Standards of Dress: Clerical dress

Recently, I did a thread on changes in standards of dress for average people, or more particularly, those living in cities and towns.  We looked at how those standards have changed greatly over the past century, and even how the dress of the early 20th  Century, or at least male dress, still looks familiar, it was much more formal, day to day, than it is now.

Here we look at a more specific topic, clerical dress.

Clerical dress, i.e., the clothing of priest, pastors, rabbis, etc., has seemingly changed less, which is not to say that it hasn't changed at all, in comparison to other vocations.  This probably makes sense, given their roles.

In looking at this topic, this is one area where we really have to start with the present standards, which are the only ones most people are really familiar with, and work backwards.  This reveals some interesting trends, but it also tends to show how stable this particular area of dress is.  And to start off here, with really have to look at the Roman Catholic Priest.

For the most part, in North America, and indeed in most of Europe, the dress of Christian clerics falls into two camps, one of which takes its inspiration from the standards of the Catholic Church, and the other of which takes its standards from business wear.   Almost never, but not quite never, do Christian religious take a standard from elsewhere, although there are few notable exceptions, such as The Salvation Army.  There are solid reasons based in tradition and even theology for this, but we won't really get into that, as that's a topic for some other forum

The clothing of Catholic Priests is governed by regulations within the Church pertaining to that.  Generally, Catholic Priests must wear black, and they must wear a shirt that accommodates a Roman Collar.

Catholic Priest in Europe, courtesy of Wikipedia.  This Priest is wearing a cassock, which is a type of dress which is unusual in the United States.  The Priests clothing features the Roman Collar.

The actual origin of the Roman Collar is disputed, and even the name "Roman Collar" isn't universal.  Some claim a Reformation origin for the collar, but the better evidence takes it back to ancient times with there being some attribution to it serving a purpose associated with medical emergencies in the Medieval Black Plague.  No matter, in the modern world black dress with Roman Collar is the regulated norm for Catholic Priests.  Roman collars are also the norm for Orthodox Priests in North America.  And they are the norm for Protestant denominations that have an origin associated with the Catholic Church, such as the Lutheran and Episcopal Churches.

Lutheran Priest with Roman Collar, but with checked sports coat.  In the sports coat, he departs from what would be the Catholic standard.

Roman Collars today are also frequently worn by ministers in denominations that have no close association in origin with the Catholic Church, however. In these instances, ministers of those denominations are in denominations that have adopted the wide practice of other Christian denominations or, sometimes, the individual ministers have. 

Given this, it's probably surprising to learn that Roman Collars, while an ancient style of clerical dress, haven't always been the rule in North America, to the extent that they currently are.  Indeed, while at one time Roman Collars were the rule in Europe, in North American Catholic Priest's clothing regulations  caused them to be dressed in apparel that was of the type worn by secular businessmen, this being the norm until the mid 19th Century. The reason for this is that prejudice against Catholics was so strong, that the Church did not wish for clerics to stick out too much, lest they be harmed by anti Catholics. We have to keep in mind here that, prior to the American Civil War, bias against Catholics was so strong in the United States that it defined some political parties.

This type of prejudice began to wane after the Mexican War and Civil War, in which Catholic Irish Americans played such a significant role, and even though decades would pass before being strong anti Irish would not be regarded as acceptable, it did mean that the Roman Collar returned to Catholic clerics by the second half of the 19th Century, in North America.

This didn't mean, however, that clerical dress became identical to what we commonly see today. At that time cassocks, a long outer garment somewhat resembling a frock coat, were the clerical norm for most denominations using the Roman Collar.  This remained the case well into the 20th Century, but during the 20th Century, a coat based on the single breasted man's business suit coat became increasingly common.

Catholic Priest, mid 20th Century, wearing cassock.

Fairly typical wear for Priests, mid 20th Century.

This trend has continued into the the present era, where cassocks are now rare, but where the Roman Collar with simple black suit jacket is common.  For Catholic priests, the reaming clothing is always black, unless they occupy an higher ecclesiastical rank.  For other denominations, however, this is not necessarily so, and you will sometimes see colored shirts of various colors, with blue seemingly being the most common.

Roman Collars have become so common in North America that they have spread to Orthodox and Eastern Rite denominations in North America, which was not always true.  The Roman Collar does not have as long of history in these denominations as in the ones discussed above, with those denominations having had very traditional clothing of their own, which is still worn where these denominations exist in large numbers.  Those watching the recent dramatic events in Ukraine have seen Priests wearing this clothing out in the streets, in support of Ukraine. Typically news reports indicate that they are "Orthodox Priest", but chances are just as high that they may be Ukrainian Greek Catholic Priests, there being no ready way for an average person here to be able to tell the difference by simple observation.

 Greek Orthodox Priest, mid 20th Century, in Jerusalem.  Well into the 20th Century similar dress would have been the norm in North America for Eastern Rite and Orthodox clergy.

Perhaps before going on from here it would be good to note that in at least the Orthodox and Catholic Faiths, the clothing Priests wear is governed by regulation, and so it various but little. Chances are high, but I don't know for certain, that this is also the case with at least the Episcopal church as well.

Amongst the regulated clothing, for many years, was a requirement that headgear be worn.  Some of the photographs set out above demonstrate that.  At one time Catholic Priests wore distinctive headgear on a daily basis,  and in some localities on some occasions they still do.  But for average parish priests this passed away in the 1960s.  At that time, for those areas still requiring it, the requirement in North America was for a hat of a formal type, such as a fedora, so the former requirement of a distinctive hat had passed away, for the most part.  Orthodox Priests have a much more distinctive headgear that survived well into the 20th Century and may still be a requirement for some Orthodox denominations, but I'm not familiar enough with their situation to be certain.

