The Greensboro patriot [February 7, 1917]

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PUBLISHED EVERY MONDAY AND THURSDAY
g^TABLlShS. ^^1 GREENSBORO, N. C. THURSDAY. FEBRUARY 7, 1817. VOL.' 96-NO. 12
THE CALIFORNIA TOPEDOBD
vu VWHattt" ABOARD WAS
0!%*G THOSK RESCUED-
„THI:I: SHIPS SU\K.
, -. 'iiB^ton. Feb. •■—Tne stead>'
.lam oi reports telling of the de-
5
i0T, of merchant ships by Ger-
STsubmarines «• brou^u t0 a
,,miX wnight !-> » cablegram to the
'.:,v departniem from Consul Frost,
,-Oii.o.nsto"!!. announcing that the
' • - «-iss.-nzer liner California
■.,,• been torpedoed without warn-
.\ .,-,j that an American citizen
aaions the survivors.
iv-,:.:!" tills will prove to be the
. .. a,.; to drive (lie United States
•',•-, ,-.ir no one would attempt 10
, io:ii?".i:. President Wilson, who
«.'i«- make the decision, had retired
,-,!', i-it- news came and officials did
„■ wake him. Late in the after-
•,-..»u '.:.- -!■"'! been informed of a mes-
,...;t- from Consul Frost telling of the
; jldng of the California, but giving
ao derails as to warning or the pres-
.-,-■•.. o* Americans.
To Await lull Reports,
Tlit- president undoubtedly will
MM " for complete reports on the dis-jjief
before determining whether
time has come for him to go to
Congress to ask authority to "use
iay means Uiat may be necessary for
•:'.:r protection of our seamen and
irar people."
T.ic consul's first dispatcli said
Mere was "one death and thirty
unspital cases." among the more
!:an 200 people on board the liner.
T'.e second added no information
oncerning casualties except that the
•nrrirors were landed at Queens-own
tonight, among them bein
loan A. bee, of Montgomery. Ala..
•.'.<• only American known to hive
iren aboard and that some still
were missing including two women
ir.d several children. Tiie fact that
Tie American escaped lessened in a
legreetlie excitement created by the
tews, but only in a degree.
Many Ships Scut to Kottom.
More than.a score of merchant
r.u': have been sent to the bottom
r. the war zone within the past 24
tours, and fifty or more since the
Trajan proclamation of ruthless
rarf&re on the seas went into el-se:
las: Thursday.
!• is realized that if no citizen of
he United States was among the vic-tim.
;: merely was a fortunate ac-ideni
and that it can be only a mat-er
of hours before Americans are
aught in such wholesale destruc-tion.
Tie California which was bound
~ro;n New York for Glasgow is the
"i:v. bis passenger steamer to be de-woyed
since the Arabia •was tor-
•K-doed in the Mediterranean months
•SO. Her sinking has about swept
way the last lingering hope, here
"Jit'Germany after alt would per-il'.!
passenger carriers to escape in
12 effort to avoid driving the United
'*ates io hostilities.
THE COURT HOUSE LOCATED
WILL BE ERECTED IN CENTER
OK BLOCK—PLANNED ON A
MAGNIFICENT SCALE.
v<> AMERICAN CITIZENS OX
CALIFORNIA. SAY OFFICIALS.
Xe» York. Feb. '.—No American
itizens were amoi.0 ..... „» „««„,«,..-
-'■-'*= on the California, according to
initials' nf the Anchor line in this
Records tiled when applica-ons
were made for passage, showed
J" while many of the persons who
«iled on the liner lived in the United
*taifcf 'hey were subjects of Great
Britain. The crew numbered 184.
The cable message received at the
n'""" line offices in this city an-
""unclng the, sinking of the Califor-
' ^i'l ilia: ICO survivors out of
" '"'^ of 215 persons aboard the
'*-"••'> had been landed. Nothing
*** Su:i1 of the fate of the remaining
« onsul Frost's report, to the state
1 epartment that there were "30 hos-
»'|al eases" was construed to mean
■•■'" the survivors suffered from ex-
»wnre in the open boats or injuries
eceived in leaving the sinking ves-rhe
message didi not state
•"aether the California had been tor-
'"■""-■I or sunk by a mine.
■'■•awn* Citiw-ns Demand
Roads.
<Jood
GuiKord county's new court house
is to occupy the center of a block to
be formed by the purchase of land
on the east and west sides of Ashe
street between West .Market and
Sycamore. Tills decision was an-nounced
by the county commission-ers
just before their adjournment
late Tuesday afternoon and oame as
a great surprise to the public. No
one had suspected that the commis-slaners
were planning anything on
such a big scale.
The property to be converted into
the court house squaTe has a front-age
of 373 feet on West Market and
416 feet on Sycamore street. The
depth between West Market and
Sycamore is 294.5 feet. The front-age
will be decreased to about 293
feet on West Market and 336- on
Sycamore by the building of a street
on either side of the square.
The total cost of the property, on
wliich the county has taken options,
is placed at $149,000. but it is prob-able
that this is more than will be
paid. The commissioners consider
the price of a portion of the property
too high and announce that they will
resort to condemnation proceedings
and have the value appraised.
The following persons are owners
of the property: Misses Bettie and
Pattie Caldwell. Mrs. Nora East
and J.' B. Webster, on the east side
of Ashe street; John N. Staples, Jr.,
J. R. Donnell. J. W. Adams and W.
L. Trotter, on the west side.
The action of the commissioners
in planning to build a court house
on such a magnificent scale appears
to meet with the practically unani-mous
approval of the people of
Greensboro. • Even staunch advo-cates
of sites that were turned down
are warn in their praise of the en-terprise
and public, spirit manifested
by the commissioners. The city
planner who was brought to Greens-boro
to suggest the ideal location for
the court house reported that the
commissioners could do a big thing
in a big way by putting the building
on the Wright property, on North
Kim street. According to the belief
of many people, the commissioners
have gone the city planner one bet-ter
and done a greater thing on a
grander scale.
The commissioners have not yet
taken under consideration the exact
type of building to be erected or its
cost, but that it will be a splendid
structure goes without saying. It
will be a building equal in appear-ance
and general utility to any pub-lic
building in the state.
The city commissioners have al-ready
agreed to close Ashe street be-tween
West Market and Sycamore
when the county is ready to build.
Two streets one block in length will
take its place on either side of the
square, so the public will not be in-convenienced.
FIJETCHER TO IJ2AVE ON
SATURDAY FOR MEXICO.
New:
CJ
»n. Keb. 7.—In a mass meet-esterday
afternoon citizens of
•^county called together to discuss
' roads declared in favor of a
•Mi 'S3Ue °* $400-000 *or roads
• interior bridges,-the question of
tM*r brid6es being eliminated and
Wta the coKBinioB«n.
Washington, Feb. 7—Ambassador
Fletcher expects to leave Saturday
for his post in Mexico. Final in-structions
probably will be given
him tomorrow by the president.
Official reports to the state de-partment
have shown traffic condi-tions
between Vera Cruz and Mexico
City to be so uncertain that the am-bassador
has decided to go by rail
via h.iriMi,). Rebels between the
coast and capital have cut the rail-way
and attacked trains repeatedly
in the last two weeks practically iso-lating
Mexico City from Vera Cruz.
It was reported that Manuel Pa-laez
recently defeated the Carranza
garrison at Tamihua within a few
miles of Tampico, and occupied sev-eral
other small towns near Tam-pico.
' In spite of worse conditions in
Mexico the state department's anx-iety
to get Ambassador Fletcher to
his post has been increased by the
rupture of relations with Germany,
since it is recognized as a probability
that an outbreak of hostilities would
give rise to many problems that it
would be desirable for an accredited
diplomatic representative to handle.
IUfllan Ship Soak.
London, Feb. 7.—Th« sinking of
the Italian steamer Ftrttoei la an-aouacod
bjr Lloyd/*- ?:j$gfcjJ2&m
ALL WILLING TO HELP ODT
PRIVATE ENTERPRISES FROM
ALL PARTS OF THE COUNTRY
OFFER SERVICES.
Washington, FeTj. 6.—American
industry has ri3en to the occasion of
threatened international complica-tions
and already tho war and navy
departments, particularly the latter,
are being flooded with offers of co-operation
from all over the United
States. A complete willingness to
permit Uncle Sam to take over plants
of every sort whieli may be neededJ
in the manufacture of war materia'l
was registered. The list included
all branches of industry. Organiza-tions
of national character, not
industrial, are comiug to Washing-ton"
with offers of the use of every
member of their personnel which
can be of any value to the federal
government in a time of internation-al
stress.
The offers came by mail and in
many instances the heads of great
industries appeared in person with
offers of service and assurances that
they were at the government's ser-vice.
•Henry Ford, president of the Ford
Motor Works, of Detroit, offered the
use of his plant for the duration of
any governmental need with the per-sonnel
without profit. This would
mean the sacrifice of practically a
million dollars a month in profits to
the government. A list of firms and
corporations offering their services
to the navy department was publish-ed
tonight by Secretary Daniels. It
was: The Bethlehem Steel Company,
the Fore River Ship Building Com-pany,
the Electrical Cable Company,
of New York: the Slocum Avicum
and Steam Laboratories, of New
York; Lackawanna Steel Com-pany,
of New York; Boston Scale
and Machine Company, Magnolia Me-tal
Company. Bernstein Manufactur-ing
Company, any of branches and
the .Roberts Numbering Machine
Company, of Brooklyn; the United
States Rubber Company, of New-
York; the Aero Club of America, the
Great Lakes Boat Building Corpora-tion,
of Milwaukee, the Wabash Gear
Works, of Terra Haute. Indiana; the
Boston and Maine Railroad Company,
the Pittsburg Kic.kson Company, the
Staten Island Ship Building Com-pany
and the Kearfoot Engineering
Company, of New York.
The war department today ac-knowledged
with thanks the offer of
Col. Theodore Roosevelt and his
sons for service in the field if the
war emergency should arise. The
navy department received from S.
Trubee Davidson, son of H. D. Dav-idson
and ten members of the Aerial
Coast Patrol, an offer to take an
advanced course in naval aeronau-tics
under the direction of the navy-department.
Each of the volun-teers
offered to purchase their own
machines and to report for training
at any point the navy department
may designate.
Colonel Robert If. Thompson,
president of the navy league today
tendered to President Wilson the
service of the league and its several
hundred thousand members.
Aei-oplane Company Offers Its Ser-vice.
New York, Feb. 6.—The United
Eastern Aeroplane Corporation to-day
tendered to the government its
factory in Brooklyn and its aviation
school at the Sheepshead Bay speed-way.
The factory has a capacity
for turning out a large number of
machines, and it can be further in-creased.
Brigadier General George O.
Squire, chief of the signalling de-partment
of the army, sent the fol-lowing
reply to Edward Marshonet,
president of the concern:
"Many thanks for your patriotic
offer wliich will be tak°n advantage
of should occasion demand."
I0USAT0NIC HAD WARKIM
PRESIDENT WANTS AM, NEU-TKALS
TO BREAK WITH
' GERMANY.
- Washington, Feb. 5.—Besides
breaking off diplomatic relations
with Germany, President Wilson has
made a hold stroke to range the mo-ral
force of all other neutral coun-tries
along with that of the United
States in the interest of peace.
The president has suggested to all
the other neutrals that they break
off diplomatic relations with Ger-many
as the United States has done,
and has instructed all American dip-lomats
in those countries to report
immediately how the suggestion is
received, pie opinion in diplomatic
quarters here is that European neu-trals,
at tie very doorstep of Ger-many,
threatened by her military
power, will hesitate to take such a
step. The effect of the suggestion
in other countries is being eagerly
awaited.
This was the only known develop-ment
of first importance which came
out of a day of tense waiting which
followed the actual announcement
yesterday j>t the break with Ger-many.
E
Hous-atonlc Had Warning.
GERMAN U-BOAT WARFARE
TUESDAY'S REPORTS SHOW A
TOLL OF FIFTEEN VESSELS
SUNK.
Germany's submarine warfare ap-parently
is growing in intensity.
Tuesday's reports show that under-water
hoats probably have account-ed
for fifteen additional vessete—
seven neutral and eight belligerent
—of 46,763 tons. Eight of them are
known to have been sunk, one is re-ported
'to have been "itorpedoed,"
and the others are "believed" to
have been sent to the bottom.
Of the known sunken vessels, six
were British, one was Spanish, and
one Swedish; of those supposed to
have been sunk, four were Norwe-gian,
one was British, and one Rus-sian.
The vessel reported merely as
torpedoed and which is net known
positively to have been sunk, was a
Norwegian ship.
One of the British steamers torpe-doed
and sunk was the Port Adelaide
a vessel of «.181 tons, which carried
passengers. Ninety-six persons from
her, including members of the crew,
were rescued.
The occupation of about a thou-jsand
yards of German trenches by
| the British in the region of Grand
BIG STEAMER MADE USELESS
DELIBERATELY CRU>PLED, IT
WILL TAKE MONTHS TO MAKE
NECESSARY REPAIRS.
I Court, southwest of Bepaume in
News thkt the American steamer Praiwe rftpresents the greatest galn
Housatonicjiad not been sunk with-out
proper jlrarning and that no lives
had been mat. dispelled a cloud
which threiiened the storm to follow
the first ovjSrt act against the United
States undor the new war zone order.
Still hopeful that Germany will
not ruthlmly sacrifice American
lives or rights, the administration is
av. aiting developments, but leaving
undone nothing'to prepare the coun-try
for the .eventuality of war.
»!'■.' i
BELGIAN BTTUATIOX
~ 18 MUCH IMPROVED.
Londo3yWW»- 7-—Categorical as-surances
from the German govern-ment
that it does not intend to inter-fere
with the feeding of civilians in
Belgium and Northern France Were
received today at the local offices of
tho Belgian relief commission. Un-der
these assurances, it was stated,
the American agents of the commis-sion
may remain in the occupied
zones unless war is declared, and in
that event they would receive safe
conduct.
It also was stated that in event of
war between the United States and
Germany, the organization would
continue its existence, but would dis-continue
the work of distributing
supplies, limiting itself to unloading
the cargoes in Rotterdam, at which
point they would be turned over to
some neutral government to be dis-tributed.
This information is regarded here
as considerably improving the Bel-gian
relief situation.
The only hindrance to the usual
course of forwarding food to Bel-gium
lies in the inability thus far to
reach an agreement as to the rout-ing
of it through the submarine
zone. Germany insists that it shall
be sent by the route north of Scot-land
while the British government
stipulates that the relief ships must
continue to use the English channel
route by way of Falmouth, but the
commission hopes that some compro-mise
may be reached by which the
reuglar sailings can be resumed.
Spain Firmly Protests Notice of War
Zone.
Madrid, via Paris. Feb. 7.—The
Spanish government's reply to Ger-many's
submarine war zone note is
a Arm and dignified protest against
it. It declares that Germany's decis-ion
to close completely certain sea
routes is outside the legal principles'
of international life. It adds that if
Germany hopes to have Spain's help
to avoid more loss of life it must be
understood that Spain, while ready
at the proper time to lend the initia-tive
in support of the establishment
of peace, cannot, accept Um l«g*Htr
at exceptional methods of war. ,.
ASKS HALF 3ULLION FOR
RELIEF OF AMERICANS.
Washington, Feb. 7.—An emer-gency
appropriation of $500,000 for
relief, protection and transportation
of American citizens in Europe, was
asked of Congress today by Secretary
Lansing. -
The secretary did not mention spe-cifically
the break with Germany,
merely calling attention to the con-tinued
eitraordinary expenses of the
state dejjirtment on account of the
war and suggested that the neces-sary
moiey be provided immediately
"in viewi of the important develop-ments
ill the international relations
of the Uiited States within the past
few dayej"
•When the European war began
Congresfl appropriated $2,750,000
for relief of the thousands of Amer-icans
sfanded abroad. Relief was
discontinued more than a year ago,
except li the most meritorious cases.
Secret >ry Lansing also asked for
the app ipriation of $450,000 for
, W—Lu ^.Jli-1, i>»Z**<i:—: auCi. ■ i fii M>fiiH|-»»ii.WiliaiiyMMIlMii
■u -—-•'
££ud
front announced in the latest official
by any of the belligerents on any
commuications. No fighting was re-quired
to take the new positions, the
London war office reporting that the
Germans offered no opposition to the
British troops. On the remainder of
the front in France spirited artillery-duels
alone have prevailed.
In Galicia, south of Klselin and
southwest of Brody, the Germans es-sayed
attacks against the Russians,
but, according to Petrograd, all of
them failed.
In Rumania quiet continues to
prevail. In the Auatro-Italian thea-ter,
hoti]bardmen's alone arejAklng
place. On the Macedonia front," In
Cerna river bend and on the Struma
river lowlands, there has been con-siderable
fighting, but with the re-sults
unknown.
Constantinople reports that in re-cent
attacks on the Turks near Kut
El Amara the British lost not less
than 2.000 aside from men made
prisoners. The Britisli succeeded in
penetrating Turkish first line posi-tions,
says Constantinople, but later
were ejected.
Boston. Feh. 6.—:The refugee Ger-man
steamer Kronprinzessin Cecilie,
built at a cost of $4,500,000. has
been rendered useless for months by
the disabling of her engines, it was
discovered today by Captain Jp.hn B.
Coyle, an engineer of the United
States coast guard service. He re1
ported to Assistant Secretary of the
Treasury Peters that his examina- .
tion indicated a deliberate attempt
to cripple the liner. The cylinders
of the two high pressure engines, ac-cording
to information from an au-a
thoritative source were found to
have been destroyed. A piece of
steel about three feet long was cut
out of each cylinder. Because the
machinery was made in Germany, it
was said that the damaged parts
could not be duplicated here, and to
use the steamer it would be neces-sary
to install new engines.
