Cordova Daily Times
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H. G. STEEL
EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR.
MEMBER OK ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Associated Press is exclusively
entitled to the use for republication o
all news credited to it or not other
wise credited in this paper and als<
the local news published herein.
All rights of republication of specia
despatches herein are also reserved.
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 8,1918. ~
HUNS SINK THEIR OWN TONNAGE
It will be some time before German;
sinks United States ships of a tota
tonnage to equal the German and Aus
trial ships we have confiscated.
The government announces the losi
of sixty-nine ships to German subma
rines in the past year. Most of thes<
were sailing vessels, and their tota
tonnage was 171,061 gross. With thes(
ships were lost 300 persons and valu
able cargoes.
But the lives and cargoes were nol
so precious as the ships—thus bluntly
has the nation come to look at the war
Men and food and munitions can be
replaced almost on the spot; it takes
time to build ships.
For the sixty-nine ships Germany
has sunk, the United States has 107
German ships that were in our har
bors when war was declared. These
ships include some of the largest boats
in the world, and their total tonnage
is 686,494 gross, leaving a gain to the
United States of 51&.433 gross tons.
The Germans will have to go on
sinking their own boats for a long time
before they can begin to reduce the
tonnage the United States owned when
the war broke out. And this does not
take into consideration the ships built
and building for the merchant marine.
--»
ITALY SLAMS THE BOASTERS
'l
1 I
Our Italian allies are the right stuff.
They can stand temporary defeat and
still be in the mood to put a blow or
two across.
While the Huns are sending out
word that they are preparing for their
biggest drive, it does all of us good to
see the Italians stand up and slam
them. That is the right kind of con
' tempt.
The Germans are trying to put a
scare into their enemies. The t'righ j
is net materializing.
For our part we believe that the Ger
mans are bluffing We do not think
they have the heart for a big attack
We do not believe the German gen I
erals would risk the inevitable depres
sion that would follow the certain fail- j
ure of any lunge they might make on
the western front. And again, neither
>ide is advertising attacks months In
advance. The Germans never did so
"before, and they only do so now be
cause they want to disconcert their
enemies.
We may be wrong, and we hope we
are. It would help our cause for the
Germans to launch a big offensive with
its consequent large loss of Hun lives
and the certain spread of unrest in
Germanny as the attack failed of its
purpose.
-»
PERSONAL TAXES GENERALLY
EVADED
Cleveland and New York city are
again trying to locate John I). Rocke
feller’s personal property, with the
idea of taxing it. Cleveland can find
little of the personalty of the oil mar,
but it is going to slap on an assess
ment for four hundred millions for his
movable wealth.
Every year since we can remember
this matter of taxing Rbckefeller’s
personal property has come up. And
every year about the same result is
reached.
If all personal taxation was abol
ished and the money It yields obtainec
from other sources, the burden of iaxa
tion would be more fairly distributer
and the law would not make evasior
a popular sport.
-*-.
The German chancellor has told hi:
people that the darkest hour is jus
before dawn. But sometimes there i:
no dawn.
--«
We are told that Turkish warship:
were defeated. This is nothing new
That seems to be the main functioi
of a Turkish warship.
-»
The most forehanded man this wir
ter has developed is the Illinois resl
dent who uncovered a vein of coal ii
his cellar when the shortage came.
-*
The fuel shortage has hit Bosto:
hard, but let it be remembered tha
beans are but half as high as the;
were this time last year.
WHILE THE GRABBING IS GOOC
i -
The hardships imposed on the good
| people of the Third congressional dis
trict of Kentucky by the high cost ol
i living and increased taxation are tr
lie alleviated in a marked degiee if
i the ninety-five private bills introduced
I in one day by their Democratic repre
| sentative are enacted into law. Fifty
, three of those bills propose the grant
ing of pensions in cases which have
> been rejected on their merits by the
- pension bureau; thirty-three of their
' make appropriations of varying sums
I to parties who allege that their prop
| erty was Injured or destroyed durine
1 the Civil war, and nine of the meas
{ ures provide for the removal of the
1 charge of desertion standing against
• the records of Civil war veterans, sc
; as to make them eligible for pensions
? One of the bills would “correct the
* military record” of several entire bat
talions of Kentucky militia and grant
| pensions to their surviving members
! The imposition of such burdens upon
■| the treasury while the country is
! struggling to finance the war repre
1 sents the conception of patriotism en
tertained by some members of the
party in power, and yet it is such men
' who cry the loudest for Democrats to
be sent to congress to "stand by the
i President.”