None of this has addressed vestments, which Priests and other religious wear during services, and which would make up a lengthy separate topic.  Suffice it to say, the denominations mentioned above all wear vestments, and while these remain clearly identifiable over time, you can tell the era in which they were made by stylistic differences that occur over time.

Catholic Priest offering Mass, World War Two.  Vestments are being worn, Priest on far right is wearing a cassock.  The distinctive headgear shown would indicate, I think, that three of these men are Bishops.

 Episcopal Priest with recently married couple, mid 20th Century.

For those denominations where Roman Collars are not worn, and shirt and tie is, basically they have tended to follow the more conservative end of business dress over the years.  This continues to the present time, making them one of the few groups that routinely wears formal wear in their official capacity.

Protestant minister discussing problems with his congregation after services, in what appear to be a cold setting in Maine, 1940s.

Presbyterian minister, mid 20th Century.

With all this emphasis on clothing and how it was worn, and what it generally means (I've skipped pretty much information pertaining to higher Church ranks) one surprising thing is to learn that in the United States, distinctive religious clothing has been nearly wholly omitted on occasion for some specific roles, such as military chaplains.  American chaplains wear the standard military uniform of their branch of service.

U.S. Army Chaplain, Civil War.

Confederate officer, holding position as officer and Chaplain, Civil War.

U.S. Army Chaplain, World War One. This photo shows that at the time at least some Army chaplains wore an open collar coat, which was not the service norm, with Roman Collar.

More typical World War One appearance for a U.S. Army chaplain with stand up collar service coat.

Col. William R. Arnold, Chief of Chaplains during World War Two, and a Roman Catholic Priest.

Their uniforms have always featured distinctive insignia,and in field conditions you will still see some specific items being worn while they are performing their official roles. But by and large, they look a lot like other servicemen.  This does not tend to be the case for other nations.

 British Chaplain, wearing Roman Collar, in World War One.

 Catholic, Protestant and Jewish Chaplains, U.S. Army, World War Two.

U.S. Army chaplain, in dress uniform, World War Two.

So far, of course, I've written only about Christian clerics.  In the time frame covered by this blog, it would seem that some discussion of at least Jewish clerics would also be in order.  My problem here, however, is that to the extent I'm familiar with their dress, I'd only be a danger in discussing it.

The Jewish faith is, of course, presently divided into various branches, and it would seem that dress in general in the branches various.  I've seen photographs of rabbis in the mid 20th Century, for example, that are simply indistinguishable from men in typical business attire of the day.  Others have very distinctive dress. So, given that, I can only assume custom and practice varies by branch. As is well known, Hassidic Jews today wear very distinctive dress in general, so perhaps rather than make any more errors than I already have, I should leave that topic alone.

So far I've also omitted any discussion of the dress of female religious.  Generally, up until perhaps the 1970s or so, most female religious were nuns, and perhaps globally that may still be true.  The Catholic Church, Orthodox Churches, Episcopal Church and Lutheran Churches all have religious orders for women, which most people simply refer to as nuns.

 Nuns on Long Island sea shore, 1940s

Nuns traditionally wore distinctive dress which is referred to as "habits".  While these vary, all nuns of all denominations wore some variety of distinctive dress, with most habits resembling one another very generally.  It's interesting to note that orders dedicated to hospitals were once so common in Europe that for a long time European nurses wore clothing that strongly resembled habits, and a common term for a nurse in Europe is "sister."  The German word for a nurse is Krankenshwester, or "sick sister".  

This is an area that has changed enormously post 1960.  While there are still orders of nuns in all faiths that have nuns that wear habits, the largest population of nuns in North American was by far in the Catholic Church, which generally greatly diminished the requirements for habits after the early 1960s, at which point many orders simply did away with them.  Not all did, and interestingly those which have retained them tend to be amongst those which remain the strongest today.

What did you learn from your legal mentor? And mentors, what have you learned from your mentees? - News

What did you learn from your legal mentor? And mentors, what have you learned from your mentees? - News

Retirement

If you are in business, or read business news, or listen to any type of commentary at all, you're going to hear a lot about retirement.  For that matter, if you live to be 50 years of age, and I certainly hope you do, if you are not already, you're going to at least think about retirement with the American Association of Retired Persons sends you mail, implicitly suggesting that by age 50 you've amassed so much wealth that you are going to retire. And the topic appear sin professional journals all the time. The most recent issue of the ABA journal, for example, has its cover story on the topic of retirement.

For a lot of Americans, indeed most Americans, that's a bit of a cruel joke.  Most folks can't retire at 50, and most never have been able to do so.  Beyond that, however, at about that age you'll start to notice an interesting dichotomy of stuff on retirement, some of which is really scary, and some of which is somewhat delusional.

In terms of delusional, I'm always slightly amazed by the series of materials that seek to make you feel guilty about retiring, of which there is a fair amount (and, no, I'm 50 and not anywhere near retiring).  This stuff suggests that when you are of retirement age, say your 60s, you probably ought to do one of two things:

1.  You ought to be starting a new job/retirement/business that reflects your long hidden dreams and talents, or which expresses that series of dreams, talents and values you've developed in your years of work; or

2.  You ought to be able to use your retirement to live a wild life of traveling abandon and adventure.

I know you've seen this stuff.  You are retired, according to the television advertisement, and now you somehow own Monument Valley. Wow.

Or you are retired and open a vineyard in Tuscany.  Jeepers. . . your work really worked out for you big time.

Or you now can open a company that competes with Microsoft. . . or manufactures jackets for kittens, or whatever.  These portrayals are so common that one brokerage company actually made fun of them, in a clever way, with a befuddled individual who needs advice stating something like "A vineyard?  Come on!,", which brings me to the second type of retirement portrayal, which is that if you are in the Middle Class, forget it, it won't be happening.  You're doomed.  Not to sound to glum, but that portrayal is probably much closer to the mark.

