North Carolina Newspapers

THE CHATHAM RECORD H. A. London EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR Terms of Subscription $1.50 PER YEAR Strictly in Advance THE CHATHAM RECORD Rates of Advertising One Square, one insertion -. - $1.00 One Square, two insertions ; - $1.50 One Square, one month - - $2.50 For Larger Advertisements Liberal Contracts will be made. VOL. XXXVIII. PITTSBORO, CHATHAM COUNTY, N. C, DECEMBER 8, 1915. NO. 18. ASKS ADEQUATE DEFENSE FOR U. S. President Wilson Pleads for Pre paredness Against Foes Abroad and Within. MESSAGE READ TO CONGRESS Larger Army and Navy Urged Trained Citizenry the Nation's Greatest Defense Disloyal Acts of Foreign-Born Citi zens Scored No Fear of War. Washington, Dec. 7. At a Joint session of the house and senate the president to day delivered his annual message. He said in part as follows: Since I last had the privilege of ad dressing you on the state of the Union the war of nations on the other side of the sea, which had then only begun to disclose its portentous proportions, has extended its threatening and sinister scope until it has swept within its flame some portion of every quarter of the globe, not excepting our hemisphere, has altered the whole face of international affairs, and now presents a prospect of reorganiza tion and reconstruction such as states men and peoples have never been called upon to attempt before. We have stood apart, studiously neutral. It was our manifest duty to do so. In the day of readjustment and recupera tion we earnestly hope and believe that we can be of infinite service. In this neutrality, to which they were bidden not only by their separate life and their habitual detachment from the poli tics of Europe but also by a clear per ception of international duty, the states of America have become conscious of a new and more vital comr. mity of inter est and moral partnership in affairs, more clearly conscious of the many common sympathies and interests and duties which bid them stand together. We have been put to the test in the case of Mexico, and we have stood the test. Whether we have benefited Mexico by the course we have pursued remains to be seen. Her fortunes are in her own hands. But we have at least proved that we will not take advantage of her in her distress and undertake to impose upon her an order and government of our own choosing. We will aid and befriend Mexico, but we will not coerce her; and our course with regard to her ought to be sufficient proof to all America that we seek no po litical suzerainty or selfish control. Not Hostile Rivals. The moral is, that the states of Amer ica are not hostile rivals, but co-operating friends, and that their growing sense of community of interest, alike in matters political and in matters econom ic, is likely to give them a new signifi cance as factors in international affairs and in the political history of the world. It presents them as in a very deep and true sense a unit in world affairs, spir itual partners, standing together because thinking together, quick with common sympathies and common ideals. Separat ed, they are subject to all the cross cur rents of the confused politics of a world of hostile rivalries; united in spirit and purpose they cannot be disappointed of their peaceful destiny. This is Pan-Americanism. It has none of the spirit of empire in it. It is the em bodiment, the effectual embodiment, of the spirit of law and independence and liberty and mutual service. There is, I venture to point out, an espe cial significance just now attaching to this whole matter of drawing the Amer icas together in bonds of honorable part nership and mutual advantage because of the economic readjustments which the world must inevitably witness within the next generation, when peace shall have at last resumed its healthful tasks. In the performance of these tasks I believe the Americas to be destined to play their parts together. I am interested to fix your attention on this prospect now be cause unless you take it within your view and permit the full significance of it to command your thought I cannot find the right light in which to set forth the particular matter that lies at the very front of my whole thought as I ad dress you today. I mean national de fense. No one who really comprehends the spirit of the great people for whom we are appointed to speak can fail to per ceive that their passion is for peace, their genius best displayed in the practice of the arts of peace. Great democracies are not belligerent. They do not seek or de sire war. Their thought is of Individual liberty and of the free labor that supports life and the uncensored thought that quickens it. Conquest and dominion are not in our reckoning, or agreeable to our principles. But just because we demand unmolested development and the undis turbed government of our own lives upon our own principles of right and liberty. we resent, from whatever quarter it may come, the aggression we ourselves will not practice. We insist upon security in prosecuting our self-chosen lines of na- tional development. We do more than that. We demand it also for others. We do not confine OHr enthusiasm for Indi vidual liberty and free national develop ment to the incidents and movements of affairs which affect only ourselves. We feel it wherever there is a people that tries to walk in these difficult paths of independence and right. From the first we have made