior picks, the only one I liked was Matt Mead and he's taken his name out. And yes that does mean I don't want Cynthia Loomis, who is another Wyoming politician who turned her backs on the views of her constituents on public lands.  Boo.

Frankly, the pick I may be most comfortable with is Donald Trump, Jr.  I know that wold be a shocker, but he actually is the most measured of the potential candidates.  And he might be campaigning for it.

Now, I'm sure that people will say Trump can't pick his son, but why not?  That great American skirt chaser, um President, John F. Kennedy, made Bobby Kennedy the Attorney General and hardly anyone things that was improper. Appointing Bobby that is, not the skirt chasing.

Well, apparently the skirt chasing was okay as well.  The copy of People magazine wondered in here in the wife's grocery bag with an article on what Jackie "knew" reports that she grew up in a family where her father did that, and Jack's father did that, and '"that's what men did.'

Yes, that's bulls**t. But even now?

Anyhow, we're staying tuned.

Friday Farming: New York Times, December 7, 1916: High Cost of Living Laid to Farm Methods

A big item in the news in 1916 was the price of everything, which was going up.  That included food, and hence the article:

High Cost of Living Laid to Farm Methods

It was correct, as the article pointed out, that new and improved farming methods, amongst other things, would raise yields enormously in the future. What probably wasn't equally obvious is that farm families would have their best year economically in 1919, the last year that agricultural families had economic parity with urban families.

Also less obvious would be that while those improved methods would enormously boost productivity, that same productivity would mean the massive reduction of farmers and farm families.

Improvement?

Well, say what they might, and American food did become amazingly cheap, but the big price problem of 1916 was World War One.  Indeed, loss of farming acreage in Europe combined with loss of farmers would combine to create a rather desperate food situation world wide which also saw an expansion of farming acreage in the US during the war, much of it in wheat, and much of it farmed by people who had never farmed before.

 

Wheat speculators, basically.

Indeed, their were wheat boosters, it seemed like such a sure market.

It wasn't.  It collapsed after the war with a farming depression that proceeded the Great Depression.

-22F

Now that's cold.

Seventy Five years ago today.

The Cheyenne Leader for December 7, 1916: Wyoming Guard coming home before Christmas?

The proverbial soldier "home before Christmas" story was running in the Leader.  Would it be true?

And given the rest of the news, how long would that be true for, if it was true?

Farmer Al Falfa's Blind Pig released, December 7, 1916

1916 saw the release of an entire series of Farmer Al Falfa cartoons. This film was the eleventh to be released this year (there's some dispute on the date, some sources claim the release date was December 1).

The series continued all the way through 1956, making it a very successful cartoon.

This particular cartoon is not on line, and it might largely be lost, like many films of this period.

Farmer Al Falfa in Tentless Circus, a cartoon released earlier in 1916.

Farm based cartoons would make up an entire genre of cartoons for a very long time and show the curious nature of the United States in regards to its rural population.  If we look at the 1920 census, the closest to the year in question, the US was 51.2% urban.  That's really remarkable actually as it meant that the US was already a heavily urban society at the time.  It might be more telling, however, to look at the 1900 census. That would reveal that, at that time, the US was 39.6% urban and 60.4% rural.  In other words, the US had gone from having a population that was clearly majority rural in 1900 to one which was slightly majority urban by 1920.

Like a lot of things about this era, almost all of which are now unappreciated, this meant that the society was undergoing massive changes.  We like to think of our current society experiencing that, and indeed it is, but arguably the period of 1900 to 1950 saw much more rapid changes of all types, a lot of which would have been extremely distressing to anyone experiencing them.  Indeed, carrying on the US would be 56.1% urban by 1930, meaning that in a thirty year period the US had effectively gone from heavily rural to heavily urban, with the percentage effectively reversing themselves in that time period.  Indeed, while not the point of this entry, this would really call  into question the claims by folks like James Kunstler that the Great Depression was not as bad as it seems because everyone came from a farm family and had a farm to go back to.  The nation had more farm families, to be sure, during the Great Depression than now, but the nation had been rocketing  into an urban transfer during that period for a lot of reasons, a lot of which were technological in  nature.

None of which is what this entry is about.  

Rather, what we'd note is that Farmer Al Falfa is an early example of a rustic depiction of farm life for movie goers.  Cartoons were shown before movies at the time and would be for a long time.  Depictions of farmers as hicks, but somewhat sympathetic hicks, were common in cartoons throughout the this period and on into the 1950s.  That's interesting in that it was a cartoon depiction of the American duality of thought in regards to farmers.  On the one hand, as people moved from the farms into the cities, they wanted to view their new lives as more sophisticated in every way over rural life, even if that meant running down rural residents.  On the other hand, rural life remained familiar enough to the viewing audience that really rural characters were familiar to them and the depictions, even if condescending, had to be at least somewhat sympathetic.  Depictions like this would last for a long time, even if they began to change a bit by the 1940s when urbanites began to show more interest in rural life. Even at that time, however, the depictions could run side by side, as with the introduction of Ma and Pa Kettle in The Egg and I.

