North Carolina Newspapers

IMPORTANT NEWS THE WORLD OVER i IMPORTANT HAPPENINGS OF THIS AND OTHER NATIONS FOR j SEVEN DAYS GIVEN THE NEWS QFTHE SOUTH What Is Taking Place In The South land Will Be Found In Brief Paragraphs Domestic. The fact that there is now a short age in war work of one million un skilled laborers and that the reserve of skilled laborers is exhausted de veloped at a conference of field agents of the federal employment service. The conference was held in Washing ton, D. C. Gratitude cf congress to men in the army and. navy for their efforts in the war is expressed in a resolution Just ."doptd by the United Srates senate. The senators remained standing for one minute as a special tribute to the men in the army and navy. Further curtailment of non-essential production is planned to release men for war work. Buying of liberty three and a h?lf Ter cent bonds is the feature of the New York stock market. It is stated by competent authority that the lsbor shortage is so serious that completion of a number of im Tortant war projects for the army and r.flvy is beinrr delayed. Between thirty and thirty-five per sons were k'lled and more than 100 "ured by the tornado which struck Tyler,' Minn., and'tore the town to pieces1 in a twinkling. Existing freight rates on cotton ship ped in any quantities will be contin ued this year, the railroad administra tion announces. A plan is under consideration by the railroad administration for the estab lishment of carload rates on cotton next summer with a minimum of 100 standard bales to the car, with less than carload rates on a higher basis. A petition that the trial court be directed to grant Thomas J. Mooney a i new trial on the ground that his con viction was brought about through malfeasance practiced by the district attorney, was denied by the California supreme court. . ' All former employees of the West ern Union Telegraph company who were discharged because of their af filiations with the Commercial Teleg raphers' union of America during the recent difficulties between the compa ny and the union before the company was taken over by the government, will have the privilege of reinstate ment,1 It is announced by the com pany Washington. Allied successes on the Marne, in Picardy and in Flanders in recent op erations have resulted in a contrac tion bf the western battle front by more! than 50 miles, General March, chiefj of statf, announces. At Jthe beginning of the German of fensive in March the battle front in France measured 250 miles; new it is less than 200 miles in length. The steam trawler Triumph, fitted with two guns and wireless, and man ned by sixteen Germans from the U-boat which captured her, is raiding the fishing banks off the Nova Scotia coast.- The United States will share with the allies their sacrifice of food as well as blood in the cause of world democ racy,; declares Federal Food Adminis trator Hoover, who has just returned from' a visit to England and France. Federal Food Administrator Hoover issues the following statement: "By the great effort of cur farmers our United States harvests are better this year, but in order that we may build up a surplus of wheat this year, as against crop failures, such as we had last year, we have decided to mix 20 per cent of other grains with wheat flour in all the countries fighting Ger many. We cannot ask for better bread than France, and we propose the Amer ican people should maintain a common standard of br.?ad with them." Explosion of a depth charge on board thej United States Steamship Orizaba on I August 17 Killed one officer and three enlisted men and wounded one officer and eighteen men. Road building and street improve ment throughout the country has vir tually passed under federal control for the) duration of the war. This becomes effective September 10. jinking of three United States yes sels Lake Edon, Westbridge and Cu bore in foreign waters by German submarines is announced by the navy department. The big British freighter Diomed asj reported to have been sunk, with the loss of two of her crew and the wounding of many othors, 125 miles east of New York. A Swedish freight steamship arriv ing at an American Atlantic port was stopped by a German submarine, but wjjs allowed to proceed because the vessel was engaged in carrying food stuffs tn Sweden. (The Flanders salient has been flat tened out by the enemy retiring from ojie to twV miles on a fourteen-mile front; on the plains of Roye the line has been put back of the old 1916-17 ljhe and between the Aisne and the 0ise the French have carried the line forward four miles to the pains sur rounding the city of Noyon, which is ou mile beyond. Strictures upon failures, disappoint ments and delays in the American air craft program are coupled with praise for what now has been accomplished, and a statement that quantity produc tion poon may be. expected in a long report submitted by the senate -military committee on its aircraft inves tigation. While commenting favorably upon reorganization already affected, the committee strongly urges one-man control through the creation of a new department of aviation headed