common cause with all partisans of liberty on this side of the sea, and have deemed . it as Important that our neighbors should be free from ai! outside domination as that we our selves should be; have set America aside as a whole for the uses of independent nations and political freemen. Might to Maintain Right. Out of such thoughts grow all our poli cies. We regard war merely as a means of asserting the rights of a people against aggression. And we are as fiercely jeal ous of coercive or dictatorial power with i)i our own nalion as of aggression from without. We will not maintain a stand ing army except for uses which are as necessary in times of peace as in times of war; and we shall always see to it that our military peace establishment is no longer than ia aotuallv and continuous iy needed for the uses of days in which no enemies move against us. But we do believe in a body of free citizens ready and sufficient to take care of themselves and of the governments which they have set up to serve them. In our constitutions themselves we have commanded that "the fight of the people to keep ' and bear arms shall not be infringed," and our confidence has been that our safetv in times of danger would lie In the rising of yie nation to take care of Itself, as the larmers rose at Lexineton. But war has never been a mere matter r men and eruns. It la a thins- of disH PHned might. If our citizens are ever to "gnt effectively upon a sudden summons, tney must know how modern fighting is done, and what to do when the summons comes to render themselves immediately Available and Immediately effective. And the government must be their servant in tms matter, must supply them with the training they need to take care of them selves and of it. The military arm of their government, which they will not allow to direct them, they may properly use to serve them and make their independence secure and not their own independence merely but the rights also of those with whom they have made common cause, should they also be put in jeopardy. xney must te fitted to play the great role in the world, and particularly in this hemisphere, for which they are quali- nea Dy principle and by chastened ambi tion to play. It is with these ideals in mind that th plans of the department of war for more adequate national defense were conceived which will be laid before you, and which I urge you to sanction and put into ef fect as soon as they can be properly scru tinized and discussed. They seem to me the essential first steps, and they seem to me for the present sufficient. They contemplate an increase of the standing force of the regular army from Its present strength of 5,023 officers and 102.985 enlisted men of all services to a strength of 7,136 officers and 134,707 en listed men, or 141,843, all told, all serv ices, rank and file, by the addition of 52 companies of coast artillery, 15 com panies of engineers, ten regiments of in fantry, four regiments of field artillery, and four aero squadrons, besides 750 oni cers required for a great variety of extra service, especially the all-'mportant duty of training the citizen force of which I shall presently speak, 792 non-commissioned officers for service in drill, recruit ing and the like, and the necessary quota of enlisted men for the quartermaster corps, the hospital corps, the ordnance department and other similar auxiliary services. These are the additions neces sary to render the army adequate for Its present duties, duties which it has to perform not only upon our own conti nental coasts and borders and at our in terior army posts, but also in the Phil ippines, in the Hawaiian islands, at the isthmus, and in Porto Rico. Force of Trained Citizens. By way of making the country ready to assert some part of its real power promptly and upon a larger scale, should occasion arise, the plan also contemplates supplementing the army by a force of 400,000 disciplined citizens, raised in incre ments of 133,000 a year throughout a pe riod of three years. This it is proposed to do by a process of enlistment under which the serviceable men of the coun try would be asked to bind themselves to serve with the colors for purposes of training for short periods throughout three years, and to . come to the colors at call at any time throughout an addi tional "furlough" period of three years. This force of 400,000 men would be pro vided with personal accoutrements as fast as enlisted and their equipment for the field made ready to be supplied at any time. They would be assembled for train ing at stated intervals at convenient places in association with suitable units of the, regular army. Their period of annual training would not necessarily ex ceed two months in the year. It would depend upon the patriotic feel ing of the younger men of the country whether they responded to such a call to service or not. It would depend upon the patriotic spirit of the employers of the country whether they made it possi ble for the younger men in their em ploy to respond under favorable condi tions or not. I, for one.v do not doubt the patriotic devotion either of our young men or of those who give them employ mentthose for whose benefit and protec tion they would in fact enlist. The program which will be laid before you by the secretary of the navy is sim ilarly conceived. It involves only a shortening of the time within which plans long matured shall be carried out; but it