PRESIDENTS WORD
IS TOMS’
Annual Message Pleads for Con
certed and Efficient
Action.
FOR GREATER REGULAR ARMY
Citizen Soldiery Part of His Plan
Problem of Commercial Mobilization
Stated—Disloyalty Among Cer
tain Elements in Our Na
tional Life Serious
Menace to Peace.
Washington, Dec. 7.—President WU
son today delivered the following mes
sage to congress:
Gentlemen of the Congress: Since I
last had the privilege of addressing
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 extend
ed its threatening and sinister scope
until it has swept within its flame
some portion of every quarter of the
globe, not excepting our own hemi
sphere, has altered the whole face of
international affairs, and now presents
a prospect of reorganization and re
construction such as statesmen and
peoples have never been called upon
to attempt before.
We have stood apart, studiously neu
tral. It was our manifest duty to do
so. Not only did we have no part or
interest in the policies which seem to
have brought the conflict on; it was
necessary, if a universal catastrophe
was to be avoided, that a limit should
be set to the sweep of destructive wTar
and that some part of the great family
of nations should keep the processes
of peace alive, if only to prevent col
lective economic ruin and the break
down throughout the world of the in
dustries by which its populations are
fed and sustained. It was manifestly
the duty of the self-governed nations
of this hemisphere to redress, if pos
sible, the balance of economic loss
and confusion in the other, if they
could do nothing more. In the day of
readjustment and recuperation we
earnestly hope and believe that they
can be of infinite service.
American Nations Partners.
In this neutrality, to which they
were bidden not only by their separate
life and their habitual detachment
from the politics of Europe but also by
a clear perception of international
duty, the states of America have be
come conscious of a new and more
vital community interest and moral
partnership in affairs, more clearly
conscious of the many commdn sym
pathies and interests and duties which
bid them stand together.
There was a time in the early days
of our own great nation and of the re
publics fighting their way to inde
pendence in Central and South Amer
ica when the government of the Unit
ed States looked upon itself as in some
sort the guardian of the republics to
the south of her as against any en
croachments or efforts at political con
trol from the other side of the water;
felt it its duty to play the part even
without invitation from them; and I
think that we can claim that the task
was undertaken with a true and dis
interested enthusiasm for the freedom
of the Americas and the unmolested
self-government of her independent
peoples. But it was always difficult to
maintain such a role without offense*
to the pride of the peoples whose free
dom of action we sought to protect,
and without provoking serious miscon
ceptions of our motives, and every
thoughtful man of affairs must wel
come the altered circumstances of the
new day in whose light we now stand,
when there is no claim of guardian
ship or thought of wards but, instead,
a full and honorable association as of
partners between ourselves and our
neighbors, in the interest of all Amer
ica, north and south. Our concern for
the independence and prosperity of the
states of Central and South America
is not altered. We retain unabated
the spirit that has inspired us through
out tire whole life of our government
and which was so frankly put into
words by President Monroe. We still
mean always to make a common cause
of national independence and of po
litical liberty in America.
Attitude Toward Mexico.
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 ad
vantage of her in her distress and un
dertake 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 suffi
cient proof to all America that we
seek no political suzerainty or selfish
control.
The moral is, that the states of
America are not hostile rivals but co
operating friends, and that their grow
ing sense of community of interest,
alike in matters political and in mat
ters economic, is likely to give them
a new significance as factors in inter
national affairs and in the political
history of the world.
Drawing the Americas Together.
There is, I venture to point out. an
especial significance just now attach
ing to this whole matter of drawing
the Americas together in bonds of hon
orable partnership and mutual advan
tage because of the economic readjust
ments which the world must inevi
tably witness within the next genera
tion, when peace shall have at last re
sumed its healthful tasks. In the per
formance 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
because unless you take it within your
view and permit the full significance
of it to command your thought 1 can
not find the right light in which to set
forth the particular matter that lies
at the very front of my whole thought
as 1 address you today. I mean na
tional defense.
No one who really comprehends the
spirit of the great people for whom
we are appointed to speak can fail to
perceive 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 desire 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 de
mand unmolested development and
the undisturbed government of our
own lives upon our own principles of
right and liberty, we resent, from
whatever quarter it may come, the ag
gression we ourselves will not prac
tice. We insist upon security in prose
cuting our self-chosen lines of nation
al development. We do more than that.
We demand it also for others.
Question of Preparedness.
