Image provided by: Crook County Historical Society/Bowman Museum; Prineville, OR
About Crook County journal. (Prineville, Or.) 189?-1921 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 4, 1917)
PAGE S America Has FTioto No. I 7 Mutual Film Corporation; other by Amrfcmn Press Association Pictorial Phases of Year's Events at Home i, Jamee Whitcomb Rilsy, poet, died; 2. subsea liner Deutschland; 3-8, Presi dent Wilton and Charla Evana Hughes; 4, Congressman William C. Adam eon, aponsor for eight hour bill; 5, Francisco Villa, bandit leader; 8, General Pershing, leader of punitive expedition; 7, soldiers leaving for border. By GEORGE L. KILMER. T iHE chief events In this countrr during the twelve months Just closed have been the national election and the situation on jthe border of Meiko. The prospects j of complications with German; over srabmarine warfare assumed serious jaapects early in the year. The whole country has bad an unusually pros perous year. The prices of all kinds 'of produce and of many household necessaries have advanced, in some eases, beyond all precedent, with the kesult that the cost of living has in creased on an average of 3a 1-3 per (cent or more. I Villa's Columbus Raid. , The situation on the Mexi a)u border became acute early in the sprlnit. when ja body of Mexicans led by General Francisco Villa crossed into United States territory on the 9th of March nd raided Columbus, N. M. Eighteen jCnlted States soldiers were killed iu Tcpulsing the attack. This foray halt ed temporarily proceedings looking to a ravorable understanding between the j (United States and the de facto govern- ! blent of Mexico headed by Carranza. Ut was about this time that rival fac- ( toons in Mexico were aiming to defeat (Carranza's efforts to restore order. following Villa's raid, troops of the il'nlted States army were rushed from ttheir stations inland to re-enforce the lender garrisons which the United IStates bad maintained at important "points on the Mexican border since the outbreak against the government wf Porflrio Diaz five years ago. The Affair at Carrizal. A "punitive expedition" was ordered to cross the Bio Grande and eliminate VBla and his band. On March 15 Colo nel Dodd and General Pershing were on Mexican soil, proceeding south In two columns, Dodd's in the lead. On March 29 Dodd's column defeated 500 Villiatas, killing thirty. Other actions between United States troops of Persh ing's column and the Mexicans fol lowed. Carranza immediately began to object to the presence of United States troops on Mexican soil and asked for their withdrawal. At the end of April General Obregon met General H. L. Scott and General Funston at Juarez to discuss the situation on the border. Nothing came of it. A mouth later Carranza asked for Immediate with drawal, alleging bad faith on the part tf the United States. The first clash between Carranzistas and United States troops occurred In June. On the 16th General Trevino Informed General Pershing that a movement of United States troops east, west or south from the positions then occupied by them would be con sidered a hostile act. About that time (President Wilson called out the militia bf the whole country for service on the Mexican border and notiSed Mexico that American troops would remain Solely to protect the United States bor der. The next day two troops of the United States cavalry were attacked outside of Carrizal, ninety miles south of Juarez. Mexican General Felix Go mez was killed, also Captain C. T. Boyd and Lieutenant Adair of the Tenth cavalry. The affair resulted from an attempt by the cavalry to march westward in defiance of General fTrevino's notice of the 10th. Twenty three troopers were made prisoners by jthe Mexicans, thirteen killed and slx- ren missing. President Wilson demanded the im- Pissed Most Stirring Year !j ' i mediate release of the prisoners and ordet - rd the militia rushed to the bor- der. The prisoners were delivered at El Paso three days after the president's demand. Early in September an Amer- lean-Mexican joint commission mef to confer upon the matters in dispute be tween the government of the United States and Mexico. This Joint com mission, signed a protocol Nov. 24. Meanwhile, one day before the protocol was signed, Vlllistas attacked Chihua hua City and were defeated by Car ranzistaa. Two days later they again attacked and occupied part of the city, but were expelled on Dec. 1 by Carran za forces. Election and Politico. Following his nomination for the presidency by the Republican conven tion iu June. Justice Charles E. Hughes resigned from the supreme court bench and immediately entered the nnvass against President Woodrow Wilson, who was renominated by the lemo cratlc convention. Theodore Roosevelt declined the Progressive nomination 8nd supported Hughes. The campaign was noted for exceptional vigor, and the outcome was uncertain even for some days after the election. Victory for Wilson was not conceded until the count in California gave him a safe majority In the electoral college. Second only in interest to the presi dential canvass