Jasper County Democrat, Volume 20, Number 100, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 March 1918 — News of the Week Cut Down for Busy Readers [ARTICLE]

News of the Week Cut Down for Busy Readers

U.S. —Teutonic War News A shell explosion on the U. S. S. Von Steuben, which killed three men, was announced by the navy depart merit. The shell exploded while being tired. The dead are: Eininetto .loseph Shields, Valentine I’r/.ybyl-iki and Ercell William Martin. * * * Active preparations for strengthening the aerial defenses of tin Atlantic seaboard were begun by the war department with the appointment of an army board to select sites along the Atlantic coast for aero squadrons and balloon companies, * * * Provost Marshal General Crowder made the first official announcement of the time of the second draft. It will he ordered qs soon as congress amends the law to compute the basis of apportionment among the states on the number of registrants in class 1 instead of population. For purposes ot computation 800,000 men will be considered as composing the second draft. Agricultural workers will be given furloughs. * * * A movement of 93,000 drafted men to begin on March 29 and continue for five days was ordered, by Provost Marshal General Crowder. The order calls troops from every state In the Union with the exception of lowa and Minnesota. It Includes men remaining from the first draft and .those liable to call In the second. -,- » ♦ * Secretary Baker was in conference with Gen. Tasker H. Bliss, the American chief of staff, in a hotel suite In Paris when the air alarm was sounded. The hotel management, fearing for the safety of the secretary and his party, persuaded them to descend to a place of shelter In the wine cellar. Mr. Baker and General Bliss continued their conference in the cellar. * * *

An American sergeant named Wellman n of Cambridge, Mass., serving as an airplane pilot, shot down two German machines over the American trenches in France. • * * Troops holding the American sector north of Toiil made a successful raid against the Roches. This was the first exclusively American raid without French participation. The American raiders went over the top after artillery, preparation and penetrated the German trenches. • * + Andrew Donnie Skngg, Newbern, Tenn., and Leo Shott Harvie. Cincinnati? naval aviators, were killed in an airplane accident in France, ihe navy department announced. * * • Germany's sweeping of Russia Is described by the war department’s weekly military review as another futile attempt on the part of the Germans to shift the Center of gravity of (lie war, which still remains on the west front, where the Teutons face the French, British, Italian and Retglan armies anti the ever-growing American forces. • • * European War News German troops have entered Odessa. This official announcement was made by Berlin. Odessa is a Black sea city of 450,000 inhabitants and the great grain port of Russia. * * * The British admiralty reports the loss by mine or submarine of 18 British merchantmen in the latft week and one fishing, vessel. Of the merchantmen 15 were 1,000 tons or over, and three under that tonnage. * * * British airplanes attacked munitions works and barracks at- Freiburg, tiermany, according' to an official sfnte- ' nient issued in London on aerial operations. Bombs were also dropped on the docks at Bruges.

* • * The Chinese commander at Harbin, Manchuria, has warned the leader of the bolshevik forces in Siberia thjjt the invasion of Chinese territory will be considered an act of war, according to Harbin advices to London forwarded by Reuter's Peking correspondent. * * * General Semenoff. the anti-bolshevik leader in Siberia, has ret rented into Manchuria, before the advance of a superior bolshevik force, according to advices to Harbin front the border. • * * Naples was attacked by enemy aviators, says Rome. Twenty bombs were dropped in a residential quarter. The victims included seven occupants of a hospital of the Little Sisters, near Arcomirelli. * * • Thirty-four persons were killed and 79 others were n.iured in Paris and its suburbs as a result of a Gerfrian air raid. In addition to the bpmb victims, 63 persons were suffocated. They were for the most part women and children. The Germans lost four airplanes in the attack. • • * British aviators bombed the Daimler works at Stuttgart. The official announcement issued in Loudon says that the raid was carried out in broad daylight They also bombed the railway station and munition factories.

