Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2020 March 24

= March 24 =

Govt authority over production before 1950
Prior to the Defense_Production_Act_of_1950, did the government have any similar powers of this Act, such as during WWII or WWI? RudolfRed (talk) 00:34, 24 March 2020 (UTC)


 * I believe the War Powers Acts of 1941 and 1942 gave the Federal government broad powers, but I don’t know the details. The National Emergencies Act of 1976 gives the President of the United States the power to direct industrial production, provided that the President determines this is essential to the national defense (50 U.S. Code § 4533). This appears to confer broadly the same powers, but much less specified and regulated, as granted under the Defense Production Act. --Lambiam 03:25, 24 March 2020 (UTC)


 * The Trading with the Enemy Act of 1917 also gave the President broad powers during World War I. Bayer Chemical company's US assets were seized under the act and awarded to the small firm of Sterling Drug, which took until 1994 before it was re-acquired by Bayer again; between 1917 and 1994, Bayer Aspirin was not made by Bayer in the U.S.  Another example may be the broad "war powers" enacted unilaterally by Abraham Lincoln during the American Civil War.  These were not authorized by Congress and opposed by the Supreme Court, but Lincoln basically ignored them.  See here for background.  -- Jayron 32 14:45, 24 March 2020 (UTC)
 * The important detail about the Civil War was that Lincoln took care to characterize it as an internal "rebellion" or "insurrection", and Congress went along. This is why there was no formal declaration of war; the position was always that the acts taken were to put down an internal rebellion. Formally declaring war would have implied recognizing the Confederacy as a government, which might have led foreign governments to recognize it and potentially offer aid, something the U.S. government wanted to avoid. --47.146.63.87 (talk) 06:53, 25 March 2020 (UTC)
 * Thanks! RudolfRed (talk) 15:47, 24 March 2020 (UTC)

Lloyd George, fences, and Keep Out signs
I recall reading - but I can't place where - a recollection, or a couple of recollections, of Lloyd George commenting on fences on the lines of "I can't stand them, I always want to tear them down", and on Keep Out signs "If we had paid attention to them as children we would have had nowhere to play". I rather think one was in the context of going for a walk (with whoever it was who later recalled it) at Chequers, and the other in old age. Can anyone help me track them down again? Thanks, DuncanHill (talk) 01:12, 24 March 2020 (UTC)


 * He has many quotes in the "Dictionary of British Politics" which does include the fences quote from 1915. 97.82.165.112 (talk) 11:50, 24 March 2020 (UTC)
 * Good job .112, should be 30 November 1915 in the diary of Frances Stevenson cited here (borrow). Also just "I hate fences" without reference from here about his garden at Churt, but that would have been after 1915? Could the other recollection be "The land round our village, was strictly preserved, but that did not prevent us...", said in public according to Raymond? fiveby(zero) 14:10, 24 March 2020 (UTC)
 * ... “the land round our village was strictly preserved, but that did not prevent us having our full share of Nature's bounty in the form of apples and nuts." Country Life, Volume 52, Part 2 (1922), probably quoting your Raymond source. Alansplodge (talk) 19:32, 24 March 2020 (UTC)


 * Thanks - I'm fairly sure that those aren't what I'm remembering - but they are useful references for me. The 1915 entry in Stevenson's Diary is for the house at Walton Heath, he didn't move to Churt until 1922. I know I've not read the E. T. Raymond book, or the Country Life article. I have read Malcolm Thomson, but I'm sure that that's not what I was thinking of. DuncanHill (talk) 21:52, 24 March 2020 (UTC)

painting that file:vision 2 secondes.jpg is derived from
I plan to make a cleaner version of it and was curious which painting is used. Arlo James Barnes 19:32, 24 March 2020 (UTC)
 * Your best way to handle that is to go to Wikimedia Commons (where the file has been uploaded) and contact the original uploader. Go to the file information page at Wikipedia, find the box that says "This is a file from the Wikimedia Commons. Information from its description page there is shown below." and click the blue link that says "description page there".  From there, you can scroll down to see that it was uploaded by a user named LEMEN.  Click the "talk" link next to their name to contact them.  -- Jayron 32 20:35, 24 March 2020 (UTC)
 * I believe LEMEN is simply the transwiki uploader (it seems their primary language is French whereas the image uses German; however, they are still active: w:fr:spécial:contributions/LEMEN so I suppose it wouldn't hurt to confirm) and that w:de:spezial:beiträge/Hans-Werner34 is the image creator, and they have not contributed for 9 years. However, I sent them an email anyway. Arlo James Barnes 03:30, 25 March 2020 (UTC)


 * Maybe Yarbus's book identifies it. Book title is in bio article, Alfred Yarbus. 2601:648:8202:96B0:386A:A40C:EBB1:ACC0 (talk) 06:45, 25 March 2020 (UTC)


 * Yarbus identifies it as I. E. Repin's picture "An Unexpected Visitor", called "Unexpected Vistors" or "They did not expect him" (Russian: «Не ждали») on Commons. --Lambiam 07:21, 25 March 2020 (UTC)
 * Nice! 2601:648:8202:96B0:386A:A40C:EBB1:ACC0 (talk) 18:19, 25 March 2020 (UTC)
 * Perhaps someone could translate fr:Visiteur inattendu Ghirla-трёп- 15:32, 29 March 2020 (UTC)