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
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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.
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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
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to which the residential
structures themselves can
he Forest Service
ignite that determine if the
solution to large
residences are vulnerable.”
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“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
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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
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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.
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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
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adjacent areas in order to
George Wuerthner is an
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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.
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