John Walters

Langston Hughes and the South African Drum Generation: The Correspondence

Shane Graham et al. — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 14:46:02 PST

A Practical Guide to Admiralty Law for the Seagoing Naval Officer

John Edward Walters — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 14:46:00 PST

Daily there are hundreds of United States Navy vessels operating in foreign, international and domestic waters. The knowledge of admiralty law possessed by the officers on these vessels is extremely limited. Prospective Commanding Officers of Navy vessels are trained in areas of international and maritime law, but not in cases involving admiralty. If a United States naval vessel is involved in an admiralty incident, the only recourse the Commanding Officer has is to contact his superior and wait for word from the Staff Judge Advocate representative. It is not necessary for Commanding Officers to be experts on admiralty matters in order to know what to do in certain situations. In international law, Commanding Officers are not experts; however, they are given a working knowledge on which decisions can be based. This paper will present basic concepts of admiralty law that directly affect United States naval vessels in everyday operations. It is not designed to replace Chapter 12 of the Judge Advocate General's Manual concerning Admiralty Claims, but rather to supplement that instruction with explanations of basic concepts and illustrative examples. Commanding Officers are advised to consult Chapter 12 of the JAG Manual for specific guidance on United States Navy admiralty procedures; this paper should only be referred to on an informational basis.

U.S. Bureau of the Census CD-ROMs: unleashing the potential

Kevin K. Brewer et al. — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 14:45:58 PST

This article demonstrates opportunities afforded by the database file format of many U.S. Bureau of the Census CD-ROMs. It specifically illustrates what can be achieved by modifying and linking files extracted from these CD-ROMs, and then by adding these files as thematic map layers. The article concludes by suggesting ways in which the documents specialist can network these files and maps throughout the local community.

Seeds of Change: Farm Organizations in Depression and Post-War Utah

Robert Parson et al. — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 14:45:56 PST

As Utah continues to move further and further away from its agricultural base, it is useful to look back on the state’s agricultural heritage and how an earlier generation of farmers sought to maximize its economic security through cooperation, government support, and adoption of new methods and tools made available through the nation’s land-grant colleges. Following World War II, two competing organizations, the Utah Farm Bureau and the Utah Farmer’s Union, emerged as champions of Utah farmers. Where Utah farmers and their organization had given strong support to Franklin Roosevelt and the Democratic Party’s New Deal during the 1930s, in the late 1940s the Farm Bureau took another course opening the door for the Farmers Union to establish its first local in Utah in Emery County in 1948 and spread quickly to other parts of the state. Political repercussions followed during J. Bracken Lee’s tenure as Governor of Utah (1949-56), the U.S. Senate and House elections of 1950, and unsubstantiated charges that the Utah Farmers Union was a Communist-dominated organization.

The Ideological Development of U.S. Government Publication, 1820-1920: From Jefferson to Croly

John Walters — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 09:45:12 PDT

Abstract-This paper traces the development of an ideology for U.S. government publication, focusing primarily on dominant strands of political thought during the antebellum period, the gilded age, and the progressive era. This paper examines political thought that inhibited the development of an ideology of U.S. government publication, such as the antistatism of Thomas Jefferson and the Social Darwinism of Herbert Spencer and William Graham Sumner; it focuses also on American political thought that fostered its development, such as the Positivism of Lester Frank Ward, the Pragmatism of John Dewey, and the Progressivism of Herbert Croly

The Republic of Federal Scientific Publication: The Not-So-Public Domain

John Walters — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 09:22:32 PDT

This article examines the forces that have made federal scientific publication an essentially private enterprise. Particular attention is paid to the rise of the scientific community in the American political system. The period under review begins roughly with 1941 and American involvement in World War II, which coincides with the establishment of the Office of Scientific Research and Development (ORSD). The article examines OSRD’s method of conducting federal scientific research, its contractual system, and the new publishing paradigm that it engendered. The article concludes in the 1960s with congressional efforts to revise provisions in Title 17, the Copyright Code.

Informing the Nation Jacksonian Style: The Ideological Impetus for, and Impediments to, the U.S. Government’s Informing Function During the Antebellum Period

John Walters — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 08:57:50 PDT

This article examines the development of the U.S. government's informing function during the antebellum period. Particular attention is paid to the ideology of Jacksonian democracy, as expressed through such prominent organs as the Democratic Review and through such representative thinkers as Jeremy Bentham, George Bancroft, and William Leggett. Examined are the ways in which the ideology of democracy not only shaped and contributed to, but also impeded the development of, the informing function of government.

Whose Vision Fulfilled? Toward a Rightful Ideological Progenitor for the U.S. Federal Depository Library Program

John Walters — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 08:47:21 PDT

This article addresses the assertion, advanced by the Depository Library Council (DLC) to the Public Printer, that James Madison's political writings serve as the ideological underpinning for the Federal Depository Library Program. In ascertaining the validity of the DLC's claim, this article reviews the evolution of Anglo-American thought regarding the concept of an informed citizenry, and concludes by suggesting persons who may rightfully be considered the harbingers of a federal depository library program

"'Toy' Presses and the Rise of Fugitive U.S. Government Documents"

John Walters — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 07:14:11 PDT

Explains how advances in the graphic arts, and the rise of executive agency duplicating plants in the early twentieth century, gave rise to a large body of U.S. government documents that were, and still largely are, unavailable to the public

U.S. Government Publication: Ideological Development and Institutional Politics from the Founding to 1970

John Walters — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 14:08:00 PDT

Examines the forces that have deflected U.S. government publication from becoming the public enterprise conceived by Congress in the nineteenth century. Discusses concepts deeply embedded in the American political consciousness and their inhibitive effect on the production, distribution, preservation, and even the quality of U.S. government documents. Also examines the punitive congressional policies that drove executive agency publishing underground in the early decades of the twentieth century, as well as how these policies forced agency publishers into the arms of the private sector in subsequent decades. This book further explains how advances in the graphic arts enabled executive departments to follow a publishing tack independent of the authorized channel of U.S. government publication--the U.S. Government Printing Office. U.S. Government Publication: Ideological Development and Institutional Politics from the Founding to 1970 describes the federal scientific establishment that emerged during and immediately after World War II and how the folkways of science constricted the sphere of government publication. A major theme is the historic absence of a controlling legal authority for U.S. government publishing, that is, the extraordinary degree to which competing and conflicting legal codes, administrative policy, and originating statutes have given government publication a conspicuous lawlessness.