Browsed by
Tag: France

Washingtonians in World War I

Washingtonians in World War I

2018 marks the 100th Anniversary of the end of World War I, the “War to End All Wars.” Centennial events have taken place for the past several years throughout Europe, and last year the Washington State Library was honored to assist students from the American School in Paris as they embarked on a project to gather information about the Americans laid to rest at Suresnes American Cemetery. This Paris cemetery contains the remains of 1,541 Americans who died in World…

Read More Read More

War Horses From Okanogan

War Horses From Okanogan

From the desk of Steve Willis, Central Library Services Program Manager of the Washington State Library: In 1906 cowboys in the Ephrata area rounded up a few thousand wild horses and sold them to buyers back East in what was known as “The Last Grand Roundup.” At the time this event was considered a final farewell to the era of the Old West in Eastern Washington. But the day of the horse wasn’t quite over. Amazingly, horses were in so much…

Read More Read More

Tax the Unmarried, Pay for Social Security

Tax the Unmarried, Pay for Social Security

From the pages of the Tacoma Times, Sept. 30, 1910. In September of 1910, officials from the Finance Ministry in Paris were scrambling to come up with ways to pay for the French Old Age Pensions bill, a compulsary insurance plan similar to social security.  The Minister of Finance, M. Cochery, asked clerks to come up with ideas and was bombarded with suggestions, some ideas were “decidedly original” and some that were “highly impracticle.” Among the proposed subjects of taxation: “Bachelors and old maids;…

Read More Read More