Casper Daily Tribune Newspaper, January 17, 1917, Page 1

x = VOLUME ONE CHARLES £. HUGHES COUNSEL MEMBERS OF LEAK COMMITTEE Late Republican Candidate for President Put Forth as Man Best Suited to Advise Probe Committee EXTENTION IS GRANTED Sessions May Be Held in New York in Order to Be in Close Touch With Wall Street; No Ses. sion Is Held Today By the United Press WASHINGTON, ~ Jan. 17.—The Nouse of Representatives today au- thorized the lea’ employ counsel and clerks and ac- counts, and gave the committee power to hold hearings in Washington or = and it is not without the bounds of speculation that the com- mittee will hold sessions in New York so as to be close in touch with Wall Street. The life of the committee was also extended thirty days. Charles Evans Hughes, late Re- publican candidate for president, has been put forth by the Republicans and many Democrats who want to see the probers “‘go to the bottom,” as the best-fitted man in the country to act as counsel for the committee. Those who want a real investigation, recall that it was Hughes who went to the bottom of the gas and insurance in- vestigations in New York, and it is more than likely that his name will be seriously considered by the proeb-| * ers. Charles Lehman and Samuel Un- termeyer are among those suggested as counsel. No hearings of the committee were held today. OIL CLAIMANTS ARE. THREATENED Legislation Pending in Con- gress Would Result in Many Wyoming Investors Losing Everything WASHINGTON, Jan. 17.—Placer mining oil and gas claimants, particu- larly those of Wyoming, Montana and California, stand a chance of losing their entire investments as a result of legislation now pending in Washing- ton, legislation which from present in- dications will be enacted into law be- fore Congress adjourns on March 4, next. claimants apparently asleep as to their rights, for in all the hearings before the House and Senate land committees, where the Ferris-Phelan land leasing bill has been under discussion, no one has come forward in their behalf and The placer mining are now that a leasing measure has been, amended to the extent that it meets with the approval of all parties inter- ested except Secretary Daniels, there is nothing in the measure which spe- cifically protects the placer mining claimants even tho they have contin- ued their assessment work in con- formity with the placer mining law. The Ferrig-Phelan bill, which has as its object the leasing of the entire public domain for oil, gas and other purposes, is now in its final stages. This bill which first passed the House three years ago, would now be a law were it not for the fact that certain oil interests whose possessory rights were knocked out by the decision of the United States Supreme Court in the Midwest case have been seeking through Senator Phelan to amend this general leasing bill so that their in- terests would be protected. A tenta- tive agreement has been reached and President Wilson is now being ap- {NATION MOURNS! i | | DEWEY'S PASSING | By the United Press | WASHINGTON, Jan. 17.—! The entire nation is in mourn-! ing for Admiral George Dewey, the hero of Manila, who passed | away last night after a few} | days’ illness. j The funeral will held Saturday, with solemn | imilitary rites, with President! Wilson, Secretary Daniels and| other government officials at-| jtending. The body will be laid to rest in the historic Arlington cem-j} etery with military honors, | Both Houses of Congress this aft-| | probably be} ernoon voted to adjourn Saturday|now established definitely that] probe committee to be out of respect to the dead hero, all government departments will | closed all day. The body will lie in state at the Capitol, and the funeral services will| be held in the rotunda of the Capitol | building. The immediate and | be} cau Admiral | Dewey’s death was gi by the at-| | tending physici S arteriosclerosis, | Admiral George Dewey was born jin Montpelier, Vt., December 26,| /183% He was ‘stricken last Thurs ay as "he was leaving home for the Nayl Department, where, as presi-| dent“ of the General Board, he had| been at his desk almost daily during| the past sixteen of his 62 years of ser- vice in the Navy. He collapsed and had to be carried to his bed. When physicians were called they were med, but knowing the Admiral’s | Sreat recuperative powe and his keen aversion to any Yuggestion of his |failing health, they made no an- nouncement regarding his illness, and all inquirers were tlod that the Ad-| !miral had a cold. | But the great strength of the aged | officer had departed and there was no recuperation. Monday morning his | | condition had become so serious that! it was decided to state the facts to the public. Later it was known that Admiral Dewey had a severe illness | more than a year ago, about which only his physicians and intimates} | knew, and that he never had been the same physically since. ee MOUNT LASSEN ERUPTION REDDING, Cal., Jan. 17.