Germany Agrees to Confidental Exchange Peace Terms Thru President
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* WASHINGTON, Dec. 28.—Germany will not per- ♦
* mit the road to peace negotiations to be blocked by a re- ♦
* fusal of the entente belligerents to enter a conference *
* without a prior knowledge of the terms proposed for ♦
* ending the present European war. ♦
* The central powers will permit of a confidential ex- ♦
* change of broad and tentative terms through President ♦
* Wilson, if it is necessary to so bridge the gap which ♦
* threatens to prevent a meeting of the peace delegates. ♦
* It is broadly intimated today that a statement of this po- ♦
* sition by Germany has either been communicated to the ♦
* United States or soon would be. ♦
* «
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WASHINGTON, Dec. 28.—The indications are that Ger
many is looking to the United States to make every effort to
promote a peace conference. Germany is ready to consider any
suggestions from President Wilson, and has no intention of
asking the allies to publish its terms and will not publicly di
vulge her own under any consideration. In German circles
here they say the Teutons’ terms, when laid before the entente
delegates will be such as to admit of acceptance. Ambassador
Bernstorff repeats his belief that a conference will result from
the present situation. The Austrian reply to the peace note is
substantially the same as Germany’s.
THE HAGUE, Dec. 28.—A flood of cablegrams are being
sent to President Wilson by trade unions, social welfare socie
ties, religious bodies of all denominations and' other organiza
tions wishing him success in his efforts to bring about }>eace.
VIENNA, Poe. 28.—The Austrian government sent the
same reply to Switzerland as it did to President Wilson, on the
peace propaganda.
BERLIN, Dec. 28.—Germany’s answer to President Wilson
and its promptness has caused a good impression generally in
the press. Only the anti-American newspapers show a ten
dency to dissent and express the view of interference of any
kind on tip* part of America as intolerable. There is no marked
display of optimism in official or unofficial circles that peace
will result directly from the present interchange of notes.
PARIS, Dec. 28.—The morning newspapers pronounce
the German answer to President Wilson’s note as a polite re
fusal to comply with his suggestions.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 28.—The official text of the German
reply to Wilson’s note has been received without any other
communication.
LONDON, Dec. 28.—The entente answer to the German
peace proposal has been prepared in France and is now being
discussed by the various ministries. It is unlikely any action
will be taken by all the allies on President Wilson’s note until
the German proposal has been dealt with. The allied reply to
Germany does not give specific terms, but refers generally to
the objects of the allies, as Germany is in better condition to
state terms than the allies.
LOCAL JOTTINGS
ABOUT PEOPLE
AND OOINGS
Next Tuesday a postal savings ban!
will be opened at the local postoffice
This evening the Loyola Social Clul
will have its Christmas tree for th<
grown-ups.
The steamer Mariposa sails fron
Seattle for Cordova on Tuesday after
noon next at 5 o’clock.
Harry Van, the tailor, is making !
number of costumes for the masque
rade on Saturday night.
Kagle hall is being beautifully decor
ated for the firemen’s ball on Satur
day night, and the indications ar
that the masquers will be there ii
force.
C. C. Hull has disposed of his stoc
of general merchandise at Chitlna t
S. Blum & Co., and he and his wife ar
In Cordova on their way to CalifornU
where they will make their futur
home.
In a telegram from Seattle yestei
J... the coldest weather c
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the winter, we inadvertently state
that the thermometer registered 2
degrees below zero, when it shoul
have read 28 degrees above zero.
The First Bank of Cordova has n
ceived word from the postmaster gei
eral that its bond has been approve
and it has been officially designate
as the depository for the postal sa
ings bank accounts received at th
Cordova postoffice.
Captain A. J. Bjerre, of Vancouver,
president of the British Columbia
Mills, Tug & Barge Company, was
an arrival on the Admiral WatBon, and
went to Port Etches to learn the
cause of the delay of the tug Hero and
barge in returning, having been gone
thirty-seven days on the trip to An
chorage with a cargo of lumber.
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DANCING PARTY GIVEN
IN HONOR MISS ROOT.
A pleasant dancing party was given
last evening at Hegg's hall in honor
of Miss Frances Root. Those present
were Mr. and Mrs. A. J. Adams, Mr.
and Mrs. Jack O’Neill, Mr. and Mrs.
E. P. Ziegler. Mr. and Mrs. Dave Phil
lips, Misses Elsie Ware, Cecilia Bur
roughs, Genevieve Whalen, Ethel
Burroughs and Frances Root; Messrs.
1 O. C. Meyers, E. F. Medley, C. O. Cra
croft, E. A, Hegg and Dr. Daggett. Af
ter several hours of dancing a delight
ful luncheon was served at the Adams
- residence.
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9 ALASKA SEALS MULTIPLY
1 RAPIDLY; WILL KILL 1917.
The seal herds on the Pribilof is
( lands in Bering sea have increased so
1 rapidly since killing of seals was pro
9 hibited that the government will be
’ gin killing seals regularly next year,
5 according to H. J. Christoffer, assist
ant agent for the United States bureau
of fisheries, who has returned to Se
f attle from an inspection trip to the
^ iomnun,
^ Mr. Christoffer made the trip on the
^ steamer Elthu Thompson, with winter
supplies for the islands. The Thomp
son took to Seattle 7,000 seal skins
killed to supply food for the natives
s on the islands. The skins will be
a shipped to St. Louis, where the gov
, eminent will sell them at auction.