Big Metal Bird: Episode 3 – Inflight Dining

I almost always skip the meals on airplanes, but anyhow, there's a lot, no doubt, that goes into it.

Cheyenne State Leader for December 6, 1916: Wyoming Guardsmen in New Mexico had turkey for Thanksgiving

Yes, there was other news than the turkey in New Mexico, but the Leader was following the Guard in New Mexico, which no doubt a lot of Wyomingites were very interested in.

Today In Wyoming's History: December 6, 1916: Wyoming v. Colorado argued in front of the Supreme Court.

Today In Wyoming's History: December 6:

1916  Wyoming v. Colorado, dealing with apportionment of water from the Laramie River, argued in front of the United States Supreme Court.  It would be re argued twice and decided in 1922.

As this was an original action in front of the Supreme Court, i.e., a trial, it was presented over three days, concluding on the 8th.

The opinion would be issued after rehearing, in 1922.

Woodrow Wilson delivered his State of the Union Address for 1916.

 Woodrow Wilson addressing Congress (but not necessarily on this occasion).

GENTLEMEN OF THE CONGRESS: 

In fulfilling at this time the duty laid upon me by the Constitution of communicating to you from time to time information of the state of the Union and recommending to your consideration such legislative measures as may be judged necessary and expedient, I shall continue the practice, which I hope has been acceptable to you, of leaving to the reports of the several heads of the executive departments the elaboration of the detailed needs of the public service and confine myself to those matters of more general public policy with which it seems necessary and feasible to deal at the present session of the Congress. 

I realize the limitations of time under which you will necessarily act at this session and shall make my suggestions as few as possible; but there were some things left undone at the last session which there will now be time to complete and which it seems necessary in the interest of the public to do at once. 

In the first place, it seems to me imperatively necessary that the earliest possible consideration and action should be accorded the remaining measures of the program of settlement and regulation which I had occasion to recommend to you at the close of your last session in view of the public dangers disclosed by the unaccommodated difficulties which then existed, and which still unhappily continue to exist, between the railroads of the country and their locomotive engineers, conductors and trainmen. 

I then recommended: 

First, immediate provision for the enlargement and administrative reorganization of the Interstate Commerce Commission along the lines embodied in the bill recently passed by the House of Representatives and now awaiting action by the Senate; in order that the Commission may be enabled to deal with the many great and various duties now devolving upon it with a promptness and thoroughness which are, with its present constitution and means of action, practically impossible.

Second, the establishment of an eight-hour day as the legal basis alike of work and wages in the employment of all railway employes who are actually engaged in the work of operating trains in interstate transportation. 

Third, the authorization of the appointment by the President of a small body of men to observe actual results in experience of the adoption of the eight-hour day in railway transportation alike for the men and for the railroads. 

Fourth, explicit approval by the Congress of the consideration by the Interstate Commerce Commission of an increase of freight rates to meet such additional expenditures by the railroads as may have been rendered necessary by the adoption of the eight-hour day and which have not been offset by administrative readjustments and economies, should the facts disclosed justify the increase.

Fifth, an amendment of the existing Federal statute which provides for the mediation, conciliation and arbitration of such controversies as the present by adding to it a provision that, in case the methods of accommodation now provided for should fail, a full public investigation of the merits of every such dispute shall be instituted and completed before a strike or lockout may lawfully be attempted. 

And, sixth, the lodgment in the hands of the Executive of the power, in case of military necessity, to take control of such portions and such rolling stock of the railways of the country as may be required for military use and to operate them for military purposes, with authority to draft into the military service of the United States such train crews and administrative officials as the circumstances require for their safe and efficient use. 

The second and third of these recommendations the Congress immediately acted on: it established the eight-hour day as the legal basis of work and wages in train service and it authorized the appointment of a commission to observe and report upon the practical results, deeming these the measures most immediately needed; but it postponed action upon the other suggestions until an opportunity should be offered for a more deliberate consideration of them. 

The fourth recommendation I do not deem it necessary to renew. The power of the Interstate Commerce Commission to grant an increase of rates on the ground referred to is indisputably clear and a recommendation by the Congress with regard to such a matter might seem to draw in question the scope of the commission's authority or its inclination to do justice when there is no reason to doubt either. 

The other suggestions-the increase in the Interstate Commerce Commission's membership and in its facilities for performing its manifold duties; the provision for full public investigation and assessment of industrial disputes, and the grant to the Executive of the power to control and operate the railways when necessary in time of war or other like public necessity-I now very earnestly renew.

The necessity for such legislation is manifest and pressing. Those who have entrusted us with the responsibility and duty of serving and safeguarding them in such matters would find it hard, I believe, to excuse a failure to act upon these grave matters or any unnecessary postponement of action upon them. 