—The most spectacular eruption of Mount Lassen since May, 1915, began to- day. Observers declare that the en- tire, crater of the volcano must have opened up. of cians (000,000 GERMANS ARE BUILDING GIGANTIC WALL OF BLOOD AND IRON'TO END lout for the erpool. 23 SHIPS BELIEVED|SUAVS Tuan Toe AD PETROGRAD, Jan. 17.—The j tide of war in Rumania has turned, according to adv ven out by | the Russian War Office. | The Russians stormed and re- captured the Rumanian city of Atlantic Ocean from North to| Vadeni, and vicious counter at- South Is Swept Clean of De- | tacks by the Germans were re- fenseless Craft in Most | Pulsed with heavy losses. @ Deri € Sea Raids A German attack by storm on aN < a SAS the southwest of Pralea was also Ms repulsed. WARNINGS SENT TO SHIPS) | Rythe United Press PARIS, Jan. 17.—The French War Office announces that the French pztrols penetrated the Ger- man lines at several points on the Meuse Heights and the Apremont Forest. German attacks at sev- eral other points were repulsed, it was announced, White Star Liner Georgic, One of the} Largest Freighters Afloat, In- cluded in Long List of Raid- ers’ Victims; Elude Patrols By the United Press ; NEW YORK, Jan. 17.—It is| at least one, and possibly three! German commerce raiders have south. Twenty-three ships it is esti- mated have fallen victim to the raider, with a total tonnage of 94,000 tons. j Allied warships have sent a| warning broadcast to be on the look- pac pra pren ane TRMGES ACOH T Cat se whlch sGnked \eione anneal operating for thousands of miles south of the Virginia capes that it compels them It is learned here that the British! gradually to retire their indebtedness Admiralty is working out a plan to convoy merchantmen thru the At- lantic by cruisers and destroyers. Under it the interest and principal are The raiders’ victims included the! paid off in eq annual or semi-an- White Star liner Georgic, one of the nual installments thruout the period largest freighters in the world. The!of the loan, so that at the end of Georgic left Philadelphia December 8' the term of the mortgage the bor- with a cargo of cotton, bound for Liv- rower is out of debt. All loans under the Farm Loan Act amship men are convinced that/are made under the amortization, or the raider swept the ocean from the) ins Iment plan. Since the borrower north southward, carefully eluding | begins paying off his debt the first the British patrol. Marine authorities! year after he gets it, and because a WASHINGTON, Jan. 17.—One of the features of the Federal Farm to farmers is thru a long or short period of years. This process is called amortization. an Ss e also convinced that the Georgic was sunk in northern waters and that any others may have been sunk in the same zone, ! The raider swept southward, cap- turing and sinking others, ported to London. is re-! long-time loan is best suited to farm- ers, borrowers under this t are per- mitted to execute mortgages to run from five to forty years at their op- tion. Permission is given to pay all of |the loan or any part of it on any in- The British Admiralty statement] terest paying date after the mortgage indicated that possibly three raiders|has run five years. Borrowers are were operating on the Atlantic coast,!not permitted to pay off within the and said that the steamer St. Theo-| first five years, because the money dore had been captured and trans*}which they have borrowed has been formed into a commerce raider. The) procured by the bank thru the sale of St. Theodore, with German naval of-jits bonds, and bonds cannot be sold ficers aboard. then captured the Brit-| for a shorter period than fiv ish steamer Yarrowdale, and this ship} The use of the borrowed mon was likewise transformed a|limited to the following purposes: To raider, making the three. !purchase land or additional land; to into ‘SOUTH ATLANTIC. SCENE : REPULSE VICIOUS ATTACKS! EXTENDED GERMAN RAIDS 10 BE VICTIMS | Midas | By the United Press | BUENOS AIRES, Jan, 17.