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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (May 10, 1918)
3WaWJC3Mee''jM8s1' TheO Daily Bee THE WEATHER Far VOL. XLVII NO. 280. OMAHA, FRIDAY, MORNING, , MAY 10, 191814 PAGES. SWtSfSiu SINGLE COPY TWO CENTS. fofl HI C71 MA HA n IS H . H H HB Sr Secretary Wants Immediate Legislation to Provide More Revenue; Country Faces Twenty-Three Billion Dollar Budget. ". . (By Associated Frew.) 1 Washington, May 9. Congressional leaders have been advised by Secre tary McAdoo that legislation at this session of, congress iv imperative to provide reventts to meet the unex pected increases in expenses inci , dent to the vast expansion of the na tion's war program. , i, ; , A statement of the country's finan cial situation, upon which the amount f additional taxes and bonds needed iay be calculated, has been prepared St the treasury for submission within the next two or three days to the committees of the senate and house. BLOCKS ADJOURNMENT. . Whether congress will, undertake at the present session upward - re vision of the war revenue law of last fall, leaders at the capitol. said to night, depends upon the impression made by this statement. If V it demonstrates that.it is essential -to act now instead of waiting until De cember, as planned, hope of adjourn ment by July 1 will go glimmering and congress probably -will be here until fall. ' Secretary McAdoo's , belief that legislation must be enacted at once was expressed in a letter to Senator Simmons of North Carolina, chairman of the senate finance committee. ; The unexpectedly heavy estimates of expenditures fo'r the coming year include the $15,000,000,000. army pro gram, , about $1,500,000,000 fo$ the : navy, with further estimates expected and $2,250,000,000 for the shipping board. . May Double Levies. ' Senator Simmons said tonight the tacit agreement to eferurtM ..Hit . nut legislation 'until ;net rfeeeember : was" made before these new estimates were submitted. 'l The situation nWj' ' he said, is materially cfcaued' ahd-. H; uavc io ue sonnaerea. m ,a tns k new ljghtwhenSecretary McAdoo's forma statement is presented. ".". Representative Kitchin of North Carolina, democratic, leader, oL the house and chairman" of the" ways and means committee said if additional taxes were decided upon, the levy of the last tax bill probably -would be doubled. He estimated that $2,500, 000,000 in new, taxes would be levied, ,bt other leaders placed the' probable , figures at from ' $1,000,000,000 tS i:,3uv,uuu,uuu, making a total ot ' around $6,0O0,0O0,00Cr, based upon the estimated returns of between $4,000, 000,000 and $4,500,000,000 from the - present law. y Will Issue More : Bonds. '. Further bond issues also will have to be authorized during the present session, according to Senator Sim mons, regardless of when revenue legislation is enacted. The amount of the issues, however, of course.- will depend upon the decisions as to taxes. ' ; Incomes and profits, both Repre sentative Kitchin and senator Sim mons indicated, are regarded as the . principal source from which any revenue increase must come. ; The former said both can be doubled while the latter believes additional tax burdens should be spread more generally over the population. More ' consumption taxes are regarded as a - strorj probability. ' Republicans Opposed to Plan. . Strong republican opposition to any jgfcneral revenue legislation at' the "present session of congress is ex .pected. ! ' .: , Senator Simmons explained tonight that a decision regarding immediate legislation largely depends on SecreJ ' tary McAdoo s showing of actual treasury receipts in sight between now and rebruary, when it is assumed a . new bill, begun next September, would be available. ' This basis of calculation upon which $23,000,000,000 is fixed upon as the amount needed for next ear necessar ily is inexact, since conditions which cannot be foreseen may either in crease or reduce the actual govern mental outlays. The treasury's estimates of expendi- tures in the fiscal year opening next July V as made up last Junevfrom de- fartment forecasts, provided for, only 12,804,000,000, not including loans to the allies. It placed needs of the military es tablishments at only $9,991,000,000 in stead of $15,000,000,000: now asked by , the War department, the navy de , partment's budget of $816,000,000, in stead of the $1,500,000,000 carried in the pending naval appropriation bill; and the shipping board at $900, 000,000, instead of the $2,250,000,000 sew sought by the board. Plan to Ship to France Ton of Dried Milk Daily .New York, May 9. With the ob ject of shipping abroad each daj a ton , of dried milk, the equivalent of 8,400 quarts of liquid milk, to