All of which makes looking at retirement in a historical context both worthwhile and interesting.  Maybe even productive.  I.e., how did we get here.  Something has been occurring in recent years, to be sure, and this topic is in the news a lot one way or the other, whether it simply be due to a local well known person retiring, or it be warning news about most people in the near future never being able to retire.

One thing we might note here, however, right off the bat is that the common canard about "people living longer" simply isn't true.  People do not live any longer presently than they ever have.  As we addressed in the post about life spans, the very widespread notion that "people live longer today" is based upon a misunderstanding of statistics.  People don't live longer, they simply do not die from some untimely event, whether that be disease, violence, or injury, as frequently as they once did.  Indeed, they do not die by some of these causes (violence, death at birth, etc) nearly as frequently as they once did by a huge margin.  That means more live out their allotted years, so to speak, than was once the case.  Put another way, not too many people would regard being falling off of a hay rake and getting dragged to death a natural way to go, but more than a few teenagers experienced that sort of death up until relatively recently.

But this fact does inspire the two reactions noted above.  On one hand, the combination of better medicine, much less physically arduous labor, increased surplus income and the exceptionalist expectations of the Baby Boom generations has lead to a sort of expectation that the old won't ever grow old, and that we should expect to be touring Naples on bicycles up until our 90s.  And for a few, that is darned near true.  My mother didn't tour Naples on a bike, but she did ride one around town up until just a few years ago, when old age finally really caught up with her.  On the other hand, the same increase in the number of people who grow old, combined with massive societal changes in the past century, inspire legitimate fears in many that their declining years will be impoverished and difficult.

Most people now are used to the idea of there at least being something called retirement.  And while that concept goes back surprisingly far, retirement as an actual practice for most people does not.  Indeed, for most people, and I mean for most people on Earth, it didn't become a possibility until the late 19th Century.

Prior to the late 19th Century retirement for average people just didn't exist.  Part of the reason why, particularly in North American, is that in the much more rural economies of years past, there wasn't an economic ability for it, and there was certainly no state sponsored retirement of any kind.  Farmers basically worked on the land until they passed away, with it being the rule that, if they owned their land (and most North American farmers did) they passed the farm on to one of their children.  If they grew too infirm to work it, that passing on feature effected their retirement, basically.  They'd still be there, even if they could no longer work as much, or indeed at all.

This practice, by the way, is still pretty common with agricultural families.

In other lines of work, the same could also be true, however.  In any sort of family operation, the older male would generally keep working at it as long as he could and if there was somebody to pass it on to, he did.

 Blacksmith, and not a young one.

Where this opportunity didn't present itself, men and women with families, and that was most men and women, might eventually move in with one of their children for their retired years.  So, an old lawyer, like John Adams (also a farmer), or Clarence Darrow, might work up until his death, and many did.  But some might also pass beyond the ability to practice and retire, moving in with a family member and closing their practice.

Of course, some people became wealthy, but in the pre late 19th Century era, that didn't equate with retiring as a rule.  For some it did, of course, but that tended to mean that they had lives of varying degrees of abundance or leisure, depending upon the amount of wealth.  That doesn't vary much from now, expect that a much, much, smaller percentage of the population achieved wealth prior to World War Two.  There are, of course, exceptions.

So, with that being the case, how did modern retirement come about? Well, two ways.  War and Social Revolution.

That's a slight exaggeration, but only slight.

The first real retirements we can find, in the modern sense, start off with various armies.  How armies were raised and manned varied over the world in the 18th and 19th Century, but it's about that time that retirement systems for soldiers started to come into play.  Originally, there was none. Indeed, as shocking as it may now seem, in many European armies of the 18th Century soldiers were conscripted for life or near life terms, if they were conscripted.  Short term conscription for most European armies (the Russians excepted, Russians solders were conscripted for a term of 25 years) came in during the 19th Century, and for solid military reasons.  In the 18th Century, however, even British soldiers, who were volunteers, joined for life.

American soldiers, few in number until World War Two, never joined for life and always joined for a short term, but in both instances, there was no such thing as retirement.  If a soldier was retired, it was because he became too infirm or injured to keep on soldiering.  Every country recognized a a system for retiring soldiers in that situation, but only that one. So, showing that things can reverse direction, the lot of an 18th Century soldier was worse in this fashion than it was for a Roman soldier.  Roman soldiers actually could retire, with a grant of land.

The impact of this, however, was to put a lot of old enlisted men into service.  You can find plenty of pre Civil War American photographs of U.S. soldiers, for example, who are ancient.  They didn't get paid well enough to retire on savings, they didn't always have families, so they had to keep on working. There was no age cap on service, and they ultimately mustered out by infirmity or death.

That was a bad thing not only for the soldiers, but the armies as well.  To take the American example, getting 20 year olds (and the Army generally would not enlist teenagers up until the 20th Century) to spend the month of November in the snow, in Wyoming, eating moldy bacon is one thing.  Getting 60 year olds to do that, and to keep functioning, is quite another.  Now, a lot of 19th Century 60 year olds were perfectly capable of doing that, and even more are now, but in a profession in which, if you were a career man you were at it for decades, you had been badly injured and seriously ill at some point by that time, making it all the tougher.  Indeed, according to one statistical analysis I've seen, the majority of American men over 40 years of age lived with some chronic condition by age 40.  Probably the majority now do as well, but at that time, you just endured it. And enduring it wears you down.

The Army, indeed all armies, recognized this and they all began to introduce retirement systems.  In the U.S. the Army first allowed officers to retire after 40 years of service after the Civil War.  Soon thereafter, this policy was expanded to include enlisted men. Other countries adopted similar policies.

The Last Muster.  Pen and ink depiction of British Army pensioners, in uniform.

