2015 In Review

It hasn't been my habit here to do end of the year reviews, and indeed there are no doubt more items on Medieval history on this site than there are on the year 2015.  So, this is an exception and departure from the norm.  Perhaps it will become the custom, or perhaps not.  We will see.

This year I'm doing one, however, as this year has really been an exceptional year for Wyoming, and not at all in a good way, but in a way that has been somewhat predictable.  We entered an oil crash.

Early Wyoming oil field.

Now, oil crashes aren't new to Wyoming, but this one may prove to be unique and a watershed.  Only time will tell, but the evidence sort of eerily suggests that it might be.

Our prior oil crashes, to the extent I'm aware of them, came in 1919, 1946, 1964 or so, 1981 or 82, with a mini crash in 2008. 2008 gets tossed around a lot in reference to this, but it was actually a fairly small downturn. A lot of Wyomingites truly did not notice it at all or just viewed it as background noise to the larger Great Recession which was threatening to take the country into a Depression for the first time since the 1930s.

The 1919 crash was caused by the end of World War One, which caused almost all of Wyoming's industries to enter into a downturn.  Likewise, the 1946 downturn followed the end of World War Two.  I'm not sure what caused  the downturn of the 1960s, although I do know that from the way my folks spoke of it, things were tight.  The 1981 crash was simply a cyclical crash in the industry following the overheated 1970s, which had been overheated due to the real arrival of OPEC as an industry force.

Every time these things happen there's a lot of introspection and regret, and we ponder "diversifying" the economy.  But we never actually do.  And while we tried to do that some in the 1980s and 1990s, once oil came back on strong again, brought about by high prices and huge advances in drilling technology, we forgot about that.  Now, maybe, we're set to pay the price.

The number of rigs operating in Wyoming fell last year from 60 in 2014 to a present 10.  That's a stunning drop off.  There have been a lot of oil industry layoffs nationwide.  The price at the pump has dramatically fallen. Yesterday I saw gasoline for sale in Casper for $1.68, and diesel for sale at $2.09.  It drops a little almost every day.  Oil is at $37.00 bbl.

All of this has been brought about by Saudi Arabia taking the stops off of Saudi production and not allowing OPEC limits to be set.  There's some debate as to their intent, but it now seems clear that the goal was to crush increasing North American production.  North American production had increased so much that, with other things added in, the US once again became an energy exporter.  Beyond that, however, there's the question as to why Saudi Arabia would so desire to do that.  It only makes sense, really, if they have a definitive goal in mind, which would seem to be to dominate production for the next twenty years.  If that's the case, that's because they themselves figure that they'll either be out of the market in that time or that petroleum will no longer be the global transportation fuel it now is.  My guess is that they've calculated the latter, and therefore they need to maximize their return until they can shift their economy to something new.  They are working on that.

However, they aren't actually crushing North American production.  Rather, they're crushing new exploration.  American production, oddly enough, hasn't dropped at all.  It's keeping on keeping on.  And that means that Saudi Arabia is now in giant game of chicken.

Nobody quite expected this, or the remainder of the things that seem to go along with it.  Production hasn't declined.  Prices are dropping.  Consumption isn't rising.  It may simply be that the new world arrived sooner than anyone anticipated.

And as part of that new world, Coal is in the ICU, and the prognosis isn't good.  If petroleum is in trouble right now, coal look like it's just checking out entirely.  Ironically, one of Wyoming's other principal extractive industries, natural gas, is largely responsible for that.  If people would get over their entirely irrational fear of nuclear power, uranium would undoubtedly show up for the coup de grace.

 

Coal truck in a static display in Wright Wyoming.

So what, exactly, is going on?  Well, it would seem that we're in a new era in terms of fossil fuel demand.  Coal is out of favor, and even though Wyoming has continued to hope for a "clean coal" technology that would change that it appears unlikely that this is going to occur any time soon.  Indeed, concerns over global warming have all but put coal on the terminal list.

While that's been occurring, natural gas has been on the rise, but there's a lot of it. So, not only is it a cleaner fuel than coal, and perhaps just an easier one to use in general, its very abundant.  This has depressed the cost here and indeed gas remains so abundant that the state continues to allow it to be flared, which is something that the state may come to regret at some point in the future.

Gasoline, jet fuel, and diesel fuel are, of course, all transportation fuels, which coal has long since ceased to be.  But here, even though they are now in surplus and the price has dropped production isn't decreasing and demand isn't rising. That's the first time that's every occurred.  And it appears to be occurring as Americans have sort of moved on from being real fans of automobiles.  They're switching to other means of transportation and they're comfortable with automobiles that are fueled by other means.  So, the Petroleum Age may actually be on the way out.

Of course, as I write this, Saudi Arabia has severed relations with Iran, so we may be on the cusp of a big fuel price jump, and the state's worries will be partially over. We'll see.  Having said that, on the first business day of the crisis, the price of oil went down, not up.

The decline of fossil fuel production here puts the state's workforce really in jeopardy.  The fact that things haven't gotten any worse than they have, and that the state's economy has basically remained stable during this period, is due to two other primary industries in the state doing well last year, with those industries being construction and agriculture. Things are not as well situated, however, for 2016.

Large scale construction has kept on keeping on as there were some huge projects that were funded earlier, and begun earlier, that are keeping the construction industry going.  Massive school construction, often started as much as three years ago, keeps on keeping on, and will for the next couple of years.  After that, however, it will drop off on its own and, beyond that, as its funded by coal severance taxes the means of starting new projects is severely imperiled. 

Highway construction has also been going on, and at least that is funded in part by the Federal Government, as is Abandoned Mine recovery.  So some of that will at least continue.

The irony of all of that, of course can't help but be noted as Wyoming has never been a state that has been very keen on the government boosting the economy through projects, but that sort of thing kept our economy from collapsing last year.  Therefore, we're in the ironic situation of having a sort of New Deal type of economy going on here, even though we'd be loath to intentionally cause that to occur. This is something that the legislature should ponder in the upcoming budget session for a number of reasons. For one thing, it's been a major factor in keeping the state's economy from collapsing. Secondly, since Wyoming no longer funds school construction locally, and perhaps can't given the Wyoming Supreme Court's decisions on school equality over the past couple of decades, some other source of school income is going to have to be found.

Agriculture and tourism were the other elements of our economy that kept the state afloat last year.  High cattle prices for most of the year combined with lower fuel prices boosted agricultural income in the state. And tourism did well as well.

