Richmond Palladium (Daily), Volume 42, Number 244, 24 August 1917 — Page 1

HE RICHMONB FA VnT VI II VH tAA Palladium and Sun-Telegram RICHMOND, IND., FRIDAY EVENING, AUGUST 24, 1917. SINGLE COPY, 2 CENTS (dated 1907

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FRENCH WIN HILL 304 IN SHARP DRIVE; HOLD VERDUN

All Important Positions on Famous Front Wrested From Germans in Short Time. BRITISH PRESS ON (By Associated Press) In a brilliant attack this morning on the Verdun front the French carried hill 304. one of the most bitterly disputed positions of the war, In the struggle for which thousands of men have lost their lives. The French advanced to an average depth of one and one quarter miles over the sector between Avacourt wood and Dead Man hill, Paris announces officially, and in addition to hill 304, stormed then fortified works between Haueort and Bethincourt. New Assault West of Meuse The new French assault, made less than a week after the beginning of the new offensive, was delivered west of the Meuse, on a somewhat shorter front than Monday's opening attack, which was on both sides of the river. At the first shot, the French, although highly successful did not obtain all their objectives, and today's attack doubtless was intended to complete the atalnment of the ends immediate ly in view. The French are now masters of all the important points on the Verdun front which they held before the be ginning of the great German attack last year. On the British front the bitter fight for the possession cf Lens was continued during the night, the official British statement announces. Oh I A Weak Garrison. BERLIN, (via London) Aug. 24. The evacuation by the Germans of Hill 304, th famous stronghold on the ' Verdun front, is announced by the war office. It is said a weak garrison was left there. Heavy fighting continues along the Italian front. Rome announces that more than 20,000 prisoners have been teknuas well -aa. about 60 -guns The Italians have stormed further Austrian positions and broken up violent attacks. The official British statement announces that the British now hold German trenches immediately northwest of the Green Crassier to the south of Lens, and that especially heavy losses have been inflicted on the Germans. Portuguese troops which are holding a sector in northern France repulsed German raids in the vicinity of LaBassee. Heavy artillery fighting continues around Ypres, where the British have improved their position and successfully withstood counter attacks. Reverse Decision of County Board INDIANAPOLIS. Aug. 24 Wives of registrants should not be compelled to support themselves on the allowance of $25 a month from the army pay of their husbands was the ruling of the third Indiana district appeal board, fitting at the state house today. The board made the decision in sustaining appeal of registrants whose pleas of exemption on the ground that their dependent wives would be com pelled to support themselves on their army pay, had been overruled by exemption boards in Floyd county. Do Your Bit Now Join the Red Cross WEATHER FORECAST For Indiana by United States Weather Breau Fair and somewhat cooler tonight. Saturday, rain. Today's Temperature. Noon 74 Yesterday. Maximum 79 Minimum 61 For Richmond and Wayne County by W. E. Moore Rain. General Conditions Two storms of great size, one over the south and another over the north are moving toward each other and will come together east of the Mississippi river. The weather continues very cool over the western states and the temperatures will be lower during the next twentyfour hours.

Sammies Will be Best

Sergeant Guy Empey thinks the American soldier will be the best in the world in ten months. "You let Sammie get over there and get ten months' training, and he will have the world looking at him," he said. And he is the man who is going to win this war. He's fresh and those poor devils over there are not. They've been fighting tnre eyears." Sergeant Empey was sitting in his

Scarcity of Baths in Berlin Causes Illness, Says Paper AMSTERDAM. August 24 The proposed prohibition of bathing at home in Germany to save fuel and soap is called rank folly by the Vossische Zeitnng of Berlin. The paper says that many public baths already are closed owing to a lack of coal and attributes notable increases in skin diseases, dysentery and other diseases to enforced uncleanly conditions. The Norddeutsche Allgemeine Zeltung also points out the increase in cases of dysentery in Berlin, a high percentage of which is fatal, while typhoid which is spreading, also is causing uneasiness.