Not only does the Interstate Commerce Commission now find it practically impossible, with its present membership and organization, to perform its great functions promptly and thoroughly, but it is not unlikely that it may presently be found advisable to add to its duties still others equally heavy and exacting. It must first be perfected as an administrative instrument. 

The country cannot and should not consent to remain any longer exposed to profound industrial disturbances for lack of additional means of arbitration and conciliation which the Congress can easily and promptly supply. 

And all will agree that there must be no doubt as to the power of the Executive to make immediate and uninterrupted use of the railroads for the concentration of the military forces of the nation wherever they are needed and whenever they are needed. 

This is a program of regulation, prevention and administrative efficiency which argues its own case in the mere statement of it. With regard to one of its items, the increase in the efficiency of the Interstate Commerce Commission, the House of Representatives has already acted; its action needs only the concurrence of the Senate. 

I would hesitate to recommend, and I dare say the Congress would hesitate to act upon the suggestion should I make it, that any man in any I occupation should be obliged by law to continue in an employment which he desired to leave. 

To pass a law which forbade or prevented the individual workman to leave his work before receiving the approval of society in doing so would be to adopt a new principle into our jurisprudence, which I take it for granted we are not prepared to introduce. 

But the proposal that the operation of the railways of the country shall not be stopped or interrupted by the concerted action of organized bodies of men until a public investigation shall have been instituted, which shall make the whole question at issue plain for the judgment of the opinion of the nation, is not to propose any such principle. 

It is based upon the very different principle that the concerted action of powerful bodies of men shall not be permitted to stop the industrial processes of the nation, at any rate before the nation shall have had an opportunity to acquaint itself with the merits of the case as between employe and employer, time to form its opinion upon an impartial statement of the merits, and opportunity to consider all practicable means of conciliation or arbitration. 

I can see nothing in that proposition but the justifiable safeguarding by society of the necessary processes of its very life. There is nothing arbitrary or unjust in it unless it be arbitrarily and unjustly done. It can and should be done with a full and scrupulous regard for the interests and liberties of all concerned as well as for the permanent interests of society itself. 

Three matters of capital importance await the action of the Senate which have already been acted upon by the House of Representatives; the bill which seeks to extend greater freedom of combination to those engaged in promoting the foreign commerce of the country than is now thought by some to be legal under the terms of the laws against monopoly; the bill amending the present organic law of Porto Rico; and the bill proposing a more thorough and systematic regulation of the expenditure of money in elections, commonly called the Corrupt Practices Act. 

I need not labor my advice that these measures be enacted into law. Their urgency lies in the manifest circumstances which render their adoption at this time not only opportune but necessary. Even delay would seriously jeopard the interests of the country and of the Government. 

Immediate passage of the bill to regulate the expenditure of money in elections may seem to be less necessary than the immediate enactment of the other measures to which I refer, because at least two years will elapse before another election in which Federal offices are to be filled; but it would greatly relieve the public mind if this important matter were dealt with while the circumstances and the dangers to the public morals of the present method of obtaining and spending campaign funds stand clear under recent observation, and the methods of expenditure can be frankly studied in the light of present experience; and a delay would have the further very serious disadvantage of postponing action until another election was at hand and some special object connected with it might be thought to be in the mind of those who urged it. Action can be taken now with facts for guidance and without suspicion of partisan purpose. 

I shall not argue at length the desirability of giving a freer hand in the matter of combined and concerted effort to those who shall undertake the essential enterprise of building up our export trade. That enterprise will presently, will immediately assume, has indeed already assumed a magnitude unprecedented in our experience. We have not the necessary instrumentalities for its prosecution; it is deemed to be doubtful whether they could be created upon an adequate scale under our present laws.

We should clear away all legal obstacles and create a basis of undoubted law for it which will give freedom without permitting unregulated license. The thing must be done now, because the opportunity is here and may escape us if we hesitate or delay. 

The argument for the proposed amendments of the organic law of Porto Rico is brief and conclusive. The present laws governing the island and regulating the rights and privileges of its people are not just. We have created expectations of extended privilege which we have not satisfied. There is uneasiness among the people of the island and even a suspicious doubt with regard to our intentions concerning them which the adoption of the pending measure would happily remove. We do not doubt what we wish to do in any essential particular. We ought to do it at once. 

At the last session of the Congress a bill was passed by the Senate which provides for the promotion of vocational and industrial education, which is of vital importance to the whole country because it concerns a matter, too long neglected, upon which the thorough industrial preparation of the country for the critical years of economic development immediately ahead of us in very large measure depends. 

May I not urge its early and favorable consideration by the House of Representatives and its early enactment into law? It contains plans which affect all interests and all parts of the country, and I am sure that there is no legislation now pending before the Congress whose passage the country awaits with more thoughtful approval or greater impatience to see a great and admirable thing set in the way of being done. 

There are other matters already advanced to the stage of conference between the two houses of which it is not necessary that I should speak. Some practicable basis of agreement concerning them will no doubt be found an action taken upon them. 