Indeed, I tend to think of tourism and agriculture as part of the same land based section of the economy.  I don't know that they fully appreciate that they're part and parcel of the same larger section of the economy, but they really are.  Without the type of agriculture we have, the state would be much less attractive to tourist.  And people who come in to hunt and fish wouldn't to the same degree.  This is something that should be kept in mind by those in the legislature who boost land "reversal" schemes against the Federal government.

 

Agriculture did well in 2015, but whether this continues on into 2016, with cattle prices very much fallen, is an open question.

Speaking (or reading) of the legislature, that body is about to go into its biannual budget session and it has a lot on its hands.  Indeed, all governmental bodies presently do.  The state appears set to dip into the "rainy day fund" for the first time ever, in spite of a reduced budget.  A  hiring freeze in on in state government.  The counties are hurting, and the City of Casper is running a deficit.  Things will have to be addressed.

Part of what will ultimately have to be addressed is where money is going to come from in the future.  Coal does not appear to be set to return, so severance taxes appear to be a poor future bet for school funding.  The state's resistant to any sort of personal taxation.  Something is going to have to give on the money raising, or money spending, end, and new ways to generate revenue are ultimately going to have to be explored.

If there's a positive legislative side to this, what it would appear to be so far is that people appear to be fairly realistic, and extreme positions such as those backed by some recent libertarian groups do not seem to be getting much traction so far in advance of the upcoming sessions.  Bold ideas to get the Federal government out of this or that no longer appear to matter much.  It's clear that its the Saudi government, not the US government, that's impacting the price of oil and the ship has sailed on the concept that but for the Federal government coal would be doing fine, so we need to get the government out of this our that.  People are more worried about just working.

Indeed it might be a time that the state could actually look towards the two sections of our economy that are working and ponder if some state intervention in that category might be warranted.  We've been loath to follow the Depression Era examples of North and South Dakota, which started state owned flour and cement mills, but the fact remains that we don't do anything to do produce our raw products.  We have no packing houses, woolen mills, etc.  Perhaps the state ought to consider the example of North Dakota Mill (which actually started in 1922, prior to the Great Depression but in a farm depression) and see if there's a way to recapture some of that processing money.

So much for the grim economic news of 2015.

Other things did happen, of course.  

Casper endured a big fire just outside of town.

 

New state officials took office, following a quite contentious election in 2014.  That election saw libertarian elements, which seriously challenged the GOP establishment, do poorly.  The extremely controversial Cindy Hill failed in her bid to unseat Governor Mead in the primaries and a new head of State Education took her place, leaving that office in a state of present low controversy.

One Federal office holder, the recently widowed Cynthia Loomis, announced that she was stepping down at the end of term as Congressman.  

A couple of interesting things happened in the Courts.  One is that Federal District Court Judge Skavdahl held that the 10th Circuit's ruling anticipating the Supreme Court's ruling on same gender marriage was the law in Wyoming.  His opinion struck at least me as harsh in some respects and he drew some criticism on the opinion.  The Federal judiciary nationwide has not had a good year in my opinion, as its most notable opinion was so blatently devoid of a sustainable concept of legal reasoning, no matter what you think of the issue at hand, so this fits into that mix, a mix which seems to have created an increased degree of contempt for the Federal Government.

Locally, the charade of a CLE being part of the Uniform Bar Exam was dropped and the State Bar's total surrender to any element of Wyoming law as part of the process of being admitted to practice law in the state was complete.  Over the year, as predicated, out of state admissions increased steadily in a trend that does not bode well for the state's lawyers or its population.  So here too we suffer an economic detriment.  Law, which was long a career option for Wyomingites who had been dropped out of the mineral industry while young, or who had no place on the family ranch, or who were from a Wyoming town or city and they desired to stay here, will  no longer be as much of a realistic option.  The new "Wyoming" lawyers are increasingly located in Denver Colorado, so while the mineral industry sustains an economic disaster due to Saudi Arabia, law starts to suffer an economic downturn due to the Wyoming Supreme Court's insistence on adopting the UBE.

Where all of this leaves us, of course, is unknown.  Human beings are notoriously unable to predict the future.  But to take a stab at it, it appears that the Petroleum Age may have entered a new phase, and combined with the demise of coal, we may have entered a new economic age in Wyoming.  That age might feature somewhat of a return of agriculture to center stage.  What that means in the towns and cities is yet to be determined, but a long term gravitational pull of Denver and Salt Lake City is becoming stronger due to modern economic forces and, in the case of the law, the push of the state's bar south.

2016 should be interesting.

Lex Anteinternet: Coming back to the past: Vince Crolla

Coming back to the past: Vince Crolla

An article on Vince Crolla, who took a different path than most law school graduates and is now the archivist at Casper College's Western History Center.

A very nice fellow, I met him when I gave a talk on my book up there.

I'd note that as archival material, old law books (those are in the CC collection), don't have much value any more, or at least that'd be my view. With everything on Westlaw and Lexus, the need to maintain a library of case books, which is what those are, has pretty much vanished.

The New (upcoming) $10.00 Bill and Esther Hobart Morris. What about Nellie Tayloe Ross

The new $10.00 bill, design yet to be announced, will feature the image of a woman on it for the first time since 1896.  If you've seen this reported, you've probably seen it stated that this will be the first time a woman has been featured on U.S. paper money, or even "U.S. currency", but that's wholly incorrect.  Martha Washington was on the $1.00 silver certificate briefly in the early 1890s, and allegorical women have been on bank notes of various kinds as well, perhaps even after that.  Susan B. Anthony was on the unpopular $1.00 coin from 1979 to 1981, and Sacajawea  has been in the $1.00 coin since 2000, so putting a woman on the $10.00 bill is not quite as novel as some apparently believe.

At any rate, there's a move afoot to have Esther Hobart Morris appear on the $10.00 bill.  Hobart, of course, appears here on several different entries:

February 17

1870  Esther Hobart Morris officially appointed Justice of the Peace. As noted, she was approved for this position several days prior.

 Ester Hobart Morris statute on the Wyoming State Capitol Grounds.

Putting Mrs. Morris on the $10.00 bill would certainly given a serious sober look to our $10.00 bill, given her stern visage, but it's not going to happen.  Not that her 1870 territorial appointment as the first female Justice of the Peace in the United States wasn't a significant event, it was, but her eight difficult months in that role (she wasn't universally accepted by any means) just don't measure up enough in terms of a national presence to merit that sort of memorial, and it won't be happening.  Indeed, it's a bit odd that Wyoming would back this when we consider that the appointment was a very local one, and a Territorial one, as opposed to one that we did as a state.  For a Territorial figure to merit a presence on a $10.00 bill, she'd have to have real national renown.