does make definite and explicit a program which has heretofore been only implicit, held In the minds of the committees on naval affairs and disclosed in the debates of the two houses but nowhere formu lated or formally adopted. It seems to me very clear that it will be to the ad vantage of the- country for the congress to adopt a comprehensive plan for put ting the navy upon a final footing of strength and efficiency and to press that plan to completion within the next five years. We have always looked to the navy of the country as our first and chief line of defense; we have always seen it to be our manifest course of prudence to be strong on the seas. Year by year we have been creating a navy which now ranks very high indeed among the navies of the maritime nations. We should now definitely determine how we shall com plete what we have begun, and how soon. Program for the Navy. The secretary of the navy is asking also for the Immediate addition to the personnel of the navy of 7,500 sailors, 2,500 apprentice seamen, and 1.500 marines. This increase would be sufficient to care for the ships which are to be completed within the fiscal year 1917 and also for the number of men which must be put in training to man the ships which will be completed early in 1918. It is also neces sary that the number of midshipmen at the naval academy at Annapolis should be Increased by at least 300 in order that the force of officers should be more rap idly added to; and authority is asked to appoint for engineering duties only, ap proved graduates of engineering colleges. and for service In the aviation corps a certain number of men taken from civil life. If this full program should be carried out we should have built or building in 1921, according to the estimates of surviv al and standards of classification followed by the general board of the department, an effective navy consisting of 27 battle shins of the first line, six battle cruisers. 25 battleships of the second lihe, ten ar mored cruisers, 13 scout cruisers, five first-class cruisers, three second-class cruisers, ten third-class cruisers, 108 de troyers, 18 fleet submarines, 157 coast sub marines, six monitors, 20 gunboats, four supply ships, 15 fuel ships, four trans ports, three tenders to torpedo vessels, eight vessels of special types, and two ammunition ships. This would be a navy fitted to our needs and worthy of our traditions. Trade and Shipping. But armies and instruments of war are only part of what has to be considered if we are to consider the supreme matter of national self-sufficiency and security in all its aspects. There are other great matters which will be thrust upon our at tention whether we will or not. There is, for example, a very pressing question of trade and shipping involved in this great problem of national adequacy. It is necessary for many weighty reasons of national efficiency and development that we should have a great merchant ma rine. The great merchant fleet we once used to make us rich, that great body of sturdy sailors who used to carry our flag into every sea, and who were tne pnae and often the bulwark of the nation, we have almost driven out of existence by Inexcusable neglect and indifference and bv a hopelessly blind and provincial pol Icy of so-called economic protection. It Is high time we repaired our mistake and resumed our commercial independence on the seas. For it is a question of independence. If other nations go to war or seek to hamper each other's commerce, our mer chants, It seems, are at their mercy, to do with as they please. We must use their ships, and use them as they deter mine. We have not ships enough of our own. We cannot handle our own com merce on the seas. Our independence Is provincial, and is only on land and with in our own borders. We are not likely to be permitted to use even the ships of other nations in rivalry of their own trade, and are without means to extend our commerce even where the doors are wide open and our goods desired. Such a situation Is not to be endured. It is of capital importance not only that the united States should be Its own carrier on the seas and enjoy the economic in dependence which only an adequate mer chant marine would give it, but also that the American hemisphere as a whole should enjoy a like independence and self sufficiency, if it is not to be drawn into the tangle of European affairs. Without such independence the whole question of our political unity and self-determination is very seriously clouded and complicated indeed. Moreover, we can develoD no true or ef fective American policy without ships of our own not ships of war, but ships of peace, carrying goods and carrying much more: creating friendships and render ing indispensable services to all interests on this side of the water. They must move constantly back ana forth between the Americas. They are the only shuttles that can weave the delicate fabric of sympathy, comprehension, confidence and mutual dependence in which we clothe our policy of America for Americans. ' Ships Are Needed. The task of building up an adequate merchant marine for America private capital must ultimately undertake and achieve, as It has undertaken and achieved every other like task amongst us In the past, with admirable enterprise. Intelligence and vigor; and it seems to me a manifest dictate of wisdom that we should promptly remove every legal ob stacle that may stand in