— | Germany has carried her raid on | merchant ships to the South At- | lantic, according to advices re- | ceived here, } commerce raider, | to be the converted steamer Vinox, sunk twenty mer- | chant steamers, and two French | schoolers in the South Atlantic, according to dispatches received at Pernambuco and Rio de Jan- | eiro. } These dispatches say that 237 | survivors were landed at Pernam- buco. | Another dispatch received at Rio de Janeiro declared that the | German raider sunk Il another | British merhant ship without warning, causing a loss of more than four hundred persons. ‘mate agean weer of Se’ MORTGAGES ARE GRADUALLY RETIRED UNDER THE NEW FARM LOAN ACT ; | {Pay off existing indebtedness; to pur-| jchase live stock or to make any pro- ‘ductive improvements such as clear-| ing, fences, drainage, buildings and machinery. The object of amortization is to en- able a farmer to turn a mortgage into an investment. When he can borrow at a less rate than it yields him he is able to pay off his indebtedness out of the profits of vestment. A long-| time loan enables him to use his mon- ey judiciously so that it will contrib-! ute to increased value of his land and its increased producing power. Heretofore farmers have not been able to borrow for long periods. This discouraged investment in live stock and for many other purposes, because the returns are slow. Short-term loans made a speculator out of a far- mer. So the Farm Loan Act, in addition to providing a way for the farmer to borrow to the limit of safety, induces him to put his borrowed money to productive uses and provides a way for him to get out of debt from the | profits of the investment, | Thus the Farm Loan Act places within reach of the farmer the means to help himself and stimulates _ his business initiative. The long-time loan, with its small annual payments, puts a quietus on the terror of mort- gage foreclosure. EUROPEAN CONFLAGRATION AT ARMAGEDDON, ‘HOLD LINES Army of Men With Picks, Axes and Shovels Are Digging Themselves in for the the Final Stand By CARL H. VON WIEGAND NEW YORK, Jan. 17.—Germany jis preparing for an “Armageddon.” \ Holding the olive branch in one out- 'stretched hand, the German people | doubtful of its acceptance, with the other hand have been for many weeks jand are today making the most gigan- |tic preparations for the great on- \slaught expected in the spring on the | west front. The Biblical term “Armageddon” is |the one most most often applied in | Germany to“this expected battle. This |term perhaps best shows the import- ance attached to the “coming battle,” | as also it is much called, the gigantic’ proportions in men and guns that it will assume and manifests an appre-| ciation and realization of the possible | results, } To the Germans it is the “last great} battle” of the war. At least so they! ¢ Story in Brief of Germany’s Huge Preparations to Hurl Allies Back OLD THE LINE, and hold the line in the West,” is the Kaiser's H slogan, Meanwhile the Teutons are preparing for an ‘‘Ar- mageddon.” The coming battle in the spring will be of gigantic proportions in men and guns. To the Germans it is the last great battle of the war, If the Allies fail again to break thru, their foes believe it will mark the end. The Germians are building a “wall” in the West such as military history never has seen. They are fond of calling it a “wall of iron and blood,” but the new wall might better be described as an under- ground wall “re-enforced with steel and iron’ and “cemented with blood.” Preparations on the Western front for the coming great battle be- gan actively about the time the Somme battle flickered out in No- vember. The ‘‘schapper armee,” as the army of shovelers or diggers is known, numbery around one million men. The men are armed solely with spade, shovel, pick or ax. The greater part of this horse of mili- tary gophers is now and has been for some time on the West front. The big iron and steel works in the Rhine region have sent and are pealed to for the purpose of having) think. If the allie’ fail again to break him concur in the stand taken by Sec-|through—sand that they will fail is retary Lane and to disapprove the confidently asserted—it will mark the ranean works. Men representing still sending