THE MEYERSDALE COMMERCIAL, MEYERSDALE, PA. :
ADJOURNMENT IS |
CLOSE AT HAND
Resolution Fixing June 28 as
Final Day Passed.
——————
SOME LAST HOUR LEGISLATION
Prohibition Amendment to Constitu-
tion Suddenly Reported Out—Would
Absolutely Prohibit Sale or Manu.
facture of Liquors—Bounty Bill Goes
Through Over Governor's Vete and
at His Suggestion.
Harrisburg, Pa., June 19.—If the
legislature runs according to schedule
4t wil close firally on Thur=day, June
28. The house resolution fixing June
14 as adjournment day was reported
out of senate committee last week in
amended form, the change advancing
the date just two weeks.
There is a possibility of the leaders
reconsidering their action regarding
adjournment if the direct inheritance
tax bill is vetoed by the governor.
For such action would mean the cut-
ting off entirely of new revenue and
the resultant necessity of slashing hos-
pltalls, schools and other deserving ap-
propriations. Rather than permit this
calamity the legislature may decide to
continue in session longer for the pur-
pose of seeking new revenue raisers.
It begins to look as though the ses-
slon of 1917 will go down into legis-
lative history as the first assembly in
Pennsylvania to pass a resolution to
amend the constitution for state-wide
prohibition. That this action should
Ye decided upon during the closing
days and after the . “dry” forces
throughout the state have given up the
battle is all the more remarkable.
The house committee on constitu-
tional reform reported with a unani-
mous vote the Smith resolution to sub-
mit to the people the question of
adopting a statutory provision against
the manufacture and sale of intoxi-
eants. If the resolution passes this
session, it will be submitted to the
1919 session before it could go before
the voters of the state.
HON. EDGAR R. SMITH.
Youngest Member of Legislature and
Author of Some Important Bills.
The significant part of the program
is the attitude of certain leaders. They
are ready and willing to put the Re-
publican party as squarely in favor of
submitting to the people any question
for which there is popular demand to
be settled by the electorate. Pro-
gressive anti-liquor legislation of the
character embodied in the Smith reso-
lution would please a good many per-
sons in Pennsylvania, and if the reso-
lution is not speedily adopted before
the close of the present session it will
be because many of the leaders have
changed their minds."
The Smith resolution, to be submit-
ted, would prohibit the manufacture,
sale or keeping for sale of vinous
spiritous, malt or brewed liquors after
July 1 of the year in which the amend-
ment is made to the constitution. The
legislature of 1921 would enact the
necessary prohibitary legislation. :
Edgar R. Smith, author of the pro-
hibition resolution, represents Bedford
county and is Pennsylvania’s youngest
legislators. He is not yet twenty-eight,
Another of his bills which attracted
attention was directed at cabarets.
Last Wednesday the legislature wip-
ed out a veto of the governor and a
bill that had been disapproved bv the
chief executive was placed upon the
statute books notwithstanding the ve-
to. To make the occasion more inter-
esting, the action by the legislature in
overriding the veto wag taken with the
advise and at the request of the gov-
ernor. Tt was the first time in thirty
vears that a hill was put through over
the governor's’ veto.
The case was the Mitchell bounty
bill which the governor vetoed last
week. His veto message was a caustic
commentary upon the practice in some
counties of permitting and allowing
fraudulent claims for the payment of
bounties, and suggesting that if such
claims are Investigated, and a bill is
presented to mover only the worthy
ghes, such a bill would be approved.
i common to light steers,
AMERICAN ARMY
LANDS IN FRANGE
Thousands of Soldiers Cross
Ocean Without Mishap
BIG RECEPTION BY FRENCH
People Overjoyed at Coming of Unit.
ed States Soldiers—Vive L’Ameni-
que Is Cry.
Pershing’s boys have landed at a
French port.
Thousands of them came within the
last twenty-four hours out of the misty
vastness of the sea, a U-boat infested
sea that held no terrors for them—
not a torpedo scratch on a transport;
not a single man lost. Spick and
span, with weather-browned faces,
their eyes sparkling fight, every one
of them every inch a man, they
tramped down the gangways into a
pandemonium of unending cheers.
As these thousands of American
fighting lads poured off the transports,
scores of German prisoners stood on
the pier. Teeth set, they looked half
sideways at these strapping newcom-
ers. Those who watched these pris-
oners could discern a grudging admira-
tion in their looks.