were the participation of women in campaign work and the result of the anti-saloon voting. With gains made. It is estimated that nearly seven-eighths of the territory Is now under "no license" rules. Among the political events of the year was the passage of the Adamson eight hour law for railroad employees, to take effect Jan. 1, 1917. The act was passed when the nation confronted a general strike of railroad men which would have paralyzed traffic. A com mission was appointed to Investigate the working of the law. In July a rural credits act was pass ed to facilitate loans for the especial benefit of farmers. Neutral Rights. The president at the end of February asked congress to take action on the question of the arming of merchant men traversing the war zone and other points at issue regarding submarine warare. Germany had "recognized re sponsibility" for the loss of neutral lives on the Eusltanla in February, but the general aspect of the submarine is sue was one to cause uncertainty as to safety of neutral lives on the high seas. Both bouses acted upon separate resolutions, practically leaving the mat ter in the hands of the executive. Sen ate vote was 68 to 14: house, 276 to 142. Merchant Submarines. A new phase of the submarine ques tion involving the United States came up when the German merchant sub marine Deutschland arrived at Balti more with a cargo of German goods. Although the Deutschland was not armed, the entente powers asked the United States to treat her class as war ships, which the state department de clined to do. The vessel sailed for Germany In August and arrived at New London on a return trip Nov. 1. Meanwhile on Oct. 7 the armed Ger man submarine U-63 entered Newport harbor, coming direct from Wllhelms haven. She received the usual privi leges of a warship In a neutral port Next day, off Nantucket shoals, Unit ed Stutes coast, she torpedoed and sang three British and two neutral CROOK COUNTY JOURNAL ships, giving the warning as previous ly pledged by Germany for unarmed ships. All on board escaped. The United States treated the matter as simply an exlenslou of the naval war lone and notified the allied powers on Oct. 10 that this country would con tinue to apply existing rules of war fare to submarines. British Trad Blacklist. Involved with the great problems of neutral rights and H'-thI measures af fecting them was thi.unouncement by Great P.ritaln in July of the blacklist of American Amis which carried 011 trade with Germany. Trade with firms so listed, by merchants of the al lied powers, wag problbftcd. This cull ed forth a protest by the United J ntes. p.y that gulatlOn hibition is a local regulation and not I within the purview of International la w. Vagaries of weather began In the winter and continued up to autumn. On Jan. 27 the temperature was Cti-liO. a record, in New York. The same day there was a blizzard on the Pacific coast and in the Rocky mountains. Ang. 14 was the coldest for that day known In the east in fy-sli years. the thermometer touching !(1. The lat est real snowstorm known In New Eng land In fifty years came on April 28. In August the United States conclud ed a treaty with Denmark to purchase the Danish West India Islands for $2.',000.000. The Tanama canal was reopened to traffic In April after being closed for several months by obstruc tions in the Galllard cutj In June the epidemic among children known as in fantile paralysis broke out In New York city and spread to neighboring districts. During August the death roll exceeded 2.000. and the epidemic began to subside. Bigger Army and Navy. During the year congress appropri ated nearly $700,000,000 for national defense. On July 1 the army reorgani. zatlon act of June 3 went Into effect It Increased the strength oMAe regu lar army and federalized the national guard, placing it under the pay and control of the national government The new law authorizes a war strength approximating 300,000 regulars and a national guard nmxlrmmi of 460,000. The defense leglslati authorizes ear ly construction of four huge battle ships and four big battle cruisers. July floods In Virginia, North Caro lina and South Carolina caused a loss of life estimated at fifty and projcrty loss of $1. ",000,000. In August a cloud burst and flood In West Virginia de stroyed sixty-six lives and property valued at $o,000.000. An explosion of European war munitions in New York harbor caused damage amounting to $15,000,000. . , Among the deaths of notable people during the year were General Vlctori ano Huerta, J. T. Trowbridge, (.Robert Burns Wilson, Clara Louisa Kellogg, Rev. Dr. Timothy Dwlght,' James J. Hill, Hetty Green, James Whitcomb Riley, John P. St. John, Horace White, Reth Low, Frank Dempster Sherman, Charles Taze Russell, John D. Arch bold and Perclval Lowell. The nomination of Louis D. Brandelg to the supreme court bench caused crit icism, but be was confirmed June 8. Bartholdl's statue of Liberty Enlight ening the World was first illumined by an electrical flood of light, which is to be permanent, on the 2d of December. jj Time For Little but War AbroadInl91ft ! 