relieve suf fering caused by scarcity of the prod uct in France, a group of American woman today started a country-wide ' Campaign for funds in the name' of the committee for free . milk for France. Mis? Josephine Osborne is . cSuirmin Of ths tommittc - COMMONS-BACK BRITISH PREMIER; ASQUITH BEATEN . Appointment of Select Committee to Investigate General Maurice's Charges Refused After Plea By Lloyd George to $top Sniping, As Germans Are Pre paring Heaviest Blow in War. (By Associated Press.) London, May 9. -Ex-Premier Asquith's motion for the ap pointment of a select committee to investigate the charges made by General Maurice was rejected in the House of Commons to night by a vote of 293 to 106. The premier, in a speech, declared such controversies as the present one were distracting and paralyzing. "I beg that they may come to an end," he added. "National unity and the army are threatened. The Germans are preparing the biggest blow of the war, and I beg and implore that there shall be an end to this sniping." DENIES CENSURE. Q Former Premier Asquith denied that his motion respecting the Maurice af fair was designed to obtain a vote of censure of the government, saying it was absurd to describe it as such, Should he find it His duty to censure the government, he said, he hoped that he would have the courage to do so in direct and unequivocal form. The former premier said he knew many of his friends had thought he had been faint-hearted in this matter and that there were persons other than his friends, who thought of him as being, devoured by impatience to resume office; ,. "I . am quite content," he added, "to leave judgment of that kind to the house and my fellow countrymen." Unless an act of Parliament were passed, he said, the tribunal of judges propoed for an inquiry into the Maur ice affair would have no compulsory powers of any kind. He considered far better to adopt the familiar ma hl8ryiflf a -select tommittee from the house The government's pro pofal iors coucfe rof- honor Amounted to ah" aamissibn thalt an inquiry was nedessarV and. that. the matters raised were so ttcUi they c6uld hot be dis cussed even by a select committee. ;, PREMIER EXPLAINS. Denying that the, strength of the British fighting forces had, been mis represented, as stated by General Maurice, Mr. Lloyd George asserted the figures which he had given were taken from official records at the war office' , Since that time he had made inquiries on this point, he added, and the, figures were not inaccurate. The demand made by Mr. Asquith for a select committee was -characterized by the premier as without precedent in the history of the-house. .During the time General Maurice was in office and .when he had access to information and to the ministers themselves, Mr. Lloyd George said, he never challenged statements of the ministers. - In regard to the comparison be tween'the enemy and the allied forces, the premier added, he was charged with misleading the public, but all the ..figures on which his statement was based came from General Maur ice's department. . The , statement that 4hree British divisions were present in Egypt, he explained, was made at a cabinet meeting when General Maurice was (Continued on Pace Two, Column One.) Comrades Start Inquiry , About Missing Aviator With the American Army in France, May 9. Comrades of Captain James Norman Hall, aviator, missing after a combat on the Toul front, have asked the American embassy in Paris to communicate with Germany through Switzerland in an effort to ascertain whether . Hall, was killed or made prisoner. They have furnished the embassy, with a description of Hall's airplane and the number of the motor. A French artillery observer report ed that Hay was apparently making a. safe landing when he disappeared from sight. , Yankees Avoid Hun Feigns Wound to Lead Foes to . Death Teutons' Trap (Br Associated Pren.) With the American Army in France, May 9. A large German patrol at tempted to rush the American posi tions on the Picardy front during last night, but was driven off. ' The enemy patrol parties were ac tive during the night and one German, pretending to be wounded, lay outside the wire entanglements before an American position beseeching help. He was acting as a screen for the others, who were armed with hand grenades. The . Germans, failing to entice the Americans from their trenches, at tacked, but the Americans made it so hot for them that they fled in confu sion. Their casualties are believed to have been comparatively heavy. xuc roar oi neaw ariinerv con tinues day and night in this sector, t r- HUN DRIVE FOR SCHERPENBERG ENDS IN DEFEAT Germans Brought to Standstill in Ridge Wood and Later . Forced to Yield Ground They Had Gained. (By Associated