i America Has Passed Most Stirring Year j r'tioto No. o © by Mutual Film Corporation; others by American Press Association. Pictorial Phases of Year's Events at Home I, James Whitcomb Riley, poet, died; 2, subsea liner Deutschiand; 3-8, Presi- '^y dent Wilson and Charles Evans Huohes; 4, Congressman William C. Adam son, sponsor for eigh; hour bill; 5, Francisccr Vilia, bandit leader; 6, General Pershing, leader of punitive expedition; 7, soldiers leaving for border. By GEORGE L. KILMER. TllE chief events in ih'.s country during the twei\o inouilis jus: closed have been tiie national election and the situation on the border of Mexico. The prospects of complications with Germany over submarine warfare assumed serious aspects early in the year. The whole country has had an unusually pros perous year. The prices of all kinds of produce and of many household necessaries have advanced, in some cases, beyond all precedent, with the result that the cost of living has in creased on an average of 33 1-3 per tent or more. Villa's Columbus Raid. The situation on the Mexican border became acute early in the spring, when a body of Mexicans led by General Francisco Villa crossed into United States territory on the Oth of March and raided Columbus, N. M. Eighteen United States soldiers were killed in repulsing the attack. This foray halt ed temporarily proceedings looking to a favorable understanding between the United States and the de facto govern ment of Mexico headed by Carranza. It was about this time that rival fac tions in Mexico were aiming to defeat Carranza's efforts to restore order. Following Villa's raid, troops of the United States army were rushed from their stations inland to re-enforce the slender garrisons which the United States had maintained at important points on the Mexican border since the outbreak against the government of Porfirio Diaz five years ago. The Affair at Carrizal. A "punitive expedition" was ordered to cross the Rio Grande and eliminate Vflla and his band. On March 15 Colo nel Dodd and General Fershing were on Mexican soil, proceeding south In two columns, Dodd's in the lead. On March 20 Dodd's column defeated 500 Villistas, 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, xlt the end of ApTil General Obregon met General H. L. Scott and General Funston at Juarez to discuss the situation on the border. Nothing came of it. A month later Carranza asked for immediate with drawal, alleging bad faith on the part of 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 of the whole country for service on the Mexican border and notified 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. Boy,d and Lieutenant Adair of the Tenth cavalry. The affair resulted from an attempt by the cavalry to march westward in defiance of General Trevino's notice of the 16th. Twenty three troopers were made prisoners by the Mexicans, thirteen killed and six teen missing. President Wilson demanded the im j mediate release of the prisoners and ordered the militia rushed to the bor der. The prisoners were delirered at El Paso three days after the president's demand. Early in September an Amer ican-Mexican joint commission met to confer upon the matters in dispute be tween the government of the United I States and Mexico. This joint com -5 rhission signed a protocol Nov. 24. ; Meanwhile, one day before the protocol was signed, Villistas attacked Chihua hua City and were defeated by Car ranzistas. Two days later they again attacked and occupied part of the city, but were expelled on 1 by Carrau za forces. , % Election and Politics. Following his nomination for the presidency by the Republican conven | tion in June, Justice Charles E. Hughes resigned from the supreme court bencb and immediately entered the canvass | against President Woodrow Wilson, j who was renominated by the Demo : cratic convention. Theodore Roosevelt declined the Progressive nomination and 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 -1 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 employefes* to take effect Jan. 1, 1017. 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 bev?fit 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 warfare. Germany had "recognized re sponsibility" for the loss of neutral lives on the Lusitania 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 houses acted upon separate resolutions, practically leaving the mat ter in the hands of the executive. Sen ate vote was OS to 14; house. 27G tp 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. i the armed Ger man submarine U-53 entered Newport harbor, coming direct from Wilhelms haven. She received the usual privi leges of a warship in a neutral port. Next day, off Nantucket shoals, Unit ed States coast, she torpedoed and sank three British and two neutral , ships, giving tb<? wan ing as preview ! ly pledgee] by Germ my lor unarmed ; ships. All on uoaxxi esc-ai «d. Tlie t United States treated the matter as I simply an extension of the naval war zone and notified the allied powers on Oct. 10 that this country would con tinue to apply existing rules of war fare to submarines. British Trade Blacklist. Involved with the great problems of neutral rights and illegal measures af fecting them was the announcement by | Great Britain in July of the blacklist of American firms which carried on trade with Germany. Trade with firms so listed, by merchants of the al lied powers, was prohibited. This call ed for/li a protest by the United States, which elicited the reply that the pro r ; hibition is a local regulation and not within the purview of international law. Vagaries of weather began in the winter and continued up to autumn. On Jan. 27 the temi>erature was 66-G9, a record, in New Yprk. The same day there was a blizzard on the Pacific coast and in the Rocky mountains. Aug. 14 was the coldest for that day known in the east in forty-six years, the thermometer touching 56. 