Which Sacajawea does.  

I've always been a fan of the Sacagawea coin and, heck, maybe I'm just a fan of Sacajawea. But the Shoshone teenager was as tough as nails and representative, I think, of a lot of the things Wyomingites admire. She basically overcame kidnapping, involuntary servitude and the natural environment to rise to a a known figure in our nation.  And she undoubtedly has living relatives in the state to this day. She'd be my choice.

But the best choice would be Nellie Tayloe Ross.

For one thing, Ross has a real chance.  Morris doesn't have a ghost of a chance.

But moreover, Ross is the more significant figure, and we should be proud of her.

Morris is a real figure, and an admirable one, but as noted she was a Territorial figure.  She became Justice of the Peace in Sweetwater County when she applied for it, a Territorial District Court judge approved her application, and it was further approved by the Sweetwater County Commission by the vote of 2 to 1.  All good stuff, to be sure.

But Ross became Governor in 1925 when we elected her to that position. That is, the voters of the state did so.  That's a bigger deal.

And after her term in office was over (she was not re-elected, but then she supported Prohibition and she didn't campaign in either of her Gubernatorial races, and shoot Morris was only JP for eight months at that), she became Director of the United States Mint from 1933 to 1953.  Twenty years.  In other worlds she occupied that position, which is of course associated with currency, throughout the entire Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman administrations.  Her being on the $10.00 bill would not only honor the state, but makes sense.

So, while a shout out to Morris is no doubt merited, how about backing somebody who makes more sense?  Nellie Tayloe Ross

Wyoming History In The Making: Janaury 30, 2014. Attorney General to ask for Hill rehearing.

The Attorney General of Wyoming indicated that the State would file a petition for a rehearing in the Hill case.

Rehearings are very rarely granted, and its even rarer for the justices to reverse themselves.  However, I have seen them do both, and have even seen an instance in which the court took a matter up on its own initiative and reversed itself.  The State must feel that with a 3 to 2 decision, it may be able to craft an argument to convince at least one justice, a gamble which in legal terms it is probably worth the State's time and effort to take.

As a practical matter, Mrs. Hill was elected in 2010 and her term of office is four years.  This position will accordingly be up for election in 2014 and Mrs. Hill has declared for gubernatorial campaign.  It will take some time for a rehearing petition to even be considered, which would probably place the decision on that question into late February at the earliest.  If the petition were to be granted, chances are high that the question wouldn't be heard until April or May, and the decision might not be made until June or July, by which time her term will nearly have expired, presuming that the Legislature doesn't determine to act on a Bill of Impeachment, which has not yet been filed but which was at least being considered.

December 17

1619     Prince Rupert of the Rhine, Royalist cavalry commander in the English Civil War, born.  He returned England with the restoration of Charles II, and headed the investors group that in 1670 got a charter for the Hudson's Bay Company and title to all lands draining into Hudson Bay.  He was the first Governor of the HBC.

1890  Union Pacific swithmen went on strike.   Attribution: Wyoming State Historical Society.

1904  John J. McIntyre born in Dewey County, Oklahoma.  He was the Congressman from Wyoming from 1941 to 1943, serving a single term.  He served as State Auditor in 1946, and was later a Justice of the Wyoming Supreme Court from 1960 until his death in 1974.

McIntyre graduated from high school in Tulsa, Oklahoma and had a law degree from the University of Colorado at Boulder from 1929.  He relocated to Wyoming in 1931 where he became the Converse County Attorney in 1933 and entered Federal service as an attorney in 1936.  He was a member of the Wyoming National Guard and was promoted to the rank of Captain in1936. This was not unusual for lawyers of that period, as many held commissions on the Guard.  He must have been in the Guard at the time it was Federalized in 1940, but his status as a Congressman likely took him out of service at the time of Pearl Harbor.  He was not reelected to Congress and served as a Deputy Attorney General in 1943 and 1944, and then entered the U.S. Army as an enlisted man where he was a Staff Sergeant with the 660th Field Artillery.

1916  Inter Ocean destroyed by fire.

The Inter-Ocean

1916   Inter-Ocean Hotel in Cheyenne destroyed by fire.  Attribution; Wyoming State Historical Society.

The Inter-Ocean was one of several Cheyenne hotels that were big deals and major watering holes, something very common in that era and for decades thereafter (and still somewhat true in larger cities today).  It's remembered to Western History for being the location referenced by Tom Horn in his famous conversation with  Joe LeFors.

If you go to the Inter-Ocean to sit down and talk a few minutes some one comes in and says, 'Let us have a drink,' and before you know it you are standing up talking, and my feet get so *&^*&^^  tired it almost kills me. I am 44 years, 3 months, and 27 days old, and if I get killed now I have the satisfaction of knowing I have lived about fifteen ordinary lives.

Horn was in fact arrested outside of the Inter-Ocean.

The hotel had been built by Barney Ford, a businessman who had been born a slave, a status that he escaped from.  His father was the white plantation owners where his black mother was enslaved.  After escaping he lived an adventuresome life and rose to great wealth in Colorado.

He apparently liked the name "Inter-Ocean" as he built another hotel in Denver's 16th Street by that name.  Like the Cheyenne hotel, it is no longer there, which is a real shame as funky buildings like this are all the rage in Denver now..

Denver's Inter-Ocean

1916  Sunday State Leader for December 17, 1916: Measles killing Guardsmen at Deming.

Not the only news of the day, but two Arkansas Guardsmen died from the measles at Deming, New Mexico, news that surely worried Wyomingites with family members serving in the Guard at Deming.

William F. Cody  was reported very ill at his sister's house in Denver.

And death claimed the life of a former Rough Rider living in the state as well.

The State Health Officer reported, in cheerier news, on the state's healthful climate.

1916  Carranza rejects the protocol

 

We've run a lot of newspaper articles on the negotiations between the United States and Mexico, or perhaps more accurately between the United States and the Constitutionalist government of Mexico lead by Venustiano Carranza

 Carranza

On this day he ended the doubt, he refused to sign it.

Carranza was a tough minded individual.  He never liked Woodrow Wilson and he had a grudge against the United States.  Irrespective of what may seem to be the advantages of the proposals that were made, he wouldn't agree.

And he never did.  Carranza never executed a protocol with the United States.

By this point the United States clearly wanted out of Mexico.  The intervention had bogged down to an uneasy occupation since the summer and was going nowhere.  Carranza guessed correctly that the United States would be leaving no matter what, although that did not mean that the US would be passive in protecting its interests.

