Century Delayed Synchronicity?

The New York Times is reporting today that demonstrations spontaneously broke out in at least one airport yesterday over President Donald Trump's Executive Order (now stayed, maybe, by a Federal Court) barring entry by citizens of certain nations.

And yesterday, we reported here, on the start of three days of rioting, in 1917, over the recently imposed delousing policy of the United States on the Mexican border.  What we didn't note, but likely should have, is that rioting spread from El Paso to at least one other border town.

Anyhow, interesting sort of similarities.  It isn't history strictly repeating itself, but history rarely does that.  But it's in the same room.  Entrants from another nation that was experiencing a civil war and policies regarding the same.

And both at ports of entry.

The Wyoming Legislature. Remembering to wait awhile.

Unlike Congress, the small size of Wyoming's legislature means that a lot of bills get introduced.

I was going to comment on several that were floating around, but they died or were withdrawn before I could do that.

Which brings this up.

This year there's been a lot of angst over certain bills, some of which is fully justified. The proposed amendment to the state Constitution, for example, was one to definitely worry about.

But most of the odder or controversial bills in the state legislature go nowhere.  People get up in arms about them, but they expire.

The wind tax, for example, went nowhere.  A bill to attempt to address potential discrimination against government employees who find it unconscionable to participate in some fashion, in their official roles, in homosexual unions, was withdrawn by its sponsor.  That one received such attention that you'd have thought it authorized burning at the stake, or something, but it didn't, and the fact that its a difficult topic and the law is difficult to draft was acknowledged by the author in its withdrawal.  One pending right now that would require people to use only the bathroom of the gender reflected on their birth certificate is likely not going to go anywhere, even though its still pending.

This serves, I guess, as a reminder that a person really needs to take a wait and see, sometimes, view towards the legislature.

Not always, of course.

But unlike Congress, which has a highly decentralized and anti democratic method of drafting, folding and mutilating legislation, a lot more stuff gets down on the floor of the legislature before it evaporates. 

And actually, Congress would function better if it functioned more that way.  At least it would let you know what your representation was really doing, and it'd mean there were more consequences for them for what they were doing at that.

Random Snippet: Imagine a world where people actually looked behind their oft asserted claims

Analysis isn't actually a human long suit.  Taking refuge in commonly repeated supposed facts is.  This is extremely common, and unfortunate.  It's a way that people take comfort in their own preformed assumptions so they don't have to look at the facts.  Consider this statement, circulating on a Facebook story right now.

For example, one of my left wing friends has one of those Facebook photo meme things up which states:  Imagine A World Where "Pro Life" Efforts Included Feeding Hungry Children".

Well. . . you live in that world right now.

But that doesn't fit a weird and common narrative.  People on the pro abortion part of this debate take comfort in the supposed notion that pro life people are in favor of the death penalty and ignore the needs of distressed children.  They ought to spend some time with those folks.

I'm rather obviously not in favor of killing people at any stage of their life, but I don't get any credit for doing anything public, pretty much about anything.  But I know people who are very dedicated to pro life issues and, if anything, they would make some feel uncomfortable with the degree to which they are devoted to helping actual living people.  As a rule, I've found that most people who hold pro life issues are radically pro life. . . they oppose the death penalty for example and are dedicated to helping any living soul.  One activist I know here is involved in pre natal health care in a big way and towards trying to help single mothers.

So why the false assumption?

Because it's easy and it doesn't make those holding the other view squirm.  In reality, those who argue its a choice don't want to be talking about the level of choices which this brings up, and it does.  If, for example, a mother has the choice, all on her own, to kill the unborn, why then the state surely has the choice to kill the criminal. . . or maybe just those whose life it deems unworthy.  It gets those folks out of admitting that most abortions are for reasons of convenience, no matter how distressed the carrying mother is, rather than anything larger.  That's far from noble.  Better to come at things with a false "I'm rubber you're glue" argument.

There's a lot of things like this.  It's unfortunate as it makes the quality of actual debate pretty poor.

