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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (April 23, 2016)
VIEWPOINTS Saturday, April 23, 2016 Quick takes Turkey hunter kills cougar Had a friend turkey hunting shoot one at 6 feet, ready to nail him up outta Milton. They are sneaky and mean. — Peggy Carlson Not enough wolves = too many cats. And remember wolves don’t attack humans like cougars do (in North America, that is). — Jake Sabin Whooah how scary. Very intense story. Glad to hear he made it. Makes me wonder how close them cougars are. — Natasha Watchman Marijuana taxes flood in And the Board of Commissioners decided to ban dispensaries for what reason again? — Eric Simonton It’s no surprise. If you want something to appear successful, set a low expectation and crow when it is exceeded. — Mike Navratil Your state was smart and has the participation clause: Not a dime goes to the non- participating areas. Well done Oregon! — Janice Martin PGG to vote to dissolve I’m sure if people worked together, the way they did in the early 1900s, it could still be saved. — Candace Gates One of the great lessons of the Twitter age is that much can be summed up in just a few words. Here are some of this week’s takes. Tweet yours @Tim_Trainor or email editor@eastoregonian. com, and keep them to 140 characters. East Oregonian Page 5A In Alexander Hamilton’s debt T minute. he Treasury Department First, however, I think it’s picked an interesting interesting to ask how such a proposal moment to announce a would be received today. revision in its plans to change the On the left, it would surely be faces on America’s money. Plans GHQRXQFHGDVDEDLORXW²DJLYHDZD\ to boot Alexander Hamilton off to speculators who had purchased the $10 bill in favor of a woman devalued debt for pennies on the have been shelved. Instead, Harriet dollar, and would reap large capital 7XEPDQ²RQHRIWKHPRVWKHURLF Paul ¿JXUHVLQWKHKLVWRU\RIRXUQDWLRQ Krugman gains. Indeed, a fair bit of the report is devoted to explaining why trying RUDQ\QDWLRQ²ZLOOPRYHRQWR Comment to prevent such windfall gains, via the face of the $20 bill. “discrimination between the different She will replace Andrew Jackson, a populist who campaigned against classes of creditors,” would be impractical and unwise. elites but was also, unfortunately, very 0HDQZKLOHRQWKHULJKW²ZHOO much a racist, arguably an advocate of what Hamilton was calling for a tax increase, we would nowadays call white supremacy. which modern conservatives oppose under Hmm. Does that make you think about any any and all circumstances. Luckily for him, FXUUHQWO\SURPLQHQWSROLWLFDO¿JXUHV" there was no Club for Growth to demand his But let me leave the $20 bill alone and impeachment. talk about how glad I am to see Hamilton But why did Hamilton want to take retain his well-deserved honor. And I’m not on those state debts? Partly to establish a alone among economists in my admiration national reputation as a reliable borrower, IRURXU¿UVW7UHDVXU\VHFUHWDU\,QIDFW so that funds could be raised cheaply in Stephen S. Cohen and J. Bradford DeLong the future. Partly, also, to give wealthy, have an excellent new book, “Concrete Economics,” arguing that Hamilton was the LQÀXHQWLDOLQYHVWRUVDVWDNHLQWKHQHZ federal government, thereby creating a true father of the U.S. economy. powerful pro-federal constituency. Full disclosure: I know next to nothing Beyond that, however, Hamilton argued about Hamilton the man and his life story. WKDWWKHH[LVWHQFHRIDVLJQL¿FDQWLQGHHG Nor, I’m sorry to say, have I managed to see the musical. But I have read Hamilton’s fairly large national debt would be good for pathbreaking economic policy manifestoes, business. Why? Because “in countries in which the national debt is properly funded, in particular his 1790 “First Report on the DQGDQREMHFWRIHVWDEOLVKHGFRQ¿GHQFHLW Public Credit,” a document that remains answers most of the purposes of money.” amazingly relevant today. That is, bonds issued by the U.S. In that report, Hamilton proposed that government would provide a safe, easily the federal government assume and honor traded asset that the private sector could use all of the debts individual states had run up as a store of value, as collateral for deals, during the Revolutionary War, imposing and in general as a lubricant for business new tariffs on imported goods to raise the activity. needed revenue. As a result, the debt would become a He believed that doing so would produce “national blessing,” making the economy LPSRUWDQWEHQH¿WVZKLFK,¶OOJHWWRLQD more productive. This argument anticipates, to a remarkable degree, one of the hottest ideas in modern macroeconomics: the notion that we are suffering from a global “safe asset shortage.” The private sector, according to this argument, can’t function well without DVXI¿FLHQWSRRORIDVVHWVZKRVHYDOXHLVQ¶W LQTXHVWLRQ²DQGIRUDYDULHW\RIUHDVRQV there just aren’t enough such assets these days. As a result, investors have been bidding up the prices of government debt, leading to incredibly low interest rates. But it would be better for almost everyone, the story goes, if governments were to issue more debt, investing the proceeds in much-needed infrastructure even while providing the private sector with the collateral it needs to function. And it’s a very persuasive story to just about everyone who has looked hard at the evidence. Unfortunately, policymakers won’t do the right thing, largely because they keep OLVWHQLQJWR¿VFDOVFROGV²SHRSOHZKR insist that public debt is a terrible thing even when borrowing costs almost nothing. 