their best engines for digging and excavating subter- the army, re-enforced by the best engineers in civil life, are directing the finest military engineering in policy of Secretary Daniels, who is seeking to have part of the land con-; “end.” | “Hold the line,” is the slogan today, the gigantic work. Gen. von Hindenburg personally for the first time visited the tinued as a Federal naval reserve, | in Germany, and ‘hold the line in the! The final ini to the bill/ west,” while Hindenburg’s big fist is) reported by Mr. Phelan and approved | keeping up the mauling in the east. | by the Senate Land Committee, states| Germany is bending every nerve and, that where public lands containing|sinew. Nothing during the entire! deposits of oil and gas were prior to| war approximates what is now going withdrawal thereon from mineral en-/0n in Germany in the way of “prepar- try. occupied or claimed by bona fide!edness.” Every man and woman, the claimant under the placer mining former up to 60 years, incapable of laws of the United States, and the oc-| bearing arms, is being mobilized into cupants of claimant thereof have|the vast “home army” to re-inforce| prior to such withdrawal performed a|the armed millions in the field—men| substantial amount of work, either) between 19 and 45. : within or outside of such claims in-| ‘Hold the Line!” Is Slogan tended for, adapted, and clearly re- “Hold the line in the west,” is the! “Let them come” (the enemy) ing for them.” “Few foreigners know what is going on behind the Gertuan front in the west since October. Of the little that I know of, I can tell comparatively little and remain true to the trust and confidence imposed in a foreign cor-| respondent when he is accepted by! either side. - | The Germans are building or con- West front and inspected the lines and grounds. » he remarked. “We will be wait- & ed with steel and iron’ and “cemented with blood.” There is comparatively little like- lihood"of an offensive in Upper Flan- ders.. Both sidgs have tried it. Both failed miserably. The thousands up- on thousands who fell on both sides in these battles has proved that theo- retically military science does not know everything an that tens of ficial and ular ofder of the day.| structing a “wall” in the west such’ as| thousands must pay with their lives prs Nerney to that end the soil of France tomes history never has seen. .The'for the lessons learned by the com- since said withdrawal drilled one or|being gophered, burrowed, excavated more producing oil or gas wells upon|and tunneled into a series of connect-| Germans are fond of calling their) western front a “cuaver von eisen such lands, such occupant or claimant /ed “positions” and “earth fortresses” und blut” or “wall of iron and blood.” his successors or assigns, shall receive|such as even the two and a half years| patent for'such claim upon upplica-jof trench warfare and in the battle of tea Diaeetar: =o tia Semetag hem a hee dona oi But the new “wall” might better be no’ described as a “subterranean” or “un- manders, Positoins Are Unparalleled The ground in Upper Flanders is',~ t adaptable for bringing up heavy Perea tarians artillery. And it was therefore that derground wall,” perhaps “re-enfore-|the allies Selected Amiens as [3 KAISER'S ORDERS Unparalleled Number of Sol- diers and Guns to Be Con- centrated for the Big Battle in Spring | | \“*hub” for their Somme offensive—| most promising because.of the many) | excellent roads radiating fanlike to, |the front, which they sought to break,} The trenches on the west front, of| |which there is sometimes a maze of ,200 miles to a single army division, ; have in the past largely been. haphaz-| ardly constructed so far as the “lay of the land” was concerned. They are | dug wherever the exigency of the mo-| }ment made necessary, | | There was not as much regard for} the “strategical topography” of the| ground as perhaps might have been, and that is often admitted German military circles. now in} To “get un-! to do that without going further back from the trenches lost was the next) |consideration. The second and often | the third line were within range of the {big guns, which would be hammering away there while the massed light! and medium heavy artillery were “drumming” the first position. And) j Still the English and French made but, a ten-mile “dent’’ in five months’ bat-| tle. Expecting that all the