The Associated Press distributed an interesting story today recapping the history of nationalization efforts in the United States.
It provides some context to the General Motors situation.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. assumption of a controlling interest in General Motors Corp. isn’t the first time the government has nationalized a company or an industry. It has taken […]

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If  you ever doubted the power of one vote, consider the 1898 election for mayor of Lancaster.
Democrat Simon Shissler defeated Republican Samuel M. Myers by a single vote.
But early discrepancies in the vote totals led to our own “Dewey Defeats Truman” headline in the New Era, 50 years before that famous 1948 error by the Chicago Tribune.
Below is the Feb. 16, […]

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In these tough economic times, it may come as a surprise that more than $1 billion sits unclaimed by its owners in Pennsylvania. That’s about 500 times more than the $2 million that was unclaimed 75 years ago (see article below).
The Pennsylvania Treasury Department maintains a database of thousands of abandoned bank accounts, forgotten stock certificates, uncashed checks, unclaimed life-insurance policies and […]

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As the nation inaugurates Barack Obama as the 44th president of the United States, let’s take a look back at some scenes from previous inaugurations.
The Associated Press moved a number of historic photos on the wire in the past week, so I thought I’d post some of them here. Enjoy.
Bill and Hillary Clinton in 1997, and […]

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Last week, I wrote about the retirement of the Ferdinand Magellan, the rail car used by Presidents Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower.
I thought the item was timely, due to President-elect Barack Obama’s rail trip Saturday from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C., for his inauguration.
But I couldn’t find much information last week on the rail car that Obama […]

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Is Lancaster an affordable or expensive place to live? The debate, as the 1920 article below illustrates, has been going on for a long time. (Note the bracketed subhead under the first two headlines).
To those from the East Coast’s larger metropolitan areas, Lancaster remains a low-cost dream when it comes to housing and other key costs of […]

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The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is marking its 75th anniversary in 2009.
The FDIC began insuring  deposits on Jan. 1, 1934, (see ad below) to restore consumer confidence in financial institutions during the Great Depression. Deposits were insured up to $2,500, and that was enough to successfully lure hoarded money from safe-deposit boxes, cupboard shelves and other hiding places, […]

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In this week’s Eras Past column, I included an item about Frank McClain, a state representative from Lancaster City who was facing opposition in December 1908 in his bid for a second term as Speaker of the House (he lost the election a month later).
McClain was a political giant in his day, serving as Speaker of […]

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Here’s an interesting little article that was published in the New Era on Dec. 12, 1958.
It’s an Associated Press piece reporting on predictions by America’s top industrial and business leaders on what life would be like in 1987.
Among the most accurate of the predictions is that everyone would have pocket telephones, although it took a little longer than […]

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Last week, I posted an item on Hiram Revels, the nation’s first black member of Congress, who was sent to Washington by the Mississippi Legislature in 1870 to represent that state in the U.S. Senate.
This week, I’m featuring another historic first involving a black political leader, and there’s a Lancaster County connection. 
In 1939, Crystal Bird Fauset of […]

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