PRESIDENT MAY TAKE OVER MINES WASHINGTON, Aug. 24. Completion of the administration's program for federal control of the coal Industry was in sight today when officials turned their attention to the fixing of retail prices and the regulation of distribution. Dr. Harry A. Garfield, appointed to head the coal administration, will take active charge of the work as soon as he finishes his duties with the committee fixing prices on the wheat. The president's action in establishing prices on anthracite for operators and jobbers and limiting the profits to be made by bituminous wholesalers is considered the most important step yet taken toward bringing the industry under government supervision. The new anthracite prices, effective Sept. 1, vary but slightly from the rates now charged at the mines under a voluntary agreement made with the federal trade commission by operators. Retail costs probably will drop as a result of the drastic restrictions placed on jobber's profits. In case the mines fail to observe the regulation prescribed, the president has the power given him in the food bill to take over and operate the properties. A corporation, similar to the wheat corporation of the food administration has been suggested as a possible means of handling the industry in case the price-fixing does not operate satisfactorily. TO MOVE NORTH WASHINGTON. Aug. 24. Senator Sheppard of Texas, after a conference with Secretary Baker today announced that the negro troops concerned in the rioting at Houston would be withdrown from Texas immediately. Later Secretary Baker after reading the first official reports announced that he could take no action of any kind until the affair had been investigated. Secretary Baker also said that the Houston affair did not affect the policy of training negro troops in the south. It is within the jurisdiction of the commander of the southern depart- j ment to move the troops to any other j poin in nis territory wiuiout oraers from Washington. $160,000,000 Credit is Given to Russia WASHINGTON, Aug. 24. Another credit of $100,000,000 to Russia was made today by the American government.

NEGRO TROOPS

Irate Mother Accuses Board of "Fixing Things" But She Refuses to Tell Who She Is

Scene Office of Exemption board, somewhere in the courthouse. The cast Members and clerks of conscription board; visitors, a reporter and a telephone. Time Just after it became known that several married men had been discharged. Telephone bell rings. Member of board (answering telephone) "Hello yes, this is the board what? Just a minute he was discharged Just a moment and I will let you talk to someone with more authority." (Tunis to a reporter who was standing nearby) "Talk to this woman and tell her all about it, I give you full authority." The reporter (Into telephone) "Hello, what is it you want?" Voice in telephone "I want you to toll me whv it la that Mr. was discharged from the army when he room at the Westcott Thursday evening. He's no platform magician. Seen at close range, he is just the same earnest, simple youth that he appeared to the audience Thursday evening. Moves While He Talks. He moves restlessly a little, while he is talking, and the smooth red mark on the side of his face which was saved from being a horrible scar by the ability of an American surgeon, flushes when he gets in earnest.