-»
MAKE LOAFING A CRIME.
I In Aberdeen a police judge has de
creed that any man who wili not go to
: work shall go to jail. One man who
refused to get a job within forty-eight
hours was sent to jail for 30 days and
given a fine of $100.
That is good work. There are none
who cannot now get jobs at high
I wages. There is no excuse for
“slackers” who are needed in the in
dustry of the land.
In Aberdeen, since the police judge
made his ruling in this case, the num
ber of loafers has been reduced, ac
cording to the Aberdeen World.
Why could not every city in the na
tion follow the Aberdeen plan with
profit? I
There are still hundreds of men in |
the cities who will not work. As long
as loafing is permitted they will work |
just enough to subsist, and many of
them would rather commit minor
crimes than earn honest money at
useful toil.
Now is a good time to make every
man get a real job.
Make loafing an unhealthy pastime,
for both the rich and poor.—Tacoma
News.
-«
WHAT IS A BILLION DOLLARS?
Congress has appropriated for ex
penditure this fiscal year the sum of
nineteen billion dollars.
How much is a billion dollars?
No one is able to visualize it, be
cause what a billion dollars will do
passes present grasp of intellect.
Frank Vanderlip, head of the larg
est bank in the nation, told Milwaukee
business men that he cannot tell whatj
a billion dollars is.
He has worked with money so much
.that he can tell how much a million
is, or ten millions or a hundred mill
ions. He knows what kind of an office
building a million will erect, and how
■many miles of railroad a hundred mill
ion will build.
But he does not know what a bill
ion dollars will do, and so he does
not know what a billion wotlars is.
j And the United States will spend
1 nineteen billions in one year.
, Mr. Vanderlip says that if twenty
i dollar gold pieces were placed side by
side they would reach all the way
around the earth at the equator, and
still not aggregate quite nineteen bill
ions.
I Since the government of the United
States was founded and down to the
beginning of the war, the total expen
ditures of the central government were
$26,300,000,000. And now, in a single
year, nineteen billions are appropri
■ ated.
This money would buy all the rail
roads in the United States, and leave
' a large sum in the treasury.
' In other words, in a single year the
l. United States will spena enough
j money and do enough work to replace
j all the railroads on the land, with all
1 of their equipment, and carry on the
I ordinary business of peace at the
1 same time.
Mr. Vanderlip, by his comparisons
has enabled all of us to see a little
i more clearly what a large job the coun
•! try is undertaking, though not a single
i man, as he says, can visualize those
■nineteen billions that are to be spent
-»
Senator Penrose says Wilson thinks
- the Republicans are disloyal unlesi
i they support him unquestioningly
while he passes ihe tutriment onl]
to the Democratic side of the house
i -♦
t Some of our draft slackers seem ti
r think that the pen is more comfortabli
than the sword.
BIKER'S TALK
A synopisis of the speech of Secre
tary of War Baker, delivered before
the military affairs committee of the
United States, on January 28, is given
by the Associated Press. The speech
, created a profound impression, and u
' the basis of the present hearings o!
the committee. It is as follows:
I Mr. Baker took personal responsi
| bility for getting men under training
before their equipment was ready "to
i the last shoe button.” Such officers
I as Major Gen. Leonard Wood, he said
I have urged this policy. He described
| conferences that evolved the ordnance
1 program and its fulfillment, submit
ted documents to prove that France
I and Great Britain were supplying ar
1 tillery and machine guns for the first
forces at their own urgent request in
' order that ships might be used for
' other purposes.
In all that was done prior to the
departure of the first troops, Gen.
Pershing shared in the deliberations
and approved the decisions reached.
Mr. Baker declared, and now sur
rounded with a staff of trained regular
officers, Pershing is in France as the
“eyes of the army.”
Every step taken has been founded
on his long daily cable reports of what
is going on at the fighting fronts.
Tables were cited to show that over
crowding in the camps and canton
ments had not been general and that
the sickness had come mostly in the
camps where medical opinion had
agreed it was least to be expected.