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 Panama canal was reopened to traffic in April after being closed for several months by obstruc tions in the Gaillard cut. 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 zation act of June 3 went into effect It increased the strength of the 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 maximum of 460.000. The defense legislation 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 property loss of $15,000,000. In August a cloud burst and flood in West Virginia de stroyed sixty-six lives and property valued at $3,000,000. 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 Victori ano Huerta, J. T. Trowbridge, Robert Burns Wilson. Clara Louisa Kellogg. Rev. Dr. Timothy Dwight, James J. Hill. Hetty Green. James Whitcomb Riley, John P. Sr. John, Horace White, Seth Low, Frank Dempster Sherman. Charles Taze John D. Arch bold and Fercival Lowell. The nomination of Louis D. Brandeis to the supreme court bench*caused crit icism. but he was confirmed June 3. Bartholdi'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 Decern ber. j Time For Litib but War Abroad In 1916j ' ~ & * '" ~. *t"v' * I j '.ft ! I I *i£h*y*-~ r.v?•' -»V v- I t :" **V "..V ■ • Photos by American Press Association. Pictorial Phases of Year's Events Abroad 1 r King Constantins of Greece; 2, F-'rench soldiers protested cy mas°<s against a gas attack on the Somme front; 3. Sir Rarer CEtoment- h?nrc-d for :r.rt;ci pation in Irish rebellion; 4, Emperor Francis Jcscph ov Austria, who c;ed; 5, Roumanian infantry, which entered war this yeir; t, tar! Kitchener. Britain's war minister, drowned; 7, fia Sussex, cross channel cceamci, tor pedoed by a submarine; 8, British bac!«?»hip battered or? Jutland dun/i greatest sea battle in history. By Captain GEORGE L. KILMER, Late U. S. V. SURPRISES have not ceased in the surprising world war, now well into its third year. The more important of these sur prises in 1916 have been in France, at sea, 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 north, on Vimy ridge, and at Ypres, Belgium, they stormed British trenches. 800 yards and 600 yards in length. While attention was thus drawn to the northern front the Germans suddenly launched heavy at tacks on Feb. 22 north of Verdun, starting a tremendous drive against that famous salient* which the crown prince originally struck at in August, 1914. Three days later Fort Douau mont, four miles from the city, was captured following a bombardment which nearly razed its walls. Next day the Germans captured six fortified French villages and on the 29th shifted the attack from the north to the south east. Fighting continued for weeks. The middle of May it was evident that the French 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 Allies. 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 Ist of July along the river Somme and the river Ancre, Peronne and Bapaume being the objectives. Every day for two weeks either the 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 Contalmaison and Combles were cap tured, but Peronne and Bapaume still cover the railroad along which th » Germans on the battle line in France receive their supplies through Belgium. At the end of two weeks of forward movements on the Somme, Lloyd- George. British minister of war, ex claimed in a council of leaders. "Vic tory is beginning to flow in our di rection." Russia Comes Back. Lloyd-George evidently included in the flow of victory Russia's great en terprises in her southwest war zone, Bukowina and eastern Galicia. The Russians had been expelled from the Warsaw and Vistula line in the au tumn of 1915, but a considerable body remained in eastern Bukowina and just outside its borders. The Austro- Germans had also left garrisons for their original fortifications there. Early I in January the Russians began a drive in the vicinity of Czernowitz. Noth ing of consequence resulted, but the movement, taken in connection with attacks in the district of Vilna and Dvinsk. in the north, gave proof that Russia still had aggressive power. In June General Brusiloff assumed com-, mand in the southwest and, aiming for Lemberg. turned the flank of the Aus trian defenses in Volhynia and Buko wina. In one week the Russians claim ed SO,OOO prisoners, captured the for i tress of Dubno, also Czernowitz, and were marching upon Lutsk and Kovel. But about the time that Lloyd-George voiced his optimism the Russians found themselves checked on the river Stok hod and on r.he Dniester, south. Greatest of Naval Battles. Lloyd-George also had in mind the naval battle of Jutland, which took place on the last 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 a confession that the German navy is by no means a negligible factor. The Germans ventured to sea seeking bat tle. They overcame the advance Brit ! ish column