Inasmuch as this is, gentlemen, probably the last occasion I shall have to address the Sixty-fourth Congress, I hope that you will permit me to say with what genuine pleasure and satisfaction I have co-operated with you in the many measures of constructive policy with which you have enriched the legislative annals of the country. It has been a privilege to labor in such company. I take the liberty of congratulating you upon the completion of a record of rare serviceableness and distinction.

Monday at the Bar; Courthouses of the West: Sublette County Courthouse, Pinedale Wyoming

Courthouses of the West: Sublette County Courthouse, Pinedale Wyoming:

This is the Sublette County Courthouse in Pinedale, Wyoming.  The courthouse is the seat, for Sublette County, of the two courts of Wyoming's 9th Judicial District.

I'm unsure of the vintage of this courthouse, but I'm guess it dates to at least the 1950s, although I could be in error.   The court is in a Federalist style.

The USS West Virgina Ordered.

The USS West Virginia was ordered for construction.

The USS West Virginia, San Francisco, 1934.

She would be launched on November 19, 1921.

Laura Stockton Starcher elected mayor of Umatilla, Oregon.

The suffragist era came to Umatilla, Oregon with a vengeance when Laura Stockton Starcher was elected mayor, defeating her incumbent husband, though write in votes and, additionally, women further took the majority of the town council seats.

Their administration proved to be a progressive one.

Jarbridge Stage Robbery.

While the last train robbery was yet to come (and would come in Wyoming) the last stage robbery found itself occurring on this date in 1916.

On this day a two horse mail wagon was robbed, and the driver killed, so that the stage could be robbed, resulting in a very brief $4,000 gain to the thieves.  The advance of technology intersected with the antiquated nature of the crime as one of the perpetrators was convicted on the bases of his palm prints, the first person in the United States to meet their fate by that means.

Ben Kuhl, whose palm prints would convict him.

The location of the robbery, Jarbridge Nevada, was remote in the extreme and was nearly in Idaho.  Snowy weather aided the criminals in their endeavor.  The luck of the criminals, three in number, soon ran out however and they were rapidly apprehended.  One turned state's evidence, and Kuhl received the death sentence which as later commuted to a live sentence.  He was released in 1945.

Signs of the times from the New York Times (the times being 1916)

On today's 100 Years Ago Today Subreddit we learn a couple of interesting things.

 Horse drawn fire engine, New York City, 1916

One is that the head of New York City's fire department was proposing to convert the last horse drawn engine companies to automobiles.  Most already had been in NYC, but 700 fire horses remained with an average age of 13, apparently.

End of an era.

Secondly we learn that a study at Columbia University had found that it was perfectly possible to work your way through university.  Interesting to see that concern then, when many fewer attended it and they tended to be from classes with means as a rule.  Clearly the times were truly changing.

 Columbia library, 1915.

The study listed various jobs finding that shoveling snow lead the pack but posing as an "art model" came in second, although only one woman opted for that job.  Of various occupations listed, one curiously labelled one was "companion", which was a role performed by one female student.  Quite a few women worked as stenographer and typists which, although we hardly think of it that way now, were jobs that were actually new to women.

Female typist, 1917.  In this case the typist is 15 years old.

Sunday Morning Scene: Churches of the West: Boston Avenue United Methodist Church, Tulsa Oklahoma

Churches of the West: Boston Avenue United Methodist Church, Tulsa Oklahoma

This is the Boston Avenue United Methodist Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The church combines Gothic features with Art Deco features, reflectingits construction in 1929.

The Cheyenne State Leader for December 3, 1916. Carranza sets to take on Villa and Teachers take on booze.

On Sunday December 3, readers in Cheyenne were perhaps a bit relieved to find that Carranza's forces seemed to be rallying, perhaps meaning that National Guardsmen at the border wouldn't be finding Villistas crossing back over into the United States.

At the same time, teachers came out in favor of Prohibition. 

That doesn't really surprise me, and indeed strikes me as natural.  I'm not a teetotaler but its rather obvious that alcohol creates a flood of societal problems, quite a few of which teachers have to deal with daily. 

Along those lines, it amazes me that in our current era we've not only come to regard the concerns that lead to Prohibition as being quaint and naive, but we're out trying to legalize ever intoxicant we can.  Related back to the concerns of the teachers in 1916, just this past week a 19 year old died in this town of, it appears, complications due to the ingestion of an illegal drug.  It would seem that the intoxicants that  are legal now are quite enough really.

Poster Saturday: Italian Red Cross Matinee.

Injured players get full pay for their contracts in baseball.

On this day in 1916 the National Commission in baseball ordered that injured baseball players get full pay for the duration of their contracts.  Prior to that the injury clause in their contracts allows clubs to suspend players after fifteen days.  The Players League had pressured for the change.

The Cheyenne State Leader for December 2, 1916. American Troops Ready to Stop Bandit Villa.

Things were starting to look increasingly dangerous on the border.

The Laramie Republican for December 2, 1916: Maybe there's nothing to worry about on the border.