1918  The USS Cheyenne, formerly the USS Wyoming, but renamed due the later battleship being assigned that name, assigned to Division I, American Patrol Division.

1918  December 17, 1918. No Booze for Soldiers. No Booze for Coloradans, No Booze for Montanans. Villa ponders attack

Up until at least the Korean War, if not the Vietnam War, a deficit of clothing meant that discharged soldiers often wore their uniforms after a time following their discharge.  That was very much the case after World War One and World War Two.  Here, the Federal Government was concerned about discharged soldiers drinking in uniform.

In the popular imagination, Prohibition was forced on an unwilling nation by a bunch of silly temperance women who didn't realize that America was a drinking nation.  That version of the story is very far from true.

The Cheyenne State Leader was reporting that Montana would go dry on December 30.  1918 was to be Montana's last "wet" year.  Villa, the paper also reported, was up to no good.

In reality, Prohibition was a hugely popular movement and was gaining ground in the states prior to it become Federal law.  By this date in 1918, Colorado had gone "bone dry" and Montana was about to.

Not all was bleak. One of the Casper papers was reporting that American soldiers still preferred American girls.  Those American soldiers would be bringing home quite a few French brides and even a few Russian ones.  Of course, the report here did contain some bad news for American women.  Some of the soldiers were reporting pretty favorably on les femmes Francais.

So Prohibition was really arriving in the individual states prior to the Volstead Act making it the law of the land and prior to any Constitutional amendment requiring it.  When Prohibition was repealed, it meant that each state that had laws on the books had to revisit those laws if it wanted to likewise repeal Prohibition in their state, which serves as a lesson in rushing to amend laws to comport with what seems to be a national development.  That allowed those states a breather to adapt to the new situation, which in the case of Wyoming it very much took, phasing drinking back in over a period of years.

1919 

Vernon Baker born in Cheyenne.  Baker is a recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor for his actions in combat in World War Two, with his citation reading as follows:

For extraordinary heroism in action on 5 and 6 April 1945, near Viareggio, Italy. Then Second Lieutenant Baker demonstrated outstanding courage and leadership in destroying enemy installations, personnel, and equipment during his company's attack against a strongly entrenched enemy in mountainous terrain. When his company was stopped by the concentration of fire from several machine gun emplacements, he crawled to one position and destroyed it, killing three Germans. Continuing forward, he attacked an enemy observation post and killed two occupants. With the aid of one of his men, Lieutenant Baker attacked two more machine gun nests, killing or wounding the four enemy soldiers occupying these positions. He then covered the evacuation of the wounded personnel of his company by occupying an exposed position and drawing the enemy's fire. On the following night Lieutenant Baker voluntarily led a battalion advance through enemy mine fields and heavy fire toward the division objective. Second Lieutenant Baker's fighting spirit and daring leadership were an inspiration to his men and exemplify the highest traditions of the Armed Forces.

Baker had a rough start in life when his parents died while he was still young.  Partially raised by his grandparents, he learned how to hunt from his grandfather in order to put meat on the table.  Entering the Army during World War Two, he made the Army a career and retired in 1968 as a First Lieutenant, his rank at that time reflecting force reductions following World War Two.  He retired to Idaho where he chose to live as he was an avid hunter, and he died there in 2010.  Baker is a significant figure from Wyoming not only because he won the Congressional Medal of Honor, but because he was part of Wyoming's small African American community.

1985  Alan B. Johnson received his commission as a Federal Judge for the District of Wyoming.

2003  Wyoming filed a petition to delist the Prebbles Jumping Mouse from the Endangered Species List.

December 14

1854   Edward Gillette was born in New Haven, Connecticut.  He graduated from the Yale Scientific School in 1876 and took a job with the U.S. Geological Survey.  He later became locating engineer and chief draftsman for the Rio Grande and Western Railway and later a surveyor and civil engineer for the Burlington and Missouri Railroad. He was married to the daughter of H.A. Coffeen, who at one time was Wyoming’s Congressman. He was elected Wyoming State Treasurer in 1907 and served until 1911. 1907-1911.   He also served as Wyoming Water Superintendent.

Gillette Wyoming is named after him.

1877  Cheyenne incorporated by the Territorial Legislature.

1911 Hiram S. Manville, after whom Manville in Niobrara County is named, died in Nebraska.  He was a rancher and worked for large ranches in the region, and was influential in the early development of the town.

1914  Grace Raymond Hebard became first woman admitted to state bar.

This was a remarkable achievement in and of itself, but it only one of a string of such accomplishments made by Hebard.  She was also the first woman to graduate from the Engineering Department of the University of Iowa, in an era when there engineering was an overwhelmingly male profession.  She followed this 1882 accomplishment by acquiring a 1885 MA from the same school, and then an 1893  PhD in political science from Wesleyan University.  She went to work for the State of Wyoming in 1882 and rose to the position of Deputy State Engineer under legendary State Engineer Elwood Mead.  She moved to Laramie in 1891 and was instrumental in the administration of the University of Wyoming.  She was a significant figure in the suffrage movement, and a proponent in Wyoming of Americanization, a view shared by such figures such as Theodore Roosevelt.

She was an amateur historian as well, which is what she is best remembered for today.  Unfortunately, her historical works were tinged with romanticism and have not been regarded as wholly reliable in later years.  Her history of Sacajawea, which followed 30 years of research, is particularly questioned and would seem to have made quite a few highly romantic erroneous conclusions.  On a more positive note, the same impulses lead her to be very active in the marking of historic Wyoming trails.

While she was the first woman to be admitted to the Wyoming State Bar, she never actually practiced law.  Her book collection is an important part of the University of Wyoming's American Heritage Center's collection today. 

1916  Former Governor John Osborne concludes his service as Assistant Secretary of State for the Wilson Administration.

John E. Osborne at the start of his service as Assistant Secretary of State.

It had been rumored for weeks that the former Democratic Governor would step down, with motivations being various cited as an intent to run for the U.S. Senate and a desire to return his Western holdings.   All of that may have been partial motivators.  He did retain agricultural and business holdings in Wyoming and a 1918 run for the Senate showed he had not lost interest in politics.  However, he also found himself in increasing disagreement with his employer on Wilson's policies in regards to the war in Europe.  So, at this point, prior to Wilson's second term commencing, he stepped down and returned to Wyoming with his wife Selina, who was twenty years his junior.

Osborne would live the rest of his life out in the Rawlins area, ranching and as a banker.  While twenty years older than his wife, he would out live her by a year, dying in 1943 at age 84.  She died the prior year at age 59.  Their only daughter would pass away in 1951.  In spite of a largely Wyoming life, he was buried with his wife in their family plot in Kentucky.
1916The Submarine H3 runs aground, leading to the ultimate loss of the USS Milwaukee.
 