7KHLQÀXHQFHRIWKHVHVFROGVWKHLUYLUWXDO YHWRRYHU¿VFDOSROLF\VRPHKRZSHUVLVWV even though their predictions of soaring LQWHUHVWUDWHVDQGUXQDZD\LQÀDWLRQNHHSQRW coming true. The point is that Alexander Hamilton knew better. Unfortunately, Hamilton isn’t around to help counter foolish debt phobia. But maybe reminding policymakers of his wisdom is one way to chip away at the wall of folly that still constrains policy. And having his face out there every time someone pulls out a 10 can’t hurt, either. Ŷ Paul Krugman joined The New York Times in 1999 as a columnist. Logging a cause ²QRWDFXUH² IRUZLOG¿UHV to which the residential structures themselves can he Forest Service ignite that determine if the solution to large residences are vulnerable.” ZLOG¿UHVLVPRUH “The majority of acreage logging, but this prescription EXUQHGE\ZLOG¿UHLQWKH ignores the growing body U.S. occurs in a very few RIVFLHQWL¿FUHVHDUFKWKDW ZLOG¿UHVXQGHUH[WUHPH suggests that logging/ conditions (Strauss et al., thinning/prescribed burning 1989; Brookings Institution, does not work under severe 2005). “Under these extreme ¿UHFRQGLWLRQV conditions suppression efforts Why is this important? are largely ineffective.” Because the vast majority (Source: Objectives and RIDOO¿UHVVHOIH[WLQJXLVK considerations for wildland whether we do anything fuel treatment in forested or not. However, all large ecosystems of the interior ¿UHV²WKHRQHVWKDWDUHD western United States WKUHDWWRFRPPXQLWLHV²EXUQ Elizabeth D. Reinhardt *, under what Robert E. are termed Keane, David ³VHYHUH¿UH E. Calkin, Jack weather.” D. Cohen.) These are We cannot ¿UHVEXUQLQJ KDOWODUJH¿UHV under through fuel conditions treatments. of low The best way humidity, to save homes high is not by temperatures, persistent logging more of the forest, drought and most importantly EXWE\LPSOHPHQWLQJ¿UHZLVH high winds. policies in communities that If you get these conditions UHGXFHVWKHÀDPPDELOLW\RI in the same place as an homes. ignition source, you cannot I suspect many in the VWRSWKH¿UHXQWLOWKHZHDWKHU Forest Service, and especially conditions change. Blazes ¿UH¿JKWHUVNQRZWKLVEXW under such conditions the agency is continuously regularly burn through fuel under attack from politicians, WUHDWPHQWV²HYHQFOHDUFXWV rural communities, and the In fact, fuel treatments timber industry to increase FDQHYHQPDNH¿UHVSUHDG the amount of subsidized quicker by opening the forest timber from federal lands. to greater drying and wind Fire prevention is the excuse penetration. used to justify these sales. Here’s a small sample of Plus, logging/thinning conclusions that cast doubt gives the agency reasonable upon Forest Service policies: GHQLDELOLW\:KHQD¿UH “Finally by current RYHUZKHOPV¿UH¿JKWLQJ standards, even our best fuel efforts, the Forest Service reduction do not appear to can always say we did what be adequate to provide much we could to protect the assistance in the control of community. high intensity wind-driven It is easier to log the forest ¿UHV,IIXHOWUHDWPHQWLVWKH than face the wrath and answer, it will need to be accusations from ill-informed done on a level that is far community members that more extensive (area) and if only the Forest Service intensive (fuel reduction than had logged more, then the ZHDUHQRZDFFRPSOLVKLQJ² “disaster” could have been even on our best fuel breaks.” avoided. 6RXUFH:LOG¿UH&DVW The truth is that the Management) responsibility for avoiding “Extreme environmental disasters lies not with conditions ... overwhelmed the Forest Service, but most fuel treatment effects. with individual private ... This included almost all land owners, and county treatment methods including commissioners who prescribed burning and continuously approve new thinning. ... Suppression subdivisions in the wildlands- HIIRUWVKDGOLWWOHEHQH¿WIURP urban interface. But the IXHOPRGL¿FDWLRQV´ Forest Service can’t say this “It may not be necessary publicly. or effective to treat fuels in Ŷ adjacent areas in order to George Wuerthner is an VXSSUHVV¿UHVEHIRUHWKH\ ecologist and the author of 38 reach homes; rather, it is books, including two dealing the treatment of the fuels with wild¿re issues. He serYes immediately proximate to the on the Western Watersheds residences, and the degree Project board. By GEORGE WUERTHNER T We cannot halt large fires through fuel treatments. How bigotry helped shape the West By PAUL KRZA Writers on the Range I ’ve traveled frequently to