Out of such thoughts grow all our
policies. We regard war merely as a
means of asserting the rights of a peo
ple against aggression. And we are
as fiercely jealous of coercive or dic
tatorial power within our own nation
as of aggression from without. We
wil> not maintain a standing army ex
cept 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
larger than is actually and continu
ously 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 govern
ments which they have set up to serve
them.
But war has never been a mere mat
ter of men and guns. It is a thing of
disciplined might. If our citizens are
ever to fight effectively upon a sudden
summons, they must know how mod
ern fighting is done, and what to do
when the summons comes to render
themselves immediately available and
immediately effective. And the gov
ernment must be their servant in this
matter, must supply them with the
training they need to take care of
themselves and of it.
It is with these ideals in mind that
the plans of the department of war
for more adequate national defense
were conceived which will be laid be
fore you, and which I urge you to
sanction and put into effect as soon
as they can be properly scrutinized
and discussed. They seem to me the
essential first steps, and they seem
to me for the present sufficient.
Larger Army Plan.
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 7,130
officers and 134,707 enlisted men,
or 141,843, all told, all services,
rank and file, by the addition
of fifty-two companies of coast
artillery, fifteen companies of engi
neers, ten regiments of infantry, four
regiments of field artillery, and four
aero squadrons, besides 750 officers
required for a great variety of extra
service, especially the all important
duty of training the citizen force of
which I shall presently speak, 792
noncommissioned officers for serv
ice in drill, recruiting and the
like, and the necessary quota of en
listed men for the quartermaster
corps, the hospital corps, the ord
nance department, and other similar
auxiliary services. These are the ad
ditions necessary to render the r.rmy
adequate for its present duties, duties
which it has to perform not only upon
our own continental coasts and bor
ders and at our interior army posts,
but also in the Philippines, in the
Hawaiian islands, at the isthmus, and
in Porto Rico.
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 citi
zens, raised in increments of 133,
000 a year throughout a period
of three years. This it is proposed
t" do by a process of enlistment un
der which the serviceable men of the
country would be asked to bind them
selves to serve with the colors for pur
pose of training for short periods
throughout three years, and to come
to the colors at call at any time
throughout an additional "furlough”
period of three years. This force of
400,000 men would be provided with
personal accoutrements as fast as
enlisted and their equipment for
the field made ready to be sup
plied at any time. They would be
assembled for training at stated in
tervals at convenient places in asso
ciation with suitable units of the
regular army. Their period of annual
training would not necessarily exceed
two months in the year.
At least so much by the way of
preparation for defense seems to me
to be absolutely imperative now. We
cannot do less.
The Naval Program.
The program which will be laid be
fore you by the secretary of the navy
is similarly 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 w’hich has
heretofore been only implicit, held in
the minds of the two committees on
naval affairs and disclosed in the de
bates of the two houses but nowhere
formulated or formally adopted. It
seems to me very clear that It will be
to the advantage of the country for
the congress to adopt a comprehen
sive plan for putting the navy upon
a final footing of strength and effi
ciency and tc press that plan to com
pletion 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 pru
dence 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 na
tions. We should now definitely de
termine how we shall complete what
we have begun, and how soon.
The program to be laid before you
contemplates the construction within
five years of ten battleships, six bat
tle cruisers, ten scout cruisers, fifty
destroyers, fifteen fleet submarines,
eighty-five coast submarines, four gun
boats, one hospital ship, two ammuni
tion ships, two fuel oil ships, and one
regular repair ship. It is proposed
that of this number we shall the first
year provide for the construction of
two battleships, two battle cruisers,
three scout cruisers, fiften destroyers,
five fleet submarines, twenty-five coast
submarines, two gunboats, and one
hospital ship; the second year, two
battleships, one scout cruiser, ten de
stroyers. four fleet submarines, fifteen
coast submarines, one gunboat, and
one fuel oil ship; the third year, two
battleships, one battle cruiser, two
scout cruisers, five destroyers, two
fleet submarines, and fifteen coast
submarines; the fourth year, two bat
tleships, two battle cruisers, two scout
cruisers, ten destroyers, two fleet sub
marines, fifteen coast submarines, one
ammunition ship, and one fuel oil
ship; and the fifth year, two battle
ships, one battle cruiser, two scout
cruisers, ten destroyers, two fleet sub
marines, fifteen coast submarines, one
gunboat, one ammunition ship, and
one repair ship.
More Men for the Navy.