Residents of Laramie would have been less disturbed by border news today than those in Cheyenne would have been.

The Casper Weekly Press for December 1, 1916: White Slavery and Boom on in Casper

While the Cheyenne papers warned of bodies burning in the streets of Chihuahua and Villa advancing to the border, as well as the ongoing horrors of World War One, the Casper Weekly Press hit the stands with tales of white slavery.

White slavery, for those who might not know (we don't hear the term much anymore) was basically the kidnapping of young women and forcing them into prostitution.

Headlines like this are easy to discount, and seem lurid, fanciful, and sensationalist, but in reality they give us a view into the hard nature of the past we'd sometimes completely forget.  White Slavery, i.e., the kidnapping of women and the forcing them into prostitution, was actually a bonafide problem, and to some extent, it remains one.

I've spoken to one now deceased woman who escaped an attempt to kidnap her on a large East Coast city when she was a teen and who was convinced that she was almost a victim of such an effort.  And it wasn't all that long ago that it was revealed there was an Hispanic white slavery ring in Jackson Wyoming, where very young Mexican teenage girls were being brought up to that Wyoming resort town as prostitutes, working in an underground economy there focused on single Mexican laborers.  That one was discovered, oddly enough, through the schools.  Still, the evil practice, fueled by money and drugs, is with us still, although with advances in technology, and just more knowledge on such things, it wasn't what it once was, thankfully.

We don't want to romanticize the past here, so we've run this, although with all the news on bodies burning in the streets, etc, we probably can't be accused of romanticism anyhow.

Meanwhile an oil boom was on in Casper causing housing shortages.

Page two of the Casper Weekly informed us that a Ford had become a necessity.  If it wasn't quite true at the time, it soon would be.

The Wyoming, a store apparently took a shot at Prohibitionist by advertising that they had "everything a Prohibitionist likes."

The Wyoming Tribune for December 1, 1916: Carranza prepares to fight at the border

Just a few days ago the news was reporting that US forces would be able to withdraw from Mexico and an agreement with Carranza was on the verge of being signed. Today the Tribune was reporting fears that Villa would advance to the US border.

And former Governor Osborne, presently U.S. Assistant Secretary of State, we're told, was contemplating running for the Senate.

The Cheyenne Leader for December 1, 1916: Grim scenes in Chihuahua

Aerial view of Motor Truck Group, Ft. Sam Houston, Texas, Major F.H. Pope, Cavalry, commanding, December, 1916

Movies In History: Flyboys, The Red Baron and The Blue Max (and The Great Waldo Pepper).

Sometimes the only purpose a movie serves is to remind you how good an earlier movie actually was.

Drama in the air, biplanes, war, romance. . . how could you go wrong?

Well, apparently you can. At least if Flyboys and The Red Baron are any guide.

Let's start off with a really good film fearing all of this, however.  The Blue Max.

The Blue Max was a 1966 movie featuring George Peppard as Lt. Bruno Stachel, a German commoner who is elevated to officer rank as a pilot during World War One.  It's based on a novel by the same name, which I have not read.  Stachel finds himself elevated out of the trenches, out of the enlisted ranks and into both the infant Luftwaffe and to the company of German nobility, the latter of which he does not mix well with.  Highly competitive and not entirely likeable, Stachel's story is well developed and the film does a nice job of exploring a world that was being killed by World War One.  The title of the film is taken from Stachel's pursuit of the Prussian award for valor, the Pour le Merit, an award that was given to quite a few German aviators during World War One.

The film features a nice collection of aircraft built for the story, which in some ways are as much the stars of the film as the actors. Period aircraft were not available so they built them for the film.  Fortunately, I suppose, aircraft of that period were relatively simple.

This is an excellent film.  In terms of material details, in regards to aircraft, its superb.  It's good also in regard to German uniforms, which were a mix for aviators.  It's one of the few films regarding World War One aircraft that demonstrate how filthy of job it was, given that the engines of the period spewed oil back on the pilots.  A film history buff could pick a few complaints with the use of British small arms for German ground troops, but as that's a secondary aspect of the film, it shouldn't really detract much and it was common at the time.  Otherwise, it's excellent in every way.  It's by far the best modern World War One aviation film every made.

Before moving on to the lesser films, we should mention The Great Waldo Pepper, which is a film in which Robert Redford plays the title role, a barnstormer in the 1920s.  The barnstorming era is romantically remembered, but off hand this is the only film I'm aware of that features it.  Again, the story is a good one, the planes are also the stars, and the material details are excellent.  Concerning those planes, quite a few of them from this 1975 film were made for The Blue Max, so the accuracy of the aircraft shouldn't surprise us, perhaps.

And then there's the others.

Recently I've been posting a lot on the year 1916, so it's only appropriate that both Flyboys and The Red Baron would be on television.  For really lightweight entertainment, I guess their okay, but only barely so.

Flyboys is a 2006 film featuring James Franco in an early role as a pilot joining the French military in a squadron loosely, and I do mean loosely, based on the Lafayette Escadrille.  It's pretty bad.