resources of Great Britian and France—in intellj- gence and material, in men and guns —a larger army than yet seen on any battlefieid, will be thrown against the. west front in the spring with a shoc \that may shake the German Empire. |Germany has entered upon a cam-! |paign of preparedneds such as only! | can be hinted at. A close friend of Imperial Chancel-: lor Bethmann-Hollweg told me that. | Germany would suggest peace in the | hope that the terrible battle in the: spring with its awful lores of life! WOMEN USED AS SHIELD IN FACE OF POSSES’ BULLETS Fugitives Corralled Under a Railroad Bridge, Wage a Fierce Fight to Escape the Sheriff’s Posse ROB AN OKLAHOMA BANK Desperadoes Open Fire on Officers When Surrounded, and Wound a Deputy; Sheriff Sends Out Call for Reinforcements By the United Press HARRAH, Okla., Jan. 17.—Cor ralled beneath the Rock Island Rail- way bridge between Harrah and Choctaw, two fugitives, believed to be the bandits who held up and rob- bed the bank at Harrah, are waging a desperate fight with a strong Sher« iff’s posse this afternoon. The posse under Sheriff Johnson has been scouring the country for the past two days for the bandits, At daybreak this morning, Sheriff Johnson, Deputies Layton, Frank Carte® and J. Beatty surrounded the house of Joe Welcher, four miles east of here, and called upon those within the house to send away the women and children and prepare to fight. Two men emerged from the house, marching the women and children in front of them as a shield. The desperadoes immediately opened fire on the officers, and Dep. uty Layton fell wounded. The fugitives then made their way to the Rock Island bridge and fortified themselves, while the officers sent out for reinforcements. INITIATIVE AND REFERENDUM BILL Two Measures of Much Impor- tance to State Are Launched in State Senate; Federal Land Is Asked For CHEYENNE, Jan. 17.—With the prohibition submission question prac- tically settled, two other measures that wl! claim a large share of pub- lie atten.'-n were launched in the Senate. One, in the m of a joint reso- lution, provides i1.* the adoption of the initiative and :eferendum as a part of tne organic law"of the State. The other, in a°form oi ‘® memorial to Congress, asks for the setting aside of two million acres of Fedwral lands in the State to be sold for he pur. pose of creating a trust fund to be used in providing assistance for vros~ pective settlers in the State. ator George Young of Rock Springs stood sponsor for the initia- ive and referendim, resolution, while | nator Skovard introduced the me~ morial to Congress, The resolution on the initiative and veferendum gives the text of a pro- posed constitutional amendment pat- terned after those in effort in other States. In addition to providing that the voters by petition may initiate State legislation or secure a referen- dum on any act passed by the Legis. lature, the amendment also extends the same rights to voters in municipal matters. The memorial to Congress is a sub- stitute for a bill that State Engineer True had expected to ask the Legim lature to pass for State aid to set tlers. It was found that the State has not sufficient funds, but similar ree |derground” was the chief thing, and faults may be obtained if the proceeds of the sale of Federal lands be de« voted under Federal and State supers vision to aiding settlers on govern. ment land within the State. True is |confident that the Federal authorities will grant their request. It is the belief of the State Engi. neer and other experts who have stud- ied the land situation in Wyoming that the successful settlement of pub- lic lands in this State is impossible without some system of colonization. poate decease take |AERIAL MAN HUNT FOR AVIATORS BELIVED LOST By the United 4 CALEXICO, Cal., Jan. 17.— Three Army aviators ascended this morning to institute an actual hunt for Lieut. Bishop and Lieut. Robertson, the lost army aviators. This is the first aerial mankunt in history. ———____ 1 THE WEATHER Meas tp ati aan “might be averted” but hardly with|©—— |the “‘expectation that it will be avert.| \ed.”’ This man, one ‘of the leading in Germany, said, The highest and lowest tempera- -turés recorded for the 24 hours end- ing at 6 o’clock p. m. last night, were 2 |“Germany does not want any of the| Highest, 5 above. Hei (Continued n on Page Four) Precipitetion, .01 of an inch. Olt Paes RCE