The secretary of the navy is asking
also for the immediate addition to the
personnel of the navy of 7,500 sail
ors, 1,200 apprentice seamen, and
1,500 marines. This increase would
be sufficient to care for the ships
which are to be completed with
in 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
necessary that the number of midship
men at the Naval academy at Annap
olis should be increased by at least
three hundred
If this full program should be car
ried out we should have built or build
ing in 1921, according to the estimates
of survival and standards of classifi
cation followed by the general board
of the department, an effective navy
consisting of 27 battleships,,of the first
line,' 6 battle cruisers, 25 battleships
of the second line, 10 armored cruis
ers, 13 scout cruisers, 5 first-class
cruisers, 3 second-class cruisers, 10
third-class cruisers, 108 destroyers, 18
fleet submarines, 157 coast submarines,
6 monitors , 20 gunboats, 4 supply
ships, 15 fuel ships, 4 transports,
3 tenders to torpedo vessels, 8 ves
sels of special types, and 2 ammuni
tion ships. This would be a navy fit
ted to our needs and worthy of our
traditions.
But armies and instruments of war
are only part of what has to be con
sidered if we are to consider the su
preme matter of national self-sufficien
cy and security in all its aspects.
There are other great matters which
will be thrust upon our attention
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 rea
sons of national efficiency and devel
opment that we should have a great
merchant marine.
It is high time we repaired our mis
take and resumed our commercial inde
pendence on the seas.
Need of Merchant Marine.
For it is a question of independ
ence. If other nations go to war or
seek to hamper each other's com
merce, our merchants, it seems, are
at their mercy, to do with as they
please. We must use their ships, and
use them as they determine. We have
not ships enough of our own. We
cannot handle our own commerce on
the seas. Our independence is provin
cial, and is only on land and within
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 import
ance not only that the United States
should be its own carrier on the seas
and enjoy the economic independence
which only an adequate merchant ma
rine 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 develop no true
or effective American policy without
ships of our own—not ships of war,
but ships of peace, carrying goods and
carrying much more; creating friend
ships and rendering indispensable
services to all interests on this side
the water.
Must Provide Ships.
With a view to meeting these
pressing necessities of our commerce
and availing ourselves at the earliest
possible moment of the present un
paralleled opportunity of linking the
two Americas together in bonds of mu
tual interest and service, an oppor
tunity which may never return again
if we miss it now, proposals will bo
made to the present congress for the
purchase or construction of ships to
be owned and directed by the govern
ment similar to those made to the last
congress, but modified in some essen
tial particulars. I recommend these
proposals to you for your prompt ac
ceptance with the more confidence
because every month that has elapsed
since the former proposals were made
has made the necessity for such action
more and more manifestly imperative.
That need was then foreseen; it is
now acutely felt and everywhere real
ized by those for whom trade is wait
ing but who can find no conveyance
for their goods. 1 am not so much in
terested in the particulars of the pro
gram as I am in taking immediate ad
vantage of the great opportunity which
awaits us if we will but act in this
emergency.
The plans for the armed forces ot
the nation which I have outlined, and
for the general policy of adequate
preparation for mobilization and de
fense, involve of course very large ad
ditional expenditures of money—ex
penditures which will considerably ex
ceed the estimated revenues of the
government. It is made my duty by
law, whenever the estimates of ex
penditure exceed the estimates of
revenue, to call the attention of the
congress 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 mjTduty to do so in any case;
and I feel particularly bound to speak
of the matter when it appears that the
deficiency will arise directly out of
the adoption by the congress of meas
ures 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 disclose.
State of the Finances.
On the thirtieth of June last there
was an available balance in the gen
eral fund of the treasury of $104,170.
105.78. The total estimated receipts
for the year 1916, on the assumption
that the emergency revenue measure
passed by the last congress will not be
extended beyond its present limit, the
thirty-first of December, 1915, and
that the present duty of one cent per
pound on sugar will be discontinued
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,
435.605.78. The total estimated dis
bursements for the present fiscal year,
including $25,000,000 for the Panama
canal, $12,000,000 for probable de
ficiency appropriations, and $50,
000 for miscellaneous debt redemp
tions, will be $753,891,000; and
the balance in the general fund of the
treasury will be reduced to $20,644,
605.78. The emergency revenue act, if
continued beyond its present time lim
itation, would produce, during the half
year then remaining, about $41,000,
000. 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 $15,000,000. 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
available balance of $76,644,605.78.