the way of this much to be desired revival of our old in dependence and should facilitate in every possible way the building, purchase and American registration of snips. But cap ital cannot accomplish this great task of a sudden. It must embark upon it by de grees, as the opportunities of trade de velop. Something must be done at once; done to open routes and develop oppor tunities where they are as yet undevel oped; done to open the arteries of trade where the currents have not yet learned to run especially between the two Ameri can continents, where they are, singularly enough, yet to be created and quickened; and It is evident that only the govern ment can undertake such beginnings and assume the initial financial risks. When the risk has passed and private capital begins to find its way in sufficient abund ance into these new channels, the gov ernment may withdraw. But It cannot omit to begin. It should take the first steps and should take them at once. Our goods must not lie piled up at our ports and stored upon sidetracks in freight cars which are daily needed on the roads; must not be left without means of transport to any foreign quarter. We must not await the permission of foreign ship owners and foreign governments to send them where we will. With a view to meeting these pressing necessities of our commerce and availing ourselves at the earliest possible moment of the present unparalleled opportunity of linking the two Americas together In bonds of mutual interest and service, an opportunity which may never return again if we miss It now, proposals will be made to the present congress for the purchase or construction of ships to be owned and directed by the government similar to those made to the last con gress, but modified In some essential par ticulars. I recommend these proposals to you for your prompt acceptance with the more confidence because every month that has elapsed since the former pro posals were made has made the necessity for such action more and more mani festly imperative. Question of Finance. The plans for the armed forces of the nation which I have outlined, and for the general policy of adequate prepara tion for mobilization and defense, in volve of course very large additional ex penditures of money expenditures which will considerably exceed the estimated revenues of the government. It Is made my duty by law, whenever the estimates of expenditure exceed the estimates of revenue to call the attention of the con gress to the fact and suggest any means of meeting the deficiency that it may be wise or possible for me to suggest. I am ready to believe that It would be my duty to do so in any case; and I feel particu larly bound to speak of the matter when it appears that the deficiency will arise directly out of the adoption by the con gress of measures which I myself urge it to adopt. Allow me, therefore, to speak briefly of the present state of the treasury and of the fiscal problems which the next year will probably dis close. On the thirtieth of June last there was an available balance in the general fund of the treasury of $104,170,105.78. The to tal estimated receipts for the year 1916, on the assumption that the emergency revenue measure passed by the last con gress will not be extended beyond its present limit, the thirty-first of Decern ber, 1915, and that the present duty of one cent per pound on sugar will be dis continued after the first of May, 1916, will be $670,365,500. The balance of June last and these estimated revenues come, therefore, to a grand total of $774,535,605.78. The total estimated disbursements for the present fiscal year, including $25,000,000 for the Panama canal, $12,000,000 for prob able deficiency appropriations and $o0. 000 for miscellaneous debt redemptions, will be $753,891,000; and the balance in the general fund of the treasury will be re duced to $20,644,605.78. The emergency revenue act, if continued beyond its pres ent time limitation, would produce, dur lng the half year then remaining, about forty-one millions. The duty of one cent per pound on sugar, if continued, would produce during the two months of the fiscal year remaining after the first of May, about fifteen millions. These two sums, amounting together to $56,000,000, If added to the revenues of the second half of the fiscal year, would yield the treasury at the end of the year an avail able balance of $76,644,605.78. The additional revenues required to carry out the program of military and naval preparation of which I have spok en, would, as at present estimated, be for the fiscal year 1917, $93,800,000, Those figures, taken with the figures for the present fiscal year which I have already given, disclose our financial problem for the year 1917. How shall we obtain the new revenue? It seems to me a clear dictate of pru dent statesmanship and frank finance that in what we are now, I hope, about to undertake we should pay as we go. The people of the country are entitled to know just what burdens of taxation they are to carry, and to know from the outset, now. The new bills should be paid by in ternal taxation. To what sources, then, shall we turn? We would be following an almost uni versal example of modern governments If we were to draw the greater part or even the whole of the revenues we need from the income taxes. By somewhat lowering the present limits ' of exemption and the figure at which the surtax shall begin to be