This served two purposes.  One is it simply recognized decades of service.  But it also recognized that younger men made better soldiers for a variety of reasons.  One was, of course, physical.  The original retirement system, which effectively retired U.S. soldiers at about 60 years of age, recognized that by that time they probably were physically pushing the limits of their service abilities.

World War One poster noting the physical abilities of generations of soldiers.

Indeed, this was so much the case that Theodore Roosevelt encourage the early retirement of officers who were no longer physically fit, during his presidency, by requiring officers to go on long rides (ninety miles)on their mounts.  All officers were expected to know how to ride in that era, and he tested them on it.  By that time, many older ones couldn't endure it, and accordingly they were retired.  Even officers in the Navy were given the choice of going on a very horseback ride, a very long bicycle ride, or a very long hike.

The other purpose was an intellectual one, however.  By the late 19th Century the military sciences were advancing rapidly, and the Army began to recognize that keeping old officers in place impaired the ability to adapt.  The American army was legendary for keeping men in their same ranks for eons, and by the early 20th Century, this was recognized to be a bad idea.  Sixty year old captains who had the same command for fifteen years were much less likely to appreciate newly introduced weapons than, for example, a captain in his twenties might be.  The Army accordingly dropped the retirement age to 30 years, effectively encouraging, but not requiring, men to retire early, at 3/4s pay, in their 50s.  

Even this proved to be problematic at the start of World War Two, and the Army, recognizing a need to adapt to a change in the nature of war, dropped the retirement age to twenty years.  This, it must be noted, was an early retirement age. To obtain full retirement a soldier had to stay in for 40 years, as they still do. But they could take half pay and retire at 20 years.  Less attractive at first to enlisted men as opposed to officers, this provided a means to encourage retirement for officers whom the service wanted out of the way, which they soon found other ways to additionally encourage.

 While the U.S. armed forces did indeed encourage a lot of older soldiers to "move on" at the start of World War Two, combat attrition in World War One had been so high in the Commonwealth nations that this poster actually was aimed at drawing back in World War One soldiers, noting that many in their 40s and 50s still had plenty of vigor for later service.  Unlike the U.S. Army, the British used a fair number of older officers during the war, as did the Germans.

This created the modern service retirement system we still have in place. The system spread out of the Armed forces and into nearly every type of uniformed service we have today.  Policemen, for example, generally can retire early at 20 years of service.  It's even spread out of uniformed service in some instances, however, and some other sorts of government workers have retirement systems of this type.

Retirement in other fields is a somewhat more recent phenomenon.  It's a product of the industrial revolution really.  Industrial employment, like military service, chewed men up.  It also organized them.  And this organization both created opportunities, and threats, depending upon how they were handled.  And it also removed men from the rural support system in which they'd previously lived.  If a blacksmith was injured in his small town occupation, chances are that his sons, or brothers, could take over for him, and if he had to stay home, no doubt in poverty, at least there was a home to go to.  When he grew old and could no longer work, the same was true, and chances were high that there was a fireside to stay near, as the younger men went out to work.

Once industrial labor arose, this was no longer true.  Early industrial laborers were displaced from farms and small towns to a very large extent.  As a result, they were disoriented, rootless, and in some ways at the mercy of their environment.  Ultimately, they came to agitate for protection, cognizant of the dangers of their work and what that meant for them personally.

This created a wide variety of responses, but one of them ultimately came to be socially sponsored retirement.  Men could not work in heavy industry indefinitely, but they could not leave those occupations and be able to depend on anything to fall back on. Something had to replace the family supported home to retire to, and that came to be retirement, either government sponsored or employer funded, both of which served to keep the social wolf from the door.

Early moves towards wider retirement started in the early 20th Century, with the first proposal for a Social Security being advanced in the Progressive Party campaign of Theodore Roosevelt.  Roosevelt's Bull Moose campaign failed, but the Great Depression gave new force to the argument and Social Security, a fairly radical proposal by historical standards, came to be reality under Franklin Roosevelt.  By that time, heavy industry had privately incorporated it in many instances. World War Two, which boosted the advantages to private industry to supply benefits during a period in which wages were frozen, boosted it further.

 

Female industrial laborer, World War Two. Labor had been agitating for benefits beyond increased wages since the late 19th Century, but it was World War Two that really changed the nature of health care and retirement in the United States.

This gave us the situation we had in the middle of the 20th Century, and which lasted until at least the 1970s. By and large, in private employment in the US, most occupations offered pensions of some sort.  This promised workers the ability to retire at age 65.  In addition to that, Social Security became available at age 63, with full benefits payable at age 65.  For those with service occupations, retirement came to be available after 30 or 20 years.  Frequently, those who had service employments went on to a second career, in light of the fact that they were retiring fairly young.

So far so good, but staring in the late 1980s, something began to break down in this system. Now, while that system hasn't completely broken, concern over the system is widespread.  What happened?

Well, for one thing work stability declined in the private sector, while seemingly becoming solidifying in the government sector, at least up until very recently.  For long time government employees, I'd note, many are having their last laugh now after years of deridment by those in the private sector.  I've heard this more than once, for example, from government lawyers who are nearing retirement and now see that their private sector fellows, who often chided them for sticking it out in "low paying" (which were really lower paying, not low paying) positions for decades.  Now the government sector lawyers are able to retire, while  many of those in higher paying private practices cannot.  Indeed, one comment of that type just appeared on an ABA website about retirement.

In the private sector manufacturing jobs became highly unstable, if they didn't disappear completely, and this spilled over into white collar occupations as well.  Much has been made of the fact that employees can't enter an occupation  and plan on sticking it out for their career for one reason or another.  One of the things little noted about that is that with that instability, has come the evaporation of retirement plans.  Retirement plans only make sense for long term employees, not short term ones. 

So, is this system broken?  Put another way, is it unrealistic?