and were not checked uu j til the heavy British battleships ar | rived on the scene. Both sides lost heavily in battleships. I cruisers, destroyers and men. In a tactical sense the action was a draw, j but it demonstrated that the German navy is not "bottled up." v Early in the spring the Italian*' re j sumed activities on the line of the i Iso»*o, particularly at Goritz. In April the Austrians suddenly began an of fensive against Italian positions in Trentino, which the latter had invad ed May, 1915. This move was a com plete surprise and forced the Italian? into hurried retreat. At the end oi May Austria reported SO,OOO prfconer and 200 cannon as the spoils of tw< months' operations. By the middle of June the Italians had turned on I heir enemy, and the great offensive was checked. The Austrian movement was evi dently timed to affect Italy's aggressive i movements in the south, where the ob ijective of the Italians is Trieste. ! Goritz stood in the way of progress j toward the coveted citadel. It -fell Aug. 9. Since the fall of Goritz the Italians have made slow progress to ward Trieste. Something was needed in the allied I camps at midsummer to pull up wan [ ing hopes, hopes dashed by the aban donment of the Gallipoli expedition early in January, the surrender of Kut el-Amara with 10,000 British soldiers in April, the subjugation of Servia and Montenegro and the menacing situa tion in Greece. The allies' infantry from Gallipoli had been transferred to Saloniki with the evident purpose gf marching northward and taking the Bulgar forces in Servia and on their own borders in the rear. Seriour Outlook For Germany. In some respects it seemed as though the allies had unloaded a dead weight by abandoning the direct attack upon Constantinople. The Russians almost from the beginning of the war had i been coming down into Asia Minor in a direction which would bring them into Junction with the British column moving up the Tigris river toward Bag dad. In February Russia captured Er zerum. Mesopotamia, from the Turks. This was followed two months later by the capture of Trebizond, on the j Black sea. Russia's 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 Bukowina and Galicia, con stituted a menace to German ambition in the near east. • The elimination of Servia as 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 , powers through Greece, brought up again the supposed German dream of a Berlin to Bagdad route. This dream was dissipated when it became evi dent that Russia was forcing the Turks out of Mesopotamia and effec tively co-operating with the allies at Saloniki. The situation of Germany had a serious look as autumn came on, with Verdun untaken, the allies storm ing a third line on the Somine and the Russiaus displaying enough vigor in their southwest to hold the Austrian forces at full strength in Volhynia, Bukowina and Greece. Then sudden ly Roumania cast her lot with the al lies and, as it was supposed, added 400,000 men to the enemies of the Teuton On the Vienna to Constantino ple line. Von Hindenburg Scores Again. How Von Hindenburg turned to grap | pie with this new foe is the most sur | prising chapter in the history of the war, a new example of efficiency at headquarters and in the fighting ranks. Xo check worthy or the name was suf- 1 feiel after crossing two frontiers un til converging armies mot before doom- I ed Bukharest, taken on Dec. (J. Roumania seems to have repeated | the French blunder of August, 1914, I when, instead of going to the aid of Belgium, Joffre sent a big army to re cover Alsace. Instead of stabbing Bul garia, Roumania marched north into Hungary, a move which Invited Ger mans and Bulgars to strike at her vi tals from the south. So, while Von Mackensen marched and conquered in the general direction of the Danubey central Roumania and Bukharest. the Roumanians, who had poured over her northern border, were easily turned back, their conquests wrested from them and the entire venture of the last of the Balkan states was turned into a fizzle, so far as support of the allies was concerned. There remains Greece —at least the rebellious part of it—to stimulate the hope that the Teu tonic powers may yet receive a vital thrust in the back. The conquest of Roumania required time, energy and lives. Whether the compensation will equal the investment time alone can tell. The end of 191G finds the German powers resourceful in men and un daunted in spirit. On the other hand, the allies' cabinets are reorganizing to restore the flow of victories to 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 the Atlan tic in Octojfrer and General Kitchener's 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 has been normal, with the exception of a brief rebellion in Ireland, which had been expected and was ruthlessly sup pressed. Japan and Russia formed an agreement, and Japan made new de m ;nds upon China, whose ruler, Yuan S! ih Kai, died in June, Deaths abroad di ring the year included Franz Joseph, emperor and king; Carmen Sylva, Rou manian queen dowager and a person ality of note; Dr. Metchnikoff, the bac teriologist; Mounet-Sully, French ac tor, and Sienkiewicz, Polish author. Sir Roger Casement was executed for treason as instigator of the rebellion in Ireland; also Pearse, the rebel "president," and Connolly, the military chief.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers