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VOLUME xm. VALDEZ, ALASKA, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 17, 1915 NUMBER 297
AUSTRIA HAS ASKED
FOR PARTICULARS
Secretary Lansing Will Forward Cop
ies of Affidavits as Furnished
hy the Survivors.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 17.—The re
ply of the Austrian government to
President Wilson’s latest note re
garding the sinking of the Italian
liner Ancona, by an Austrian sub
marine, has been received by Secre
tary Lansing, of the state depart
ment. As indicated in the advance
news from Europe the Austrian gov
ernment asks more time in which to
exchange views regarding the sinking
ef the liner may be made between
Washington and Vienna. The note
statos that the Austrian government
has no/official information concern
ing theJ^estruction of the Ancona as
it frSUi* len unable to communicate
with the* commander of the subma
rine.
Secretary Lansing, it is stated, will
furnish Vienna with the particulars
of the destruction of the liner as
furnished by affidavits made by Dr.
Oecile L. Greil of New York. She
was the only American born passen
ger on the Ancona who was saved
when the vessel was sunk in the
Mediterranean by a submarine flying
the Austrian flag on November 9.
The American woman testified be
fore Thomas Nelson Page, American
ambassador at Rome, that the sub
marine shelled the ^ncona while the
passengers were attempting to es
cape in the life boats. Mrs. Greil’s
maid was killed by a shell which
burst in their stateroom while they
were preparing to leave the steamer.
She was forced to jump from the
stern of the Ancona and was taken
from the water by members of the
ship’s crew who had righted a boat
which had been capsized while being
launched.
It is also stated that Secretary
Lansing will reiterate the demands
«f President Wilson that the Austrian
government cease its submarine ac
tivities gainst passenger ships and
indemnify the relatives of Americans
who lost their lives when the steamer
was sunk.
Mrs. Greil’s testimony regarding
the sinking of the liner was substan
tiated by other passengers of the An
cona and members of the crew who
were rescued.
t -
PRESIDENT WILL
Oremony Will be Witnessed by
Only Immediate Relatives of
Couple at Bride’s Home.
WASHINGTON, D. C„ Dec. 17.—
President Wilson and Mrs. Norman
Galt will be married tomorrow at the
home of the bride in this city. Only
the immediate relatives and mem
bers of the households will witness
the ceremony.
President Wilson yesterday after
noon secured the marriage license,
describing the bride’s age as forty
three years. No announcement has
been made as to where the couple
will spend their lioneymodn but it is
believed they will visit with William
Bolling, Mrs. Galt’s brother, • who
lives near this city.
Secretary Tumulty has miormea
reporters that President Wilson is
adverse to special featuring of the
wedding by the newspapers.
iv '■
The launch Shamrock returned
from down-Sound points last night,
bringing a number of passengers from
Landlock, Fldalgo and EUamar bays,
and left again today with a capacity'
load of freight for the Alaskan Mines
Corporation at Fidalgo bay.
Civic League to Meat.
The Civic League will hold a busi
ness meeting tomorrow afternoon at
3:00. All members are urged to be
present.
MRS. E. O. AMES, Sec.
NEW GERMAN LAW TO
MAKE BELGIUM PAY
ROTTERDAM, Dec. 17.—The Ger
man government has made a new law
continuing the cash requisitions from
Belgian cities. It provides no defi
nite period for the collection, merely
specifying that monthly payments of
40,000,000 francs will be forced i n
til further notice.
The city of Brussels will be com
pelled to provide $5,400,000 of the
monthly total. This is considered by
perosns in close touch with the in
dustrial situation in Belgium as sig
nificant, the declines in industries
there showing that the banking cen
ters must bear the chief burden of
the enforced contributions.
WAR TUX MEASURE
PISSED IN HOUSE
Republicans Voted Solidly Against
Measure and Had Support of
a Few Democrats.
WASHINGTON. D. C„ Dec. 17.—
The resolution extending the war
tax to the close of the coming year
was passed in the House yesterday
afternoon after a spirited debate in
which Representative Mann, leader
of the minority forces, taunted the
administration with its methods of
raising revenues. ,He believes the
administration should admit that an
upward revision of the Underwood
tariff law was necessary instead of re- I
sorting to petty measures to provide
revenues.
The resolution had been made the
subject of a Democratic caucus the
previous evening when the adminis
tration’s forces were lined up before
the measure was allowed to come to
come to a test of strength.
The Republicans to a man voted
in opposition to extending the tax,
as also did five Progressives and five
Democrats.
SUPPORTPROGRUM
Declares that the Pacific Coast States
Are at the Mercy of Japanese
or Other Nations.
WASHINGTON, D. C., Dec. 17.—
Senator John D. Works, of Califor
nia, in a speech before the senate yes
terday afternoon on preparedness,
told the senate that an army of two
million men would be necessary to
defend the country from invasion if
the United States ever became involv
sd in warfare with a foreign nation.
He asserts that the Pacific coast is at
the mercy of the Japanese or any oth
er nation which cared to make war
on this country and believed that no
time should be lost in taking every
precaution against invasion.
Senator Works said he would sup
port the administration’s national de
fense program and will urge the cre
ition of a force of two hundred thou
sand men to be stationed on the Pa
5iflc coast. The senator outlined
jlans which he believes will make
servifce in the army attractive and
will end the trouble heretofore expe
perlenced by the war department in
keeping the regular army to standard.
He believes the government should
locate the reserves on small tracts of
land, each soldier to be given five
acres.
He believes the soldiers should be
employed by the government but that
they should not be kept in posts as
at present but employed in reclaim
ing and reforesting the desert lands
of the western states. The California
senator said that few Americans re
alized how near this country bad
come to being Involved in a war with
Japan over the California labor ques
tion.
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New Tonight
New show at the Liberty Theatre
tonight; welt worth seeing. Visit
the Liberty.
i 1
TURKS ARE PREPARING
FOR INVASION OF EGYPT
DISPATCH FROM ROME STATES RAILROAD IS BEING BUILT FROM
* DAMASCUS TOWARD SUEZ CANAL AND THAT TURKEY HAS A
NEW ARMY OF MILLION MEN TO INVADE EGYPT—BERLIN RE
PORTS THAT ALLIES ARE FORTIFYING SALONIKI AND TEUTONS
LEAVING CITY—BELIEVED GENERAL FRENCH WA'S FORCED
OUT BY ENEMIES.
ROME, Dec. 17.—It is reported
here that the Turkish government is
planning the invasion of Egypt and
is. pushing construction work on a
railroad which will extend from Da
mascus to Egypt. It is stated that
more than one million men have been
added to the Turkish army since the
shipments of munitions have been re
ceived from Germany. German en
gineers are said to be in charge of
the railroad construction work and
are making wonderful progress in ex
tending the road toward Suez Canal.
The railroad is being built by the
troops and their equipment is ad
vanced as construction progresses.
Teutons Leaving Saloniki.
BERLIN, Dec. 17.—King Constan
tine of Greece to avoid being drawn
into the war has been forced to grant
the demands of the Allies and has
withdrawn the Greek troops from Sa
loniki and vicinity in order to per
mit of the Allies establishing a base
there for the Balkan campaign. Lat
est advices from Athens are to the ef
fect that the Allies.are fortifying the
city and that the Teutonic refugees
are leaving, fearing persecution at
the hands of the British and French.
General French Forced Out.
BERLIN, Dec. 17.—It is believed
here that Gen. French, commanding
the British troops in France, was
ousted on account of difference with
Lord Kitchener in regard to the cam
paign. It is reported that French
was opposed to the recent drive of
the Allies to break the deadlock on
the Western frontier. The drive re
sulted in terrific losses to the Brit
ish but no progress was gained as
the Germans have recovered all the
positions lost during the aggressive
movement of the Allies.
ANOTHER KILLING
LAID TO HOSE
Detectives Discover that letter Claim
ing Interest in Estate was
Typed by Krause.
JUNEAU, Dec. 17.—The authori
ties now believe that Edward Krause,
suspected of having killed William
Christie and several other Alaskans,
murdered a Japanese watchman who
was formerly employed in the Smith
cannery near Wrangell Narrows. The
Japanese was known to have consid
erable money on deposit in a Vancou
ver bank and shortly before Krause
was anpested the attorneys repre
sented a claim from a man named
Hartman, who gave his address as
Juneau.
Detectives now claim they have
proof that Krause was using the
name of Hartman, to defraud the es
tate of the Japanese. The letter to
the attorneys is said to have been
written on the Blixendorff typewriter
used by Krause in writing the note
to Mrs. Christie and to the custom's
officials.
The detectives claim that little
trouble will be experienced in con
necting Krause as the last person
seen with the missing Japanese and
his activity in trying under the alias
of Hartman to collect money from
the estate.
MORGAN SYNDICATE WILL
DIVIDE EUROPEAN BONDS.
NEW YORK, Dec. 17.—It is re
ported in financial circles that the
members of the Morgan syndicate
will subscribe for the bonds of the
Anglo-French governments which re
mained unsold when the time limit
expired yesterday.-^ The bonds are a
part of the five hundred million dol
lar loan which the British and
French governments sought in the
United States several months ago.
When the loan was first negotiated
it was believed that no difficulty
would be experienced in placing the
huge loan with American bankers
and investors but strong opposition
developed and many bankers who had
subscribed for blocks of the bonds
were forced to cancel the orders.
Valdez friends of John F. Hans
man, who spent some time here dur
ing the summer of 1911, have receiv
ed announcements of his marriage to
Miss Agnes Gourdouz, at Flambeau,
Wisconsin.
New Tonight.
NeW'ghow at The Liberty Theatre
tonight; well worth seeing. Visit
The Liberty.
RUSHING WORK ON
FIDALGO WHARF
Shipment of One Thousand Tons of
Copper Ore Will be Made to
Smelter in Tacoma.
E. D. Reiter, manager of the Alas
ka Mines Corporation, of Fidalgo
Bay,, returned to Valdez last night
from the property and left again to
day on the launch Shamrock with an
other big shipment of supplies for
the mine. He reports that every
thing is in shape to begin the con
struction of the company’s wharves
and ore bunkers, and that it will soon
be in shape for handling ore.
On the last tfjp of the Admiral Ev
ans she brought a pile driver outfit
from Katalla to Fidalgo Bay. The
outfit is new, having been taken to
the oil city during railroad construc
tion days, but was never used.
Mr. Reiter states that his company
is employing a force of twenty-six
men, twenty of whom are employed
in development work and about the
mine, and six on the wharf construc
tion work. Lars Holland is in charge
of the construction work.
During the development work more
than one thousand tons of ore has
been taken out and will be shipped
to the Tacoma smelter as soon as
the wharf and bunkers are ready for
handling the ore.
NO RACE SUICIDE
AMONG TEACHERS.
NEW YORK: There Isn’t any ev
idence of race suicide among New
’York women school teachers. The
Board of Superintendents has report
ed to the Board of Education that
during the past month 25 teachers
had applied for and had been granted
maternity leave of absence for two
years. The total number of teachers
now out of school under such leave
is 78, two of whom had been granted
'such leave having returned to duty.
City Superintendent Maxwell report
ed the marriage of 66 teachers in ad
dition to 217 married during the
summer months.
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ADMIRAL PARRAGUT WAS
DETAINED AT CULROSS
-- , -- .
The steamer Admiral Farragut,
which had been posted to. arrive in
Valdez, yesterday afternoon from the
westward did not show up until 2
o’clock this morning. The steamer
called at Culross island, where she
discharged forty thousand feet of,
lumber for the Thomas-Culross min
ing company. The outgoing passen
gers from Valdtfk were Gus Lund
strow, Otto Hoblitsel, A. A. Lerow.
FORMER CONVICT 18
SUSPECTED OF PLOT
SALEM, N. J., Dec. 17.—John
Szodoba, who was employed in the
Du Pont Powder Works near here
prior to the explosion last month,
which destroyed the works, resulting
in the death of many of the company’s
employes, has been arrested on sus
picion of having caused the destruc
tion of the plant. Although the com
pany at the time said they had no
belief that the explosion was caused
by outsiders, detectives who have
been working on the Teutonic con
spiracies to destroy munition facto
ries, have identified Szodoba as a for
mer convict who served a sentence in
Sing Sing.
VILLA THREATENS
BOMBARD EL PASO
Wili Order Execution of Americans
In His Territory if General
Carranza is Favored.
4
EE PASO, Dec. 17j—General Vil
la is again on the rampage and has
threatened to bombard El Paso and
order the execution of all Americans
in territory under his control if the
United States permits President Car
ranza to invade the northern states
of Mexico from the United States.
General Villa’s troops have suf
fered defeat after defeat during the
past few weeks and he has met with
reverses in every engagement since
his failure to capture Agua Prieta,
when for a time it was feared that
he would clash with the American
troops under General Punston.
His failure to t^ke Hermosillo has
enraged the rebel leader and the re
cent announcement that Carranza
would be permitted to transport his
troops through American territory to
attack his positions from the north
has further embittered him against
Americans.