Preu.) British Headquarters in France. May 9. (Via Ottawa.) Throughout yesterday the enemy pushed his attack in the direction of the northeastern slopes of Scherpenberg with great de termination. At first he made several successive stages of progress, opening with an infantry attack launched at 9:30 a. m., wide cover of n intense bombardment. It was directed against the right Aank of the British northern army, and t overlapping the British junction with the French. . ..?', Came In Waves. An hour later,' after throwing in several waves of assault troops, the Germans had gained a. footing of con siderable width on the British front line and enemy parties had penetrated the Kleine Vierstraet, cabaret. The situation at this time seems to have been, rather difficult. Thenceforth, until the early afternoon, the Ger mans made vigorous efforts to get through the ridge, wood. About 1:30 p. m.. when the battle was still raging with unabated fury, the British still held the hamlet of Kleine Vierstraet, but had been pressed back south of the wood. The French were than holding the line along the Wyverbeek. The Germans, continuing to throw in fresh troops, pressed British toward the western edge of the ridge wood and mo mentarily occupied the greater por tion. Germans Suffer Heavily. Parties of British were still holding out in Kleine Vierstraet, and later the French hebed to restore complete possession of this place. Be fore sunset, the Germans had fought themselves to a standstill, having suf fered heavily, but had gained ground of some tactical importance in the ridge wood, being a distinct step to ward Scherpenberg. the coveted point. Just before dark, the British counter attacked under cover of a terrific bombardment, and the enemy was forced to yield the ground he had oc cupied; at such cost. By night the original line had been restored vir tually everywhere, leavinsr only one or two little pockets of Germans to be mopped i!p further south, i MILITARY COURT DENIED AIRCRAFT BOARD MEMBERS Washington, May 9. Secretary Baker announced today that he had received from Major General Squier and Colonels Deed and Montgomery of the signal torps formal applications for appointment of jmlitary boards to examine into the relations of each to aircraft production. Mr. Baker said that in order to pre vent any interference with the in quiries already instituted by the De partment of Justice and the senate committee on military affairs, he had decided not to act "for the immediate present" on these applications. General Squier, chief signal officer; Colonel Deeds, executive officer for production, and Colonel Montgomery, in charge of contracts, are the War department's representatives on the aircraft board. Bolsheviki Foreign Minister , Accepts Germany's Terms London, May 9. An official wire less dispatch says that M. Tchitcheriii. bolshevik foreign minister, has wired the German government at Kiev that the Russian government accepts the proposal of Germany concerning peace negotiations with Ukraine at Kiev. The conditions include un hindered facilities for Russian exports to cross the frontier at Kursk and the Russians to have a direct wire to Moscow. GERMS' BOMBARD AMIENS Parts of Picardy Capital Heaps of Ruins; More Than 200 Civilians Killed or Wounded. (Br Associated Press.) On the 'French Front in France, May 9. German artillery under orders from the Prussian and Ba varian crown princes, is doing its ut most to turn Amiens into another Rheims. Picardy's capital has already suffered terribly from this effort to carry out the German idea of striking terror into the fatherland's enemies by the destruction of their most loved works of art and every day adds to its suffering. The correspondent today went all over the abandoned city and observed the effects of the bombardment, which has turned parts of the town into heaps of ruins and killed 52 men civilians, 30 women and five children, besides wounding 62 men 48 women and 19 children before the population had an opportunity to evacuate the place. Since the Germans have been within cannon shot of Amiens, they have hurled no fewer than 5,800 shells, mostly six-inch and eight-inch, into the city. Cathedral Struck by Shells. Every indication points to a sys tematic effort to destroy the public buildings, as the cathedral has been struck by shells, which have pierced the roof and Walls, and the object of firing incessantly upon the town can not be explained except upon the as sumption that it is carried out with the purely barbarous idea of the de struction of the beautiful objects it contains. This follows from the fact that no troops whatever are in the city and that . the railroad passing through, it is hot in use. The cannonade generally ceases at