As a result of the discoveries, a
decision was reached to attempt
criminal prosecution of those who
may be found responsible for the
damage. The Kronprinzessin Ce-cilie,
through pending civil suits was
in nominal custody of the United
States marshal from November.
1914. when she came here from Bar
Harbor, 'Maine, until Saturday night
when Marshall Mitchell took physi-cal
possession of the vessel on the.
demand of New York banking insti-tutions
which were the li'belants.
Federal officials are understood to
have agreed that under the circum-stances
the damage to the ship con-stituted
an, offense against the
United' States. Electricians were
still at work tonight endeavoring to
discover whether any contrivance
had been set up to cause further
damage to the vessel. The Cecille's
crew was removed Saturday night,
but had been allowed to visit the
f T%*o- Wflar: — -After Captain Coyle'a.
findings, however, all were forbidden
to come aboard.
SIGHTS STRANGE VESSEL
RESEMBLING SUBMARINE.
Boston. Mass., Feb. 7.—The sight-ing
of a strange vessel resembling a
submarine was reported tonight by
Capt. Smith A. Ross, master of a
harbor tug. Capt. Ross said he saw
the stranger four miles off Marble-head
this morning. She was heading
in from sea at a speed which he esti-mated
at 15 to 18 knots an hour, but
soon after being sighted veered to
the south, toward Cape Cod.
Captain Ross expresed the belief
that it was a submarine. He was fa-miliar
with American undersea
boats, he said, but was certain the
craft he sighted was not one of the
American type. The stranger Hew-no
flag.
After receiving the report from
Capt. Ross, navy yard officials began
a check on vessels known to be in
these waters, but all which might
answer the description of the tug
were accounted for.
The strange vessel was described
by Capt. Ross as from 300 to 350
feet long lying low in the water, with
a small conical house or superstruc-ture
about fifteen or eighteen feet
high, just forward of amidship.
WILSON'S FIRST VETO
OVER-RIDDEN BY CONGRESS.
HEAVY INCREASES ON
WAR RISK INSURANCE.
Washington. Feb. 7.—Increases
ranging from 125 per cent to 900
per cent for war risk insurance is-sued
by the federal war risk insur-ance
bureau were anounced today by
Secretary McAdoo. They are effec-tive
from all American ports to all
destinations.
The greatest advances are in the
rates from Atlantic and Pacific ports
of the United States to South Amer-ica
'and from Pacific ports of the
United States to China and Japan.
The former are increased from 1-10
of one per cent to one per cent; the
thepow awe of embassy property at, latter from 1-20 of one per cent
of tae per cat.
Washington. Feb. 6.—Congress
has over-ridden a veto by President
Wilson for the first time, and enact-ed
inito law the immigration bill with
its long-fought literacy test provis-ion.
The senate voted late today 62
to 19 to pass the measure, notwith-standing
the veto and in sphte of
eleventh-hour information that Ja-pan
again had protested against the
language of the Asiatic exclusion
section.
The house overturned the veto last
week by a vote of 287 to 106. so the
senate's action ends the contest of
20 years' standing in which three
presidents have repudiated similar
bills passed by Congress.
The international situation was
brought into the closing debate in
the senate. Senator Reed calling at-tention
to the Japanese objection
and pleading that nothing be done
at this time to disturb or impair the
country's relations with a friendly
nation. Senator Smith, of South
Carolina, chairman of the immigra-tion
commliMee, answered with the
declaration that the present state of
international affairs emphasized the
necessity for a pure, homogenous
American people, such as the bill
was Intended to protect.
Ccrinan.Americans Voice Patriotiam.
Philadelphia, Feb. 6.—Charles J.
Hexamer, president of the National
German-American Alliance, whose
membership in the United States is
said to be 3,000,000, pledged his loy-alty
to this country today. He au-thorized
the following statement:
"If it came to war I would stand
firmly behind the United States and
would uphold anything this, my
country, might set out to do. I do
not think, however, any country-should
declare war without the issue
being first decided by the referen-dum."
Monroe Visited by a Disa»troiu* lire.
Monroe. Feb. 7.—The business
section of Monroe was visited by a
serious fire early tonight entailing a
loss of between $100,000 and $160.-
000. partially covered by insurance.
Belk Brothers, a large department
store, was the heaviest sufferer. The
Rudge Book Company, Monroe Tele-phone
Exchange and Lee * Lee de-partment
store also sustained low.
Ttas 8re Is said to Have started 'from '
* wo»4 stove. :_•'*. v'.
• I