1 ' . . . . . . . . ' 1 Photos by American I'rees Association. Pictorial Phases of Year's Events Abroad 1, King Constantino of Greece; 2. French soldiers protected by masks against gas attack on the Somme front; 3, Sir Roger Casement, hanged for psrtict pstion In Irish rebsllioni 4, Emperor Francis Joseph of Austria, who died; 6, Roumanian Infantry, which entered war this year; (, Earl Kitchener, '" Britain's war minister, drowned 1 7, the Sussex, eross ehennel steamer, tor pedoed by oubmarine; 8, British battleship battered off Jutland during reetstt eea battle in history. ' ty Captain GEORGE L. KILMER, Late U. 8. V. SURPRISES have not ceased In the surprising world war, now well Into Its third year. The more luiortant of these sur prises In 1916 have been In France, at aea. on the Italian front and in the Balkans. In 'January the Germans, who were supposed to be on the defen sive In France, sprang a vicious attack along a five mile front In the Cham pagne. Farther nortl''n Vlmy ridge, nd at Yprcs. Belfln,.i. llie.v stormed British trenches. ?m yards and 000 yards In length. While attention waa thus drawn to the norihern front the Germans suddenly In clnd heavy at tacks on Feb. 22 tnVli of Verdun, starting a tremeuilius drive ngiilnst that famous sullen!, which the crown prince originally struck i' August, 1914. Three days later . .,rt Douau mont, four miles from the city, was captured following a bombardment which nearly nized Its walls. Next day the Germans captured six fortified French villages and on the 29ih shifted the attack from the north to the south, east. l-'lL'htlnir continued for weeks. ; The mldd'e of May It was evident that the Fren.h line would hold In front of the city Itself. The element of surprise In the Ver dun drive lay In that the Germans would risk heavy losses In storming fortifications for the mere purpose ap parently of shortening their front, Counterdrive by the Aide. It has been hinted that the German offensive at Verdun was launched to forestall an expected Anglo-French of fensive against the German communi cation farther north. . Such a move ment was launched the 1st of July along the river Somme and the river Anere, Peronne and Bapaume being the objectives. Every day for two weeks either tho French or British plunged forward, now capturing a vil lage, now a woods. Again the Ger mans would retake ground by desper ate counterattack. Supposed keys like Contalmalson and Combles were cap tured, but Peronne and Bapaume still cover the railroad along which the Germans on the battle line In France receive their supplies through Belgium. At the end of two weeks of forward movements on the Somme, IJoyd George, British minister of war, ex claimed In a council of leaders, "Vic tory Is beginning to low In our di rection." Russia Cemes Back. Lloyd-George evidently Included In the flow of victory Russia's great en terprlses In her southwest war zone, Bukowlna and eastern Gallcla. The. a uirection wmcn wouia nnng mem Russian had been expelled from the ' Into Junction with the British column Warsaw and Vistula line in the au- moving up the Tigris river toward Bag tumn of 1915. but a considerable body dad. In February Russia captured Er remalned in eastern Bukowlna and , zerum, Mesopotamia, from the Turks. Jnst outside Its borders. The Austro Germans had also left garrisons for their original fortifications there. EHfly in January the Russians begnn a drive in the vicinity of Czcrnowitz. Noth ing of consequence resulted, but the movement, taken In connection with attacks In the district of Vllna and Dvlnsk, in the north, gave proof that Bussla still had aggressive power. In June General Bruslloff assumed com mand In the southwest and, aiming for Iemberg, turned the flank of the Aus trian defenses in Volhynia and Buko wlna. In one week the Russians clnlm ed 80,000 prisoners, captured the for- r $$$$ H aeaee tress of Duhno, also Czernowlti, and were mnrrhing upon I.uuk and Kovel. Hut about the time that Lloyd-George voiced his optimism (lie itusslaus found themselves checked 011 the river Stok hod and on the Dniester, south. Greatest of Naval Battles. Lloyd-Ueorge also had lu mind the nuval battle of Jutland, which took place on the Inst day of May. This has been called the greatest naval ac tion In history. It was the greatest to date In this war. The British claimed a great victory, which amounts to 11 confession Hint the German navy Is by no means a negligible factor. The Germans ventured lo sea seeking bat lie. They overcame the advance Brit ish column and were not checked un til the heavy lirlllsh battleships ar rived on the scene. Both sides lost licuvfly in Inittleshlps, cruisers, destroyers and men. In a tactical sense the action was a draw, but It demonstrated that the German navy Is not "boltled up." Early In the spring the Italians re sumed activities on I lie line of the Isonzo, particularly ut Gorltz. Iu April .the Austriaus suddenly began an of- iTrentlno, which the latter had Invad ed May, 1915. This move was a com- 1 plete surprise and forced the Italians 1 Into hurried retreat, At the end of ! May Austria reported 80,000 prisoners ' and 200 cannon as the spoils of two months' operations. By the middle of June the Italians bad turned on their enemy, and the great offensive was checked. The Austrian movement was evl- ! dently timed to affect Italy's aggressive movements In the south, where the ob- IJective of the Italians la Trieste, j Gorltz stood In the way of progress I toward the coveted citadel. It fell . Aug. 9. Since the fall of Gorltz the . Italians have made slow progress to i ward Trieste. 