nightfoU, wily o be replaced by air raids, wich octur slmbst every night. Aerial .t,orptdo:tt-th number of b80 have been launched from air planes upon various parts of the city. As most of the shells and torpedoes are of the incendiary type they have caused enormous damage, so that up to the present 1,200 houses have been destroyed. When the firemen, who gallantly stuck to their posts, have at tempted to extinguish the' flames, the German gunners,, seeing the glare of the fire they have caused,, have con tinued to throw, in. shells upon the spot, while at night the German air men have circled high over the blazes and dropped more bombs. Population Removed. The cathedral, which possesses the finest Gothic nave in existence, has so far escaped serious damage, but any moment may see irreparable injury done it, as projectiles continue to fall all around it. The task of the authorities in get ting the people away when they dis covered the intention of the Germans to destroy the city was a tremendous one, as the refugees from the devas tated districts had increased the pop ulation to 120,000, all of whom had to be removed from danger within a few days. The arrangements have worked perfectly and all the people are now safely housed elsewhere. . All traffic is forbidden to enter the city, so that the enemy may not be given ground for declaring the bom bardment one of military exigency. Confidential Secretary Of Late J. P. Morgan Dies ' Ottawa, May 9. -Cornelius Kinney Smith, for 31 years confidential sec retary of the late J. Pierpont Morgan, died today, following an operation. He was 82 years old. U.S. Steel to Build And Operate Plant For Making Cannon New York May 9 Tfce United States , Steel corpora tion, at the request of the gov ernment, will enter into the manufacture of heavy artillery and projectiles in great quanti- ties. In a statement in regard to the undertaking, Elbert H. Gary, chairman of the corpora-. tion, said that a manufacturing plant for the purpose would be constructed as speedily as prac ticable at the expense of the government on a site located in . the interior of the country. The work will be in charge of a committee of steel corpora tion officials, who will receive no compensation for their ser vices. "The corporation," Chairman Gary said, " in consequence of the magnitude of its business, most of which, directly or in directly, is in aid of the mili tary necessities of the govern ment and its allies, had hoped to avoid the necessity of en gaging in work of the kind now entered upbn, but was per suaded by the War department that it was imperatively re quired under existing conditions." BRITISH-FRENCH FLANDERS LINES RE-ESTABLISHED Germans Lose Very Heavily in Futile Fighting to Retain Positions Captured on Ypres Front; Canadians Sucessful in Attack South of Arras; Artillery Duel Raging on Italian Front. BULLETIN. With the British Army in France,, May 9. The Germans had intended to make a much more pretentious . assault in Flanders yesterday than they were actually able to carry out, it has been learned. Their failure was due to the excellent work of the allied gunners and to a small coincident operation by the French east of Scherpenberg, which came at the right moment to help upset the enemy plans in this sector. The allied deense on the Flanders front to the southwest of Ypres has again been tested by the Germans and has been) found adequate. Two divisions of Teutonic troops were employed oi a rela tively shor front and were sent into the fight under cover of a terrific artillery fire. . v The front chosen for the attack extended from the village of Voormezeele but the center of the assault seemed to havejj been at Vierstraat, a hamlet northwest of Kemmel hill. LINE RE-ESTABLISHED. 0 The flanks of the German attack ing line "were stopped short by fire from the French and British artillery posted on high ground and which was able to enfilade the German regiments as they, tried to advance. In the center, however, the Germans made quite a serious dent in the allied line. Wednesday night however, the allies drove forward in a counter attack and the latest reports from Field Marshal Haig are to the effect that the line has been re-established. The Germans are reported to have lost very heavily during the fighting. CANADIANS SCORE , , There Is a 'constant rumble of heavy artillery fire 'along the Somme front,' but here' the1 British have again improved their, position by .local at--tacks. TheTanadian fbrteifrom New Brunswick iud Kovs.. Scotia-have en gaged in a successful local attack south of Arras. On the southern sectors of the Somme salient, as welt' as in Lor raine and other sectors further south, there has been no noteworthy-combats.: '. . Artillery Active