The additional revenues required
to carry out the program of military
and naval preparation of which I have
spoken, 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 1
have already given, disclose our finan
cial problem for the year 1917. As
suming that the taxes imposed by the
emergency revenue act and the pres
ent duty on sugar are to be discontin
ued, and that the balance at the close
of the present fiscal year will be only
$20,644,605.78, that the disbursements
for the Panama canal will again be
about twenty-five millions, and that
the additional expenditures for the
army and navy are authorized by the
congress, the deficit in the general
fund of the treasury on the thirtieth
of June, 1917, will be nearly two hun
dred and thirty-five millions. To this
sum at least fifty millions should be
added to represent a safe working bal
ance for the treasury, and twelve mil
lions to include the usual deficiency
estimates in 1917; and these additions
would make a total deficit of some two
hundred and ninety-seven millions. If
the present taxes should be continued,
throughout this year and the next,
however, there would be a balance in
the treasury of some seventy-six and
a half millions at the end of the pres
ent fiscal year, and a deficit at the
end of the next year of only some fifty
millions, or, reckoning in sixty-two
millions for deficiency appropriations
and a safe treasury belance at the end
of the year, a total deficit of some
one hundred and twelve millions. The
obvious moral of the figures is that it
is a plain counsel of prudence to con
tinue all of the preesnt taxes or their
equivalents, and confine ourselves to
the problem of providing $112,000,000
of new revenue rather than $297,000,
000.
New Sources of Revenue.
How shall we obtain the new reve
nue? It seems to me a clear dictate of
prudent statesmanship and frank
finance that in what we are now, I
hope, to undertake, we should pay as
we go. The people o£ 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 internal taxation.
To what sources, then, shall we
turn? This is so peculiarly a question
which the gentlemen of the house of
representatives are expected under
the Constitution to propose an answer
to that you will hardly expect me to
do more than discuss it in very gen
eral terms. We should be following
an almost universal example of mod
ern government if we. were to draw
the greater part or even the whole of
the revenues we need from the in
come 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 gradu
ation. 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 any
where making the burden unreason
ably or oppressively heavy. The pre
cise reckonings are fully and accurate
ly set out in the report of the secre
tary 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 in
dustries of the country or putting any
too great charge upon individual ex
penditure. A one per cent tax per
gallon on gasoline and naptha would
yield, at the present estimated pro
duction, $10,000,000; a tax of 50 cents
per horse power on automobiles and
internal explosion engines, $15,000,
000; a stamp tax on bank checks.
probably $ls,uuo,uuu; a tax of -o cents
per ton on pig irou, $10,000,000; a tax
of 50 cents per ton on fabricated iron
and steel, probably $10,000,000. In a
country of great industries like this it
ought to be easy to distribute the bur
dens of taxation without making them
anywhere bear oo heavily or too ex
clusively upon any one set of persons
or undertakings. What is clear is,
that the industry of this generation
should pay the bills of this generation.
I have spoken to you today, gentle
men, upon a single theme, the thor
ough preparation of the nation to care
for its own security and to make sure
of entire freedom to play the impartial
role in this hemisphere and in the
world which we all believe to have
been providentially assigned to it. 1
have had in my 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
controversy between this, and other
governments will lead to any serious
breach of amicable relations, grave as
some differences of attitude and policy
have 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 oppor
tunity of America, who have poured
the poison of disloyalty into the very
arteries of our national ife; who have
sought to bring the authority and
good name of our government into
contempt, to destroy our industries
wherever they thought it effective 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 neces
sary that we should promptly make
use of processes of law by which we
may be purged of their corrupt dis
tempers. America never witnessed
anything like this before. It never
dreamed it possible that men sworn
into its own citizenship, men drawn
out of great free stocks such as sup
plied 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 allegiance would ever turn in
malign reaction against the govern
ment and people who had welcomed
and nurtured them and seek to make
this proud country once more a hot
bed of European passion. A little
while ago such a thing would have
seemed incredible. Because it was
incredible 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 thing has actual
ly come about and we are without
adequate federal laws to deal with it.
I urge you to enact such laws at the
earliest possible moment and feel that
in doing so I am urging you to do
nothing less than save the honor and
self-respect of the nation. Such crea
tures of passion, disloyalty, and an
archy must be crushed out. They are
not many, but they are infinitely
malignant, 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 govern
ment, 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.
Are Disgrace to the Nation.
I wish that it could be said that
only a few men, misled by mistaken
sentiments of allegiance to the govern
ments under which they were born,
had been guilty of disturbing the self
possession and misrepresenting 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
instinctively 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 United States
and calling themselves Americans,
have so forgotten themselves and
their honor as citizens as to put their
passionate sympathy with one or the
other side in the great European con
flict above their regard for the peace
and dignity of the United States. They
also preach and practice disloyalty.