SHORT CUT TO PEACE IS BY SMASHING ON AVERS BRYAN

Erstwhile Pacifist. Says Nation Must Fight Ahead to Victory Declares Nation is United. HEARD BY THRONGS By ROSCOE FLEMING William Jennings Bryan, the country's leading peace advocate before the war, and former secretary of state, believes that the shortest way to peace for the United States is to smash ahead to victory. "The shortest road to peace is that straight ahead," said Bryan, who arrived in Richmond shortly after noon for his lecture at the Chautauqua. "We must be a united nation without discord or dissention. a united nation behind the president of the United States and Congress." More Costly in Men "Any diversion now will only prolong the war and make It more costly in men and In money. The more earnestly one desires peace, the more loyally should he support the government as the best means of hastening peace.' Substantially the same views as he was then expressing, said Bryan, would be treated in his Richmond lecture. Bryan stepped off an lnterurban car from Indianapolis about two o'clock, and was met only by a reporter, no reception committee having been arranged by the Chautauqua officials. He accented the hospitality of a taxicab, paid for by the reporter, in order to reach the grounds on time for his lecture. "Have you found any evidence of dissension upon the war in the United States?" Bryan was asked. "We Are United People." I have every reason to believe that wo are a united people," was his reply. "There are certain small exceptions, but I have found no evidence of divided sentiment. Of course, we have been divided In the past, but that is gone." Bryan said he did not care to talk about conditions before the war, as that wn's all past, and nothing lie-could say would have any bearing upon present problems." "Preparation for the war by the United States has been very rapid." he said. The former secretary of state said he believed that the world needed woman suffrage more than women need the ballot, first, to make the nation dry, and second, to help solve the world's greatest problem when the war is over, the making of a lasting peace. Plan is Unjust. He did not believe that Congress' plan of stopping the making of whisky, vhile allowing that of beer was just "They should be treated alike," he said. More foodstuffs have been used by the brewers than by the distilleries; the breweries have done more to corrupt the government than the distillers have; beer develops the alcoholic habit. "Treat them alike. They have always been companions in crime, and they shouldn't be separated in their old age, they should die together and be buried in the same grave. "The liquor men will disgrace us as long as they can and desert us when they can disgrace us no longer." has only been married seven weeks, while my son, who has been married for two years, was passed?" Reporter "Who is this talking?" The Voice "That makes no difference what my name is, but I want to tell you that I think things, are fixed up there." Reporter (authoritatively) "Well, madam, we can do nothing in the matter unless you tell us your name and file your charges in the regular way." The voice "You don't need to know my name, and I tell you I think the whole business there is crooked and I ame going to turn the matter over to Mr. Foulke." Bang! The telephone connection is cut off. Members of Board in chorus "We hear that about twenty times a day." Moral Don't be a member of the conscription board unless you are very patient and have a high ideal of patriotism. Soldiers in "We are fighting now for self-preservation," said Empey. "Do you realize what would happen if Germany should be able to force a separate peace with the others. No single nation in the world can whip Germany. And you can imagine what would happen if she whipped us." Hopes of being able to break through by force on the Western front, Empey denounced as visionary. Belt of Trenches. "You don't know what trench warfare means," he said. "From the sea

WILSON TO TALK TO CONGRESS ON PONTIFFS PLEA President to Take Solons into His Confidence When He Makes Reply. WASHINGTON, Aug. 24. President Wilson may -decide to address Congress on peace at the same time he makes reply to Pope Benedict's proposal. In that way he would take the national legislative body into his confidence and at the same time not onlv inform the country on the question but also enable members of Congress to carry the government's views home to the people when Congress adjourns. It is understood that the president soon will have before him the substance of replies Great Britain and France will make to the Pope. From Viscount Ishu, head of the Japanese mission, the president will get an intimate understanding of Japan's purposes in the situation. The Japanese view either Russian situation is at this time appraised as especial value. No one has been authorized to say what reply President Wilson will make to the pope's proposal further than that it will be in harmony with the responses of the other allies. It seems to be generally accepted in official and diplomatic circles that the Pope's proposals cannot be accepted. LETTER-LOVER GETS IN FOILS CLEVELAND, O., Aug. 24. With fair victims in almost every state in the union John F. Beckwith, poet, novelist, soldier and love-letter writer, has been arrested by federal authorities here charged with getting large sums of money by defrauding women, whose confidences he is alleged to have won through expressions of love. He used a "follow up" system of love letters, it is charged, written in masterful English. Beckwith admitted to federal officers he followed a system Ln cajoling each victim, studying each separately and declares himself to be "intensely impressionable." His first epistles to his victims usually expresed his deire for love in an imperonal manner, but in each succeeding communication his avowal of leve became more intense. When arrested he had a mailing list of seventy-five names including women from Portsmouth, Akron, Beshler, Canton, Columbus, Forestville and Ashland, Ohio. Most of his operations were directed from Albany, N. Y., but he has been in Cleveland since April. He was arrested on a warrant charging him with using the mails to defraud Mrs. A. E. Peterson, 332 Elm street, Sycamore, Ills. Beckwith says he is a college graduate, holding two degrees and served as an officer in the Boar war. He was born in Norway, his father being a former chief justice of the Norwegian supreme court, he declares. TO NAME TICKET Members of the Socialist party will meet Sunday morning at 10 o'clock in the Vaughan hall, to reorganize for the fall election. Plans for placing a full city ticket will be discussed at the meeting.