The U.S. submarine the H3, operating off of Eureka California with the H1 and H2, and their tender the USS Cheyenne, went off course in heavy fog and ran aground on this date (although some sources say it was December 16, this seems the better date however).

The H3 during one of the recovery attempts.

She'd be recovered and put back in service, although it was a difficult effort and would not be accomplished until April 20, 1917.  In the process, the USS Milwaukee, a cruiser, was beached and wrecked on January 13, 1917, making the relaunching of the H3 somewhat of a Pyrrhic victory.

The wrecked USS Milwaukee.

USS Cheyenne, which had been original commissioned as the monitor USS Wyoming.

 The USS Cheyenne with the H1 and H2.  The Cheyenne had been decommissioned in 1905, after having served since only 1900, but she was recommissioned in 1908.  She was the first fuel oil burning ship in the U.S. Navy after having been refitted prior to recommissioning.  She was refitted as a U.S. Navy submarine tender, as a brief stint in the Washington Naval Militia, in 1913.

2006  Staff Sgt. Theodore A. Spatol,1041st Engineer Company, Wyoming Army National Guard, died of illness acquired while in Iraq.  He had returned to his home in Thermopolis prior to passing.

Elsewhere:  1916:  In strong contrast to the State of Wyoming,  Quebec bans women from entering the legal profession.

This was in contrast with progress in suffrage elsewhere in Canada that year, but it wasn't terribly unusual for the time.  Note that the first Woman admitted to the bar in Wyoming had only been admitted two years earlier in spite of suffrage dating back to the late 19th Century and in spite of women already having served as justices of the peace and jurors. Having said that, every US state would have admitted at least one woman to the bar by the early 20th Century and many in the late 19th Century

Clara Brett Martin, the first female lawyer in the British Empire.

In these regards the entire British Empire trailed somewhat behind as the first female lawyer in the Empire, Ontario's Clara Brett Martin, wasn't admitted until 1897 after a protracted struggle to obtain that goal.

December 12

Today commemorates Our Lady of Guadalupe on the Catholic calendar.  The day commemorates the appearance of Mary to Juan Diego in Mexico.  The day has always been one of celebration in Mexican communities in the United States, including Wyoming, where various Catholic parishes with significant Hispanic populations have celebrated the day in a traditional fashion.  St. Lawrence O'Toole parish in Laramie, for example, has celebrated the day for decades with a dedicated Mass incorporating the inclusion of a queen and king chosen from amongst the Hispanic youth of the parish.  St. Anthony's parish in Casper includes a march from Pioneer Park, which is located near the old and new courthouses, to the church.

1860   Frank L. Houx, who became Wyoming's acting Governor in 1917 upon Gov. Kendrick's resignation,  was born near Lexington, MO.

1873  Laramie incorporated by the Territorial Legislature.

1873  Wyoming's third Territorial Legislature concluded.

1888  Herman Glafcke takes office as Territorial Bank Examiner.

1910  William Howard Taft nominated Willis Van Devanter to the position of Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court.  

Van Devanter was born in Indiana and was a 1881 graduate of the Cincinnati Law School.  Like many of Wyoming's early political figures, the young Van Devanter saw opportunity in Wyoming and relocated to Cheyenne after obtaining his law degree where he became a significant practicing.  He served as the Chief Justice of the Territorial Supreme Court after being appointed to the post at age 30.  And he was Chief Justice of the Wyoming Supreme Court for four days prior to returning to private practice after Wyoming achieved statehood.  During his period of private practice he was the legal strategist for the large cattlemen following their arrest for the invasion of Johnson County.

In 1896, after becoming afflicted with Typhus, he relocated to Washington  D. C.  From 1896 to 1900 he served as an Assistant Attorney General assigned to the  Department of the Interior and was a professor at George Washington University's department of law.  In 1903 President Roosevelt nominated him to the 8th Judicial Circuit Court of Appeals, where he was serving when nominated to the United States Supreme Court.  In remarkable contrast to today, his nomination was approved by the Senate on December 15..

 
1916  Chugwater's business district destroyed by fire.  Attribution. Wyoming State Historical Society.

1917     Father Edward Flanagan founded Boys Town outside Omaha, Neb.  From our companion blog:

Boys Town Founded, December 12, 1917
 

Monsignor Edward J. Flanagan

On this date in 1917, Monsignor Edward J. Flanagan founded an orphanage outside of Omaha Nebraska which was called the City of Little Men.  Later changing its name to Boys' Town, the orphanage for boys pioneered the social preparation model for orphanages.  It still exists.

Monsignor Flanagan was Irish by birth and the son of a herdsman.  He immigrated to the United States at age 18 in 1904 and received a bachelors degree just two years later, going on to receive a MA two years after that.  He then entered the seminary in New York and completed his studies in Italy and Austria, being ordained there in 1912.  He was then assigned to Nebraska as a Priest. He became a US citizen in 1919.. His views on the care and development of orphaned children were far ahead of their time.

1919  Fourteen Spanish Flu deaths were reported in Washakie County for this week, which of course occurred during the Spanish Flu Pandemic.

The Spanish Influenza was a disaster of epic proportions which managed to impact nearly the entire globe.  While accounts vary, some accounts indicate that the flu epidemic first broke out, at least in its lethal form, in Camp Funston, Kansas.

1925     The first motel, the Motel Inn, opened, in San Luis Obispo, Calif.  Another sign of the rise of the automobile.  Prior to this, hotels had often been situated relatively near railroads, and they did not feature parking lots.

1941 British decide to abandon northern Malaya. Japanese abandon their first attempt to capture Wake. Japanese complete the occupation of southern Thailand. Japanese invade Burma. Japanese troops land at Legaspi, southeastern Luzon and advance from Vigan and Aparri.  Naval Air Transport Service is established  Germans begin house-by-house search for Jews in Paris.  U.S. Navy takes control of the ocean liner Normandie while it is docked at New York City.   UK declares war on Bulgaria. Hungary and Romania declare war on the United States. India declares war on Japan.  Adolf Hitler announces extermination of the Jews at a meeting in the Reich Chancellery.

1941   The Wyoming Township, Michigan, Police Department founded.

2016  Wyoming Governor Mead addressed the Joint Appropriations Committee in Cheyenne, telling them that budget cuts enacted in prior years were deep enough and not to cut further.  The committee, made up of fiscal conservatives, was largely non reactive to that, but it did have questions about the funding of the Tribal Liaison position which is funded for a reduced $160,000.  Questions were made about whether one liaison for two tribes, now that the tribes cooperation is reduced over prior years, was appropriate, and whether support for the position would remain if the Tribes were asked to fund 10% to 20% of the position.