on. Italian Front. The i artillery ; of the contending armies (Continues Very active in .the Asiago basin region on the Italian front. The official reports from Rome tell of enemy troops being "ham pered" by the allied fire. The Bren tai and Maserada sectors also have been Centers of heavy bombardments. The city of Amiens is being system atically destroyed by German artil lery fire in spite of the fact that there are no allied troops in that place and it is of no military, value since the allies have constructed new lines of communication outside of 'the citv. The venerable cathedral, one of the I finest in Europe, is reported to have been struck by shells and to be in peril of destruction. HOUSE VOTES FOR .CHANGE IN BASIS OF DRAFT QUOTAS Washington, May 9. The house to day adopted the conference report on the bill to base draft quotas on the number of men in Class 1, accepting the elimination of its amendment au thorizing credits on quotas for volun teers. The report awaits action in the senate. Because of a senate amendment ex empting ministerial and medical stu dents, the house sent bae)c to the con ferees the conference report on the bill providing for the registration of youths attaining the age of 21 years since the registration last June s. Representative Cannon of Illinois vigorously opposed rejection of the amendment ffivinir states credit fnr (Voluntary enlistments, and was -sup ported by Representative S. Mondell of Wyoming and Shallenberger of Nebraska, author of the amendment. Chairman Dent of the military com mittee, said he had not changed his mind regarding the credits plan, but since1 President Wilson, Secretary Baker and Provost Marshal General Crowder had opposed it he would subordinate his own desire. Colyn Denies He Went to England on Peace Mission Amsterdam, May 9. On his return from England, .former Minister of War Colyn stated to the Nieuwe Rot terdamsche Courant, when asked as to rumors that he went there in connec tion with a reported peace mission that his business in England was in the interest of an oil company of which he is manager. Regarding the coupling of his name with peace rumors, he said he was in entire accord with what Foreign Sec retary Balfour said in Parliament Monday, when he stated that there was no representative of a neutral na tion in England for the. purpose of making suggestions of peace negotiations. PMAN U-BOAT SPLIT IN TWAIN BY U. SCUNNERS Jackies Who Sink Submarine Given Ten-Day Furlough; . , Unable tq Save Teu-. . . ton Warriors. ' An. Atlantfc Port, May vThe snk iiigvor German submarine - &jr United States " warship v'ith a shot which lifted thd U-boat completely out of water and broke it in two, was reported by officers of the ship on arrival here today. Beirfuse of the fine work of j the gunners, the crew of the' ship was given a furlough of ten days. ; On the voyage over, the warship, previously reported from German sources as having been wrecked, sighted three ; submarines and the gunners sprang to their guns. , T!,f first two shits, fired in quick succebsion at the nearest enemy, missed. But the third went home. It caught the U-boat just below the water line, and so great was its force that the craft was lifted out of the water and in another moment, its back broken, it doubled un and sank to the accompaniment of a chorus of -yells from the warship crew. No survivors were seen in . the water and the other submarines, as the destroyed ' submersible disap peared, dived and did not reappear. Two Airmen Killed in Fall; One From Waterloo, Iowa San Antonio, Tex., May 9. Lieu-j tenant James D. May, New York City, I was. killed and Lieutenant Milo H. Miner, Waterloo, la., was seriously iniftred tonight when the airplane in which they were flying fell six miles northwst of this city. Both men were pinned under the machine when it fell. They were taken to the base hos pital at Fort Sam - Houston, where May died shortly afterward. Miller's father is Herman Miller of Waterloo, la. vThe men were flying low when the accident occurred. Both men, it was said, were scheduled to leave Kelly field here tomorrow, having com pleted their instructions. The death of Lieutenant May is the 15th fatality among fliers at Kel ly field. Lord Aberdeen J Stars Advertised Fail to Appear at Benefit. Gets Grilling (By taoolatcd Pren.) ' New York, May 9. Lord Aberdeen, formerly governor general of Canada and lord lieutenant of Ireland, was questioned today by District Attor ney Swann relative to the arrange ments for yesterday's benefit enter tainment at Carnegie hall under the auspices of the Child Welfare associa tion, of which Lady Aberdeen is pres ident. When it was announced from the stage yesterday that the French Ublue devils," Pershing's