This is the first film of which I'm aware that CGI was used for the aircraft.  A viewer who is familiar with The Blue Max will be disappointed as the aircraft look fake, at least to the experienced eye.

The story is fake, to the knowledgeable viewer, and more than a little odd.  For example, one of the American pilots in this squadron is portrayed as highly religious and sings Onward Christian Soldier as he flies into battles.  This story takes place in World War One, not World War Two, and therefore there isn't an intelligible religious element to the story.  I.e, the Germans were Christians too and no matter what you think of their cause they weren't being lead by Hitler (indeed, their sovereign, Kaiser Wilhelm, would disdain Hitler in exile).

For some odd reason, in addition, every German fighter in this film is a Fokker Triplane  Weird.  And they're all painted red save for the black one flown by a real baddy.  This contrasts with The Blue Max which correctly shows that German squadrons flew a real mix of aircraft and those aircraft tended to be painted in all sorts of different ways, all within a single squadron.

The only saving grace, really, to the story is the portrayal of a French farm girl by the improbably named French actress Jennifer Decker.  She does a nice job in a story that's otherwise a mess.

Even worse, is the 2008 film The Red Baron, which is currently showing on Netflix.  A German made film, but in English, it's best just flat out skipped.  The basic plot could be summarized as; young boy dreams of flying his whole life (improbable given that aircraft had existed for only eleven years when WWI broke out), becomes flyer, flies in a noble airborne game of chess, falls in love with nurse who exposes him to war, became anti war.

Bleh.

A lot of this strikes a person as sort of an excuse to try to make a film that really romanticizes a German officer who was really deadly at his craft and make him into sort of anti war hero in the process.  Well, Manfred Von Richthoffen wasn't awarded the Blue Max as he was an airborne pacifist.

This makes of this film also seem to have been compelled to take the concept that the war in the air was chivalrous, a somewhat doubtful or at least overdone proposition, a bit further than the bounds of reality will tolerate.  Every modern World War One aviation film does this to some extent, and the proper extent is likely that depicted in The Blue Max, but this one is really over the top in these regards.  Developing a personal relationship, for example, between Manfred Von Richthoffen and Canadian pilot Roy Brown is really a bit much.

So, skip Flyboys and The Red Baron and rent The Blue Max and The Great Waldo Pepper instead.

The Cheyenne Leader for November 30, 1916: A National Guard Casualty

Only meriting a small entry at the bottom of the page, we learn on this day that Wyoming National Guardsman Pvt. Frank J. Harzog, who enlisted from Sheridan, died in Deming of encephalitis.  He was to be buried at Ft. Bliss, so he wold never make it home.

Too often soldiers who die in peacetime are simply forgotten; their deaths not recognized as being in the service of the country. But they are.  Indeed, the year after I was in basic training a solider who was in my training platoon, a National Guardsman from Nebraska, died in training in a vehicle accident.  A Cold War death as sure as any other.

Thanksgiving Day, 1916

November 23 was Thanksgiving Day in 1916.  Woodrow Wilson issued a proclamation to that effect on November 17, 1916.

By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation

It has long been the custom of our people to turn in the fruitful autumn of the year in praise and thanksgiving to Almighty God for His many blessings and mercies to us as a nation. The year that has elapsed since we last observed our day of thanksgiving has been rich in blessings to us as a people, but the whole face of the world has been darkened by war. In the midst of our peace and happiness, our thoughts dwell with painful disquiet upon the struggles and sufferings of the nations at war and of the peoples upon whom war has brought disaster without choice or possibility of escape on their part. We cannot think of our own happiness without thinking also of their pitiful distress.

Now, Therefore, I, Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States of America, do appoint Thursday, the thirtieth of November, as a day of National Thanksgiving and Prayer, and urge and advise the people to resort to their several places of worship on that day to render thanks to Almighty God for the blessings of peace and unbroken prosperity which He has bestowed upon our beloved country in such unstinted measure. And I also urge and suggest our duty in this our day of peace and abundance to think in deep sympathy of the stricken peoples of the world upon whom the curse and terror of war has so pitilessly fallen, and to contribute out of our abundant means to the relief of their suffering. Our people could in no better way show their real attitude towards the present struggle of the nations than by contributing out of their abundance to the relief of the suffering which war has brought in its train.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington this seventeenth day of November, in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and sixteen and of the independence of the United States the one hundred and forty-first.

It must have been a stressful one for a lot of people.  War was raging in Europe and a lot of Wyomingites were serving on the border with Mexico.  The local economy was booming, and there were a lot of changes going on in the towns, but due to the international conflict.

Big Metal Bird Episode 10 — Tarmac

Because I've watched them out the window of the plane so many times.

Natrona County Closes Schools. . and the upcoming State Budget.