Also making it poor, I'd note, is the citation of mystery statistics.  "2/3s of marriages end in divorces".  No, they don't.  You hear that all the time, and then people go on to try to make some point from there.  But the point you're delivering is impaired from the onset if your data was messed up.

Blog Mirror: What Downton Abbey doesn’t tell you about the First World War (Part 1)

What Downton Abbey doesn’t tell you about the First World War (Part 1)

January 20, 2017 ~ woostersauce2014

Downton Abbey’s first series in 2010 which opened in 1912 with the sinking of the Titanic ended in 1914 with the outbreak of the First World War- and such was the popularity of the first series that a second one was commissioned by ITV and was telecast in 2011.. .

Churches of the West: First Baptist Church, Jeffrey City, Wyoming

Churches of the West: First Baptist Church, Jeffrey City, Wyoming:    

 

 

The First Baptist Church in Jeffrey City, Wyoming.  Other than its location, I don't know anything about it.

The Office Boy.

15 year old office boy in  the office of N.Y., N.H. & H.R.R. coal yard, January 29, 1917.  My grandfather was doing this same job, about this same year, for the Cunard Steam Ship Company in San Fransisco.  He was 13 years old.  A great grandfather had occupied the same job, a few decades earlier, also as a teenager, in an insurance company.

Teenage labor at the curtain factory, January 29, 1917

Edward McGurin, 14 years old.

Florence Anderson, 15 years old.

Katherine Flanagan, 15 years old.

Sadie McGurin, 15 years old.

Gertrude Belier, 15 years old.

Bessie Blitch, 15 years old.

Helen Whitty, 15  years old.

The Coal Thieves

Boston Massachusetts, on this day, in 1917.

Teenage female Labor in the flower factory. Boston, January 29, 1917

Margaret Reddington, age 14.  Powdering roses at the Boston Floral Supply Company.

Celina Melcionno, 14 years old, waxing flowers at the Boston Floral Supply Company.

Sadie Singer, age 15, Boston Floral Supply Company, racking flowers.

Margaret Ciampa, 14 years old, finishing flowers.

Corinne Le May, 15 years old, bunching sweet peas.

Left to right, Beatrice Sicco, Pauline Steele,and Mary Donahue, all 15 years old, working on flowers.

I can't help but wonder how many of these teenage girls were immigrants themselves or first generation Americans.  Lots of Irish and Italian last names in there.

The Old and the New

Some people really like new things.

Some really like old things.

Some people, like me, like things and designs with utility, whether they're old or new.  I tend to think a lot of new things being as many problems as they supposedly solve, if anything is solved by them at all, and I don't grasp getting new things because they are new.

This topic comes up for two reasons, or rather due to two recent experiences, both of which I feel badly about.

The first one is that for a long time I've been accustomed to getting a cup of coffee early in the morning, well prior to our newspaper coming.  I usually eat breakfast and then check the computer.

We have some big flat bottomed coffee cups.  I always use those cups.  Part of the reason is that they have a really big, flat, bottom.  They won't easily tip over and spill.

Recently my wife bought new dishes.  I don't know why, although our bowls were getting a bit chipped.  I said nothing about it as this is the sort of thing that people who like new things like.  Personally, I'd keep using the old set until it was broken, etc., beyond utility.  

The new set came with new coffee cups.  Probably a half dozen of them. When I saw them, I thought to myself "oh no".

The reason for that is that they have rounded bottoms.  Perfect for spilling.  There's no earthly way that these are going to stay consistently upright.  So, ever since the new dishes came in, I've quietly avoided the new cups like the plague.

Until today.  All the other coffee cups were dirty so I used one.

When I get the paper, I put the cup on the carpeted floor of the second story, just above the door.  Well, the rounded cups roll right over when you do that, as I learned today.  It spilled at least a half cup of coffee right on a pair of my wife's new winter boots by the door.  I'm sure she's mad, but she's not saying anything about it.