That's hard to answer, but retirement is rapidly becoming something that is not nearly as certain for many people as it once was.  Social Security wasn't designed to provide a fancy retirement, just to keep people from falling into retired poverty, and it wasn't meant to cover 100% of the people who paid into it either.  Indeed, it still doesn't cover 100%, but in an era when medicine has made early deaths less common, more people now live into their old age and advanced old age.

But another aspect of this may simply be that expectations about retirements became unrealistic.  Truth be known, much of our concept of retirement is retirement as envisioned by the World War Two and Boomer generations, which was never the historical norm.  The abnormal economies of the 1940s through 1960s lead people, gradually, to an expectation of sort of a luxurious retirement, replete with a new home far away from where they'd worked.  Historically, however, in the 60 or so years prior to that, retirement just meant retirement in place and in scale.  People tended to live decades in one house which they'd paid off well before they retired.   When they retired, they stayed home, not traveled the globe and not dreaming of planting vineyards in Tuscany.

But in order to do that, a person has to have paid their debt down to next to nothing, or nothing, but the time they're in the 60s at least, if not their mid 50s.  Otherwise, they're going to have to have a pretty significant income in retirement.  That is unrealistic.

So, what does all of this mean?  Hopefully it doesn't mean that retirement has returned to its absolute historical norm, i.e., non existent.  But it does mean that the golden age of retirement is most likely over, at least for the foreseeable future, and in the type of economy we have now.  Social Security is already being readjusted to creep it back to its more historical demographic status, and ages of entitlement have started to go up.  I strongly suspect that will start occurring in government retirements as well, which are now strained.  Twenty year plans, where they exist, will disappear in favor of thirty year plans that only allow a draw once the recipient hits age sixty, much like Army Reserve retirements now work.  That'll probably continue as well.  For those retiring in the future, a paid off home with a garden in the backyard is probably a lot more likely than trips to France and vineyards in Tuscany.

Postscript

The New York Times has an article on retirees today noting that those who want to keep on working often have a hard time finding a job that suits them, and that those who have retired find they often like it better than they suppose.

I'm glad to read that really.  While its contrarian in nature, in our society, I find the general view that its great if people past retirement age can keep working, and that they really should. Should they, if they can retire?  I'm not so sure.  It's discouraging to think that the value of a person is measured only in their ability to work, and that for everyone it must be the case that all their adult years must be employed.  That says something about us, I think, as a society.

While it's also contrarian of me to mention it, this sort of taps into the theme of one of the Super Bowl advertisements from this year, in which an actor Neal McDonough discusses how in the US we get two weeks off per year for vacation (which is inaccurate for most Americans, most don't take all their vacation so they take less than that) while the French take August (which is also inaccurate, as the French also tend to extent their vacations with a general strike from time to time).  We're informed we're a can do sort of people, and at the end its suggested that our reward for that is a Cadillac.

Well, I have nothing against Cadillacs, but that advertisement sort of makes you wonder if you should go for a Peugeot instead and take August off.

The Big Speech: The Dream of the Rood

The Dream of the Rood: Translation by Richard Hamer

Translation of the dramatic Old English poem

Wyoming Jambalaya

Antelope summer sausage, frozen seafood package (shrimp, imitation crab, calamari) and red bean and rice mix.  Not bad.

Law Office Space: How Much Is Enough? - Attorney at Work - Attorney at Work

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Mid Week at Work: The Civil Air Patrol.

Photographs of the Civil Air Patrol during World War Two. The CAP was made up of civilian volunteers organized into an axillary of the Army Air Corps for the purposes of patrolling the coasts.  They detected over 100 submarines during the war.  The organization exists today as an axillary of the USAF and performs search and rescue operations.

What Pepsi Can Teach Us About Soft (Drink) Power In Russia : The Salt : NPR

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From the Wyoming Bench: Launch of iCivics in Wyoming

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Thursday, March 12, 1914. Weird fascinations.

 An issue of the Cheyenne paper from 1914 demonstrates that sexual mutilation of minors, just banned in the last legislative session, as been around for a long time, although ostensibly it exists for a different reason now than formerly.

Also interesting is that a Wyoming paper would bill itself as "Constructive Progressive".

Bishop McGovern's send-off was being filmed. 

The nation was reinforcing the Mexican border.

Last prior:

Monday, March 9, 1914. Surprising news on Mexico.

Today In Wyoming's History: Wyoming History in the Making: United States Supr...

Today In Wyoming's History: Wyoming History in the Making: United States Supr...: The United States Supreme Court issued its decision in Brandt v. United States. Supreme Court of the United States MARVIN M. BRA...

Interesting U.S. Supreme Court opinion, with potentially vast financial consequences.  And, while I haven't studied it yet, and haven't seen any commentary of this type, I wonder if it also will ultimately go on to be  present a basis for other arguments about the nature of Federal grants, which might have an even more vast, and entirely unintended, series of consequences.

The Moving Picture: Delivery truck and wagons. 1917

Sunday Stills-Barns in Black and White « Just Another Day On The Prairie

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The Big Picture: Camp MacArthur, Texas, 1918.

Society of the Military Horse • View topic - Women's Emergency Service Corps

Society of the Military Horse • View topic - Women's Emergency Service Corps

Monday, March 9, 1914. Surprising news on Mexico.

Jesús Salgado, a lieutenant of Emiliano Zapata, surrounded Chilpancingo, the capital of Guerrero, with s force of 5,000 men.

Other news of the Mexican Revolution hit the front page of the Laramie Boomerang, including some surprising "facts" about Pancho Villa.

The story on the fire in St. Louis was tragically accurate.

Mexico figured in the headlines of the Cheyenne paper as well.

Prime Minister H. H. Asquith proposed to allow Ulster to vote on whether to join a Home Rule parliament in Dublin.