No laws, I suppose, can reach cor
ruptions of the mind and heart; but I
should not speak of others without
also speaking of these and expressing
the even deeper humiliation and scorn
which every self-possessed and
thoughtfully patriotic American must
feel when he thinks of them and of
the discredit they are daily bringing
upon us.
While we speak of the preparation
of the nation to make sure of her
security and her effective power we
must not fall into the patent error of
supposing that her real strength
comes from armaments and mere safe
guards of written law\
What is more important is. that the
industries and resources of the coun
try should be available and ready for
mobilization. —
The transportation problem is an
exceedingly serious and pressing one
in this country. There has from
time to time of late been reason
to fear that our railroads would
not much longer be able to cope with
it successfully, as at present equipped
and co-ordained. I suggest that it
would be wise to provide for a com
mission of inquiry to ascertain by a
thorough canvass of the whole ques
tion whether our laws as at present
framed and administered are as serv
iceable as they might be in the solu
tion of the problem. It is obviously a
problem that lies at the very founda
tion of our efficiency as a people. Such
an inquiry ought to draw out every
circumstance and opinion worth con
sidering and we need to know all sides
of the matter if we mean to do any
thing in the field of federal legislation.
Regulation of Railroads.
No one, 1 am sure, would wish to
take any backward step. The regula
tion of the railways of the country by
federal commission has had admirable
results and has fully justified the
hopes and expectations of those by
whom the policy of regulation was
originally proposed. The question is
not what should we undo? It is,
whether there is anything else we can
do that would supply us with effective
means, in the very process of regula
tion, for bettering the conditions un
der which the railroads are operated
and for making them more useful serv
ants of the country as a whole. It
seems to me that it might be the part
of wisdom, therefore, before further
legislation in this field is attempted, to
look at the whole problem of co-ordina
tion and efficiency in the full light of a
fresh assessment of circumstance and
opinion, as a guide to dealing with the
several parts of it.
For what we are seeking now, what
in my mind is the single thought of
this message, is national efficiency and
security. We serve a great nation.
We should serve it in the spirit of its
peculiar genius. It is the genius of
common men for self-government, in
dustry, justice, liberty and peace. Wo
should see to it that it lacks no instru
ment, 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 but heralds
and prophets of a new age.
WORTH KNOWING
That lightning flashes appear to zig
zag is an optical illusion, according to
a German scientist, who contends that
the effect is due to the eyes twitching
when flashes occur.
French hospital attendants have suc
ceeded in impregnating rubber gloves
with the salts of certain metals and
making them impervious to X-rays for
the protection of persons using the
rays.
For educational motion picture
shows and demonstrations where elec
tricity is not available the Louisiana
State university has equipped an auto
mobile with a generator.
Pittsburgh manufacturers have dis
covered that pigments for coloring
paints can be obtained from the liquids
that are used for finishing tin plates
and galvanized wire, heretofore thrown
away after use. '
Action of Meteors.
Writing in Nature of the last display
of Perseids. as observed in England.
Mr. Dennings, the well-known author
ity on meteors, states that these bod
ies exhibited a distinct difference in
velocity, apart from what might be in
duced by differences in position and
distance. ‘Two meteors appearing in
very nearly tbe same region gave in
neverr.1 Instances an apparent speed
essentially dissimilar, though presum
ably at the same height or very near
ly so."
FROM OVjER THE WORLD
In only fourteen Chinese cities are
there telephone systems of apprecia
ble size.
Cars of a new type, with a capacity
of 70 tons, are being placed in service
by the Pennsylvania for hauling pipe
of the National Tube company, 770,000
pounds having recently been shipped
on these for export, consigned to the
United States Steel Products company
for the Oil ell Supply company.
A new electrical process makes char
coal from sawdust waste.
The salaries of college teachers
with rank of professor range in this
country from $450 to $7,500 a year.
St. Louis business men are sitting
down hard on the practice of custon°
ers returning goods. Only a restrict
ed number of articles may be returned
within 36 hours in an undamaged con
dition.
Making Progress.
“Well, we are getting along pretty
well in our plans for defense.”
“So?”
“Yep; got an advisory board and a
gasoline engine.”—Louisville Courier
Journal.
Don’t Need Any.
Edyth—So Jack kissed you the first
time he called. Had you given him
any encouragement?
Mayme—Encouragement! Say, you
evidently don’t know Jack.
/
TOLD TO LEAVE U. S.<
BOY-ED AND PAPEN, OF GERMAN
EMBASSY, MUST GO.
