One hundred years ago on July 28th Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia starting what would eventually be called the first world war. The war quickly escalated. By August 4th Germany had started a invasion of France and violated Belgium’s neutrality. Britain’s declaration of war on Germany followed shortly after on August 4th 1914.
When the United States entered the war on April 6th 1917 Oregon did its part in the war effort. The Daily Capital Journal reported in its April 6th issue that the Third Oregon Regiment had completed its initial muster.
Posters from the period called on Oregonians to join the armed forces. Even librarians were enlisted in the war effort!
Despite public calls for enlistment President Wilson was disappointed with the voluntary enlistment numbers. The Selective Service Act of 1917 (40 Stat. 76), which is available to view in our collection here in the Law Llibrary, initially required all males 21 to 30 to register. In 1918 the age range was expanded to males 18 to 45. By the end of the war over 2.8 million people were drafted.
Oregon contributed thousands of those registrations. The Genealogical Forum of Oregon has indexed almost 180 thousand WW1 draft registrations. They also provide copies of those registrations for a nominal fee.
Not everyone in Oregon supported the war. A well known Oregonian labor activist named Marie Equi demonstrated publicly against the war. By the start of the war Equi was already famous for aiding victims of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.
Equi was locally well known for a dispute with Reverend Orson D. Taylor in 1893 over $100 in wages. Following through on a threat she horsewhipped the Reverend in front of his real estate office. While she didn’t get the $100 from him residents of Dallas, OR auctioned off the whip for more than $100 the proceeds going to Miss Equi.
And On May 16, 1918 congress passed the Sedition Act of 1918. This act made it a crime to “willfully utter, print, write, or publish any disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language about the form of the Government of the United States” or “willfully urge, incite, or advocate any curtailment of the production" of the things "necessary or essential to the prosecution of the war."
Equi was arrested in 1918 during a demonstration at the Industrial Works of the World against the war. She was convicted on December 31 and sentenced to three years in prison. Adamn Hodges’ article “At War Over the Espionage act in Portland” (Oregon Historical Quarterly Volume 108 No. 3) is available in the Law Library and is a great place to start learning more about Marie Equi.
For a more general history Barbara Tuchman’s The Guns of August is a Pulitzer Prize winning book that covers the earliest stages of the war.
Wednesday, July 30, 2014
LawWatch saved searches
Time for another pro-tip for legal research: save your searches in Loislaw using LawWatch.
Saving your searches is a quick and easy way to get constant updates on a topic that you're interested in. By signing up for LawWatch, you can guarantee that you won't miss any new information on your research. Here's how it works:
- Perform your search in Loislaw
- On the results page, look for the green button at the top of the page that says "Save Search"
- Loislaw will take your search, and give you the option to activate LawWatch
- You can either sign up for email updates, or you can check on your LawWatch searches each time you log in to Loislaw
Keep an eye on our blog for more search tips from the State of Oregon Law Library and have a great week!
Monday, July 28, 2014
Food carts coming to Salem
Salem will soon be home to a sight familiar to Oregonians elsewhere in the state. On July 14th the City Council of the City of Salem approved changes to the city code that will allow food trucks to be operated within the city. In particular:
- Licenses are available in 12 month increments without a site plan
- The 2 hour limit on placement of food truck is removed
- The 500 foot spacing requirement is removed
A copy of the ordinance itself is available here. The changes take place immediately.
The spread of food trucks is not without controversy and not everyone is happy to see food trucks come to Salem. The Oregon Restaurant and Lodging Association expressed its reservations in a July 1st open letter to the city council. The ORLA expresses concern that mobile food carts are not subject to the same inspection standards as traditional restaurants. They argue that rules meant to govern ostensibly mobile food carts are ineffective in regulating immobile densely packed food carts.
National and local street vending advocacy groups contest these points. The Salem Food Truck Association and The National Street Vending Initiative claim that food trucks are at least as safe as traditional restaurants. Indeed, The National Street Vending Initiative conducted a study that backs up these claims.
If you are a resident of Salem and you are chomping at the bit to get your genius food idea out onto the streets of Salem the State of Oregon Health Authority has some resources for you. Their website on food safety contains some vital information for anyone looking to open a food cart.
The spread of food trucks is not without controversy and not everyone is happy to see food trucks come to Salem. The Oregon Restaurant and Lodging Association expressed its reservations in a July 1st open letter to the city council. The ORLA expresses concern that mobile food carts are not subject to the same inspection standards as traditional restaurants. They argue that rules meant to govern ostensibly mobile food carts are ineffective in regulating immobile densely packed food carts.
National and local street vending advocacy groups contest these points. The Salem Food Truck Association and The National Street Vending Initiative claim that food trucks are at least as safe as traditional restaurants. Indeed, The National Street Vending Initiative conducted a study that backs up these claims.
If you are a resident of Salem and you are chomping at the bit to get your genius food idea out onto the streets of Salem the State of Oregon Health Authority has some resources for you. Their website on food safety contains some vital information for anyone looking to open a food cart.
Even PBS has some advice for anyone who wants to hang out their foodie shingle.
Non riesco a sopportare quelli che non prendono seriamente il cibo.
- Oscar Wilde
Non riesco a sopportare quelli che non prendono seriamente il cibo.
- Oscar Wilde
Tuesday, July 22, 2014
Historical Dictionaries
We had a patron in last week looking for historical dictionaries other than Webster's. I thought our readers may be interested in seeing that we have quite a few historical dictionaries available!
Besides what we have in print, HeinOnline has an entire library devoted to historical dictionaries and reference materials. Spinelli's Law Library Reference Shelf has hundreds of titles available, and a section devoted specifically to dictionaries. Come by the law library to read this gem: Criminal Slang: The Vernacular of the Underworld Lingo (originally published in 1949) and other fascinating titles!