World Within Ten Months, Says Serqt. Empey

to Switzerland, there's a belt of trenches on both sides, miles and miles wide. Suppose you take, by sacrificing thousands of men, four or five miles of German trenches. Then what happens." "Why, you've got to move your own front four or five miles up big guns, ammunition, railheads, everything over ground that has already been ditched by trenches and smashed by your own shells. No, that : is hopeless." "When you get to know him, the English Tommy is one of the finest

War Has Its Bright Parts

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Var is not all stern, grim reality. Life in France showing the lighter side.

In the top picture Sammy is getting ready to eat an appetizing meal. Below, he Is telng made to feel at home by a French maid.

Chancellor Forced to Bow to Will of Majority in Reichstag

BERLIN, Aug. 23, (via London, Aug. 24.) Berlin was surprised to learn on awakening this morning that the Reichstag building yesterday afternoon had been the scene of a political flurry which assumed varying proportion as seen through the partisan editorial eyegless. The incident, which brought about the temporary disagreement between the majority coalition and the chancellor was the chancellor's somewhat indefinite phrasing of his attitude toward the Reichstag peace proposal. The impression created was that Dr. Michaeli s was circum scribing his endorsement of that action. Statement Drawn Up., During Wednesday's intermission for luncheon the majority party drew uj a statement to the effect that there could be no doubt respecting the chancellor's acqiescence in the coalition peace views. The presentation of this declaration SINKS 0 AN ATLANTIC PORT, August 24 A four-hour battle to the finish between the American oil tanker Navajo and a 400 foot German U-boat, in which the submersible was sunk and the tanker so badly damaged that she was abandoned in flames, was described by members of her crew who arrived here today on an American liner. The Navajo was owned by the Standard Oil company. chums in the world. I had some hard thoughts about the Eritish when I first went over being a Virginian and having read 1776 and 1812 in the histories. But that soon vanished. The hardships these fellows will endure with a smile is wonderful!" Reticent About Own Part. Sergeant Empey is very reticent about his own part in the fighting. "When - the Lusftania was sunk, I was a free-lance writer in Jersey City. I am no spring chicken in this war business, having had thirteen years in the United States service. The

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i. -. . .v.-.wM-fM:v:'w: i J ! ft i I V X : fit mm t iff' -A :'v .r. jC Eelow are pictures of Soldier at the afternoon session drew forth a second statement from the chancellor, in which he definitely corrected any false impressions that might have been created by his utterances at the morning session. Under stress of this tension the main committee adjourned its sitting. The chancellor received the party leaders late Wednesday night for the purpose of holding a confidential conference. Chancellor is Hit. The unexpected episode, which became known despite the alleged confidential nature of the main committe's deliberations, today gives a section of the press occasion, to dilate upon the incident in columns of plain spoken comment in which the chancellor fares rather badly. When th9 committee resumed Its session this morning, a number of the Progressive people's party, speaking for the majority coalition, explained that the chancellor's supplemantary statement had cleared up the misunderstanding and that the joint declaration of the majoriy parties would have been modified or entirely dispensed with if the correcting explanation offered by Dr. Michaelis could have been anticipated. Storm Moving This Way, Asserts Moore A storm is moving toward Richmond and will strike the city some time Friday night or early Saturday morning. Weather Forecaster Moore said Friday. The storm will carry with it the heaviest rain of the week also causing a drop in the temperature. Unsettled weather is predicted for the next few dctys by the weatherman. Lusitania made me so sore I couldn't stand it any longer. "I thought of enlisting in the French Foreign legion, but it would have taken too long to learn French. And in Canada I'd have had to waste six or eight months stewing around in a training camp. So it was England for mine." "They wouldn't take me at first, unless I would swear that I was a. British subject, and of course I wouldn't do that. But at last I found a green recruiting lieutenant, and got In. That was all there was to it." '