imposed, and by increasing, step by step throughout the present grad uation, the surtax itself, the income taxes as at present apportioned would yield sums sufficient to balance the books of the treasury at the end of the fiscal year 1917 without anywhere making the bur den unreasonably or oppressively heavy. The precise reckonings are fully and ac curately set out in the report of the sec retary of the treasury, which will be im mediately laid before you. And there are many additional sources of revenue which can justly be resorted to without hampering the Industries of the country or putting any too great charge upon individual expenditure. A one per cent tax per gallon on gasoline and naptha would yield, at the present I estimated production, $10,000,000; a tax of 50 cents per horsepower on automobiles and internal explosion engines, $15,000,000; a stamp tax on bank checks, probably $18,000,000; a tax of 25 cents per ton on pig Iron, $10,000,000; a tax of 50 cents per ton on fabricated Iron and steel, proba bly $10,000,000. In a country of great in dustries like this it ought to be easy to distribute the burdens of taxation with out making them anywhere bear too heavily or too exclusively upon any one set of persons or undertakings. What is clear Is, that the industry of this gener ation should pay the bills of this genera tion. The Danger Within'. I have spoken to you today, gentlemen, upon a single theme, . the thorough prep aration of the nation - to care for its own security and to make sure of entire freedom to play the impartial rele in this hemisphere and in the world which we all believe, to have been, providentially assigned to It. I have had in mind no thought of any immediate or particular danger arising out of our relations with other nations. We are at peace with all the nations of the world, and there is reason to hope that no question in con troversy between this and other govern ments will lead to any serious breach of amicable relations, grave as some differ ences of attitude and policy hP.ve been and may yet turn out to be. I am sorry to say that the gravest threats against our national peace and safety have been uttered within our own borders. There are citizens of the United States, I blush to admit, born under other flags but welcomed under our generous naturalization laws to the full freedom and opportunity of America, who have poured the poison of disloyalty into the very arteries of our national life; who have sought to bring the authority and good name of our gov ernment into contempt, to destroy our in dustries wherever they thought it effec tive for their vindictive purposes to strike at them, and to debase our politics to the uses of foreign Intrigue. Their number is not great as compared with the whole number of those sturdy hosts by which our nation has been enriched in recent generations out of virile foreign stocks; but It is great enough to have brought deep disgrace upon us and to have made it necessary that we should promptly make use of processes of law by which we may be purged of their corropt dis tempers. America never witnessed any thing like this before. It never dreamed it possible that men sworn into Its own citizenship, men drawn out of great free stocks such as supplied some of the best and strongest elements of that little, but how heroic, nation that in a high day of old staked its very life to free Itself from every entanglement that had darkened the fortunes of the older nations and set up a new standard here that men of such origins and such free choices of allegi ance would ever turn In malign reaction against the government and people who had welcomed and nurtured them and seek to make this proud country once more a hotbed of European passion. A little while ago such a thing would have seemed incredible. Because it was in credible we made no preparation for it. We would have been almost ashamed to prepare for it, as if we were suspicious of ourselves, our own comrades and neighbors! But the ugly and incredible has actually come about and we .re with out adequate federal laws to deal with it. I urge you to enact such laws at the earliest possible moment and feel that in so doing I am urging you to do noth ing less than save the honor and self respect of the nation. Must Be Crushed Out. Such creatures of passion, disloyalty and anarchy must be crushed out. They are not many, but they are infinitely ma lignant, and the hand of our power should close over them at once. They have formed plots to destroy property, they have entered into conspiracies against the neutrality of the government, they have sought to pry into every Confidential transaction of the government In order to serve interests alien to our own. It is possible to deal with these things very effectually. I need not suggest the terms in which they may be dealt with. I wish that it could be said that only a few men, misled by mistaken sentiments of allegiance to the governments under which they were born, had been guilty of disturbing the self-possession and misrep resenting the temper and principles of the country during these days of terrible war, when it would seem that every man who was truly an American would in stinctively make it his duty and his pride to keep the scales of judgment even and prove himself a partisan of no nation but his own. But it cannot. There are some men among us, and many resident abroad who, though born and bred