Slovenia to see the place where my grandparents came from, and I remain amazed why they would trade that land of lush forests for windswept Rock Springs, Wyoming. But with thousands of migrants on the move in Europe these days, it’s understandable: They simply wanted a better life. Less understandable is some of the anti-migrant rhetoric we’re hearing at home. ,W¶VQRWWKH¿UVWWLPHELJRWHG attitudes have surfaced in the United States. Rock Springs was ground zero in 1885, when hate talk spurred an orgy of medieval brutality and the murder of Chinese immigrants. Chinese people came here in the V¿UVWDVUDLOURDGZRUNHUVDQG ODWHUDVPLQHUVIRUWKH8QLRQ3DFL¿F Railroad Company, many in the Rock Springs coal pits. In 1870, the company paid “white labor” up to $3 a day; the Chinese were paid a dollar less under what the company called a “race differential.” The Knights of Labor, then organizing white miners in Rock Springs, also were championing a nationwide hate campaign against Chinese. Called “Chinamen,” or “Chinks,” they were yesterday’s version of today’s Mexicans, seen as “taking white men’s jobs,” or like Muslims, having strange customs. In 1870, Cheyenne’s Wyoming State Tribune suggested it was time to “throw back the tide of heathen paupers from our shores.” On the afternoon of Sept. 2, 1885, whipped-up white miners fanned out from the separate “Whitemen’s Town” in Rock Springs and mounted a scorched-earth attack on Chinatown. The raiders – including WZRZRPHQVHHQ¿ULQJULÀHV±NLOOHG “at least” 28 Chinese that day and WHUURUL]HGWKHÀHHLQJVXUYLYRUV The consul’s investigation grimly noted the “more or less mutilated” and burned bodies. Wyoming Gov. Francis Warren asked for help from U.S. Army soldiers in Rock Springs, though some suggested he was motivated more by company needs than a desire to quell violence. A week later, some of the Chinese returned, this time accompanied by federal troops who stayed for 13 years. “The company intends to make a ‘Chinatown’ out of Rock Springs,” the Rock Springs Independent lamented. “It means that Rock Springs is killed, as far as white men are concerned.” The Chinese LGHQWL¿HG perpetrators, and authorities arrested 16 men in Rock Springs. However, a white grand jury indicted no one, because no crime was committed “by a white person.” I knew nothing about this as a kid growing up in Rock Springs. Nobody talked about it, and schools didn’t teach this tarnished bit of local history. Last I heard, there’s still no memorial to the mass killings. It wasn’t until the mid-1970s, when I wrote a story about the massacre, that I managed to learn about it. My source was an uncle who cared about local history. That history was all around me, many years later. Camp Pilot Butte, where the Army troops lived, remained intact for decades after they left. I even attended catechism in rooms we called “the barracks,” and played outside on the old parade ground, which had been turned into a playground. Remnants of nearby Chinatown surfaced when a school, built on the old site, expanded along “Ah Say Avenue,” which was named after a local Chinese leader. Though a few Chinese continued as miners, the Rock Springs turmoil SURPSWHGWKH8QLRQ3DFL¿FWRVKLIW its recruitment strategy to depressed southeastern Europe. That’s how my Slovenian grandfathers came to Rock Springs, part of a migrant ÀRZEHWZHHQDQGZKHQ 5 million people left hardscrabble lives for America. By 1910, about half the miners in Rock Springs came from the same area, among them one of my grandfathers, who entered mine tunnels there in 1918. My other Slovenian grandfather opened a blacksmith shop in Rock Springs. Like the Chinese, they encountered ridicule and suspicion about their politics, which many believed were dangerously leftist. When other ethnic groups arrived in growing multinational Rock Springs, racist name-calling was the norm, and sometimes, people duked it out in the local park. But there was no mass murder, because, simply, the newcomers were mostly white. For me, the family’s migratory movement has been circular. Last year I applied for, and amazingly was granted Slovenian citizenship. I can always go back to the old country. Had the Chinese been welcomed or even tolerated, those terrible events in 1885 might not have occurred. If so, my forebears might never have come here. They might have hunkered down and stayed in Slovenia. I’d never have had to seek citizenship: I’d already be living there. But now I can leave this country, and if hate wins our election, I can honestly say, as some friends only half-jokingly declare: “I have an escape route.” Perhaps I won’t have to take it. Ŷ Paul Krza is a contributor to Writers on the Range, an opinion serYice of High &ountry News (hcn.org). He was a longtime newspaperman in Wyoming and now liYes in $lbuTuerTue, New 0e[ico. When other ethnic groups arrived, racist name-calling was the norm. But there was no mass murder because the newcomers were mostly white. Be heard! Comment online at eastoregonian.com