Why did we get these horrible cups?  I have no idea, but I'll never use another one as long as I live.  The old ones had more utility.  Indeed, when I refilled my coffee t his morning, I just used one of my dirty coffee cups.  Oh well.

This past week we've been doing a lot of driving for sad reasons.  Earlier in the week, as part of that, I drove my wife's Tahoe about 600 miles over the course of the day.

She loves the car.  It replaced an older Suburban we had.  I always thought the Suburban had a lot of utility left in it and it wasn't close to being worn out, but for some reason, she insisted we had to have a new vehicle for her.  We got a really good deal on it.

It's an amazing car.  It has more technology than anything we've every had before and it does a lot of amazing things.  And I hate it.

I drive, most days, a 1997 Jeep.  It's been suggested to me by my wife that I should get a new Jeep, as she hates my old Jeep.  I don't understand that at all.  I bought the Jeep just a couple of years ago so I could outfit it (which I still haven't really accomplished) for local hunting and fishing purposes, and to carry my canoe around in the summer, but I do drive it most days.  I don't want a new one. . . ever.  I want to get this one fixed up like I want.

When I don't drive that, I drive a 2007 Dodge D3500 Diesel 4x4.  I agonized over buying that truck, but as we couldn't carry everyone in my single cab Ford F250, and as it really was wearing out, we went with it.  It has no bells and whistles.  It even still has the manual window cranks.  I've put a nice radio in it, but that's its only upgrade.  It has a standard transmission.  I love it.

But this week I drove the Tahoe.  It has more technological crap going than I'll ever be able to use and I can hardly operate most of its features without messing something up.  I really don't get why most of these things were considered good additions to the vehicle.  

The irony is that just recently I had some trouble with the D3500, but I fixed it.  I started to blog about that at the time, but I didn't finish it. Anyhow, while doing that I was seriously considering if I should get a new truck.  I asked my brother in law, who has a nearly new Chevrolet diesel, about his, and he loves it. But the Tahoe made up my mind.  No way am I ever replacing the D3500.

The fortunate thing is, I suppose, that at my age, 53, I'm on the downhill path of temporal existence and therefore my affliction with new technology, for technologies sake, will be limited.  That sounds horrible but I truly think we've passed over a curve with technology and its rapidly becoming the enemy of man, rather than a benefit.  We adopt it, as people, because that's what people do.  New is good, old is bad, we think, save for a few limited cultures.

But that link of thinking isn't necessarily correct.

Best Posts of the Week of January 22, 2017

The best post of the week of January 22, 2017.

The Messengers

The Child Newsies

The Delivery Boys

The Office Girls

USS Mississippi launched, January 25, 1917

Teenage labor in the bed spring factory. January 25, 1917.

The teenage dress makers, January 25, 1917

Scenes of Child Labor in Boston, 1917.

An immigration crisis. The Bath Riots of 1917 commence

Poster Saturday: Back Him Up!

An immigration crisis. The Bath Riots of 1917 commence

As if things weren't getting scary enough, on this day in 1917 three days of rioting commenced at the border crossing station in El Paso, Texas.

 Women's Bath, El Paso.

The riots were a collateral affect of the United States deciding to withdraw from Mexico. With that decision having been made thousands of Mexicans who had looked to the United States reluctantly as protectors from Villa made plans and too efforts to live elsewhere.

It was at this precise moment that American authorities determined that entering Mexican immigrants needed to be deloused and vaccinated.  There had been no real concern amongst American authorities but there was a concern amongst American politicians that Mexicans entering the US would spread Typhus.  So the US Public Health Service came up with a plan to delouse entrants which involved baths plus chemical delousing and steaming of clothing, and chemical delousing of hair.  The effort was rigorous and obviously intrusive.