- *
EARLY RECALL IS REQUESTED
Continued Obnoxious Activity of Of
ficials Prompted Lansing's Order.
Wilson Approves Decision.
Washington, D. C. — Immediate
withdrawal ol' Captain Karl Boy-ed
and Captain Franz von Papen, re
spectively naval and military attaches
of the German embassy, has been re
quested hy the state department.
In making formal announcement of
this action Secretary Lansing said
the attaches had rendered them
selves persona non grata to the
United States government by improp
eractivities in connection with naval
and military matters.
The secretary acted with the full
approval of President Wilson, who is
understood to have determined that
the United States shall be rid of for
eign officials who make themselves
obnoxious by activity harmful to the
best interests of the nation.
The complaints against Von Papen V
and Boy-ed were accumulative, dating J
back to the early days of the Euro
pean wav. Tile case against them is
peculiar, not being capable of legal
proof. It consisted of an accumula V
tion of suspicious circumstances and W
conditions which connected the at
taches with attempts to violate the
neutrality laws of the United States.
The accumulation was sufficient to
convince the department that the of
ficial status of the attaches in the
United States should be discontinued.
It was understood that while in the
case in New York nothing actually
had been proved against Captain Bov
ed. in view of the attention attracted
by the case, officials reviewed his rec
ord and determined that now was a
good time to get both Captain Bov-ed
and Captain Von Papen out of the
United States. The state department
does not have to have legal evidence,
but tan act as it has done in the
cases of the attaches, upon the ques
tion of obnoxious conduct. The at
taches need not have been guilty of
technical violation of any law.
Von Uapen’s principal offenses con
sisted of sending a letter to Ger
many by Archibald and the interest
he is said to have in fomenting
strikes in munition factories. It was
Von Papen who, in a tetter taken
from Archibald when the British au
thorities searched him, made a refer
ence to "these idiotic Y'ankees.”
Forty-six Indicted.
Chicago. — Forty-six indictments,
naming fifty-four defendants, were
returned as a result of tlie grand
jury’s inquiry into alleged labor graft.
Fifteen of the true bills charge extor
tion; another fifteen, containing sev
en counts each, charge conspiracy; a
third batch of fifteen charge ma
licious mischief, and one indictment
containing sixteen counts charges
conspiracy. The defendants named
ranged from heads of local labor or
ganizations and small plate glass
manufacturers to sluggers. Testi
mony before the grand jury wove a
long tale of intimidation, extortion
and the harassment of persons who
declined to submit to the demands of
certain union business agents and
their alleged associates. Total bail in
the cases aggregated $10,530,000.
Wilson’s Name Filed in Nebraska.
Lincoln, Neb.—The name of Wood
row Wilson, president of the United
States, has been filed with Secretary
of State Pool of Nebraska as a can
didate for renomination. Electors who
signed the petition ask that the name
be placed on the preferential primary
ballot next spring in this state. The
name of Governor John H. Morehead
tops the petition and is closely follow
ed by those of Jefferson H. Broady
and John G. Maher, the two demo
crats who circulated it. On the list
are Dr. P. L. Hall, national commit
teeman, John E. Miller, a regent of
the state university, John W. Cut
wright and L. B. Tobin of the Daily
Star of this city and other well
known democrats.
Will Protest in Earnest.
Washington. — Vigorous representa
tions will be made to Great Britain
by the United States against the re
quisitioning of the American steam
ship Hocking without prize court pro
ceedings. This became known after
the receipt of official confirmation
from American Consul General Young
at Halifax of reports that the Hock
ing had been held.
Keeps Man Chained to Post.
Watertown, N. Y.—The court mar
tial of Colonel Robert Hirst, third >n
fantry, IT. S A., is being held at Mad
ison barracks. Colonel Hirst is charg
ed with keeping a soldier who struck
him handcuffed for several days, and
chained to a post.
Wilson Will Attend Hayes Event.
Washington.—President Wilson told
Colonel Webb C. Hayes, son of for
mer Preident Hayes, he would be
present at the dedication of a Hayes
monument at Fremont, O.
Teutons Threaten Greece.
Athens.—Representatives of Aus
tria and Germany have informed th^
Greek government that if the de
mands of the quadruple entente are
granted the central empires “will
cease to consider Greek Macedonia a~
friendly territory.”
British Gunboat Sunk.
London.- A dispatch to the D-i’v 1
Telegraph from Athens says a British 4
coast defense gunW ** J
waters has been sunk by a r^
submarine. y a G-np-an