1 Something was needed In the allied camps at midsummer to pull up wan ing holies, hopes dashed by the aban donment of the Gulllpoll expedition early In January, the surrender of Kut-el-Amara with 10,000 British soldiers In April, the subjugation of Servla and Montenegro and the menacing situa tion in Greece. Tho allies' Infantry j from Galllpoll had ueon transferred to Salonlki with the evident purpose of marching iiorllnvarj ' and taking the Bulgar forces lftjiScrvfyt and on their own borders In the rear. Serious Outlook For Germany. In some respects It seemed as though the allies had unloaded a dead weight by abandoning the direct (tttack upon Constantinople. The Russians almost from the" beginning' of the war had been coming down Into" Asia Minor in Thls was followed two months later by the capture 'Of iTreblzond, on the Black sea.' Russia' southward march from bases in her own home territory, backed up by her fleet on the Black sea, really a strategic prolongation of her line In Bukowlna and Gallcla, con stituted a menace to German ambition tn the near east. -' The elimination of Servla us a factor, which was made certain in the winter of 1916, and the certainty that Turkey could be relied upon for troops and supplies, coupled with the apparent dif ficulty of the allies in launching a stroke in the back of the Teutonic . S 'a.e.v I powers through Greece, brought again the supposed German dream of a Berlin to Baxdud route. This dream was dissipated when II Uxnine evi dent that Russia was forcing the Turks out of McsoHitamla and effec tively ro-opeiniliig with the allien at Satoulki. The sliuatloti of Germany bnd a serious lk as autumn came on, with Verdun uni.tken, the allies storm ing a third line on the Homme and the Russians displaying enough vigor tn their southwest lo hold the Austrian forces at full strength In Volhynut, IluUowlna and Greece. Then sudden ly llouumiila cast her lot with the al lies and. ns It w is supposed, added 4M1,0 ,0 men M I tie enemies of the Teuton on the Vienna to Constantino ple line. Von Hindenburg Scores Agsin. How Von Itlndetiliiirif I timed lo grap ple with this tuny foe Is the most mtr prlslnir chapter In the history of the war, a new example of e"lcleney at headquarter nud In the lighting ranks. No check woil liy of the name was suf fered after crossing two frontiers un til converging armies met before doom. I ,,,, iilkmrPilti ,) m Doc! 0. Roumsnla seems to have reiieatcd tho French blunder of August, 11)14. when, Instead of going to the aid of Relglttm, Joffre sent a big army to re cover Alsace. Instead of stabbing Bul garia, Roumsnla marched north Into Hungary, a move which Invited Ger mans and Rulgars to strike at' her vi tals from the south. So, while Von Mackensen marched and conquered la the general direction of the Dauiibe, central Roumuula and Ilukliaiet. the Roumanians, who hud poured over her northern border, were easily turned back, their conquests wrested from them and the entire venture of the Inst of tho Balkan states was turned Into a fizzle, so far as snpiKirt of the allies was concerned. There remains Greece at least the rebellious part of It-to stimulate the hope that the Tea tonic powers may yet receive a vital thrust In the back. The conquest of Roumaula required time, energy and lives. Whether tho compensation will equal the Investment time alone can tell. The end of 1916 finds the German powers resourceful in men and un daunted In spirit On tho other hand, tho allies' cabinets are reorganizing to restore tho flow of victories lo the channels of midsummer. Lloyd-George became British premier Dec. 7. Miscellaneous Events. Minor events of the war were the torpedoing of the British channel steamer Sussex,' the transfer of the submarine war zone across tho Atlan tic In October and General Kitchener' death at sea. Air craft battles have been many, fierce and deadly; casual ties of all kinds have been heavy. Outside of war the old world ha been normal, with the exception of a brief rebellion In Ireland, which bad been expected and waa ruthlessly sup. pressed, Japan and Russia formed an agreement, and Japan )W(o now de mands upon China, whoso ruler, Yuan Shlh Kai, died In June. Deaths abroad during the year included Frunz Joseph, emperor and king;. Cannon Sylva, Rou manian queen dowager and, a person ality of note; Dr. Metchnlkoff, the bac teriologlst; Mounet-Sully, French ac tor, and Sienklewlcz, Polish qutlior. Sir Roger Casement was executed for treason as instigator of the rebellion In Ireland; also Peurse, ' the rebel "president," and Connolly, the military chief. ,,