2016  The Federal Government agreed to buy an inholding belonging to the State in the Grand Teton National Park for $46,000,000. The State had threatened for some time to sell the land if the Federal Government did not buy the 640 acres on the basis that it had to do that to maximize returns for the schools given that the grazing lease only brought in $2,000 per year.

December 4

256  St. Barbara martyred.  This date is her feast day on the Calendar of Saints, and for reasons that are obscure, she is the Patron Saint of Artillery.  A large portrait of her hangs in the museum at Ft. Sill, Oklahoma, the headquarters for the artillery training in the U.S. Army (and also for the U.S. Marine Corps).

Wyoming has a long association with artillery, which may surprise many of its residents, which continues on to the present day.  The Wyoming National Guard became an artillery unit some time prior to World War One and served in that capacity during the Great War.  In the early 1920s, it was converted to cavalry, but artillery units were reintroduced after World War Two.  The Wyoming Army National Guard's 300th AFA served with distinction in the Korean War, winning both Congressional and Presidential  Unit Citations and the state retains artillery units to this day.

1873  William Ross born in Tennessee. Ross was Wyoming's twelfth Governor, but only served a year and a half, dying from complications following an appendectomy.  Ross was a lawyer in Cheyenne, having had a practice there since 1901.  He ran several political campaigns, but it was not until 1922 that he was successful, running on an assistance to farmers platform, and supporting stronger prohibition measures.  His successful campaign was hard on his finances, largely draining any surplus, which had an impact on his wife successive campaigns.  He was married to Nellie Tayloe Ross, who became the governor following his death.

1877  Rail line between Cheyenne and Denver completed.

1889  The first load of coal was shipped from Cambria

1890  Some legislators staying at a private home in Cheyenne were robbed during the night, while they slept.  Attribution.  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1917   December 4. Predictions and Predicaments old new.
 

I'm not putting this copy of The Wyoming Tribune up for the story about President Wilson's speech, although that was an important story.  No, rather I'm putting this one up because a story that appears here recalls one on the front page of this paper ran this weekend in the Casper Star Tribune, that being; "Says Oil In Backyard Of Cheyenne".  This weekend there was a story in the Tribune about people who live just north of Cheyenne and who are worried about oil production north of the town.

I'm not commenting on that specifically.  There is oil north of Cheyenne and that doesn't seem like a surprise to me.  It's a bit surprising that it took so long to start developing it, but then the technology has developed to where that is easier to do. Just south of Cheyenne the Denver Basin has been in production for decades.  Anyhow, I'm only noting it as L. D. Thompson proved to be absolutely right in his prediction, although he didn't live to see that prediction come true.

Russia's backing out of the war, which wouldn't really bring peace to Russia which went into a civil war, made the headlines.  People reading it had to be worried what that would mean for the war in the west.

Wilson's State of the Union address read as follows:

Gentlemen of the Congress:

Eight months have elapsed since I last had the honor of addressing you. They have been months crowded with events of immense and grave significance for us. I shall not undertake to retail or even to summarize those events. The practical particulars of the part we have played in them will be laid before you in the reports of the Executive Departments. I shall discuss only our present outlook upon these vast affairs, our present duties, and the immediate means of accomplishing the objects we shall hold always in view.

I shall not go back to debate the causes of the war. The intolerable wrongs done and planned against us by the sinister masters of Germany have long since become too grossly obvious and odious to every true American to need to be rehearsed. But I shall ask you to consider again and with a very grave scrutiny our objectives and the measures by which we mean to attain them; for the purpose of discussion here in this place is action, and our action must move straight towards definite ends. Our object is, of course, to win the war; and we shall not slacken or suffer ourselves to be diverted until it is won. But it is worth while asking and answering the question, When shall we consider the war won?

From one point of view it is not necessary to broach this fundamental matter. I do not doubt that the American people know what the war is about and what sort of an outcome they will regard as a realization of their purpose in it. As a nation we are united in spirit and intention. I pay little heed to those who tell me otherwise. I hear the voices of dissent; who does not? I hear the criticism and the clamor of the noisily thoughtless and troublesome. I also see men here and there fling themselves in impotent disloyalty against the calm, indomitable power of the nation. I hear men debate peace who understand neither its nature not the way in which we may attain it with uplifted eyes and unbroken spirits. But I know that none of these speaks for the nation. They do not touch the heart of anything. They may safely be left to strut their uneasy hour and be forgotten.
But from another point of view I believe that it is necessary to say plainly what we here at the seat of action consider the war to be for and what part we mean to play in the settlement of its searching issues. We are the spokesmen of the American people and they have a right to know whether their purpose is ours. They desire peace by the overcoming of evil, by the defeat once for all of the sinister forces that interrupt peace and render it impossible, and they wish to know how closely our thought runs with theirs and what action we propose. They are impatient with those who desire peace by any sort of compromise--deeply and indignantly impatient--but they will be equally impatient with us if we do not make it plain to them what our objectives are and what we are planning for in seeking to make conquest of peace by arms.

I believe that I speak for them when I say two things: First, that this intolerable Thing of which the masters of Germany have shown us the ugly face, this menace of combined intrigue and force which we now see so clearly as the German power, a Thing without conscience or honor or capacity for covenanted peace, must be crushed and, if it be not utterly brought to an end, at least shut out from the friendly intercourse of the nations; and, second, that when this Thing and its power are indeed defeated and the time comes that we can discuss peace--when the German people have spokesmen whose word we can believe and when those spokesmen are ready in the name of their people to accept the common judgment of the nations as to what shall henceforth be the bases of law and of covenant for the life of the world--we shall be willing and glad to pay the full price for peace, and pay it ungrudgingly. We know what that price will be. It will be full, impartial justice--justice done at every point and to every nation that the final settlement must affect, our enemies as well as our friends.

You catch, with me, the voices of humanity that are in the air. They grow daily more audible, more articulate, more persuasive, and they come from the hearts of men everywhere. They insist that the war shall not end in vindictive action of any kind; that no nation or people shall be robbed or punished because the irresponsible rulers of a single country have themselves done deep and abominable wrong. It is this thought that has been expressed in the formula "No annexations, no contributions, no punitive indemnities." Just because this crude formula expresses the instinctive judgment as to right of plain men everywhere it has been made diligent use of by the masters of German intrigue to lead the people of Russia astray, and the people of every other country their agents could reach, in order that a premature peace might be brought about before autocracy has been taught its final and convincing lesson, and the people of the world put in control of their own destinies.