The remarkable thing about these
scenes attending the real entrance of
the United States into the world war
through the safe arrival of the ex-
peditionary force was the spontaneity.
the touching warmth of their recep-
tion here. Not an inkling of the ar-
rival had leaked out beforehand.
There had been no preparations, no
programs with speeches and song, no
reception committee or the like. Not
until the transports had safely arrived
off this port ready to disembark did
the momentous news become known.
Then the people here simply “got
wild.”
The American troops answered the
cheers by throwing small silver coins
ashore. A roaring scramble among
the street urchins followed. They did
not spend the coins for candy. They
wrapped them up carefully in their
ragged handkerchiefs to save them as
sacred souvenirs.
The disembarkation passed off in
the most orderly manner. There was
not the slightest hitch. Ship after
ship slipped into her berth, discharg-
ing men and equipment. Confusion
khakiclad youth and their officers.
From the piers the American troops
swung off through the streets of this
port, where the whole populace had
turned out to give them a tremendcus
ovation. The crowds showered flowers,
fruits, cigarets and dainties upon the
marchers. .
“Vive I’Amerique” was an unending
cry. And as proof that but one corn-
tident thought was in the hearts eof
those cheering thousands, this about
was repeated over and over again:
“You'll chase the Germans out of
our country.”
“We will,” came the thunderous
chorus from the Yankee boys.
LIVE STOCK AND GRAIN
Pittsburgh, July 3.
Butter—Prints, 411, @42c; tubs, 40%
@41c. Eggs—Fresh, 37c.
Cattle — Prime, $12.75@13;
$11.75@12.25; tidy butchers,
11.25; fair, $9.75@10.25; common,
$7.560@8.50; heifers, $7@11; common
to good fat bulls, $6@10.75; common
to good fat cows, $5@10; fresh cows
and springers, $40@90.
Sheep and Lambs—Prime wethers,
$10@10.50; good mixed, $9@9.75; fair
mixed, $7.60@8560; culls and common,
$450@6; yearlings, $6@13; spring
lambs, $10@10.50; veal calves, $15@
15.50; heavy and thin calves, $7@11.
Hogs—Prime heavy, $15.756@165.80;
heavy mixed and mediums, $15.70@
15.75; heavy Yorkers, $15.25@15.65;
light Yorkers, $14.75@15; pigs, $14.25
@14.50; roughs, $13.26@14.25; stags,
$12@12.75.
good,
$ll@
Cleveland, July 3.
Cattle—Choice fat steers, 1,600 1bs.
and upwards, $11.50@12.25; choice fat
steers, 1,000 lbs. and upwards, $10@
10.75; good to choice butcher steers,
$9.25@9.75; fair to good, $8@9.25;
$7.25@38.25;
choice fat butcher bulls, $8@9.75;
bologna bulls, $6.76@7.76; good to
choice fat cows, $8@9.25; common
cows, $5.75; milch cows and springers,
$60@85.
Calves—Choice, $15.26@15.75; good
mixed, $15@15.25; heavy, $7T@14.
Hogs—Choice heavy, $15.60; good
mixed, $15.45@15.50; Yorkers, $15.40;
pigs and lights, $14.26; roughs, $13.80;
stags, $12.50.
Clipped Sheep and’ Lambs—Spring
lambs, $14.50@15.60; fair to good,
$10.50@12; choice yearlings, $10@12;
fair to good, $8@10; good to choice
sheep, $8.50@9.50; culls and common,
$6@7.
, Chicago, July 3:
Hogs—Bulk, $14.36@15.50; light, $14
@15.20; mixed, $14.25@15.70; heavy,
$14.20@15.76; roughs, $14.20@14.45;
pigs, $10.76@13.90.
Cattle—Native beef cattle, $8.30@
13.756; stockers and feeders, $6.40@
9.60; cows and heifers, $5.40@11.75;
calves, $10.60@15.
Sheep and Lambs—Wethers, $8@
10.75; lambs, $10@18.76.
Chicago Grain Market Close.
Wheat. Corn. Oats.
JUIY....c0ccnnes 2.03 1.59% 66%
Beptember...... 1.84% 1.50 653%
seemed an unknown quantity to these;
LANDS FIRST DIVISION
OF TROOPS IN FRANCE
vy A an Pras Ao a -
GENERAL W. L. SIBERT.
. General Sibert for a long time had
charge of the work of constructing
dams in the Monongahela and Ohio
rivers. 5
A GENERAL SURVEY OF
THE WAR
Russian troops have captured
Koniuchy, on the Galician front, to-
gether with 164 officers and 8,400 men,
the Russian war office announced.
The number of prisoners taken in
the various secbors on Sunday is more
than 10,000. Southwest of Brezezany
the Russians occupied strongly forti-
fied positions of the enemy.
The Russian official announcement
says that the Russians have advanced
to the Koniuchy stream and also have
captured seven heavy guns. Teuton
prisoners continue to be brought in.
The British made progress in their
encirclement of the French town
of Lens. The official statement from
British headquarters reports the cho
ture of German defenses om a half-
mile front along the north bank lof
the Souchez river, southwest and west
of Lens. 0
The Greek government has brok
diplomatic relations with Germany,
pi
Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and Turkey.
It “is expected the next mowe will
be a formal war declaration.
Twenty-one British vessels of more
than 1,600 tons each, and seven under
1,600 tons were sunk by mines or sub-
marines last week, according to the
statement issued by the admiralty.
No fishing vessels met with disaster.
The aggregate number of vessels fly-
ing the British flag destroyed by
mines or submarines last weck shows
a net falling off of four, as compare’
with the losses reporied theo previous
week, which numbered 1oiriy-two—
twenty-seven of r-ore than 1,600 tons
and five in the smaller division.
In an air duel fought «probably
the highest altitude at which aviators
have met in combat—nearly four
miles—a Canadian triplane pursued
and defeated a German two-seated
aviatik.
The German machine had sought
safety by climbing upward, and the
triplane pursued. - At g height of 20,-
000 feet the pilot of the German craft
either fell or jumped from it and dis-
appeared at the moment of the first
burst of fire from the gun on the
Canadian. The German observer was
then seen to climb out upon the tail
of his machine, where he lost his hold
and plunged headlong. The aviatik
turned its nose down and fell.
LESS DRINK AND MORE FUEL
Coal Man Declares Production Is Hin:
dered by Booze.
Coal production in states where the
fuel is mined can be increased 25,000,
000 tons a year if strong drink is
eliminated, D. A. Morrow of the Pitts-
burgh Coal Producers’ association de-
clared before the senate interstate
commerce committee.
In the Pittsburgh district alone, Mr.
Morrow said, production would be in-
creased 5,000,000 tons.
“Alcoholic liquor is one of the worst
enemies of the miners in western
Pennsylvania,” said Mr. Morrow. “It
is impossible to get men to work more
than a few days a week even when
the car supply permits. The same
trouble exists in Illinois and Ohio and
also was felt in Indiana until that
state became dry. Give up liquor and
the production of those states would
be increased 25,000,000 tons a year.”
Mr. Morrow said the car supply
question was worse in the Pittsburgh
district than any other place in the
United States. He declared that rail-
roads had sufficient coal cars but sent
them to mills for steel and other
products.
Charles Wants Peace.
Emperor Charles of Austria is de-
sirous of having peace at the earliest
moment. A dispatch from Vienna said
that Deputy Haesuer, who recently
had an audience with the youthful
monarch of the dual monarchy, an-
nounced in the reichsrath that the em-
peror had told him of his earnest de-
gire for a speedy peacs during the in-
terview.
FEW CLASSES
ARE EXEMPTED
Go ~eription Instructions Are
isousd by President
Spent.
WILSON SAYS NO UNFAIRNESS
Details of Draft Will Be Issued In
Later Proclamation — Regulations
Made Known Now.
The draft system is one of equality
and fairness, President Wilson ex-
plained in a proclamation accompany-
ing exemption and draft regulations.
His proclamation said:
“The regulations which I am today
causing to be promulgated, pursuant
to the direction of the selective serv-
ice law, cover the remaining steps of
the plan for calling into service of
the United States qualified men from
those who have registered; those se-
lected as the result of this process to
constitute with the regular army, the
national guard and the navy, the
fighting forces of the ndtion, all of
which forces are under the terms of
the law placed in a position of equal
right, dignity and responsibility with
the members of all other military
forces.
‘““The regulations have been drawn
with a view to the needs and circum-
stances of the whole country and pro-
vide a system which it is expected
will work with the least inequality
and personal hardships. Any system
for selecting men for military serv:
ice, whether voluntary or involuntary
in its operation, necessarily selects
some men tio bear the burden of dan,
ger and sacrifice for the whole na-
tion. The system here provided places
all men of military age upon an even
plane and then by selection which
neither favors the one nor penalizes
the other, calls out the requisite num-
ber for service.
“The successful operation of this
law and of these regulations depends
necessarily upon the loyalty, patrio-
tism and justice of the members of
the boards to whom its operation is
committed, and I admonish every
member of every local board and of
each district board of review, that
their duty to their. country requires
an impartial and fearless perform-
ance of the delicate and difficult duties
intrusted to them. They should re-
member as to each individual case
presented to them that .theyi are
‘called upon to adjudicate the most
sacred rights of the individual and to
preserve untarnished the honor of the
nation.
“Our armies at the front will be
strengthened and sustained if they be
composed of men free from any sense
of injustice in their mode of selec-
tion, and they will be inspired to
loftier efforts in behalf of a country
in which the citizens called upon to
perform high public functions perform
them with justice, fearlessness and
impartiality. ~ (Signed) §
“Woodrow Wilson.”
In rules and regulations governing
the draft given out by Secretary of
War Baker these exemptions are
made:
Persons engaged in industries which
act of congress authorizes the presi-
dent to exclude from the draft.
Officers of the United States and of
the several states, territories and the
District of Columbia.
Ministers of religion.
Students of divinity.
Persons in the military or naval
service of the United States.
Subjects of Germany residing in the
United States.
All resident aliens who have not
taken out their first papers.
Upon application to the local ex-
emption board the following may be
discharged from military duty:
County and municipal officers.
Customs house clerks.
Persons employed by the United
States in the transmission of the
mails.
Employees of armories, arsenals and
navy yards of the United States.
Persons employed in the service of
the United States designated by the
president to be exempted.
Pilots.
Mariners actually employed in sea
service within the United States.
Those with persons dependent upon
them.
Any persons members of religious
sects or organizations organized and
existing May 18, 1917, whose then ex-
isting creed or principles forbid its
members te participate in war in any
form.
Those found to be morally deficient.
The duties of the local and district
boards were also given. The details
of the agrart wil pe given out in a
later proclamation.
GUNNERS HIT PERISCOPE
Two Attacking Submarines. Are Driven
From American Ship.
The gun crew of an American liner
fired upon two German submarines
during her voyage from the United
States to England. Both targets were
at a considerable range, but the re-
port to Washington of the comman-
ding officer will express the belief
that one periscope was shattered.
The passengers expressed the great-
est admiration for the marksmanship
of the American gunners as shown
both In practice and against the
enemy.
Ee Ef RN On oy
TWENTY NEGRUES
KILLED IN GLiS4
East St. Louis Race Rists
Fatal fo Many
ema
BLACKS’ DISTRIGT BURNED
Three Hundred White Men Arrested
by Military—While Homes of Ne
groes Burn Whites Shoot at Blacks
At least twenty negroes were shot
and killed as they fled from their
burning homes which had been set on
fire by white mobs in East St. Louis,
IL ]
The exact number who perished in
the burning houses is unknown and
will not be ascertained for some time.
Estimates of the number of negroes
who perished in the fire ran as high
as 100, but there is nothing authentic
on which to base these estimates, ex-
cept that hundreds of whites stood
around the edges of the burning dis-
tricts and fired at the negroes as they
fled from their homes.
Military rule was proclaimed and at
the same time 300 white men were
arrested and locked up at police head.
quarters. The flames reached the very
edge of the business district.
The rioting is a recrudescence of
race troubles that occurred here a
month ago following the importation
of large numbers of negro laborers
from the south.
Women and girls, joining the men,
dragged negro women from the street
cars in the downtown district. Early
in the evening white mobs began to
set fire to the homes in the negre
quarter.
State troopers themselves were dis.
armed by the mobs in many instances
and, together with the police, seemed
powerless before the rioters.
The disorder, which began when a
mob of 200 negroes fired on an auto-
mobile load of policemen, killing one,
reached a climax in the broad day-
light Monday forenoon. In this out-
break three negro men and one white
man were killed, two white men and
two negroes were shot and wounded,
and twenty-three others so badly
beaten and stoned that they were
taken to hospitals.
With the saloons closed ang street
car service stopped by order of the
authorities, national guardsmen began
escorting truck loads of negroes
serey the iriver tq Missouri.
Until the white women began to par-
ticipate, negro women and girls had
seemed immune from attack, but when
this occurred, negresses, too, were ter-
rorized and attacked.
As the rioting downtown progressed
undertakers lined their wagons by the
curb ready .for the expected call to
haul away the dead.
Sixteen guardsmen were disarmed
by members of the mob, who calmly
asked the soldiers to give them their
weapons “lest the guardsmen hurt
someone in the crowd.”
The guardsmen, according to the
commander, Major William Klauser,
patrolled the streets with loaded
rifles, but were under instructions to
confine aggressive measures to the
bayonet. During the rioting no mem-
ber of the mob was seriously hurt by
the guardsmen and the outbreaks con-
tinued in the heart of the city despite
warnings of the police and national
guard officers.
LOADED CAR GOES
INTO NIAGARA RIVER
Twenty Passengers Missing and Sev-
eral Are Iinjured—Car Turns
Completely Over.
A trolley car on the gorge route at
Niagara Falls, N. Y., carrying forty
persons, jumped the track and ran
into the Niagara river. Twenty per-
sons are missing and several are in
hospitals seriously hurt.
The car left the track just below
the cantilever bridge, on the Ameri-
can side of the river, and turned
bottom side up in the rushing current.
The cause of the accident was said
to have been a washout. The roadbed
under the cantilever bridge at the
point where it occurred is a elay fill,
and recently heavy rains washed it
out below the surface of the roadbed.
‘When the heavily loaded car struck
the weak spot the rail on the river
side, about ten feet from the water,
gave way. The car turned on its side,
slid down into the water, and, as it
struck the rocky bottom of the river,
turned completely over, the top of
the car resting on the bottom of the
river:
FOUR DIE IN MOTOR WRECKS
Train Smashes Into Auto; Two Killed
In Motorcycle Collision.
Four killed and four injured was
the Sunday automobile and motor
cycle toll in Allegheny county, Pa.
One of the injured probably will die.
Two of the deaths and two of the
injuries occurred when two motor-
cycles collided, head-on, on the
Noblestown road, near Camp Hill, Col.
lier township.
One man was killed and two were
Injured when a westbound Allegheny
Valley railroad train struck an auto-
mobile at the railroad avenue cross
ing in Springdale.
W. 8. Kidd, a Civil war veteran
was fatally injured when “Struck by
an automobile in the Lincoln high-
| Versailles township.
COMMANDS TRAINING
CAMP AT PLATTSBURG |
Photo by American Press Association. |
COLONEL PAUL A. WOLF.
Colonel Wolf has his hands full in
caring for the thousands of young
men, mostly civilians, who are being
intensively trained for officers’ com-
missions in the nation’s armies. He
has the reputation of a strict diseci-
plinarian, but not a martinet and gets
along well with his students.
SECRETARY BAKER
OPPOSES COAL PACT
$3 a Ton Unjust and Unreasonable,
He Declares—Sensation |
Washington.
Secretary of War Baker’s repudia-
tion of the coal price pact made be-
tween the operators and members of
the coal production committee of the
Council of National Defense and
other representatives of the govern-
ment in Washington has created
considerable of a stir. It was agreed
at the meeting that the government
should pay a maximum price of $3 a
ton for bituminous coal on cars as
it comes from the mine,
Secretary Lane of the department
of the interior, who participated in :
the conference in which the tentative
maximum price was reached, had
praised the operators as patriotic and
told them that they deserved the grati-
tude of the country. Mr. Baker, on
the other hand, stated in his letter
that the price was exorbitant, unjust
and oppressive and that the coal pro-
duction committee had exceeded its
authority if it had made any such
agreement.
There were other developments
which made it evident that the gov-
ernment as represented by the presi-
dent and some other officials were
prepared to make a determined fight
on prices.
Secretary Daniels announced he had
ordered fuel oil, gas oil, gasoline and
distillate required for the navy up to
Sept. 30 to be furnished as needed,
the prices to be determined later on
the basis of cost of production, plus
a reasonable profit,
He said also that he would not pay
the $3 per ton for bituminous coal
that had been agreed upon as a maxi-
mum at the conference of operators
to which Mr. Baker in his letter re-
ferred. He said he was getting coal
now at a price of $2.33 at the mines
and $2.85 at the ships.
THREE KILLED BY CAR
Interurban Hits Auto on Pittsburgh
and Butler Line.
Three persons were killed and
three were injured, two seriously,
when their automobile was struck by
a southbound Pittsburgh, IIarmony,
Bune gout New Castle railway street
car a riders crossi
os ssing, near Evans
The automobile was demolished
and its occupants were hurled in all
directions.
io
In Open Boats Nine Hours.
The captain and crew of twelve men
of the Norwegian steamer Sorland,
torpedoed off the French coast, were
brought to an American port by a
steamer which picked them up after
they had been in open boats for nine
hours. The Sorland attempted to es-
cape but the U-boat overtook and
sank her with a single torpedo.