This caused concerns to Mexicans and those concerns increased when rumors circulated that the nude women had been photographed in the process, which may in fact have been the case.  This could have been done not for the prurient  interests of the photographers, but rather the US was entering an era when the official photographing of all such things became increasingly common.  However, there were also rumors that the photographs were circulating in cantinas.  Additionally, the chemicals used on hair were a mixture of kerosene and vinegar which and, in an era and culture in which smoking was common, there was a valid fear over this setting people up for tragic accidents.  Additionally, smoking was common amongst Mexican women at that time, and had been for many years, in contrast to American women, who generally did not smoke at the time.  While steps were allowed to allow hair to dry for thirty minutes, the concern that this would raise is obvious.

Making the matter all the more touchy, a considerable number of Mexicans crossed daily into El Paso from Juarez to work and were subjected to the delousing, a rather obviously unnecessary occurrence for daily entrants.

On this day, at 7:30 in the morning, US officials stopped a trolley of Mexican women entering to work which included 17  year old maid Carmelita Torres. She refused to submit and asked for a refund of her fare, which was refused.  They women then reacted and a largely female riot ensued, followed by an increasingly large riot on the bridge over the Rio Grande.  Rioting continued for three days and ultimately it was controlled by the deployment of American and Mexican Constiutionalist cavalry.

Also, by the 30th, the practices were changed to address the complaints.  Mexican Health certificates were accepted by U.S. authorities and a Mexican health official was stationed in the American facility to make sure that no improper or offensive conduct occurred.  Torres' reaction, therefore, was effective in addressing her concerns, although a new immigration policy that would shortly come in made much of the changes somewhat obsolete in the face of larger changes.

The Sheridan Enterprise for January 28, 1917. Conflict at the border.

The fighting at the border wasn't news just in Cheyenne.  It also hit Sheridan, in far northern Wyoming, on the same day, showing what a concern it truly was.

Cheyenne State Leader for January 28, 1917. Utah Guard Crosses Mexican border?

Just two days ago we noted the centennial of a Punitive Expedition Era clash between "Mexican forces" and the Utah National Guard.

On this day, residents of Wyoming were reading about it in their papers.

Folks in Cheyenne learned that the Mexican forces were Constitutionalist troops, which I believe to be accurate.  They also read, however, that the Utah Guard crossed the border into Mexico.

That would have been a hugely significant matter, if correct.  Generally, National Guard units were not supposed to cross the border into Mexico, and in the opinion of the United States Attorney General at the time, couldn't leave the country at all (although they certainly had in prior eras).  Unfortunately, with the passage of time, it's difficult to tell if they did cross for sure or not.  I suspect they did, as the newstory rings true for the time.

The Punitive Expedtion: The withdrawal commences. January 27, 1917.

U.S. forces begin their withdrawal from Mexico., thereby starting the process of leaving the country that they first entered in March, 1916.

While I've already commented on the decision to withdraw in an earlier post, and while it doesn't square with the general commentary regarding the U.S. decision to withdraw, positing this in Century Delayed Real Time has made me wonder what the sense of the event was in 1917.  Perhaps the rising specter of American involvement in the Great War greatly overshadowed to the extent it was largely consumed by that, but the news of the past week, with American National Guardsmen engaging Constitutionalist troops in combat on the border (and as we will see, the Utah National Guard actually crossing into Mexico, as well as upcoming events in the next few days, give this story a real Fall of Saigon retrospective feel to it.  It really has the aura, looking back, of collapse.  But perhaps not at the time?

Friday Farming: Army Ranger to rancher: Reinventing ranching with Wagyu beef

Army Ranger to rancher: Reinventing ranching with Wagyu beef

Beacon Street house being demolished, Boston, January 27, 1917.

Note the wood being scavenged.

Firewood location, City of Boston, 1917

On this day, in 1917, in Boston.

Firewood in Boston. . . something that wouldn't be a daily occurrence now.

Scenes of Child Labor in Boston, 1917.

Very young newsie.

On this day, in 1917.

Street vendor

 

Selling oranges

  Selling celery

 Selling balloons.

Selling bananas.

Selling firewood.

Selling fruit.

Collecting bags to be mended.

Selling lemons

Selling lemons.

Selling lemons.

Selling lemons.