YMCA Convention, Salina Kansas:

Last Prior:

Sunday, March 8, 1914. International Women's Day, Berlin.

Society of the Military Horse • View topic - Small Wars, Faraway Places

Society of the Military Horse • View topic - Small Wars, Faraway Places

Sunday, March 8, 1914. International Women's Day, Berlin.

Last prior:

Sunday, March 2, 1914. Avalon Bay, Santa Catalina Island

World War One Draft Quotas, by county, for Wyoming.

1932199_710184512335271_1525969620_n.jpg (JPEG Image, 960 × 720 pixels) - Scaled (83%)

Finds in the Week: Vintage Poster on Food, 1917

Finds in the Week: Vintage Poster on Food, 1917

We've posted on this topic in the past, but here's one we haven't posted

This particular one is sort of oddly contemporary, combining the current points of folks like Michael Pallin, the paleo diet folks, and even Pope Francis, here and there.

Y Cross, UW, CSU, Donations, Money, and Lost Opportunity

About 14 years ago the Denver owners of the Albany County Y Cross ranch donated it to the University of Wyoming and Colorado State University.  A clause of the accepted donation was that the schools could sell it after 14 years.  They now intend to do so.

I don't know much about how the ranch was used in the 14 years the schools have owned it.  It was supposed to be used for the purpose of teaching agriculture, but from what I read, it wasn't used much.  The former owners now say that they regret donating it to the schools, and frankly they should regret it.

This is hard to understand.  A 50,000 acre ranch, situated near both schools, should have provided a variety of opportunities for both schools to both teach practical agriculture and, in this day and age, perhaps also experiment a bit with "sustainable" agriculture, a topic which has been hot in agricultural fields in recent years.  Now those opportunities will be lost, and the ranch will simply be sued to generate money.

On that both schools would be well advised to note the history of the results of ignoring the wishes of donors.  Potential donors to both schools are now on notice that the schools feel free to sell donated assets as quickly as they can.  Not all donations are suitable for long term keeping and preservation, of course, but if that is the wish of the donors, they now know that neither UW or CSU can be depended upon to do any more than accepting the donation requires.  That may give such potential donors pause, or at least put them on notice that a restrictive clause in any donation may be necessary.  For some it may mean no donation at all, something that at least UW, which is under orders to cut back financially, may wish to rethink

Postscript

This matter remains pending in Court.  But, with the new University of Wyoming President emphasizing the land grant nature of the institution, and with a huge amount of turnover going on at the upper levels of the school, I wonder if its too much to hope for that the decision to depart with the Y Cross might be reconsidered? .

Postscript II

This is the Y Cross which UW and CSU jointly own:  Y Cross Ranch | Wyoming Ranches for Sale

I've posted an earlier thread, well really a compliant, on the plan to sell this facility.  This listing, I suppose, shows why the universities are so tempted, or rather have yielded to the temptation, to sell the place.  Quite a nice location.

Well,  the answer to this question; "I wonder if its too much to hope for that the decision to depart with the Y Cross might be reconsidered?" appears to be "yes, too much to hope for."

The Wyoming Supreme Court issued its decision yesterday concluding:

The district court correctly concluded that the donation from the Davis Interests to the University Foundations was a gift, that the MOA did not create an implied trust, and that only the attorney general has standing to enforce the terms of a charitable gift. We thus affirm the court’s dismissal of the complaint and amended complaint for lack of standing.

I'm not surprised and I'm sure the Court is correct, but it's disappointing anyway.  That disappointment must be directed at UW however, which still has the opportunity to behave correctly here, along with CSU, but which probably isn't going to.

The Moving Picture: San Francisco after the 1906 Earthquake

Film from San Francisco, after the 1906 earthquake.

Society of the Military Horse • View topic - National Geographic: People of the Horse

Society of the Military Horse • View topic - National Geographic: People of the Horse

The Big Picture: Fort (then Camp) Dix, New Jersey

*Updated* A Roaring Twenties Buick Snowmobile Conversion | The Old Motor

*Updated* A Roaring Twenties Buick Snowmobile Conversion | The Old Motor

Sunday, March 2, 1914. Avalon Bay, Santa Catalina Island

 Avalon Bay, Santa Catalina Island

There's not an App for that. WYDOT

Dear Wyoming Department of  Transportation, you need an App.

There's nearly an App for everything, but not for Wyoming road conditions.  I know I can sign up for email alerts and the like, but an App is what I really want, and what you really need.

With an App, I could worry just the necessary amount, without  having to turn the email on, on my phone, and hear the "ding, ding, ding" stream of emails as every road in the state turned cruddy, save perhaps for the few I care about.

Come on WYDOT, give us an App.

Putting the Bond Issue in Prospective. Comparative costs.

Here's another Natrona County School District graphic that helps put the bond in prospective.

 

As this graphic nicely demonstrates, other Wyoming school districts have also had bond issues in recent years, and the proposed Natrona County one is the most conservative really.   Other districts, including Carbon and Albany Counties, are funding much more of their recent construction via bonds.  And in our case, the overall amount is naturally higher, as we have four schools, as opposed to just one.  Albany County's bond, as we can see, nearly rivals ours in amount, with a  much smaller population base and a single school.

The Wyoming Lawyer February 2014: Technology and the pace of practice

Just below, I have an item on Jack Speight's recent article in the The Wyoming Lawyer.  In that, I only addressed his comments on the dress code of the 1960s, which was no doubt much like the dress code for the entire history of the Wyoming State Bar at that time, but not so much now.  He also had a very interesting comment on technology and the pace of practice, which was:

One of the main differences between now and last century in problem solving is the pace of law practice. We have gone from manual typewriters, carbon paper, onionskin, Dictaphones and ditto machines, to the electronic revolution and the related social media platforms and unlimited websites. We are in the realm now of instant communication, instant crisis, and instant problem solving compared to the good ol’ days of reflection and analysis. Gone are the days of the black rotary phone on the edge of the desk and the IBM electric typewriters. Now we have handhelds of various sizes, shapes, and functions and apps from Smartphones to iPads to tablets. Regardless of how we communicate and represent our clients, our role as problem solvers has not changed in providing service to the clients obtaining satisfactory results and handling their problems successfully.