From the Casper Star Tribune:

The Natrona County School District Board of Trustees voted Monday to close Grant Elementary School as a mother and the school’s principal sat in the back and cried. The approval means that Grant and Mills Elementary will likely be removed from inventory — preferably sold but potentially demolished — by Sept. 1, 2017. North Casper Elementary, the old Roosevelt High School and the Fairgrounds should be disposed of by July 1. The Star Lane Center will be closed no later than the end of the 2017-18 school year.

I haven't been running many articles on the economy recently, I guess the election drowned them out, but obviously the economy hasn't been doing well.We're now going to see some school closures locally, partially due to this reason.

The Tribune also reports that Governor Mead's upcoming budget will see "steep program cuts", given diminished state revenues.

One of the victims of state cuts could be the Wyoming Veterans Museum in Casper, which may find its three employees reduced to two part time ones, the Tribune reports.

 

Wyoming Veterans Museum.

Could be a rocky session for more reasons than one.

The Wyoming Tribune for November 29, 1916: Villa in the headlines

Scary headlines in the Tribune, which reported that Juarez, on the Mexican border, might be Villa's next target.

The Cheyenne State Leader for November 29, 1916: Chihuahua in Villa's hands = Carranza agreeing to Protocol?

The Leader made the curious assumption that Villa taking Chihuahua would cause Carranza to agree tot he draft protocol with the US that was designed to bring about an American withdrawal.

Now, why would that be the case? Carranza had been opposed to American intervention, but as it was, the American expeditionary force amounted to a large block of troops in Villas way if he really intended to move north.

A curious assumption.

And the US acting on behalf of besieged Belgium was also in the news.

Chicago Tribune: CO-EDS SHOULD SET FASHION Nov 29, 1916

From the Chicago Tribune for November 29, 1916 (courtesy of Reddit's 100 Years ago Subreddit:

Nov 29, 1916

CO-EDS SHOULD SET FASHION

Prof. James of Northwestern Is Against Domination of Paris, London, and Michigan Avenue.

Woman's dress criticized yesterday by Prof. James A. James, professor of history in Northwestern university. In a lecture to a class in American history in Harris Hall.

"How long are we to be dictated to by Paris, by London. or even by Michigan avenue?" he said. “How many of you in this class leave a store having purchased just what you wanted in the way of clothes?

“I am willing to-say that our descend- ants a hundred years from now will look back on our time with contempt for, our slavishness In matters of dress. Why can’t our college women set the standard of dressing? The simple dress of the college girl of fifteen or twenty years ago was attractive but above all sensible.”

Interesting comments from an age when apparently college co-eds dressed more sensibly than women of fashion.

Perhaps they still do?

Women's fashion would, FWIW, really change in this era, courtesy of the Great War. As noted here previously, women went to work in large numbers during World War One in factories and on farms and this in turn mean that restrictive clothing that had been fashionable had to go.  Indeed the war brought about a permanent change in women's undergarments, according to the Roads To The Great War blog, which goes to show the truth, once again, of Holscher's Fourth Law of History.

 Women war workers in dormitory, 1917.

Lex Anteinternet: The tumult and the shouting

 The day after the election I posted this:

Lex Anteinternet: The tumult and the shouting: I wonder if there's any chance that Facebook shall return to normal tomorrow or later this week. . . . to the extent it was normal. Hm...

I knew better, but I did sort of hope.

By this point, after the oddest election in anyone's memory,  I think most people are so burnt out and tired they'd like a political break.  I know that I would.  Indeed, I'd planned on more post election commentary, but I'm so tired of it all already that I haven't done it, and likely won't much.  I can hardly even stand to listed to the weekend political shows right now.

None of which, I'll note, stops the real diehards.

Maybe that's part of the problem.

We've endured eight years of comments from people who thought Barack Obama was the worst thing ever.  While some are now denying it, a lot of that commentary got extreme rather quickly, and quite a bit of it bordered on racist.

Not racist, but an example of this, is that I have a dear friend who was just appalled by President Obama's election as he was so much further to the left than my friend, who took up calling Obama a Marxist and who meant it.  Whatever he was, President Obama was not a Marxist, nor a closet Muslim, nor a Kenyan.  It was all too much.

Now we're going to see four years of the same thing, I fear, with Donald Trump.  One liberal friend of mine seriously takes the position that Trump, in order to make good his suggestion that he'll work with the left (which I don't recall Trump making) needs to surrender on the Supreme Court. That's a little like Custer demanding a Sioux surrender at Little Big Horn as a show of good faith.  It isn't going to happen as its absurd.

I've now seen a Facebook meme with a photo of a tired US soldier in World War Two claiming that those who voted for Trump are traitors, having betrayed the cause the soldiers fought for by voting for an implied fascists.  Oh come on.  That's the same thing as calling Obama a Marxist.

Enough for awhile.

The Cheyenne State Leader for November 28, 1916: Villa captures Chihuahua and moves north.

Villa was appearing quite resurgent, grim news for those hoping for a resolution to the border situation.

And a sugar plant was going in at Worland. . . where one still exists.  Elsewhere, the State Engineer was arguing for aid to settlers in an early economic development effort.

