Contrary to the Warming Contrarians (WCs), Texas is still in a drought — a bad one.
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Oddly, the great story on the Texas drought that showed up in the Dallas Morning News last week, does not show up on their website. Because this is a climate change-related issue, I think we should track it.
Tip of the old scrub brush to Michael Tobis at Only In It For The Gold.
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Agriculture, Business, Climate change, Economics, Environmental protection, Global warming, Science, Texas | Tagged: Agriculture, Business, Climate change, Economics, environment, Farming, Global warming, Los Angeles Times, Texas | 
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Posted by Ed Darrell
It wasn’t in the textbooks before, and after the Texas State Soviet of Education finished work on new social studies standards last month, the Great Cowboy Strike of 1883 remains a topic Texas students probably won’t learn.
Unless you and I do something about it.
From University of California at Davis’s Exploring the West Project: Cowboy at work, TX, c. 1905. Library of Congress, Washington, DC. Erwin Smith photo. http://historyproject.ucdavis.edu/khapp.php?SlideNum=2721
In the history of labor in the U.S., the common story leaves out most of the great foment that actually drove progressive politics between, say, 1865 and 1920. Union organization attempts, and other actions by workers to get better work hours and work conditions, just get left behind.
Then there is the sheer incongruity of the idea. A cowboy union? Modern cowboys tend toward conservative politics. Conservatives like to think of cowboys as solitary entrepreneurs, and not as workers in a larger organization that is, in fact, a corporation, where workers might have a few grievances about the fit of the stirrups, the padding of the saddle, the coarseness of the rope, the chafing of the chaps, the quality of the chuck, or the very real dangers and hardships of simply doing a cowboy’s job well.
Until today, I’d not heard of the Great Cowboy Strike of 1883.
Check it out at the Texas State Historical Association’s Handbook of Texas Online:
COWBOY STRIKE OF 1883. In the two decades after the Civil War the open-range cattle industry dominated the Great Plains, then died and was replaced by closed-range ranching and stock farming. In West Texas during the 1880s new owners, representing eastern and European investment companies, gained control of the ranching industry and brought with them innovations threatening to many ranchhands. Previously, cowboys could take part of their pay in calves, brand mavericks, and even run small herds on their employers’ land. New ranch owners, interested in expanding their holdings and increasing their profits, insisted that the hands work only for wages and claimed mavericks as company property. The work was seasonal. It required long hours and many skills, was dangerous, and paid only an average of forty dollars a month. The ranch owners’ innovations, along with the nature of the work, gave rise to discontent.
In 1883 a group of cowboys began a 2½-month strike against five ranches, the LIT, the LX, the LS, the LE, and the T Anchor,qqv which they believed were controlled by corporations or individuals interested in ranching only as a speculative venture for quick profit. In late February or early March of 1883 crews from the LIT, the LS, and the LX drew up an ultimatum demanding higher wages and submitted it to the ranch owners. Twenty-four men signed it and set March 31 as their strike date. The original organizers of the strike, led by Tom Harris of the LS, established a small strike fund and attempted, with limited success, to persuade all the cowboys in the area of the five ranches to honor the strike. Reports on the number of people involved in the strike ranged from thirty to 325. Actually the number changed as men joined and deserted the walkout.
It was the wrong time to strike. With a full month remaining before the spring roundup, ranchers had plenty of time to hire scabs and strikebreakers, to replace the striking cowboys. Some ranches increased wages, but most of them fired the strikers and made the strikers crawl back to beg for jobs. Santayana’s Ghost is tapping at the chalk board about the potential lessons there. (You should read the whole article at TSHA’s site.)
It didn’t help that the striking cowboys didn’t have a very large strike fund, nor that they drank a lot of the strike fund up prematurely.
The Great Cowboy Strike, unimpressive as it was, is part of a larger story about labor organizing and progressive politics especially outside the cities in that larger Progressive Era, from the Civil War to just after World War I. It involves large corporations running the ranches — often foreign corporations with odd ideas of how to raise cattle, and often with absentee ownership who hired bad managers. The strike talks about how working people were abused in that era, even the supremely independent and uniquely skilled cowboy. It offers wonderful opportunities to improve our telling the story of this nation, don’t you think?
Resources:
3 Comments | Agriculture, Education, History, Labor and unions, Lesson plans, Progressive Era, Texas, Texas history, unions | Tagged: Agriculture, Cowboy Strike of 1883, Cowboys, History, labor, Progressive Era, Ranching, Texas, Texas history, unions | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
I learned something new tonight. The Disiciples of Christ formally adopted wise environmental stewardship as a denominational goal in 1981.
History of the Alverna Covenant
The Alverna Covenant was written by members of the Task Force on Christian Lifestyle and Ecology of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) while meeting at Alverna Retreat Center, a Franciscan retreat in Indianapolis, Ind. The name has added significance. Alverna is named for Mt. Alverna in Italy, the mountain retreat given to Francis of Assisi. Francis is honored for his concern for the care of and relatedness of all creation. The 800th anniversary of Francis’ birth was celebrated in 1981, the year the Alverna Covenant was first introduced at the General Assembly of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).
The Alverna Covenant
Whereas:
- God has created the world with finite resources;
- God has given to us the stewardship of the earth;
- God has established order through many natural cycles.
And it is evident that:
- We are consuming resources at a rate that cannot be maintained;
- We are interrupting many natural cycles;
- We are irresponsibly modifying the environment through consumption and pollution;
- We are populating the earth at a rate that cannot be maintained;
As a member of the human family and a follower of Jesus Christ, I hereby covenant that:
- I will change my lifestyle to reduce my contribution to pollution;
- I will support recycling efforts;
- I will search for sustainable lifestyles;
- I will work for public policies which lead to a just and sustainable society;
I will share these concerns with others and urge them to make this Covenant.
What other denominations have statements on wise resource stewardship? What do they say?
Tip of the old scrub brush to Darrel Manson, who writes at Hollywood Jesus.
Resources:
12 Comments | Agriculture, air pollution, Climate change, Cost of Green, Environmental justice, Environmental protection, Ethics, Global warming, Green Politics, History, Politics, pollution, Religion, Science, Science and faith, Water | Tagged: Cost of Green, Environmental protection, environmentalism, Ethics, Green Politics, Politics, Religion | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Anti-DDT business interests appear triumphant, if only temporarily, in their efforts to stop the use of DDT in the fight against malaria.
ProtectAfrica.com reports use of DDT has been stopped in northern Uganda. Nine corporations sued to stop the spraying. New Visions reports a shift to a chemical named ICON for use in Indoor Residual Spraying, designed to protect people against mosquitoes in their homes.
I have links to stories saying Rwanda has abandoned DDT in the past few weeks, but none of the links work.
Meanwhile, from The East African in Nairobi, Kenya, comes the report that Tanzania became the first East African nation in recent years to use DDT for limited, indoor spraying. [But be wary of this source; the article also claims many nations outlawed DDT after 1972; not accurate in Africa, nor most other places.]
There is high irony in businesses opposing the use of DDT when environmental organizations in other nations do not oppose it.
6 Comments | Africa, Agriculture, Business, Business Ethics, DDT, Environmental protection, Health care, Science | Tagged: Africa, Agriculture, Business, DDT, Environmental protection, Health care, Litigation, Malaria, Science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
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Ed Darrell on Texas's Colorado River
Come on in, the water's fine. Come often: Cleanliness is next to godliness.
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 