This is very much the case, and I'm frankly not too certain that the practice of law hasn't suffered as a result.

What the author notes about instant communications is very true.  I was an early adopter of computer technology and use it a great deal. Perhaps I shouldn't applaud myself on that, however, as the computer had just arrived when I started practicing law, with the internet arriving on the scene almost at the same time.  I'd been taught to use the new technology of Westlaw at law school, although we did did not concentrate on its use for research. When I was first practicing law, almost no firm had a Westlaw account and we went to the county law library in order to use their Westlaw terminal. We were always very careful about using it, and typically sought permission from a client to use it when we did, as it we were charged by the minute to use it.  Now, every lawyer everywhere has Westlaw access and younger attorneys can't imagine a world in which it isn't the first thing that a person turns to when researching the law.

I was slower to adopt smartphones, and I've only had one so far.   I went to a smartphone so that I could check my email anywhere, but like most busy lawyers, I even use text messaging in practice, albeit carefully. 

The revolution in technology certainly has changed this aspect of the practice of law.  It must have been the case that in earlier eras lawyers had more time to ponder, if you will, any one legal topic.  Chances are high that they call carried more of a variety of legal topics as well, so the list of things they pondered was probably fairly large.  But the need to respond within hours, or even minutes, was no doubt relatively rare.

Casper Star Tribune Editorial board: OK the school district bond

The Casper Star Tribune has changed its position (reluctantly, given the pools) and is now supporting the bond.
While I wish the Tribune would more fully endorse the pool, they finally see the wisdom of the bond and are arguing for it.  The paper is very much endorsing the CAP enhancements, and essentially indicates that prior to the recent hearings it didn't fully understand the bond proposals.  Indeed, it's indicating that its changed its position now that the proposal has been fully explained.  It deserves credit for being willing to continue to analyze and to change its opinion, something that takes some degree of courage, but something which deserves respect.

I have to say, I appreciate the Tribune's current editor, even when I disagree with him, much more than the former one.  He seems much more careful and thoughtful in his approach to things, and the overall quality of the newspaper has improved.

The Bond Issue: The actual cost

This graphic, generated by the Natrona County School District, nicely shows the actual cost to Natrona County property owners for improving the safety and relevancy of their schools.  $100,000 is highlighted, although I don't know if that's the median value of a county house or not, real estate values have been rising here. But as the Tribune points out, even for the owner of a $300,000 home the actual cost is only about $65.00 per year, an amount a person with a home of that value would no doubt spend on a night out here, easily.  Going to dinner, for a family of four in Casper, no matter where you go, is nearly always going to result in a bill over $80,00.  So the costs for the bond are are quite minimal, particularly given the longevity and nature of the improvements.

For those just entering school, no doubt the scientific and technical additions at CAP will result in their graduating with better options in life, making the bond cost on an annual basis worth it in and of itself.  So too with the swimming pools, with the 1923 pool at NCHS, coming down this summer, being a prime example, given that the investment there lasted for nearly a century.

Wyoming Lawyer February 2014: Standards of Dress.

 Fairly typical office attire for me, shirt and tie.

The  Wyoming Lawyer February 2014 issue just came out, and in it there's an interesting article by Cheyenne lawyer Jack Speight.  Speight's article relates to the topic of this blog in more than one way, as he discusses his practice dating back to the 1960s.  I'll probably come back to another topic discussed in his very short article, but what struck me (and apparently him, even in recollection) was this item:

With fond remembrance of the mid- 1960s,Cheyenne attorneys had a helpful little booklet consisting of about 30 pages in a 5 ½” x 8 ½” format with the relatively shocking title “Minimum Fee Schedule.” In addition to the obvious, the last page of this helpful little booklet spelled out a proper dress code for working in the office on Saturday mornings.Only on Saturday, ties were not required but a sports jacket or suit coat was still mandated. Naturally, the good ol’ boys who created the “Minimum Fee Schedule” and dress code did not give any direction on appropriate office attire for women, even though in the mid-1960s Cheyenne enjoyed the services of two outstanding women attorneys, Brooke Wunnicke and Ellen Crowley

This item is interesting for a variety of reasons (I wish somebody would publish a booklet of minimum fee schedules now). The reason I note it here is due to the dress code.

When I was in law school I remember learning in some class, probably trial practice, that dress in court was addressed by a rule, which it was.  Shortly after I graduated a new rule on courtroom decorum came in, which was less specific, in part, because the drafter of the rules were having a hard time handling the topic of female dress.  It isn't that female dress was inappropriate, its just hard to describe.  When I first started practicing we were told, however, what the rules were, and that there was a "warm weather" exception that allowed lawyers to dispense, in courtroom hearings, with jackets.

In the office, there were no longer any formal rules for lawyers, but there were informal ones that were reluctantly dying.  In our office, and older staffer informally enforced rules and what a person could and could not wear. Generally, if we weren't going to court, we could wear khakis and polo shirts.  I often, even then, wore jeans but not blue jeans.

Over time, this has really changed.  I can't say that there are any more real rules anymore, in any office, in so far as I can tell.  Many lawyers still wear ties every day, or most days, but many do not. Some routinely wear jeans in about every office.  It's been quite a change.  In the courtroom the rules haven't really changed, of course, and there's even one judge who made it known that he doesn't appreciate khaki trousers in the courthouse.

The change clearly started coming in during the 1970s.  I didn't have any experience with law offices at that time, but I do remember that doctors and dentist always wore ties.  Dentists still seem to even now, but doctors often do not.  