Analyzing the efforts of the ord
nance bureau, the secretary said that
Gen. Urozier had urged for years a
great artillery preparation, and that
he at least had realized the time gun
making required. But even France
herself “with the enemy at her throat,” j
he added, had not bee able to see
what vast gun programs the war would'
lead into.
Mr. Baker said in part:
.Certain Matters Decided Long Ago.
“Now, gentlement, about the plan of
the war. It will be remembered that
this war broke out in August, 1914.
We went into it in April, 1917, so that
for two and one-half years, or more
than two and one-half years, the war
had been going on. It was not as
though war had broken out between
the United States and some country,
each of them prior to that time having,
been at peace with one another and;
with everybody else; so that an im-J
mediate plan should be made in the
United States for conducting war
against its adversary, but we were |
coming into a war which had been,
going on for two and one-half years, j
in which the greatest military experts, j
<11 the inventive genius, all of the in j
dustrial capacity of the greatest coun J
Ties in the world had for two and one- j
half years been solving the problem j
of what kind of war it was to be and i
where it was to be waged.
“It was not a thing for us to decide I
■ere our theater of war should be. j
The theater of war was France. It was
not for us to decide our line of com
•munications. Our line of communica
tions was across 3,000 miles of ocean,1
one end of it infested with submarines. |
It was not for us to decide whether
w'e w'ould have the maneuvering of
large bodies of troops in the open.
There lay the antagonists on opposites
of No-Man’s land in the trenches at a
death grapple with one another. Our
antagonist was on the other side of
that line and our problem was and is
to get over there and get him.
Problem Hard to Grasp
“The altogether unprecedented char
acter of that problem is the thing
every returning visitor tells us cannot
be described in words, cannot be put
idown in reports; it is a thing so dif
I ferent from anything else that ever
i went on in the world, so vast in its
desolation, so extraordinary in its
uniqueness that it must be seen and
studied on the ground in order to be
comprehended at all.
“So that from the very beginning it
was not a question of abstract specu
lation here, but a question of study
there to find out where our shoulder
to the wheel could be put.”
Mr. Baker spoke of the visits of the
different foreign war commissions, and
continues:
“The one thing they told us from the
very beginning to the end was that
this war, of all others, was not a static
’ thing; that our adversary was a versa
tile and agile adversary; that every
day he revamped and changed his
weapons of attack and his methods of
defense; that the stories they were
• telling us were true when they left
> England and France, but an entirely
different thing was probably taking
place there now, antf they told us of
large snpplies of weapons of one kind
and another which they had developed
in France and England and which,
even before they got them in sufficient
quantities manufactured to take them
from the industrial plants to the front,
were superseded by new ideas and had
to be thrown into the scrap head.
“They said to us, this is a moving
picture; it is something that nobody
can paint and give you an idea of.
It is not a static thing.
<
"Therefore it became necessary for
us to have eyes there in instant and,
immediate communication with usv and
we sent over to France Genera! Per-'
shing, and we sent with him not;
merely a division of troops—to that 11
shall refer in a moment—but we sent:
with him, perhaps, I can safe safely, the
major part of the trained, expert per
sonnel of the army. You know the|
size of the official corps of the regular j
army in this country when war broke
out. It was a pitiful handful of trained
men, and yet it was necessary to di
vide them up and send over to France
officers of the highest quality so that
they would be at the front and see in
the work shops and in the factories
and in the war offices and in the ar
mies where consultations would take
! place immediately back of the front,
; so that they could see things with
I their own eyes, and wend us back the
! details by cable every day of the
I
i changing character of the war.
Uninformed Criticism
“At the outset the idea was that
we would be a financial and industrial
assistance to our allies during 1918,
and I think I can probably read from
the Metropolitan Magazine for August
a suggestion which will show what
the current expectation of this country
was. The editor of the Metropolitan
Magazine was protesting against what
he believed to be the intention of the
government at that time.
“What he says we should have done,
and I ask your particular attention *to
it, is this:
“ ‘We should have strained every en
ergy to have gotten from 50,000 to
100,000 men to France this year.’ ”
In response to a question by Chair
man Chamberlain, the secretary said
the United States did not have more
than the minimum number of men in
France in August, 1917. He continued:
“And then the editor goes on:
“ ‘By next year, 1918, we could havei
500.000 men to send over, or any part;
of 500,000 men which we could ship.’
