Jasper County Democrat, Volume 20, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 May 1917 — U-BOAT SINKS AMERICAN SHIP [ARTICLE]

U-BOAT SINKS AMERICAN SHIP

Gun Squad and Grew Are Believed Dead. ALLIES START NEW DRIVE Federal Food Kills Tamnclied—Visitors to Enjoy Ten-lhiy Tour—> Chicago Mayor Under Charges. An American armed steamer—« the oil tanker Vacuum—has been sent to the bottom by a German submarine and it is feared that an American naval lieutenant and some of his gun crew of nine men perished in the disaster. The captain and several of the crew of the Vacuum are known to have been drowned. While returning to the United States from a trip to Europe, the Vacuum encountered off the coast of Ireland the submarine which gave her a death wound. Scant details of the sinking are available and it is not known whether the Americans were able to bring their guns into play or if the vessel was torpedoed and sunk unwarned.

The expected battle in the Champagne region of France, following days of acute gun preparation by the French forces which was answered almost shot for shot by the Germane, at last has broken. Seem-, ingly synchronizing it with the somewhat lessened activity on the part of the British against the Germans on the Arras front, the French Monday, eastward from Rheims, launched an attack over a front of about four miles from tho south of Beine to east of Mont Carilettb and captured several fortified German trenches'. Delivered at noon day, the offensive was swift and sharp, and at its conclusion the French line had been driven forward into territory previously occupied by the enemy to depths ranging relatively from 500 to 1,000 yards. Simultaneously to the eastward a thrust by tho French northeast - of Montehaute netted them a gain of about two-thirds of a mile and placed them virtually astride the Moronvilliers-Naurov road.

That the fighting in this region has not yet been brought to a conclusion is indicated by the official statement of the Paris war office, which announces ' that artillery, duels of violence are still going on. There also has been a continuation of the great artillery activity from St. Quentin to the Oise and along the CAemi-des-Dames, northeast of Soiesons.

Washington, D. C., May I.—The administration’s food control campaign was introduced yesterday in both houses of congress. In the house Chairman Lever of the agricultural committee offered a bill to give the agricultural department direct supervision of food production and distribution. The program was put before the senate in a resolution by Senator Gore, chairman of the senate committee. The measures proposed do not cover price fixing or control of grain entering into manufacture of liquors. ’ Both these subjects Will be dealt with in measures to be drawn later. Twenty-five million dollars is asked for the agricultural depart 4 irient’s use in administering the program. The legislation calls for an immediate survey of the country’s food resources and confers power on the department to prevent speculation and price manipulation. France’s war mission will leave Washington Thursday on a tour of the eastern and middle western states arranged to give its members an opportunity to see as much of the country as possible within a limited time. The distinguished Frenchmen will go directly to Chicago from Washington and later will visit Kansas City, St. Louis. Springfield, Illinois, Philadelphia, New York and Boston. The tour probably will last a week or ten days. , Y". In addition to loans to France and Italy totaling between $200,000,000 and $300,000,000 the United States will soon make a loan

to Belgium, the amount of which is yet to be determined. Unofficial estimates of the size of the Belgian loan place it at approximately $1 50,000,000. Administration officials have been in a receptive mood toward an application for a Belgian loan ever since the war finance measure became a law, bui. formal application for a loan was not made until Monday, when the Belgian minister, Baron de Cartier, called upon Secretary McAdoo and placed before him tentative statements as to the relief desired.

Chicago, May 1. —United States District Attorney Charles F. Clyne refused today to confirm' or deny a report that a complaint made to him about the action of Mayor j William Hale Thompson in refusing ’to take the initiative in inviting (the French commissioners to the United States to Chicago, had been formally reported to Attorney Gen--1 eral Gregory. if' complaint filed with District Attorney Clyne asserted that the ■ mayor had been disloyal to America in time of war by lending comI fort to the enemies of the country l-in offering what the signers rejgarded as an affront to the official representatives of an ally of the ! United States. The names of the signers of the complaint have not been made public.