UNE WANTS MONEY
FOR ALASKA ROAD
Hays Construction Work Has Pro
gressed Faster than Anticipated
and Will Go to Fairbanks.
WASHINGTON, D. C., Dec. 17.—
Secretary Lane has asked congress to
vote an emergency appropriation in
order that the Engineering commis
sion may continue construction work
on the government railroad in Alas
ka during the winter. He told Chair
man Fitzgerald, of the finance com
mittee, that construction work during
the past, summer had progressed
fast'er than had been anticipated and
asserted that the railroad would
surely be built to Fairbanks.
Chairman Edes, of the commission
also appeared before the committee to
urge funds being made immediately
available for the work. He said that
if congress appropriated the neces
sary money that coal from the Mata
nuska fields would be available for
the Pacific coast before the close of
the coming year. The commission
had planned its work for next year.
It includes the completion of the
Matanuska coal road, the extension
of the Alaska Northern to connect
with the Matanuska branch and the
extension of the trunk road to the in
terior from Matanuska Junction, as
far as possible. He believes that
more than one hundred miles of
track can be built next summer and
says that no difficult engineering
problems have been met.
WILLIAM ROOT NAMED
FOR SEWARD POSTOFFICE
WASHINGTON, D. C-. Dec. 17.—
William Root of Seward, has been
lomlnated by President Wilson to be
postmaster at Seward, Alaska, to suc
:eed P. J. Hickey who resigned. Root
s president of the Seward Democratic
:lub and has the endorsement of that
>rganisation. i
GARMENT WORKERS
LOSE THE STRIKE
Are Forced to Return tp Work With
out Recognition of the Union
Rut Granted Shorter Day.
CHICAGO, Dec. 17.—The strike of
the Chicago Garment Workers, which
was called more than two months
ago when the employers refused to
recognize the union, has been settled
by a compromise which is considered
a-big victory for the employers. Ne
gotiations for ending the struggle
have been under way for some time,
but it was not until late yesterday
that the compromise was affected and
the fifteen thousand strikers returned
to work this morning.
The strike was called when the em
ployers refused to grant an eight
hour day, an increase in the wage
scale equal to 15 per cent and recog
nition of the union. They have re
turned to work at the old scale, with
their union unrecognized, but have
been granted the shorter day. Under
the terms of the new agreement the
eight hour day will he in force after
the beginning of the New Vear.
The compromise was made possible
through the efforts of the committee
appointed by the mayor to investi
gate conditions in the factories and
to ascertain the conditions against
which the workers were contending.
During the investigation hundreds of
girls and women offered testimony
before the committee that they were
being compelled to work for five or
ten cents per hour, and were charged
five cents per week for drinking wa
ters and other items which reduced
their wages still further.
The union officials assert that the
employers are discriminating against
the workers woh offered testimony
before the committee and have also
refused to reinstate those who wero
active in organizing the strike.
Republicans to Meet Tonight.
Local Republicans will hold a
meeting this evening at 8:30 in
Moose hall to organize a Valdez Re
publican club. Considerable inter
est seems to be aroused among mem
bers of the party in the matter of or
ganization.
The launch Elvira went to the CliC
mine this morning with a load eC
freight and a scow in tow. . \
. JB "
MORE ARRESTS ARE
MADE AT ANCR0RA6E
■
Pinchette and Morris Plead Guilty,
Bateman Convicted, Brock and
Dunlap to Stand Trial.
The U. S. marshal’s office is deter
mined to oust the whisky peddling
and lawless element from Anchorage
and will drive them from the town.
Two mo^e arrests were made in the
westward town yesterday when men
named Crawford and Hall were taken
in charge for having sold liquor
without licenses. The latter plead
guilty but Crawford elected to stand
trial. *
Of the five arrests made on Dec.
14 for selling liquor without license,
Pinchette and Mor.ris plead guilty.
Bateman stood trial and was con
victed. and the other two defendants.
Brock and Dunlap, will stand trial.
Chaa. M. Sheehan, who was arrest
sd at Seward on December 10 for
jelling liquor without a license, plead
guilty to the charge and was let off
with a fine of $100 and costs. He
was warned that a second offense,
would mean a term in prison.
Notice of Young People’s Society.
The Social meeting of the Young
People’s Society will take place en
this evening at the Bveryman’a
Clubhouse at 8:15 o'clock. As some
thing special In the way of a good
time has been planned all the mem
jers are requested to turn out and do
heir share in making the evening
t success.