But the fact that a wrong use has been made of a just idea is no reason why a right use should not be made of it. It ought to be brought under the patronage of its real friends. Let it be said again that autocracy must first be shown the utter futility of its claims to power or leadership in the modern world. It is impossible to apply any standard of justice so long as such forces are unchecked and undefeated as the present masters of Germany command. Not until that has been done can Right be set up as arbiter and peace-maker among the nations. But when that has been done--as, God willing, it assuredly will be--we shall at last be free to do an unprecedented thing, and this is the time to avow our purpose to do it. We shall be free to base peace on generosity and justice, to the exclusion of all selfish claims to advantage even on the part of the victors.

Let there be no misunderstanding. Our present and immediate task is to win the war, and nothing shall turn us aside from it until it is accomplished. Every power and resource we possess, whether of men, of money, or of materials, is being devoted and will continue to be devoted to that purpose until it is achieved. Those who desire to bring peace about before that purpose is achieved I counsel to carry their advice elsewhere. We will not entertain it. We shall regard the war as won only when the German people say to us, through properly accredited representatives, that they are ready to agree to a settlement based upon justice and the reparation of the wrongs their rulers have done. They have done a wrong to Belgium which must be repaired. They have established a power over other lands and peoples than their own--over the great Empire of Austria-Hungary, over hitherto free Balkan states, over Turkey, and within Asia--which must be relinquished.

Germany's success by skill, by industry, by knowledge, by enterprise we did not grudge or oppose, but admired, rather. She had built up for herself a real empire of trade and influence, secured by the peace of the world. We were content to abide the rivalries of manufacture, science, and commerce that were involved for us in her success and stand or fall as we had or did not have the brains and the initiative to surpass her. But at the moment when she had conspicuously won her triumphs of peace she threw them away, to establish in their stead what the world will no longer permit to be established, military and political domination by arms, by which to oust where she could not excel the rivals she most feared and hated. The peace we make must remedy that wrong. It must deliver the once fair lands and happy peoples of Belgium and northern France from the Prussian conquest and the Prussian menace, but it must also deliver the peoples of Austria-Hungary, the peoples of the Balkans, and the peoples of Turkey, alike in Europe and in Asia, from the impudent and alien dominion of the Prussian military and commercial autocracy.

We owe it, however, to ourselves to say that we do not wish in any way to impair or to rearrange the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It is no affair of ours what they do with their own life, either industrially or politically. We do not purpose or desire to dictate to them in any way. We only desire to see that their affairs are left in their own hands, in all matters, great or small. We shall hope to secure for the peoples of the Balkan peninsula and for the people of the Turkish Empire the right and opportunity to make their own lives safe, their own fortunes secure against oppression or injustice and from the dictation of foreign courts or parties.

And our attitude and purpose with regard to Germany herself are of a like kind. We intend no wrong against the German Empire, no interference with her internal affairs. We should deem either the one or the other absolutely unjustifiable, absolutely contrary to the principles we have professed to live by and to hold most sacred throughout our life as a nation.

The people of Germany are being told by the men whom they now permit to deceive them and to act as their masters that they are fighting for the very life and existence of their Empire, a war of desperate self-defense against deliberate aggression. Nothing could be more grossly or wantonly false, and we must seek by the utmost openness and candor as to our real aims to convince them of its falseness. We are in fact fighting for their emancipation from fear, along with our own--from the fear as well as from the fact of unjust attack by neighbors or rivals or schemers after world empire. No one is threatening the existence or the independence or the peaceful enterprise of the German Empire.

The worst that can happen to the detriment of the German people is this, that if they should still, after the war is over, continue to be obliged to live under ambitious and intriguing masters interested to disturb the peace of the world, men or classes of men whom the other peoples of the world could not trust, it might be impossible to admit them to the partnership of nations which must henceforth guarantee the world's peace. That partnership must be a partnership of peoples, not a mere partnership of governments. It might be impossible, also, in such untoward circumstances, to admit Germany to the free economic intercourse which must inevitably spring out of the other partnerships of a real peace. But there would be no aggression in that; and such a situation, inevitable because of distrust, would in the very nature of things sooner or later cure itself, by processes which would assuredly set in.

The wrongs, the very deep wrongs, committed in this war will have to be righted. That of course. But they cannot and must not be righted by the commission of similar wrongs against Germany and her allies. The world will not permit the commission of similar wrongs as a means of reparation and settlement. Statesmen must by this time have learned that the opinion of the world is everywhere wide awake and fully comprehends the issues involved. No representative of any self-governed nation will dare disregard it by attempting any such covenants of selfishness and compromise as were entered into at the Congress of Vienna. The thought of the plain people here and everywhere throughout the world, the people who enjoy no privilege and have very simple and unsophisticated standards of right and wrong, is the air all governments must henceforth breathe if they would live. It is in the full disclosing light of that thought that all policies must be conceived and executed in this midday hour of the world's life. German rulers have been able to upset the peace of the world only because the German people were not suffered under their tutelage to share the comradeship of the other peoples of the world either in thought or in purpose. They were allowed to have no opinion of their own which might be set up as a rule of conduct for those who exercised authority over them. But the congress that concludes this war will feel the full strength of the tides that run now in the hearts and consciences of free men everywhere. Its conclusions will run with those tides.
All these things have been true from the very beginning of this stupendous war; and I cannot help thinking that if they had been made plain at the very outset the sympathy and enthusiasm of the Russian people might have been once for all enlisted on the side of the Allies, suspicion and distrust swept away, and a real and lasting union of purpose effected. Had they believed these things at the very moment of their revolution and had they been confirmed in that belief since, the sad reverses which have recently marked the progress of their affairs towards an ordered and stable government of free men might have been avoided. The Russian people have been poisoned by the very same falsehoods that have kept the German people in the dark, and the poison has been administered by the very same hands. The only possible antidote is the truth. It cannot be uttered too plainly or too often.

From every point of view, therefore, it has seemed to be my duty to speak these declarations of purpose, to add these specific interpretations to what I took the liberty of saying to the Senate in January. Our entrance into the war has not altered our attitude towards the settlement that must come when it is over. When I said in January that the nations of the world were entitled not only to free pathways upon the sea but also to assured and unmolested access to those pathways I was thinking, and I am thinking now, not of the smaller and weaker nations alone, which need our countenance and support, but also of the great and powerful nations, and of our present enemies as well as our present associates in the war. I was thinking, and am thinking now, of Austria herself, among the rest, as well as of Serbia and of Poland. Justice and equality of rights can be had only at a great price. We are seeking permanent, not temporary, foundations for the peace of the world and must seek them candidly and fearlessly. As always, the right will prove to be the expedient.