And the state's water contest against Colorado was making daily news.

Trying to figure out public domain? Maybe this will help.

Public domain explained, with dates, by Cornell.

Monday at the Bar: Salaried Labor Contest

Unless you are a lawyer you likely didn't notice that this past week a fairly epic event happened in the area of salaries.

Now, I don't mean hourly wages, this must be noted from the onset.  No, I mean those individuals who are paid on salary, i.e., $X per year, not $X per hour.

Not too surprisingly, this is a topic that's fairly extensively, and somewhat confusingly, regulated by the Federal Department of Labor.  One of the things regulated is the threshold at which a person can be regarded as a salaried employee.  Why does this matter? Well, below that threshold you'll be treated as an hourly employee and entitled to overtime if you work overtime, as overtime is defined in the regulations.  Above it and you are not.

Note, there's a lot, lot, lot, lot more to this than just that the overtime threshold for the salary "exemption" that exists in this area would have gone rom $23,000 per year to $47,476.Quite a change.

But a Federal Court in Texas enjoined implementation of the new rule on a temporary basis so that it will not go into effect on December 1, 2016, as planned.  That doesn't mean it'll never be cleared as legal, but it will be postponed at a bare minimum.

Things like this turn out to be incredibly complicated and have all sorts of peculiar effects.  It is, therefore, hard to know what to make of them.  Fro example, before the big boom in the Western economy to be followed by the big Weed boom in the Colorado economy the average salary for lawyers in Denver was about $45,000 a year, much smaller than many would imagine.  I don't know what it is now, but my guess is that its quite a bit higher.  Be that as it may, there's actually a fair number of professionals that make relatively small wages when starting out or, frankly, just make small wages.  Some, I agree, would look at $45,000 and say that isn't small, but if you are trying to raise a family on it and have a ton of student debt it isn't large.

But if you are a small time operator yourself, with an employee who is salaried, then what?  It might now seem like a problem, but again, if you are in the law, for example, and are working 60 hours a week or more, and have a new associate who also is, then what?  I suppose your options are to boost him or her up over the salary threshold or pay overtime, either of which might not be a financial option for you.

This dilemma, by the way, isn't a new one.  Here's a New York Times cartoon from 1916 on the plight of the Salaried Man.  FWIW, as the captions are hard to read, the umbrella on the left says "Bigger Wages" and the one on the right says "Bigger Profits".  This came in the context of a boom in both during World War One.

Today In Wyoming's History: November 28: Cody patents a bit.

Today In Wyoming's History: November 28:

1916:   William F. Cody granted a patent for a design for a bit.

Lex Anteinternet: The November 1916 Election in Wyoming

Lex Anteinternet: The November 1916 Election in Wyoming: Today is the centennial of the 1916 General Election, and of course the eve of the 2016 General Election. We have the advantage of the 1916...

Posted late, due to a pre posting glitch.

Laramie Daily Boomerang for November 27, 1916: ROTC established at the University of Wyoming

ROTC comes to UW, and the big water case advances.

Sunday Morning Scene: Churches of the West: First Baptist Church, Yale Oklahoma

Churches of the West: First Baptist Church, Yale Oklahoma:

This is the First Baptist Church in Yale, Oklahoma. This particular church style is surprising in this context. The town of Yale is fairly small, and this is a substantially built Greek revival style church.  I
don't know the age of the church, but Yale was obviously a fairly substantial town earlier in the 20th Century and this church likely dates to that period.

Tampa Florida, 1916

Tampa Florida, Copyright November 27, 1916.  The Church is Sacred Heart Catholic Church, then almost new as a 1905 structure.   While I shouldn't be, I'm surprised by how modern Tampa looked a century ago, prior to the advent of air conditioining, I'd note.

The Best Posts of the Week for the Week of November 20, 2016

A Legislative Session to watch and the dynamics and culture of trying to grab the public lands.

 

 

Munson Last Boots, or how I became a hipster and didn't even know it. And reflections what hipster affectations mean.

 

 

Poster Saturday: The Doughboys Make Good

Note the artist's use of a Vickers machinegun.

The Cheyenne Leader for November 26, 1916 (but with a date error): U.S. Ready to Ratify Protocol With Mexico

We need to note here that the Leader made an error on its date on page 1.  To show that, we've uploaded page 2 as well.  This was the November 26 paper, note the November 25 paper.

Woodrow Wilson, the Leader reported, was ready to ratify the protocol with Mexico. But was Carranza ready?  The battle appeared to be turning for Carranza's enemy, Villa, in Chihuahua.

In Washington, John E. Osborne, former Wyoming Governor, appeared to be pondering leaving his Assistant Secretary of State position in the Wilson administration in order to head back to Wyoming. 

And sad news was reported regarding the death if Inez Milholland Bossevain, who had been in Cheyenne during the Presidential campaign.

And the Governor put out a Thanksgiving message for the upcoming holiday.