veterans, Miss Amelia Bingham and Charlie Chaplin "would be unable to appear," as ad vertised, several hundred persons in the audience, left, after demanding and receiving the money they had paid for admittance. . Lord Aberdeen acted as chairman for the; benefit and E. H. Sothern as master of ceremonies. umm TWISTERS Twelve Persons Killed and Many Injured in Vicinity of , Nashua, Newhampton and Calmar. Br Afaoetoted Pnw.) . ' ' f Des Moines, May 9. Five persons are known to be dead, six other deaths were reported at midnight and scores of persons are injured as the result of several tornadoes that swept through northeastern and eastern lows late to day. The known dead are Mrs. Thomas Down, Theodore Kreiger, jr, and Albert Smith, near Newhampton, and Roy Husand and Mrs. A. Q. Carpen ter, near Nashua. ; Six additional deaths were reported at Calmar, according to a dispatch from West Union, 18 miles south of there. TRAIN WRECKED. The wreck of a Chicago, Milwaukee ' & St. Paul train at Calmar was report- ed in a telephone message from West Union, after midnight. It was be lieved the train was from Austin, Minn., but details were unabailable. , The report received at West Union was that a string of box cars, blown out upon the main track, struck the Austin train. It was impossible to confirm the report here or learn the exact nature f the fVm'n reported " wrecked. ' - , , : Many Towns Suffer. Many towns and large section of the countryside suffered heavy prop erty damage. It was reported two or ' three small villages were virtually' wiped out, -,:.. Virtual cessation of wire communi- cation with the affected districts made it dithcult to get accurate details to night, but indications were that while a terrific rale Was prevalent over most of centraf and norther Iowa, the tor? yadoet'Nwr confined to, Chickalaw. Wmrteihiek, . Scott and '"-Mmcatine counties. , . t 7 , , i ' ; , . -One .twister struck near Nashua, Hi' ' Chickasaw county, and traveled north- nmnuu s 1(411 1 JUIICS IM XVCpUUIIC, over a width of about one mile. An other tornado, just north of the for mer, Settled five miles southwest of Newhampton and destroyed "40 or . 50 farmsteads. ; "..';,,, It was reported that. Fort Atkin- , son, Fredericksburg, Ossian and Cal$ mar all suffered severely and that the villages of Republic, Pearl Rock and " Plainfield were virtually destroyed. Other disturbances of a serious nature caused more than a score of injuries i at Eldridge and Bayfield in Scott and ' Muscatine countie?, respectively, . Farmer Crushed to Death, . : Roy Husband, a farmer residing three miles from Nashua, was crushed to death when a building' crumpled upon him and many other' persons in and near Nashua were mjured. Confirmation of railroad reports ,of other deaths in that .vicinity were lacking. , . , Every building in the path ot the Nashua tornado was wrecked over a district seven miles long and one fourth to one-half mile wide. Five ; children of Clarence White, alone at the time, rushed tn tb& hafmnt as their house was hurled away. They escaped injury. , - ' f Aged Woman Severely Hurl. r Slow approach of the tornado that hit Eldridge gave residents ample time to seek shelter. ' Mrs. , Henry v Ehlers. 80 vear old ' mtffprd Kf-vrrat - ribs broken and internal injuries and - her condition is critical. She was bur- v ied beneath timbers in her cellar. ... , . Miss Emma Daman was the victim of a freakish prank of the Eldridge1 storm. She was carried more than 5 300 feet by the wind and then flropped only with sufficient violnce to break, her collar bone. Davenport physicians and nurses, rushed to Eldridge ss soon as news : J of the tornado reached that city, cared for the injured and . removed ' several of them to Davenport The (Continued Jfmf Two, Column Two.) HIGH WIND, WITH MEKCUEY DROP, NOTED IN OMAHA Aituougn tne netgnoor state, ot Iowa was hit by the fury of a tornado yesterday, Nebraska suffered only from the heavy gale that prevailed during the entire day. The .tempera ture fell here from 88 degrees, the high mark, to 53 degrees at 8 o'clock ' and kent on descending v . durincr the later hours of the night. 1 -;- The threatening sky during the early evening gave rise, to great sp- . prehension- Weather predictions are -fair and warmer for Friday. ' Lillian Pettiford, 270$ Corby street, was badly cut on the feet tnd . legs about 6:30 o'clock last night, when the wind broke, a plate glass transom over tne door at 1326 Dodge street. She was standing in the door-, way and was injured by falling glass. A large electric sign of the Brod- , key Jewelry company at Thirteenth -and Douglas streets, was blown dov r ' and crashed through a plate jr'rss windowuring the, severe wind lasv .ni'" ' - ' ' " ' , , . V." s' .