LATEST WAR NEWS

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume XLV, Issue XLV, 12 October 1917, Page 1

LATEST WAR NEWS

[Fboii Ouii Sax Francisco Corbe- _ SPONDENT.] CANADIAN AIRMAN'S UNIQUE FEAT. News has reached Hamilton, JLhitario, of one of the most remarkable performances of the entire war in the aerial element. Destruction single-handed,, first of a German submarine and then of a Zeppelin, by Lieutenant Basil D. Hobbs, of the Royal Flying Corps, was described in advices received by his relatives in the Canadian city. His exploits, which have won him a letter of congratulation from Admiral J'elhcoe, and recommendation for the Victoria Cross, were accomplished from a. seaplane. He swooped down over the U boat and dropped bombs on it until it sank. A few days later he attacked the airship, and >*eiit it crashing to earth in flames, causing the death of its entire crew. GERMAN POROUS PLASTER, PLOT. For lrank devilry the German operating in America takes some beating in hu> satanic schemes,* and the latest diabolical evolution of his corrupt mind has found outlet in a plot to spread terror through the State of Kansas .and some of the .bar Eastern States by means of disease inoculation through court piaster. The entire machinery of tile Federal Government in Ivnnsaj was quickly working for a solution of the plot, some particulars of wliicli were disclosed to the authorities by the willingness of three men under arrest to give away the adhesive after failing to sell Hie packages in small towns. Fear of possible mob action caused the >autliorities to conceal the names of the arrested men and of the towns where they were apprehended. Tests conducted by the Government Chemist, Mr W. S. Smith, conclusively revealed tetanus (lockjaw) germs on the plasters. It was staffed that skilled chemists and bacteriologists had undoubtedly compounded ' the plasters in an effort to prevent detection. The Public Prosecutor of. Kansas, U.S. District Attorney Fred Robertson, said the fact that the names of the three persons arrested were of Germanic origin, and other features connected with > the plot indicated that the villainy was of an enemy nature. Shortly after the discover}- of the plot information was i-eceived from Winiield. Kansas, declaring that the death from lockjaw of Charles Mulford had occurred after he had treated a wound on his leg with court plaster. In the State of Oklahoma a German peddler, selling suspicious court plaster, was arrested, and when searched at the police station l,OOOdol in i currency was.found on his person. 'Llie police had the plasters analysed, and found them to contain large quantities of ieprosv germs. Other peddlers have been arrested m California, and they appear to have been implicated in the same nation-wide plot-, ostensibly of German origin. Federal chemists have announced that country doctors, without the assistance of analytical facilities, were easily deceived, by the courtplasters, as the germs were so made up i that detection was almost impossible. Most of the malignant plasters were given away gratis by men apparently hired from some central distribution station, lnvest-i- ---• gators of the Government have ascertained i that the plasters were microscopically i marked N. Shure and Co., 60, Chicago. Inquiry of Nathan, -Shure, and Co. estaolished the fact that the Chicago firm ; merely acted as middlemen for Bauer and Black. G. T. Bauer, president of Bauer > and Black, stated to Federal. investigators that if court plasters from his firm had ; been used to spread disease they had been ; " doctored " after leaving the factory. " It " certainly is possible that plasters can be • used to spread disease." Mr Black told ; special agents of Wasliington : Wherever ; tiie plaster is spread over an open wound, -■ or even a scratch, it gives the germ an . opportunity to get a foothold in the blood i ot the intended victim." It has developed ' that almost all of the peddlers spoke with t a pronounced German accent, indicating tha,t they were evidently in' the same ; " ring." They generously left samples f where they oouid not sell their wares i GERMAN INFLUENCE AND I W W r PLOTS. Iu various parts of America the execrable . 1 methods of Industrial Workers of the r World are bordering on absolute anarchy, i gunplay and sabotage being their cusr tomary extremes in harassing the United i- States from prosecuting the participation t in the European war. W. A. Clark pre--1 of the Salt Lake Railway, and forr mer Senator, is convinced that the preI fcent I.W.W. scuffles and strikes in America are due to German money in the ati tenipt to embroil the productive interests e of value to tho Allies, particularly those regarding metals and timber. He gained s this decision from talks with secret ser- £ vice men and Government official* and j Irom- the fact that the I.W.W. now have r more money in the hands of their leaders , and gain more members than' ever before. y German malign influences, he savs. are all " r about Americans in their own country, and „ require the most prudent action on'Cude s Sains part and stringent measures e by the authorities. " I am quite „ positive that all this trouble the a "line t , interests have been having with e labor is due t<> the machinations of Geru man agents in America,"' asserted the senator. " Everything indicates that some i- influence has stimulated the ... 1.W.W., and that they are aided bv s money and keen minds. " Copper is esseiid tl;J l to the Allies, and if the supply were I, cut off it would be veiy disastrous ; as it j is, the series of strikes has greatly reII duced the output, and several laW pro - ducers, such as the Glob© mines in Ari"s zona, are still closed. I know that the j secret service men are hard at- work on this conspiracy and that the United States v Government are thoroughly aroused to ( \ ?ction. I notice that a- senator in Wash- * ington recently facetiously xemarked some- . thing to the effect that 'the American , people have gone daffy about Gennan spies. Ihat was a very ill-advised state- ' meut - Ihe country is infested with German spies and agencies for producing all manner of hindering controversies "and working evil to the countrv." GERMAN BARBARITY v PICTURED - s - Bitter and abiding hate aroused by the barbarity of the Huns is amply exemplified iX ¥ P lert ? L °ti in ' Waay a collection of disjointed but exceedingly spirited dia U " against the Germans. The little , volume, just published in Philadelphia. " pictures the Kaiser as a hyena, a dexilfish, an unbalanced lunatic, and an abom- ! c inable monster, while the Crown Prince is a ferocious nonentity, a microcephalous iy youth, equally devoid of intelligence and t<> soul. Pierre Loti quotes from Velleius Patereulus in the year 10 of the Christian be era: "The character of the Germans preso seats a terrible blend of ferocity and S e trickery. I hey are a- people of bom liars.

One must see this to believe it." And from Schopenhauer: "In anticipation of death, I make this confession: that I despise the German nation on account of its infinite stupidity, and that I blush to. belong to it." Loti reaches the limit of i his wrath when describing the ruin wrought by German cruisers at Tahiti. An old naval officer who told him the details spoke of the despdllers as " dirty savages with piuk skins like boiled pig." And so Tahiti the Delectable, whej.e blood had never before been shed, a little Eiden, harmless and confiding, set in the midst of mighty oceans—Tahiti has just suffered the visitation of savages with pink skins like boiled pig. So without profit, as without excuse, simply for the sport of the thing, for the pure German pleasure -of wreaking as much evil "as possible, never mind upon whom, never mind where, these savages, indeed ' the worst kind of all,-' amused themselves by making a heap of ruins in that Bay of Papeete, with its eternal calm, under trees ever green, among roses ever in flower." Frederick Palmer, the prince of American witr correspondents, who has returned to the United States for a hrief period of rest, has written a little book of patriotism entitled ' With Our Faces to the Light,' in which he endeavors to give every American a better realisation of what America- means to him and should mean to the world. The book keeps the issue clearly in mind when Palmer says: " Y(e must keep the cause concrete and burning in our minds. Its name is Frightfulness and its lair the General Staff Offices -in Berlin. Consider this word as the shibboleth of a system; then consider Nature and the history of the war itself. Even among beasts the male refuses to strike the female; yet the German Staff wage war against women - and children. Between two men in a passion fighting with Nature's weapons there is a recognised . foul blow which may not be struck; but the German Staff are foul blows which all the codes of combat established by law or by custom have aimed to curb.. Good leaders are those who have tried to stay the rapacity of soldiers in the intoxication of victory or the lust for revenge; bad leaders those who gave it free rein. The' German Staff have not only given it free rein, but have urged it on." San Francisco, July 26.