SEVENTEEN IS TOLL OF RIOT BROUGHT ON BY NEGROES

Black Regulars Terrorize Houston Search for Mutineers Continues One . Officer Killed. QUIET IS RESTORED HOUSTON, Aug. 24. The death list resulting from rioting of negro soldiers of the 24th Infantry last night reached seventeen when H. A. Thompson, of Hemstead, Texas, succumbed to bullet wounds he received when the negroes fired into his automobile. The sixteenth victim was E. M. Jones, a jitney driver, whose body was found near Camp Logan . shortly before noon. His right arm was almost seyered " by bayonet strokes. There were numerous bullet wound3 in bis body. Three companies of coast artillery regulars from Ft. Crockett re-enforced the 1,000 or more Illinois guardsmen today and order which was restored early this morning is being maintained. Roll call this morning by Major Snow in command of the battalion of negroes developed 125 men were absent. Eighteen Give Up. Eighteen of these have surrendered and others are being rounded up by the military patrols as the search progresses. Under military law, it was stated, soldiers may be shot for having rioted and fired on their officers. All street cars carry armed guards, all shops selling ammunition are guarded and saloons are closed. Captain Mattes, Illinois national guard officer, who was slain by the negroes, was mutilated almost beyond recognition. Feeling among the Illinois troops Is running high and regulais from Fort Crockett at Galveston have been rushed here. He Tried To Quiet 'Em. He was shot to death while trying, to quiet the negro soldiers who were firing on soldiers and civilians. He was badly mutilated, his right arm being cut off and his Bcalp almost torn away. After the troops rounded up the negroes it was found about seventy of the riotous men were missing. - The Dead: - Ira D. Rainey, mounted police officer. Rufe Daniels, mounted police officer. Middle Aged Man, named Smith. S. Satton. barber. Capt. J. W. Mattes. Battery A. Second Illinois Field Artillery. E. J. Meinke, police officer. Earl Flnley. A. R. Carstena, painter, Manuel Garredo. Fred E. Winkler. " Bryant Watson, negro soldier company K, 24 th infantry. M. D. Everton, member of a local artillery battery. C. W. Wright. The Wounded: William J. Drucks, condition critical. W. H. Burkett, 6hot in left leg, serious. E. A. Thompson, of HempBtead shot in leg. J. E. Richardson, shot in head. Asa Bland, shot over left eya. Wylie Strong, negro private Co. T, 24th negro infantry, shot in right sid accidentally by another soldier of hl3 company. Horace Moody, mounted police, wounded In left leg. D. R. Patten, mounted police officer, six bullet wounds in hip, thigh leg and shoulder. Samuel Foreman of Livingston, Co. F, fifth Texas Infantry, shot in leg. James Edwin Lyon, shot in leg and arm. Unidentified negro soldier, shot through abdomen. Unidentified negro soldier, shot la leg. G. W. Butcher, shot in chest. W. A. Thompson, shot through right hip; condition serious. City Detective T. A. Binford, shot ln knee. Alma Reichart, white girl, shot In stomach. George Beavans, negro soldier wounded in leg. That the list of dead and wounded would grow as the daylight search progressed, seemed certain. The dead police officers were among the first to reach the rioting negroes. Rufe Daniels helped to make the arrests yesterday that led directly to the riot. Officers Daniels and Ralnev were killed and Moody, Wilson and Patton were wounded a considerable time after the outbreak started. "Patton and Long were mounted. and Moody, Wilson. Carter and DriContinued on Page Eight. Empey's uniform coat is fairly laden with decorations and badges American and English side by side. He was reluctant to explain them. "That little bar with the ragged tri-colored ribbon is the French order Pour La Merite. And this on,e's given to you by the king for being wounded in, action. They give it to you at Buckingham palace. Here's first class machine gunner's badge; here's sniper's badge, and so on down through the whole twelve or fourteen of the instgnas.