Lunatics

Allright, we've a got a couple of medical types, and seven other men in some sort of uniform.  They might be soldiers, convicts or staff.  I like to think they're lunatics at an asylum.  I've had a few of those in my family.

Nurses and Nazis

Well, there is a certain amount of guess work on this one, so if anyone wants to make a correction, feel free to leave a comment.

This photo was printed on Agfa Lupex paper, manufactured with an identifying logo, in Germany, from 1935 through the end of the war.  With it's German origins, I decided to start a search of web sites, looking for images of German uniforms, from the period.  And did those Germans love their uniforms!  It seems that everyone from school children to politicians were in some sort of outfit with brass buttons, epaulets and braid.  My best guess is that the two men in this image are wearing SS uniforms.  The man with the soup spoon, the general field uniform of the Waffen-SS, and the other man in the Waffen -SS uniform of the protection squad.  Since the SS had it's own hospitals, it would make sense that these two men, even though they would be from different units, would be at the same place, hanging out with the pretty nurses.

The SS was formed in 1920 as the saal-schutz, as hall protection.  Basically, they protected speakers from attack at party meetings, and beat the crap out of any hecklers that might show up.   Under the command of Heinrich Himmler from 1929-1945, the organization became the Schutzstaffel, the protection squad or defence corps,  providing security for party meetings and personnel.. During the war, the SS fielded military divisions, fighting along side the regular army, but not under it's command.  And of course, the SS had responsibility for carrying out the final solution.  For those who don't know what that means, the final solution was the  elimination of Jews and other threats to race purity.  It's quite possible that the two men in this photograph are war criminals, a nice phrase for genocidal mass murderer.

The famous black uniform with the death's head logo, often seen in movies, was the uniform of the Allgemeine-SS, the political arm of the group.  The SS, unlike the SA, and the regular military, took an oath of allegiance to Hitler, rather than to the German state.  A sorry example of humanity.

The Mother's Day Proclamation

Arise, then, women of this day!

Arise, all women who have hearts, Whether our baptism be of water or of tears!

Say firmly: "We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies, Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause.  Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn All that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.  We, the women of one country, will be too tender of those of another country To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs."

From the bosom of a devastated Earth a voice goes up with our own.  It says: "Disarm! Disarm! The sword of murder is not the balance of justice."  Blood does not wipe out dishonor, nor violence indicate possession. As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil at the summons of war, Let women now leave all that may be left of home for a great an earnest day of counsel.

Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.  Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means Whereby the human family can live in peace, Each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar, But of God.

In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask That a general congress of woman without limit of nationality May be appointed and held at someplace deemed most convenient And at the earliest period consistent with its objects, To promote the alliance of the different nationalities, The amicable settlement of international questions,

The great and general interests of peace.

Julia Ward Howe, today, is best remembered as the lyricist of The Battle Hymn of the Republic.  Howe, an abolitionist, after the Civil War, embraced the women's suffrage movement and pacifism.  In 1870 in reaction to the carnage of the Civil War and the Franco-Prussian War, she suggested that June second should be commemorated as an international Mother's Day.  But not, as a day to honor motherhood but as a day when the mothers of the world would gather together and work for an end to war.  She also wrote The Mother's Day Proclamation to publicize her movement.  The modern version of Mother's Day, was proposed by Anna Jarvis in 1908.

The Apprentice

No, not the TV show hosted by America's first narcissist, Donald Trump.

When I was in junior high, the entire seventh grade class (There was only about forty of us.) were forced on  buses for a field trip to Lenape Tech.  Lenape was a county run, trades high school.  The morning sessions were devoted to all the usual classes, math, history, English, while the afternoons were devoted to learning a trade.  I remember that we were divided by sex.  The boys were shown the auto shop, welding, television repair lab, while the girls were taken to the beauty and cooking classes.  I don't know what would have happened if one of the boys had asked about being a hair dresser or one of the girls had wanted to take a run at a welding career.  Oh, how things have changed.