Besides what we have in print, HeinOnline has an entire library devoted to historical dictionaries and reference materials. Spinelli's Law Library Reference Shelf has hundreds of titles available, and a section devoted specifically to dictionaries. Come by the law library to read this gem: Criminal Slang: The Vernacular of the Underworld Lingo (originally published in 1949) and other fascinating titles!
Tuesday, July 8, 2014
The Contraceptive Insurance Mandate
We have created a guide to the Affordable Care Act's mandate for women's preventative services after the Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. decision on June 30th, 2014. Here is a link to the guide: http://soll.libguides.com/guide/contraceptivemandate
This guide, created by our Reference Librarian Lewis Zimmerman, provides some background information about laws and regulations prior to Burwell, the acts that informed this decision, as well as some follow up on the case and how this decision impacts us Oregonians.
We hope this guide will be both engaging and informative. Keep on eye our social media and our LibGuides page for more guides on legal issues in the news. Just another service from the SOLL to make legal information accessible and useful!
This guide, created by our Reference Librarian Lewis Zimmerman, provides some background information about laws and regulations prior to Burwell, the acts that informed this decision, as well as some follow up on the case and how this decision impacts us Oregonians.
We hope this guide will be both engaging and informative. Keep on eye our social media and our LibGuides page for more guides on legal issues in the news. Just another service from the SOLL to make legal information accessible and useful!
Bail Bondsmen and Oregon
Recently the bail bond industry has come under new criticism. Rising prison populations have prompted a reexamination of the bail bond system.1
In most of the United States after an arrest you might find yourself paying a private bail bondsman to secure your pre-trial release. Not so in Oregon. Along with Illinois, Kentucky and Wisconsin Oregon has outlawed the use of bail bondsmen. Once a regular fixture throughout the nation, bail bondsmen fell into disfavor in the 1960s and 1970s.
The Manhattan Bail Project2 in the early 1960s evaluated criminal defendants and recommended to the courts which defendants were good candidates for release without bail. From 1961 to 1964 the project demonstrated outstanding success in predicting which defendants would return to court without posting bail. The program was so successful that in 1966 President Johnson cited it when signing the National Bail Reform Act.3
Soon after the passage of the federal Bail Reform Act of 1966 Oregon passed its own bail reform legislation in 1973.4 This legislation brought the ten percent deposit to Oregon. The statute provided for release on the defendants recognizance; however, if a monetary security was required the defendant would pay ten percent of the security in cash to the state. This cut bail bondsmen out of the judicial process and eliminated bail bondsmen in Oregon.
1http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/06/bail-bond-prison-industry
2http://cspcs.sanford.duke.edu/sites/default/files/descriptive/manhattan_bail_project.pdf
3Wald, Patricia M., "To Feel the Great Forces: The Times of Burke Marshall", 105 Yale L.J. 611, 617 (1995).
4Kaye, Robert A., "Oregon's Ten Percent Deposit Bail System - Rethinking the Professional Surety's Role", 66 Or. L. Rev. 661 (1987).
In most of the United States after an arrest you might find yourself paying a private bail bondsman to secure your pre-trial release. Not so in Oregon. Along with Illinois, Kentucky and Wisconsin Oregon has outlawed the use of bail bondsmen. Once a regular fixture throughout the nation, bail bondsmen fell into disfavor in the 1960s and 1970s.
The Manhattan Bail Project2 in the early 1960s evaluated criminal defendants and recommended to the courts which defendants were good candidates for release without bail. From 1961 to 1964 the project demonstrated outstanding success in predicting which defendants would return to court without posting bail. The program was so successful that in 1966 President Johnson cited it when signing the National Bail Reform Act.3
Soon after the passage of the federal Bail Reform Act of 1966 Oregon passed its own bail reform legislation in 1973.4 This legislation brought the ten percent deposit to Oregon. The statute provided for release on the defendants recognizance; however, if a monetary security was required the defendant would pay ten percent of the security in cash to the state. This cut bail bondsmen out of the judicial process and eliminated bail bondsmen in Oregon.
1http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/06/bail-bond-prison-industry
2http://cspcs.sanford.duke.edu/sites/default/files/descriptive/manhattan_bail_project.pdf
3Wald, Patricia M., "To Feel the Great Forces: The Times of Burke Marshall", 105 Yale L.J. 611, 617 (1995).
4Kaye, Robert A., "Oregon's Ten Percent Deposit Bail System - Rethinking the Professional Surety's Role", 66 Or. L. Rev. 661 (1987).
Tuesday, July 1, 2014
Small Claims Resource
Need help with small claims?
"Small Claims Court" from the Oregon State Bar is a great resource for patrons who need an introduction to small claims court and the process involved in filing a case: http://www.osbar.org/public/legalinfo/1061_SmallClaims.htm
Created by the Honorable Steven A. Todd and Janay Haas, this guide will help you find answers to simple questions such as, "What is a small claims court" as well as instructions for more detailed questions, "How do I file a lawsuit?" Stay tuned with our blog and Twitter feed for more helpful resources like this one!
"Small Claims Court" from the Oregon State Bar is a great resource for patrons who need an introduction to small claims court and the process involved in filing a case: http://www.osbar.org/public/legalinfo/1061_SmallClaims.htm
Created by the Honorable Steven A. Todd and Janay Haas, this guide will help you find answers to simple questions such as, "What is a small claims court" as well as instructions for more detailed questions, "How do I file a lawsuit?" Stay tuned with our blog and Twitter feed for more helpful resources like this one!
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