What shall we do, then, to push this great war of freedom and justice to its righteous conclusion? We must clear away with a thorough hand all impediments to success and we must make every adjustment of law that will facilitate the full and free use of our whole capacity and force as a fighting unit.

One very embarrassing obstacle that stands in our way is that we are at war with Germany but not with her allies. I therefore very earnestly recommend that the Congress immediately declare the United States in a state of war with Austria-Hungary. Does it seem strange to you that this should be the conclusion of the argument I have just addressed to you? It is not. It is in fact the inevitable logic of what I have said. Austria-Hungary is for the time being not her own mistress but simply the vassal of the German Government. We must face the facts as they are and act upon them without sentiment in this stern business. The government of Austria-Hungary is not acting upon its own initiative or in response to the wishes and feelings of its own peoples but as the instrument of another nation. We must meet its force with our own and regard the Central Powers as but one. The war can be successfully conducted in no other way. The same logic would lead also to a declaration of war against Turkey and Bulgaria. They also are the tools of Germany. But they are mere tools and do not yet stand in the direct path of our necessary action. We shall go wherever the necessities of this war carry us, but it seems to me that we should go only where immediate and practical considerations lead us and not heed any others.

The financial and military measures which must be adopted will suggest themselves as the war and its undertakings develop, but I will take the liberty of proposing to you certain other acts of legislation which seem to me to be needed for the support of the war and for the release of our whole force and energy.

It will be necessary to extend in certain particulars the legislation of the last session with regard to alien enemies; and also necessary, I believe, to create a very definite and particular control over the entrance and departure of all persons into and from the United States.

Legislation should be enacted defining as a criminal offense every willful violation of the presidential proclamations relating to alien enemies promulgated under section 4067 of the Revised Statutes and providing appropriate punishments; and women as well as men should be included under the terms of the acts placing restraints upon alien enemies. It is likely that as time goes on many alien enemies will be willing to be fed and housed at the expense of the Government in the detention camps and it would be the purpose of the legislation I have suggested to confine offenders among them in penitentiaries and other similar institutions where they could be made to work as other criminals do.

Recent experience has convinced me that the Congress must go further in authorizing the Government to set limits to prices. The law of supply and demand, I am sorry to say, has been replaced by the law of unrestrained selfishness. While we have eliminated profiteering in several branches of industry it still runs impudently rampant in others. The farmers, for example, complain with a great deal of justice that, while the regulation of food prices restricts their incomes, no restraints are placed upon the prices of most of the things they must themselves purchase; and similar inequities obtain on all sides.

It is imperatively necessary that the consideration of the full use of the water power of the country and also the consideration of the systematic and yet economical development of such of the natural resources of the country as are still under the control of the federal government should be immediately resumed and affirmatively and constructively dealt with at the earliest possible moment. The pressing need of such legislation is daily becoming more obvious.

The legislation proposed at the last session with regard to regulated combinations among our exporters, in order to provide for our foreign trade a more effective organization and method of cooperation, ought by all means to be completed at this session.

And I beg that the members of the House of Representatives will permit me to express the opinion that it will be impossible to deal in any but a very wasteful and extravagant fashion with the enormous appropriations of the public moneys which must continue to be made, if the war is to be properly sustained, unless the House will consent to return to its former practice of initiating and preparing all appropriation bills through a single committee, in order that responsibility may be centered, expenditures standardized and made uniform, and waste and duplication as much as possible avoided.

Additional legislation may also become necessary before the present Congress again adjourns in order to effect the most efficient coordination and operation of the railway and other transportation systems of the country; but to that I shall, if circumstances should demand, call the attention of the Congress upon another occasion.

If I have overlooked anything that ought to be done for the more effective conduct of the war, your own counsels will supply the omission. What I am perfectly clear about is that in the present session of the Congress our whole attention and energy should be concentrated on the vigorous, rapid, and successful prosecution of the great task of winning the war.

We can do this with all the greater zeal and enthusiasm because we know that for us this is a war of high principle, debased by no selfish ambition of conquest or spoliation; because we know, and all the world knows, that we have been forced into it to save the very institutions we live under from corruption and destruction. The purposes of the Central Powers strike straight at the very heart of everything we believe in; their methods of warfare outrage every principle of humanity and of knightly honor; their intrigue has corrupted the very thought and spirit of many of our people; their sinister and secret diplomacy has sought to take our very territory away from us and disrupt the Union of the States. Our safety would be at an end, our honor forever sullied and brought into contempt were we to permit their triumph. They are striking at the very existence of democracy and liberty.

It is because it is for us a war of high, disinterested purpose, in which all the free peoples of the world are banded together for the vindication of right, a war for the preservation of our nation and of all that it has held dear of principle and of purpose, that we feel ourselves doubly constrained to propose for its outcome only that which is righteous and of irreproachable intention, for our foes as well as for our friends. The cause being just and holy, the settlement must be of like motive and quality. For this we can fight, but for nothing less noble or less worthy of our traditions. For this cause we entered the war and for this cause will we battle until the last gun is fired.

I have spoken plainly because this seems to me the time when it is most necessary to speak plainly, in order that all the world may know that even in the heat and ardor of the struggle and when our whole thought is of carrying the war through to its end we have not forgotten any ideal or principle for which the name of America has been held in honor among the nations and for which it has been our glory to contend in the great generations that went before us. A supreme moment of history has come. The eyes of the people have been opened and they see. The hand of God is laid upon the nations. He will show them favor, I devoutly believe, only if they rise to the clear heights of His own justice and mercy.

Those concerns probably motivated the large headline in the Cheyenne State Leader, but that is also not the reason I'm putting this one up.  Rather, even though it had happened a couple of days prior, the news of the border skirmish on the border with Mexico had finally made it to the front page. Again, with the nation engaged in sending men to Europe, renewed clashed on the Mexican border couldn't have been welcome news.

1918  December 4, 1918. Americans arrive, Wilson leaves, Flu returns.

American trucks arriving in Kylburg German, December 4, 1918.

The SS George Washington, with President Wilson on board, awaits departure for Europe.

1942  President Roosevelt issues a letter that abolishes the Works Project Administration effective June 30.

1942  Troops arrive at Scottsbluff Army Air Field, a satellite field of the Casper Army Air Field.

1948  This Union Pacific's City of San Francisco photographed near Cheyenne.