Before trade schools, there were apprenticeships.   Young boys (mostly) would be sent off to learn a trade from a master craftsman.  In exchange for a decade or so of free labor, the young man would be taught cabinet making, or watch repair, or some other useful profession.  Anyone who has ever read Dickens would know that apprenticeships were also offered for business careers.   Keeping those books balanced isn't easy, and in a world where almost no one went to college, a job that didn't involve manual labor, like accounting, was learned by doing.

This is a fairly old picture. But how old?  Is this young man taking a shop class or has he begun his working life as an apprentice?  One thing is for sure.  He's not a recent college grad, working for free as an intern, so that some business can avoid adding an extra pay check to the books.  No wonder recent grads can't find paid employment when so  many of them are willing to work for nothing.  My rant of the day...internships are a scam!

Women at Work

I've made this point before and I'm making it again; the theory that women were not a large part of the work force before the sixties is wrong.  Women of the upper middle classes and above rarely worked, but women of lower classes have always been part of the working world.  They were farm hands, servants, and as shown on this stereo view, factory hands.

Printed on the back, "20-(22070)  INSPECTING PAPER, HOLYOKE, MASS.

Paper making machines are large affairs.  Sometimes they weigh as much as 400 tons each.  But they handle each sheet as carefully as if they had a fine sense of touch.  These machines take the stock, press it into paper, and cut it into the desired size of sheet.

You see here a battery of paper machines performing the last act in paper manufacture.  The finger bars, mad of flat strips of wood, receive the cut paper, and turn the sheets out on a receiving table.  At this table stands an inspector.  She is an expert in her work.  Each sheet of paper undergoes her careful scrutiny.  If it is  defective in anyway the sheet is thrown out; for nothing but first-class material is produced in this factory.  Sometimes a sheet will have a flaw in coloring, or in texture: or it may have been torn slightly in it's many handlings.  The sheets that are approved are stacked up, and are ready for further folding or cutting if needs be.

You will observe certain things in this factory that are necessary both for the health of the workers and for the work.  The place is  well lighted by side windows.  The inspectors do not have to face a bright glare.  Nor do they have to work under artificial light.  They are seated so do not tire so quickly at their exacting work.  The machines have iron guards to reduce danger of accidents.  All this is very much in contrast with the factory of several years ago, when employees were looked upon merely as a part of the machinery.

Of what things is paper made?  Name some of the processes in paper making?  How does our supply of paper depend on forests?  Account for the shortage of paper during the Great European War.  From what is pulp made?

Copyright by The Keystone View Company."

Men at Work

No, not the Australian rock band.  Why are there fewer pictures of people working than, pictures of people at the beach?  After all, most of us will spend far more hours working than at the beach.  Is it because we hate our jobs?  I've been working since I was ten years old, and I've only had a few jobs that I really liked.  That doesn't mean that I hated the other jobs.  It just means that those jobs were a means to an end.  I don't know what these men are doing.  It looks like some kind of machine shop.  If they were skilled craftsmen, they probably made, comparatively, a good wage for the time.  But how many of them looked forward to work, and how many of them looked forward to a weekend doing something else?

Bare Legs in the Snow

Written on the back of the top image, "Lassen Park Pat & Margret," the second, "Elaine B. Lassen."

It might have been quite warm the day these pictures were taken.  Mount Lassen Volcanic National Park is one of the snowiest places in California and it's not uncommon, even in these days of climate change, for there to be a blanket of snow well into the summer.  So, let's not make fun of Margret for choosing fashion over warmth.  I've hiked Lassen, in summer, in snow, in shorts and a tee shirt, and been very comfortable.  Climbing the peak, mid-day, in the sun, even in snow can be sweaty work.  Again, I know this from experience.

Mount Lassen is the southernmost active volcano in the continental United States.  It's part of the Cascade Range.  After thousands of years of dormancy, a series of eruptions began in 1914 and lasted until 1921.  On August 9, 1916, congress created Mount Lassen Volcanic National Park to preserve the landscape and it's devastation.  Compare that to Mount St. Helens after it's eruption,  where the creation of a new national park was blocked by timber interests that wanted to remove the downed trees, and those opposed to the parks movement on general principle. Yes, it is possible to go backwards.  Those interested in the U.S. National Parks system can go to www.nps.gov