I can't say if this change is good or bad, but I do know that people expect members of various professions to have a certain look, even depicting them that way in popular media when it no longer reflects reality.  Generals in the military are always depicted wearing their dress uniforms, policemen are always depicted in blue.  Lawyers are depicted in suit and tie. While I violate this convention frequently myself, there's something to meeting these expectations.

The Bond Issue: The Mike Sedar Swimming Pool

The City of Casper's elected board, the City Council, has just voted to postpone rebuilding the decommissioned Mike Sedar Swimming Pool.

The old pool, which was ripped out either last summer or the summer before, was one of the principal pools in the town.  It was a 25  yard pool, and as amazing as it may seem to some, it was used for AAU swimming competitions when I was a kid.  Meter pools were rare at the time, and the pool had starting platforms at that time allowing it to be used in that fashion.  Principally built as a recreational pool (when most recreational pools were of a conventional construction) it also had a side area for a high dive, which was taken out some time ago based upon some concept of the appropriate depth for that, which it didn't meet.

Now it isn't there at all and now the city is pushing back its plan to rebuild the pool, which was going to be rebuilt in a much more elaborate, recreational pool, fashion.  The city noted that costs were going to be higher than what it anticipated but it also noted that it wanted to wait and see how the school district bond issue progressed.  In other words, they recognize the need for a pool, but may hold back to see if the school district, whose needs exceed the city's, achieves success in the bond issue thereby giving the city a little breathing room.

This is a distressing development.  In an era in which the news media here and all the government entities are telling us that the populations of the county is projected to rise, we seem reluctant to replace and repair (which is all we're really doing) those facilities that earlier generations of Casperites built, with smaller resources.  Right now we''re taking out one high school pool entirely and hopefully will be able to replace it.  Two others are in distress and need to be addressed.  A city pool has been removed and there's some question as to whether it will be replaced.  The old outdoor pool at Kelly Walsh was removed some time ago, and it was a city pool, and it was never replaced.  A party took a serious run at trying to grossly restrict or take out a local rifle range this past year. 

I'm not saying that a city needs to have everything, but in order to be a nice place to live it needs some facilities. And when the ones we have start to disappear and there's questions as to whether they'll be replaced, that's a long term problem.

BBC News - How Land Girls helped feed Britain to victory in WW1

BBC News - How Land Girls helped feed Britain to victory in WW1

Friday, February 27, 1914. The River of Doubt.

Mexican strongman Victoriano Huerta promised an investigation into the death of Clemente Vergara while, at the same time, Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan announced that the Texas Rangers would not be allowed to cross into Mexico to arrest the suspect Mexican soldiers.

Theodore Roosevelt's and Brazilian explorer Cândido Rondon's expedition team reached Caceres, Brazil, to begin exploration of the Rio da Dúvida, an event from which Roosevelt's health would never recover by the time it was done.

The Vanderbilt Cup race was held.

Locally, the news was asbestos, but not the way it hits the news currently.

Wednesday February 26, 1914. Suggesting crossing the border.

Governor of Texas Oscar Branch Colquitt suggested in a telegram to Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan that Texas Rangers could cross into Mexico and retrieve the body of murdered Texas Rancher Clemente Vergara.  The Federal Government informed Colquitt that would be an act of war and refused his request.

The HMHS Britannic was launched in Belfast.

Closer to home, the news was all local.

I wonder what about the Poodle Dog Cafe made it a "Resort for Gentlemen".  That's usually code for something now, but I suspect that isn't what was meant.

The Natrona County School Board votes "yes" on the bond issue

The School Board voted to submit the bond issue, discussed below, to the voters for an election to be held on May 6.  I'll post the text of the issue when I have a chance, but here's a "huzzah" to the Board!

Numbers and history. How an inaccurate understadning of history leads to the innaccurate headline that the U.S. Army is being cut to pre World War Two levels

It's being reported today that the Department of Defense is preparing to reduce the size of the Army to between 440,000 to 450,000 active duty soldiers.  This is being reported as cutting the size of the Army back to "pre World War Two levels", which is inaccurate.  This, in turn, shows how not really understanding history, leads to some erroneous assumptions.

The cuts create the smallest size for the Army since 1940, but that fails to take into account that 1940 saw the introduction of the conscription in anticipation of World War Two and the Federalization of the National Guard. The size of the Army in 1939 was about 200,000 active duty soldiers, with there being an additional 200,000 National Guardsmen.  When Congress allowed for the mobilization of the Guard in 1940, it also brought in Conscription.  That may mean that there was very briefly a period, in 1940, when the U.S. Army had about 400,000 men in it, but that would have been very brief.

The current size of the Army National Guard is 358,000 men, which is an enormously smaller number than there were at the Guard's post World War Two Cold War height.  However, the size of the Army Reserve adds another 250,000 men.  In 1939, the Reserve was very, very small, essentially being made up of officers only, with a few supporting enlisted men. There really weren't any organized Reserve unis, outside of medical ones.

So, if fully mobilzed, for purpose of the comparison, the size of the Army in all is branches today would still be over 1,000,000 men. 

In considering these numbers, we also have to keep in mind that the Army of 1939 (and 1940) included Army Air Corps, the predecessor of the U.S. Air Force, which presently has 334,000 active service members, and 178,000 reservists of all types.  Therefore, to make the comparison fully accurate the branch that existed prior to World War Two, on the active side, would be compared to a present number of over 1,500,000 active duty personnel.

Still, it is quite a drop in numbers.

But it's not accurate to compare it to the pre World War Two Army.

USDA Blog » Digging into a Farm’s History Helps Teach About Soil

USDA Blog » Digging into a Farm’s History Helps Teach About Soil

The Moving Picture: European (Italian?) Cavalry