Jasper County Democrat, Volume 14, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 August 1911 — GENERAL NEWS [ARTICLE]

GENERAL NEWS

Work on the dreadnought New York, which will he the largest and' most powerful battleship the world has ever seen, is under way at the Brooklyn navy yard. The cradle jn which the ; huge frame will rest has been prepared, the traveling cranes' are in position and workmen are placing in position the plates that are to form the outer bottom of the 28,000 ton battleship. The keel will be laid with simple ceremonies early next month and a year later some young woman, to be designated by Governor Dix, will ! smash a bottle of wine on her bows and christen her. Early in the fall of ; 1913 the New' York will take her position as the flagship of the Atlantic , fleet.

j At Chicago Tuesday an alleged attempt on the part of four boy inmates to burn the Uhlieh Evangelical Lutheran Orphan home. 2014 Burling street, where more than 100 children arekept, became known when a report of the affair was sent to the fire attorney’s office. More than S2OO worth of damage was caused by the flames before they were checked by firemen. The boys are said to have set some debris on the fourth floor of the place on fire because they were not allowed to go to Lincoln park, a daily privilege of which they Lad been deprived as punishment. The military value of the cavalry branch has been enormously Increased by the adoption of wireless telegraphy, for the first time in this country thoroughly tried out in the Texas maneuvers. The signal corps had devised an extremely light and portable wireless apparatus, easily carried on a back of a horse and capable of beinp put into operation from any point in the field within a few minutes. It was found that the messages can be reliably received when the cavalry detachment was anywhere within twenty-five miles of a receiving station.

Captain James Watson, the recruiting officer at Indianapolis, Ind., informed the war department that he holds affidavits charging a private, George Peters, with being an Austrian secret agent. The department is considering the charges with a view to determining upon a course of action. This is the first case to he brought up under the law passed at the last session of congress to prevent the disclosures of national defense secrets. This act is broad in its provisions and is applicable to all attempts to secure military information improperly. At Washington Thursday the steel trust investigating committee at an executive session decided not to press at this time questions of campaign contributions, in connection with which George W. Perkins of New York, a director of the United States Steel corporation, was threatened with contempt proceeding before the house of representatives The committee decided to compel the Steel corporation to produce the books of subsidiary companies. At Hammond, Ind., Thursday Lake Bulatovich, who challenged Rodovan Milashovic to a duel to death, inclosing two bullets with his challenge, was heavily fined, sentenced to Jail and disfranchised by Judge Riley. The sentence is the first ever inflicted in Indiana under the statute forbidding dueling. The trouble between the men grew out of the dismissal of Bulatovich from a secret society. At El Paso, Tex., Friday James H. Conlin, aged fifty, at one time vice president and general manager of the Chicago, Rock Island and Mexico railroad, a short line since acquired by the Rock Island road, and in 1908 superintendent of the Rock Island terminal elevations in Chicago, was found’ dead in a room of the Roberts Banner building with a bullet in bis heart, evidently self-inflicted. Denouncing at Washington as absolutely false the charge of William Jennings Bryan that he blocked the efforts of Speaker Clark and others to revise the iron and steel tariff schedules, Oscar Underwood, Democratic house leader, amid uproarious Democratic applause, spoke in the national house in defense of his position and that of the Democratic house. At Washington, the cotton revision bill, which just about cuts the cotton rates of the present tariff law in half, was passed in the house by a vote of 202 to 91. Twen-ty-six Republicans, Representaive Aiken of New York, who is unclassed politically, and Representative Berger, the Socialise, helped to jam the measure through. At Peoria, 111., ten or a dozen firemen were injured, two seriously, when fire destroyed the Greeley school building. Captain James Lynch and Hoseman Frank Hadley were badly cut and bruised.

Taft signed the reapportionment bill under which the house of representatives is increased from 391 to 433 members, with two more when Arizona and New Mexico are admitted to the unioc. Democrats face possible disruption of party harmony in house, owing to rivalry of Clark and Underwood for presidential nomination. Many persons injured in Des Moines strike rioting; saloons closed and persons told to keep oft streets.' Piesident Taft is expected to open his 1912 campaign in September on a few weeks' trip to the middle west Campaign against Camorra marks step tb free Italy of corruption inherited from regimes. Lincoln Beachey won air race from New York to Philadelphia, flying two hours for ss,ofl#i prize.