“Now, instead of having 50,000 or
100.00 men in France in 1917, we have
many more men than that in France,1
and instead of having 500,000 men
whom we could ship to France if we
could find any way to do it in 1918,1
we will have more than 500,000 men
in France early in 1918, and we have
available, if the transportation facili
ties are available to us—and the pros-'
pect is not unpromising—1,500,000 men'
who in 1918 can be shipped to FYance.'’
"Why,” asked Senator Chamberlain,!
“have you not felt it proper to let the'
public into your confidence with refer.!
ence to these things that you are tell
ing now?’’
“Senator. I confess I have hesitated,'
and I still hesitate," replied the secre
tary. “I have here a statement from)
Field Marshal Von Hindenberg in
which he is quoted as saying In a Ger
man newspaper, in contemptuous fash j
ion of us. that we have advertised our
preparations for this war in an un
worthy manner.”
“Do you think for a moment, Secre
tary Baker,” said the chairman, “that
there has been any time within the
last year that the German secret serv-j
ice has not been fully advised as to'
everything wfe have done?”
“Yes, I know. If I may rely upon the
confidential information which we get
from confidential sources, the German
government is still mystified as to the
number of men we have in FYance or
have had there at any time.”
Why Facts Were Held Back
The chairman said he doubted this.
After some discussion as to the policy
of governments in announcing military
secrets, Mr. Baker said:
“I am saying this now because you
have asked me why I have held back
these facts until now. I am saying to
you that you could not get from Great
Britain at this moment—I don’t know
whether I could get—the number of
soldiers Great Britain has in France or
at home. I could get an approxima
tion; I could get whatever information
might be deemed helpful to the imme
diate military object to be accom
plished, but I could not get from Great
Britain or France, either one, the ac
tual number of troops they have at
the front. It may be that the precau
tion is necessary, and yet that is the
precaution which, military men have
abserved.
“Why did we decide to send some
troops to France in 1917 It is no
secret. When Marshal Joffre came
to this country from France, when the
British mission came from France,
they told us of a situation which we
had not up to that time fully appre
ciated, and they said to us: ‘Frankly,
it will cheer us; it will cheer our peo
pie if you send over some of your
troops. We did send some troops.
“At that place we had a choice. We
could have sent over, as Great Britain,
our regular army, and in a very short
preparation have put it into action and
suffered exactly what Great Britain
suffered with her ‘contemptible little
army,’ as it was called by their adver
saries. Our army would have given as
good an account of itself as the Brit
ish army did, but it would have been
destroyed like the British army, and
there would have been no nucleus on
which to build the new army that was
to come over a little later, and it was
deemed wiser to send over a regular
division.
Affecting Reception by French
“Then what happened was that that
regular division went over and the
people of France kissed the hems of
their garments as they marched up
the streets of Paris, the old veterans,
wounded in this war, legless or arm
xess, stumping along on crutches, per
haps, as they went up the streets of
Paris with their arms around the necks
of American soldiers. Not a single
man in that division was unaccompa
nied by a veteran. America had gone
to France and the French people rose
with a sense of gratitude and hopeful
ness that had never been In them be
fore. ^
“Of course they welcomed the Brit
ish, but their need was not so great
when the British went. Of course they
welcomed the British, but there were
ties between them and us which there
(Continued on Page 5)
“We Must Determine Much
of the Future Now”
Neither political nor financial conditions will ever be the
same as before the war. Economic conditions mould the
political. We must think, work, and save NOW to make con
ditions better when the war is over- Careful and consistent
saving is an absolute necessity. Bring or mail your wages or
income to us. We will help you and you will help the com
munity and the Nation.
The real strength of a banking institution is the men back of it
Bank of Alaska
» has that strength. It has the resources, connections, and facil
ities to satisfy you.
Checking Accounts.
Demand Certificates of Deposit.
Four per cent on Time Certificates for twelve months.
Savings Accounts paying 3 per cent subject to withdrawals.
Travels Checks—Drafts.
Safe Deposit Boxes.
War savings certificates and thrift stamps.
Capital and surplus of institution $105,500.00
If You
ARE LAID UP IN THE HOSPITAL
YOUR EARNING POWER
Stops
Does your Insurance cover you? If not
Get a ^ IN 1 P0LICY IN THE J- D- Hollenbeck
A NORTHERN LIFE District Agent, Cordova