by a cabinet member. Wabte of millions of dollars is charged. Definite abandonment of the rule of seniority in favor of the policy of selection in the appointment and com missioning of officers in the army is announced in a general order by the war department. It is announced that future army and navy officer material will come from the ranks, enlisted men showing ex ceptional ability being sent to training schools maintained for that purpose at which commissions for the grade of second lieutenant will be issued to successful candidates. European. Over the fifty-mile battle front to the north of Soissons, the German ar mies are meeting with defeats which apparently spell disaster. Numerous towns have fallen and enemy territory has been penetrated to a depth of several miles by the British southeast of Arras. Additional good gains have been made by the French in the envelop ment of Noyon. The entire Arras-Albert road has been crossed by the British. On all fronts on the west the strong ly fortified positions where the Gar mans saw- disaster facing hem if they fell, were stormed and captured, and the Germans retreated precipitately without burning any bridges behind them. Interesting statistics issued from London show that Great Britain leads h11 the allies in the number of ships in the naval service on patrol duty and in actual, conflict. The figures show -SO per cent for the British, 14 per cent for the American and 6 per cent for France. At last the German press has given up struggling against the truth. In a rhort notice, which appears in vir tually all the papers, the identical na ture of which suggests official inspira tion, the reluctant admission is made, says an Amsterdam dispatch, that Sec retary Baker's figures regarding the strength of the American forces in France are about correct. The Berlin Taeglische Rundschau says that not more than 150,000 Amer icans have up to the present been" no ticed on the western front. The allied armies have taken more than one hundred thousand prisoners since July 18, says Marcel Hutin, in the Echo de Paris. The allies have damaged six Ger man armies since July 15, and the British are now eating into the seventh with the spread of the battle north ward and over a front of more than seventy miles. At the request of Ira Nelson Mor ris, American minister to Stockholm, M. Boevgren, Swedish minister of Jus tice, has ordered that action be taken against the newspaper, Aftonbladet, of Stockholm, for having injured a foreign power and making an attempt to' interfere with the amicable rela tions existing between Sweden and the United States. Frankln D. Roosevelt, assistant sec retary of the navy, who says "we have passed the summit of the mountain as regards the war," told the French press in Paris that there is absolute necessity that all government minis ters and heads of departments see the war with their own eyes in order to understand its greatness. "As to the submarines off the coast the dan ger points can now be said to have been made safe," he opined. The violence of the Japanese food riots and the rapidity with which they enveloped the country have astonished the Japanese and have convinced them, though far removed from the center of the war, that they cannot escape its consequences, nor remain untouched by the world movements which the war has set in motion. Anti-wealth demonstrations are de veloping in Japan. The property of the rich especially is being attacked. Residences of a number of million aires have been burned to the ground and immense damage done to property of muchants dealing with people and, in particular, those suspected of ex cessive profiteering. German military leaders now have become distinctly worried over the prospecti of a revolution in Germany. General Ludendorff, in a captured se cret order, has taken steps to employ the assistance of his commanding of ficers and various governmental agen cies to help him stamp out the glowing spark which has been seen. From Soissons to the Belgian bor der the German armies in various im portant sectors are being put to the test by the French and British a test that bodes ill for the Teutonic arms. Nowhere have the Germans been able to sustain the shocks. The Germans have been compelled to fall back northwest of Soissons, around Roye, in the Arras sector and on the famous Lys salient. The French, in bitter fighting, have carried forward their line to an aver age depth of two and a half miles in a new offensive over a front of fifteen and a half miles from Baily, on the Olse, to the Aisne, near Soissons. Field Marshal Haig's forces are keeping up harassing tactics along the Scarpe, east of Arras. The British in the Arras sector bv advanced their lines to the eat f POLK COUNTY NEWS, TRYON, N. C. I i .Trr-rmnrrnfvi"111""11 mmnmm,mm''mmm'mm I I I Wk I mm . I J lOld Glory implanted on German soil for the first time, at a review Alsace. 2 Wounded Arab soldiers of the urmy of Hedjaz being removed Funnel of American torpedoboat bearing the star that is stroved a submarine. NEWS REVIEW OF THE GREAT WAR Allies Continue Their Advance in Picardy Steadily but More Slowly. rtOYE AND NOYON IN DANGER First American Field Army Is Formed Situation in Austria and Russia Improved Man-Power Bill In troduced in the Senate. By EDWARD W. PICKARD. Moving more slowly but steadily and with determination, the allies last week pushed the Germans further back In Picardy. General von Boehm, the Hun "retreat specialist," having been placed in command on the Somme front, put up an Increasingly strong resistance to protect his withdrawal, and the tighfing became rather local ized. The fiercest struggle was toward the south end of the battle line, where the French were forcing their way to ward Noyon. Overcoming tremendous resistance, they drove the Germans from most of the massif or heights of Lasslgny early In the week, und also moved forward in the Olse valley. Then they gained a secure footing on the Thiescourt plateau and thus dom inated most of the country northeast of them for miles. This movement and the unceasing pressure of the British from the northward imperiled the en emy's position in Roye, although he clung with desperation to that city and to Chaulnes further north. Along much of the line he was holding he had the advantage of the old trenches and wire entanglements built by him prior to July. 1016. Whether Von Boehm would elect to try to make a prolonged stand there, or fall back on the much stronger Peronne-Noyon line was not revealed, but observers believed he would choose the latter course, and the fact that he was withdrawing his troops north of Albert strengthened this view. He evacuated the towns of Beaumont, Kamel, Sere, Puisieux au Mont and Bucquoy. taking up positions on heights m.ire easily defended. Along the Somm on both banks, the British, with the able assistance of some American troops have been advancing slowly, taking Bray and Etlnehem. In the advance on Roye and Noyon from the southwest the French have been fighting over extremely difficult ground with numerous ravines that furnish cover fo." the Innumerable ma chine guns the Germans have been us ing. But the French kept bringing up their artillery and cleaning out these nests, and long before the end of the week they had taken Ribecourt, on the Olse, and had Noyon under con tinual fire, rendering It almost unten able. On the Solssons-Reims front the fighting was mostly confined to repeat ed but futile attacks on the Americans at Fismes, Fismette and the neighbor ing region. Artillery of both sides was very active along the Vesle rier. Although the Picardy offensive was slowed up somewhat, army officers see no indication of a letting down on the part of Marshal Foch. On the con trary, they predict that another great drive will come soon, either in Flan ders or between the Olse and Soissons. and expect movements of far greater scope in the near future. The Ger man high command seems to have ac cepted defeat and to be trying to get out or its aimcultles as best it mav The effect of this on the morale of the soldiery Is quite evident Jn the pris oners taken, nnd its effect lnJermany is reflected in the press, which admits failure on the west front, as else where. Kurly In the weelr it wan nnnouncpd Hint the First Amcnnn field army, of nve corps, nnu been constituted with General Perching ns commander, it l undendood that this army will by ItHelf hold the eastern part tf the line, to A 1 pace, and some officers believ n nll-Atnerlcon drive out of Verdun may come toon. awarded each of Geneva dispatches said the Austria- Swiss frontier was closed for some days and all trains were full of Aus trian troops going to the Italian front, which was taken to mean another com ing offensive theiv. However, the Ital ians were ready for it and dally im proved their positions, especially In the mountains. In Albania the Austrlans evacuated all points held by them south of the Semeni river. An amazing development is the seiz ure of Baku, center of the Caspian sea oil district, by a British force which made its way up through Mesopotamia and Persia. 1 The parlous condition of the central powers resulted in a "kaiser confer ence" at German main headquarters which was attended by the rulers of Germany and Austria and their chief advisers and by representatives of the Turks, Bulgarians and Russian bolshe vik!. The internal situation in Austria-Hungary especially is growing worse or rather better dally; an ex plosion there almost any day would not greatly surprise anyone. Bulgaria shows signs of breaking away from its confederates, and as for Turkey, the general public knows nothing of what Is going on there or what is expected. ' The . situation In Russia, Including Siberia, also is improving, for the forces opposed to the bolshevik! and the Germans are growing stronger and amalgamating. The possibility of es tablishing an eastern front that will seriously worry the Huns Is being con sidered, especially since the "supreme government of the northern territory," embracing half a dozen districts, has declared itself opposed to the Germans and ready to fight them. Possession of the port of Archangel and the Mur man coast gives the allies an inlet for troops to help this movement. That Germany recognizes the menace is evi dent from the facts that she is sending more soldiers from the west front to Russia, and has ordered Finland to prepare to make war on the people of Murmansk and the allies there. Dis patches from Helsingfors declared the Germans Intend to occupy Petrograd, though what they would gain by pos session of that hunger-stricken city is not apparent. Lenine and Trotsky and their soviet government were re ported to have fled from Moscow to Kronstadt, the great fortress near Petrograd, and to have placed the exe cution of power In the hands of a tri umvirate composed of Lenine, Trotsky and ZInovieff. Lenine also Issued a manifesto urging the pitiless annihila tion of all counter-revolutionaries. Moscow being admittedly in tlje con trol of the couuter-revolutlonlsts, the German embassy also fled from that city to Pskov, which greatly perturbed the German press. The diplomats of all the allied pow ers, now living on warships at Arch angel, have demanded of Trotsky an explanation of his threat that Russia would declare war "against Anglo French imperialism." 1 The first American regiment sent to Siberia, the Twenty-seventh regular In fantry from Manila, landed at Vladi vostok Thursday, and other Yankees are on the way. The Czecho-Slovaks in eastern Si beria now have the assistance of Brit ish and French forces which landed at Vladivostok and Joined them in the Usuri river valley. Those ,ln western Siberia were last reported as engaged in a desperate battle with a large bol shevik army. A long step forward in the moral support of these fighting Czechs and of their fellow nationals who are in rebellion against Austria-Hungary was the formal recognition by Great Brit ain of the Czecho-Slovaks as an al lied nation and of their armies as an allied force regularly waging warfare against the central powers. It is hoped and believed America and other allied nations will follow the example of Great Britain. Last week's dispatches told of furi ous and bloody riots against the Ger mans In several Russian clts, caused l.v the attempts of the Huns to seize foodstuffs. Hi . The activities of German U-boats off the Atlantic coast have grown so an noying that the cabinet is said to have devoted a lor meeting to discussing of American troops in Masiseyau. after a battle with the Turks. 3 these vessels that has met ana ue- them and the ways of combating them. The submarines, In addition to sinking a number of steamers and at tacking others, in some cases only a few miles from the harbor of New York, also destroyed a considerable number of fishing vessels off New Eng land. Several fights with these U-boats were reported and it was believed that at least one of them was sunk. What was believed to be a gas attack on the coast guard station and lighthouse on Smith's island. South Carolina, in which several men were overcome, has not yet been explained though the theory that the poison gas came from a submarine was discarded. Presum ably the fact that our naval vessels are pretty busy on convoy duty accounts for the comparative immunity of these U-boats along the Atlantic coast The steady decline of the German submarine campaign is emphasized by the official reports on sinkings and shipbuilding for July. The allied and neutral shipping sunk during the month amounted to 270,000 tons, compared with 534,839 tons sunk in July, 1917. During the month the allied nations constructed a tonnage in excess of 280,000 to that destroyed by enemy op erations. fe The administration's man-power hill extending the draft age to eighteen and forty-five years was reported to the senate Thursday and that body prepared to take it up and act on it speedily. Chairman Chamberlain in reporting the measure said General March told the military affairs com mittee that he believed 4,000,000 Amer icans under one commander could go through the German lines whenever they pleased and that if the ages are fixed as asked, the voluntary enlist ment system automatically ends. He also said all the men called for active service under the amended act would be In France by next June. The new American war program, it was re vealed, calls for k divisions, or about 3,0t)0,000 men, in France and 18 more divisions In training in America, by June 30, 1919. Mr. Chamberlain told thp senate that President Wilson's program called for concentration of American forces on the western front, including Italy, and that the theory of the fighting In the future is that we must force the issue and win on the western front. The bill as reported contains a work or fight provision to which organized labor, through Samuel Gompers has filed emphatic objection. The Immediate need for more fight ing men Induced the president to issue on Wednesday , a. proclamation calling for the registration, on August 24, of all young men who shall have become twenty-one years of age between June last and that day. This extra enroll ment, It is believed, will include about 150,000 men, one-half of whom are fit for military dutv. Chairman Kltchin and other mem bers of the house ways and means committee being wedded to the idea that the best way to raise more rev enue is to increase the excess profits tax, rather than to impose a war prof its tax; Secretary of the Treasury Mc Adoo was compelled to go before the committee with a mass of figures; to sustain his contention that the war profits tax method is the best and only fair one. In reply to KitcMn's asser tion that a war profits tax was "only camouflage to let out the big fellows" the secretary produced. figures to show that in a great majority of cases the war profits tax would fall more heav ily on the large concerns than would the excess profits tax, which,; if fixed at 80 per cent as the committee pro posed, he said would touch not more than one of the large corporations. He favors the continuance of the existing excess profits tax, with corrections but withdut increase. He also urged heav ier levies on unearned incomes than on earned incomes, and the imposition of a tax upon servants as luxuries. The secretary impressed on the committee the necessity of prfssing the new revenue bill before September 28, the date set for launching the fourth Liberty loan campaign, saying that further delay would Jeopardize . the ability of the treasury to sll sufficient treasury certificates to finance It in the intervals between the Llbertj loans. In Washington most of the de lay in passing the measure li expect ed to' develop tn the senate. SURPRISE Bit 15 STRUCK fit in IN NEW OFFENSIVE BR.T-H ETRATE ENEMY LS tq' TWO MILE depth.' FRENCH THREATENING Hi More Than Six Hundred Pr Taken in Enveloping Along Somme-Oise Front While the Germain v. , engaged in defending ,V- "" against the attacks 'of :. j,TJ';j1Vfts French armies from th- '. ar"! to the region of Soisvu. p.-?, r'v-r shal Haig struck another "-1" blow over a new front. r r 6 mi ine new oitensive was i from the east of Arra. on" theT river and southward to r p All along the front the British forward, at some places to a d' vh , more than two miles. ' ' Across the Cojeul, the new B-ir -attacks on the old battle front brouS them to the villages of Morv and. Leger, and farther south the na'i town of Favreuil, one and a half nrie' northeast of Bapaume, from which the British pressed on eastward abou a mile. Farther south the British "re reported unofficially to have reached the western outskirts of Thilloy" ia the nipper movement they are carry, ing out against Bapaume. The French -again are hammers away at the environs of Roye, one of the strong points of the Somme-Oisc front, the capture of which doubHss would cause the giving up by the en-emy-of the entire salient from ;he Somme in the north, to Noyon. Frw-noyLes-Roye, to the north, and St. Mard to the south of Roye. both of which have been captured by the French, despite the desperate resist ance of the Germans, and Roye. like Bapaume in the north, apparently is in danger of being pinched out of the line in an enveloping movement. More than 600 prisoners were taken by the French in the operation. BRITISH LOSE SEVEN AIR PLANES IN BOMBING RAID London. The British independent air force operating on the we3t front lost seven airplanes in the bombing of Mannheim. The frank report of this loss has caught the public imagi nation. It is pointed out that the Germans were in largely superior numbers and had only to think of fighting, whereas the British had both fighting and bombing to attend to. The odds were all on the German side, but the Brit ish aviators reached Mannheim and did their job. Commenting on the raid, a British air officer said: "We suffered losses, but we won a splendid victory. We set out to bomb Mannheim and no German efforts could frustrate our intention." AMMUNITION DUMPS BLOWN UP BY AMERICAN CANNON FIRE With the American Army on the Vesle Front. Several German ammu nition dumps north of the Vesle river were blown up by high explosives from the American guns. This was the only notable incident in the opera l.ions between Soissons and Rheims. although the usual exchange between the artilleries continued. The destruction of the dumps wa3 made possible by aerial observation by American aviators. They were lo cated near Revillon and early in the day a battery of long range guns be gan dropping shells at points indi cated. The observation posts soon after reported great clouds of oU from the targets. 20,000 PRISONERS TAKEN BY BRITISH IN FIVE DAYS Paris. The number of prisoners taken by the British since August -has reached 20,000, The Petit Journa declares. SUBURB OF THE TOWN OF BAPAUME CAPTURE London Suzanne and CapP'. toWD' north and south of the Somme- , . , field spectively, were captured d Marshal Haig's forces, according reports received here from tne . battle front, rne cnuu flf Avesnes Les Bapaume, a uou the town of Bapaume. British troops also reached the ern outskirts of Thilloy. south paume. CONFLANS AGAIN RAlDEDAl0MEN BY AMERICAN AIR6 .. . -v in Franc t. With the American American bombing macbinesbotnbs raided Conflans, dropping on the railroad yards, despite .1, tho Ul" anti-aircraft fire, au tbe j. ii Yia cast e were logevner at 'Osion yards, ode causing a big expi the German planes appeared Amerhsans completed their 0 and followed the Americans thtir lines but failed to enga in battle.