In the Unit ed States and calling themselves Amer icans, have so forgotten themselves and their honor as citizens as to put their passionate sympathy with one or the oth er side in the great European conflict above their regard for the peace and dig nity of the United States. They also preach and practice disloyalty. No laws, I suppose, can reach corruptions of the mind and heart; but I should not speak of others without also speaking of these and expressing the even deeper humilia tion and scorn which every self-posssd and thoughtfully patriotic American must feel when he thinks of them and of the discredit they are dally bringing upon us. Many conditions about which we have repeatedly legislated are being altered from decade to decade. It is evident, un der our very eyes, and are likely to change even more rapidly and more radically in the days immediately ahead of us, when peace has returned to the world and na tions of Europe once more take up their tasks of commerce and Industry with th energy of those who must bestir them selves to build anew. Just what thes changes will be no one can certainly fore see or confidently predict. There are ne calculable, because no stable, elements In the problem. The most we can do is to make certain that we have the necessary instrumentalities of Information constant ly at our service so that we may be sure that we know exactly what we are deal ing with when we come to act, if it should be necessary to act at all. We must first certainly know what It Is that we are seeking to adapt ourselves to. may ask the privilege of addressing you more at length on this important matter a little later in your session. Transportation Problem. The transportation problem is an ex ceedingly serious and pressing one In thJs country. There has from time to time of late been reason to fear that our rail roads would not much longer be able to cope with it successfully as at present equipped and co-ordiriated. I suggest that it would be wise to provide for a commission of inquiry to ascertain by & thorough canvass of the whole question whethe- our laws as at present framed ari? administered are as serviceable as they might be in the solution of the prob lem. V is obviously a problem that lies at if very foundation of our efficiency as t people. Such an Inquiry ought to draw out every circumstance and opinion worth considering and we need to know all sides of the matter if we mean to do anything in the field of federal legisla tion. S For what we are seeking now, what In my mind is the single thought of thl message, is national efficiency and se curity. We serve a great nation. should serve It in the spirit of its peculiAr genius. It is the genius of common men for self-government, industry, justice, lib erty and peace. We should see to it that it lacks no instrument, no facility or vigor of law, to make it sufficient to play its part with energy, safety, and assured success. In this we are no partisans bu heralds and prophets of a new age. BRITISH DRIVEN AWAY FROM BAGDAD TURKISH FORCES DEFEAT AND COMPEL WITHDRAWAL OF GEN. TOWNSEND. LITTLE ACTUAL FIGHTING Report That Turkish Forces Outnum bered . British - Four to One. Other Fronts Are Quiet. London. The British, German and Turkish accounts of the recent fight ing in Mesopotamia, while containing minor disatches xespecting the casul- ties and character of the British re treat on the Tigris, clearly establish the fact that without further rein forcements to equal the overpowering odds against which they have been struggling, th'e British troops under General Townsend have little pros pect of continuing the march to Bag dad, which city appeared a few weeks ago to be almost within their grasp. Having advanced during October and November through the desert of Irak to the very environments of Bagdad, the British force is now re tiring upon Kut-el-Amara, 80 miles southeast of Ctesiphon, the scene of the battle fought in the latter part of November in which the British troops met their first serious check. The position therefore of General Townsend's force is much the same as in September after the battle of Kut-el-Amara. According to a recent account large Turkish, reinforcements, supplementing the forces which al ready outnumbered the British forces four to one, were flung against the British troops retiring down the Tig ris, and made a British stand impos sible. There have been no military events of any importance in the Balkins since the fall of Monastir. Recent re ports ma'ke Rumania loom unusually large on the Balkan horizon, and that country is generall accredited with the intention either of joining the Allies or at least stretching her neutrality to the point of allowing her passage of Russian troops. There has been, however, no confirmation of the report that Russian troops have al ready entered Rumanian territory. WILSON-GALT WEDDING DEC. 18. Extreme Simplicity Will Be Observ ed and Only Families Will Attend. Washington. Extreme simplicity will be observed at the wedding of President Wilson and Mrs. Norman Gait, which the White House announc ed will be solemnized December 18 at the home of Mrs. Gait here. The president will have no best man at the wedding and Mrs. Gait will not formally select a aid of honor, al though one of her sisters, probably Miss Bertha Boiling of this city will attend her during th-a ceremony. It was announced at ,tLe White House that only members of the two families and the president's immediate house hold would attend the wedding, and that no formal invitations would be is sued. This surprised official Wash ington, as it had been expected that at least a few of the president's friends would be invited. . The Rev. Herbert Scott Smith, rec tor of St. Margaret's Protestant Epis copal Church here, which Mrs. Gait has attended in recent months has been tentatively selected as the offici ating clergyman, although it is pos sible that the Rev. Sylvester Beach pastor of the president's church in Princeton, may assist. The president is a Presbyterian. $25,000,000 For Good Roads. Columbus, O. Draft of a bill provid ing for an annual Federal appropria tion of ?25,000,000 to be used by the states in highway improvement was made public here at the headquarters of the Ohio Good Roads Federation. The measure was drawn by a com mittee of the American Asociation on State Highway Officials for presen tation to Congress. San Diego Exposition Will Continue San Diego, Ca. Offical announce ment that the Panama-California Ex position which was opened here Janu ary 1 of this year, will continue throughout 1916 as the Panama-Cali fornia International Exposition, was made by G. A. Davidson, president of the exposition. German Munition Factory Blows Up. London. Destruction of a large ammunition factory at Halle, Prussian Saxony,v by an explosion, with the loss of several hundred lives is reported Postofficce Trade Improves. Washington. Marked improvement in 'business is reflected in the Novem ber revenues of the 50 largest post- offices of the country, producing ap proximately half of all the postal re ceipts. Postmaster General Burle son announced this in a statement showing an increase of $2,033,138 or 17.96 per cent for those offices over November a year ago. The normal rate of increase is about 7 per cent but November last year showed a de crease of 5.71 per cent as a result of the war. EMPEROR WILLIAM VISITS IN VIENNA MUCH SPECULATION OVER THE KAISER'S VISJT T& AUSTRIAN CAPITAL. CABINET MEMBERS RESIGN Operations In Balkans Continue With Unabated Energy End of the . Campaign. London. Emperor William's visit to Vienna, which co-incided with the resignation of three Austrian cabinet ministers, is the cause of much spec ulation. The two events are variously assumed to be connected with the re peated effort of Germany to force Aus tria into a German zollvereln, a desire of Ejaperor Francis Joseph to secure a separate peace through the interven tion of Pope Benedict and a rumored dispute between Austria and Bulgaria over the division of Serbian territory. There naturally is no authoritative basis for any of these reports beyond statements in the German newspapers that Emperor William's visit was one of the highest importance. Meantime operations in the Balkans and the movements of the armies of the Central Powers continue with un abated energy. Like Germany Bul garia announces that with the capture of Prisrend her campaign against Ser bia has come to an end, which seems to supjort the suggestion that to avoid a dispute with Greece, King Ferdinand of Bulgaria has decided against the oc cupation of Monastir.v Austria, with the assistance of some German troops, continues her operations against Montenegro, the frontier of which shas been crossed but not without considerable opposi tion from the Montenegrins, who are masters in mountain warfare and who have been joined by some portions of the Serbian armies which succeeded in escaping from the invaders, of their country. Battles are now being fought in that part of the Sanjok of Novipazar which was taken by Montenegro after the Balkan war. INQUIRE ABOUT VESSELS. Are Ships to Be Requisitioned With out Aid of Prize Court? Washington. The state department has instructed Ambassador Page at London to inquire of the British gov ernment whether two vessels of the American Trans-Auantic Company, seized while flying the American flag were to be requisitioned without the formality of prize court proceedings. The ambassador was directed to file a vigorous protest against such a meas ure should he receive an affirmative answer. The department acted upon infor mation received from Richard Wagner, president of the company, who tele graphed he had been advised by the captains of the steamers Hocking, de tained at St. Lucia, that attorneys for the British government were to make moves looking toward the requisition of the vessels. Mr. Wagner also said that the crews had been ordered to leave the ships and arrangements were being made for the disposition of the cargo on the Genesee. State department officials said that if the facts were confirmed every thing would be doe to prevent such action. New Directors Richmond Bank. Richmond, Va. Henry B. Wilcox, of Baltimore, has been elected a class "A" director in succession to Waldo Newcomer, and Edmund Strudick of Richmond, has been elected a class "B" director, in succession to George J. Saey, according to an announce ment by William Ingle, chairman of the board of the Fedefal Reserve bank of Richmond. Willouahby Beach Hotel Burned. Norfolk, Va The Willoughby Beach Hotel situated on the shores of Chesa- neake Bay opposite Old Point Com fort was destroyed by fire. The house was closed for the season and the ori gin of the blaze is unknown. Whitlock Confers With Wilson. Washington. Brand Whitlock, American minister to Belgium, had a long conference with President Wil son regarding conditions in the war zone, the work of the Belgian Relief Commission, and the case of Miss Edith Cavell, the British nurse, exe cuted by the Germans over the pro test of Mr. Whitlock. Minister Whit lock then left for his home in Toledo, Ohio. Later he will go to some health resort. He will sail again for his post December 28 on the steamer Rotter dam. Villa Planning Border Raids. Washington. Attributing his pres ent situation to the failure of the Uni ted States government to support him, General Villa is planning raids in American territory along the border, according to information reaching Ma jor General Funston, commanding the American border guard. In reporting this to the war department General Funston said he could not believe Gen eral Villa actually contemplated any such hazardous undertaking but pro ceeded to prepare in case he did at tempt to cross border. FARM ERS WO 1G FOR RURAL UPLIFT THEY ARE ELEVATING THEM SELVES, SAYS COMMISSIONER GRAHAM. MAKES HIS ANNUAL REPORT Head of Department of Agriculture Finds Conditions Very Prosperous Throughout the State. Raleigh. Notwithstanding the fact that all crop yields are not phenome nal, the farmers of North Carolina are in better shape this fall than ever be fore, states Commissioner of Agricul ture W. A. Graham in his annual re port to the State Board of Agriculture. The commissioner attributes this prosperous state to the farmers' ac ceptance and putting into practice of the advice of the state department to raise on the farn all the provisions necessary for its maintenance. For the first tiem in recent years the state has wheat for export, hav ing raised enough of this crop to fur nish 180 pounds of flour per capita. Exportations of tobacco, potatoes and peanuts will be on an increased scale at good prices, thinks Mr. Graham. Regarding the advice so generous ly handed out to the farmers from everywhere the commissioner says that one great trouble has been that the mark has been overshot; it isn't so much what should be done to morrow that the farmers need to know, but what should be done to day. A community must elevate it self, and must have self-respect and realize its ability to rise before it can do so. Mr. " Graham asks. While impressing upon our people how low they stand in literacy, why not tell them that they exceed all other southern states in what is be ing done in Increased production of the whole crop and upon an acre? Messengers sent the farmers may be ever so eloquent, but to be effective there must be close sympathy and co-operation to accomplish anything. Illustrating progress on the farm Commissioner Graham incorporated a statement from C. R. Hudson, chief of the farm demonstration work, which shows the following features: The number of. acres of land im proved or brought into cultivation by drainage districts, 45,730; acres of new land brought into cultivation during the past year, 32,837; amount of sorghum syrup produced this year in 49 counties, 409,740 gallons; num ber of farmers who were landown ers five years ago and now renters, 102; renters five years ago but land owners now, 2,897; increase in rent ers due to farmers losing ownership of land, 5; tenants due to farmers moving from farms and turning them over to renters, 25. Erecting Creamery Plant. Forest City. B. H. Bridges, secre tary and treasurer of the Farmers Co operative Creamery, has given out the information to the effect that the site for the creamery will not be near the Seaboard depot, as rumored, but in the southern part of town. Two acres of land i lying on the Southern Rail way has, been purchased from Charles Ford, and the erection of the build ing will begin at once. The building will be of brick witn concrete floors 28x51 feet. Power and heat will be furnished with a boiler. It is probable that an ice plant will be installed in connection with the creamery at an early date. The plant when completed will represent an outlay of about $4,000. Mrs. A .B. Andrews Dead. Raleigh. Mrs. Julia M. Andrews, widow of the late Col. A. B. Andrews, first vice president of the Southern Railway Company, is dead. The end came about noon at the Andrews home on North Blount street after a protracted illness. The end had been expected for several weeks, but the news of her death came nevertheless as a severe shock to close friends in Raleigh and will carry sadness to very many In North Carolina and -throughout the country. Big Moonlight School. Shelby. South Shelby has one of' the largest moonlight schools in North Carolina. Supt. Sam C. Latti more stated that he has an enroll ment of li and is assisted by the school teachers and several others in the work. The pupils are taking great interest when once they start and Mr. Lattimore has some specimens of writing which show the remarkable progress they are making. Some have learned to write fairly well, multiply, add and subtract. A. D. Dupre Succeeds E. G. Sherrill. Raleigh. E. G. Sherrill has resign ed his place in the department of state as grant clerk and Secretary of State Grimes has appointed Alvin D. Dupree of Pitt county as his successor. Mr. Sherrill decided to return to his old position in Washington and his family has gone to their old home in Greensboro. He succeeded the late George W. Norwood as grant clerk last April. Mr. Dupree graduated in the engineering department of the A. & M. College a few years ago and is no wengaged in insurance business.