As a result of a British daylight raid on Mainz three soldiers, four women and one child were Injured. No military damage was done, it Is declared. * * * British aviators have dropped a of bombs on the toivii of Coblenz, capital of the I thine province of Prussia, according to an official communication issued in London. • '* • Domestic Members of the crew of the Russian steamer Omsk were arrested I>y Collector of Customs Hamilton at Norfolk, Vn., at the request of Capt. Edmund Yanvosky because of their bolshevik tendencies. * ' * * Berlin and many other German cities can be leveled to the earth and the war won in HU days by an aerial torpedo which he has Invented, according ■ to Lester P. Barlow of Philadelphia. * * * Leon Bgttig, an Instructor in the high school at Albia, In., suspected of disloyalty, was dragged to the courthouse steps and there given a coat of bright yellow paint. + * * Falling with his seaplane front an elevation of 500 feet into tin* sea, Aviator M. L. MiicNuughton, U. S. N. R., was drowned in Hampton Roads, \ a. * * * Establishment of an army aviation school at Charleston, S. has been authorized by tin* war department.

• * * Lieut. Loren L. Mitchell, Tudora, Miss., was killed, Cadet .loseph C. Wakefield seriously Injured and Cadet Pemberton of Illinois slightly injured In an airplane collision at Kelley field, San Antonio, Tex. • * • An agreement between British and Canadian agents and the federal authorities to apprehend deserters from the British and Canadian military forces and to punish “undesirables" who impose on American hospitality, -was announced in * * * The lower house of the state legislature of *fexns adopted a resolution congratulating the Wisconsin house of representatives in taking favorable action on the La Follette censure resolution. '* * • Four persons are dead, scores are Injured, many homes were completely or partially demolished and hundreds of barns and outbuildings were razed by a tornado which traveled across northwestern Ohio. Estimates of property damage range from $1,000,000 to $5,000,000. • * • Foreign Several towns in Australia between Cooktown and Cairns have been demolished by a cyclone. Nine people were killed and many injured. Sixteen inches of rain fell at Cardwell In 24 hours. * * * A new German war loan of $.‘5,750.000.000 will he issued soon, an Exchange Telegraph dispatch to London from Copenhagen says.* The German war debt now totals $27,250,000,000.

* * * Marcel Cachin, Socialist deputy, announced at Baris that a delegation of workmen of France, England and Belgium will soon start for tin' United States. -Their main purpose is to clear up the misunderstanding which caused the absence of American delegates from the allied labor conference in London. • • • Personal Charles Page Bryan, former ambassador to Japan and former minister to several other countries, died in Washington of heart failure, lie wa-s sixtyone years old. * * * “Dr." .T. M. Munyon, a medicine manufacturer of Philadelphia, died at Palm Beach, Fla. Heart disease was the cause, “Doctor” Munyon founded a S>2.ikN),ooo industrial school for orphaned or fatherless girls. * * * George Von L. Meyer, former cabinet member and diplomat, died at Boston after an illness of several weeks. He was born in Boston June 24, 1858. * * *

Washington Legislation authorizing the sale of all enemy properly in this country, requested by the alien property custodian, A. Mitchell Palmer, to uproot permanently German eommerical influence, wns approved by the senate. An amendment empowering the president to acquire title to the German steamship companies’ docks and wharves at lloboken, X. J., also was accepted. * * * President Wilson,-it became known, is preparing a great “war speech” to be delivered April G, the anniversary of the declaration of war against Germany. It Is said he will restate America's war alms and reiterate the nation's pledge to fight until German militarism is crushed. * * * Sweeping changes In the commanding personnel of the American army were foreshadowed at Washington when seven general officers were relieved of field commands and assigned to home duty. The shakeup Is a result of the demand of General Pershing that only commanders physically fit be sent abroad. ■*• • - James R. Mann, Republican leader in the house, although not recovered from a recent illness, resumed his seat. He will not take charge on the floor tor some, time.