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„ Job Printing at Dally Times office.
Be a Daily Times reader.
CARGO RAILROAD
SEATTLE, Dec. 28. — The freighter
Cordova will sail from Port Blakely
tonight for Cordova, with coal, rail
road ties and lumber for the Copper
River & Northwestern railway.
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I ■ ■ ■ ■ mrn mm. m mm mm m m m mm m
WILT UAHMANZA
DODGES TDE
r e
WASHINGTON, Dec. 28. — It is un
derstood that Carranza's reply to the
American request that he either sign
or repudiate the pending protocol will
contain suggestions or modifications,
carefully worded, to avoid ending ne
gotiations. The answer will be deliv
ered to Secretary of Interior Lane late
this afternoon.
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SALT LAKE. Dec. 28. — The re
ward for the apprehension of the per
son who placed an infernal machine
before the residence of ex-Governor
Spry has been increased to $5,000,
and every effort is being made to ar
rest the would-be assassins.
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1 \
LITTLE ROCK, Dec. 28. — The
number of killed from the tornado
which swept Arkansas has been in
creased from ten to twelve, while the
property loss has been estimated
at $3,000,000.
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SACRAMENTO, Dec. 28. — While
no definite announcement has been
made by Governor Hiram W. Johnson,
regarding the legislative program that
is to be submitted to the forty-second
session of the California state legis
lature, which convenes here on Mon
day, January 8, it is generally assumed
front the composition of that body
that the frequently announced poll
cies of the governor will be furthered.
Many of the staunchest supporters in
former sessions were reelected last
November.
It has become known that the gov
ernor favors a careful revision of the
state's taxation system. This, it is
believed, will become one of the main
issues before both houses. Governoi
Johnson desires, it is said, to have
a plan adopted which would create
new sources of revenue and whict
would more equally distribute the bur
den of the Btate’B support. At pres
ent the public service corporations are
meeting this entire cost
The governor’s message has no
been completed and probably will no
be until just before the legislature
convenes. It is said he will fully out
line his policies In this, his last mes
sage as chief executive of the state
before turning over the reins of state
control to hie successor, ideutenan
Governor William D. Stephens. How
ever, no definite Inkling of its cou
tents has thuB far become public, an<
probably will not until received in th
legislature.
PRESIDENT CELEBRATES HIS
BIRTHDAY IN QUIET WAY.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 28. — Presi
dent Woodrow Wilson was the recip
ient of many congratulations on his
sixtieth birthday, although no special
celebration was held to commemorate
the event.
JAPAN TO ALSO
Hr
TOKIO, Dec. 28. — The American
naval expansion program was the sub
ject of a lecture delivered recently be
fore the National Defence Association
by Commander Rosaburo Takahashi, a
member of^he naval staff board.
The newspapers quote Commander
Takahashi as expressing the opinion
that the much talked of American Jap
anese war was illusory and a matter
of Impossibility, but as holding that
it was a greater illusion to take an
optimistic view of America’s policy of
preparedness. The speaker thought it
dangerous to take an easy view of
Americia* "val exptyision, and etn
I r' I , d stress on the import
expansion of the imperial
ifflv^wlth a view to keep in pace with
American preparedness.
Commander Takahashi dwelt upon
(he speedy construction of American
warships and the activity of American
shipbuilders. He referred to the posi
tive defence measures being elaborate
ly worked out by the United States in
the Pacific, the Philippines, together
with an extensive plan to complete
communications between the Am mi
can possessions in the Pacific.
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HE HOLME Of
LETTERS IS
WASHINGTON, Dec. 28. — More
than two and a quarter million dol
lars' worth of chocks, drafts, money
orders and other valuable papers were
found in undelivered letters by the
dead letter office during the last year
and practically all were restored to
their owners. First Assistant Post
master General Daniel C. Itoper in his
annua! report announces that the dead
letter division handled 10,839,890 let
ters and parcels during the year, a
slight increase over the previous year.
One-third of these letters and parcels,
or 3,077.194 was delivered; 101,485
contained things of value without a
clue to their senders and were held
for claimants; 7,019,430 had to be de
stroyed, and 41,775 were still being
investigated.
In addition to the valuable papers,
with a fuce value of $2,303,119, found
in undelivered letters, many contained
stanlps and some currency was found
loose in the mails. The stamps and
currency unclaimed, together with
t V<o uil In nf neliolna f
r • -- *-- - - —
merchandise removed from undeliv
ered letters, aggregated $53,665 and
$11,000 was realized from six months'
operation of a new postal regulation
requiring collection of one cent on ad
vertised letters, making the total net
revenue $64,665. Mr. Roper says that
the revenue estimated under present
conditions for the year would be ap
proximately $75,000, which would make
the dead letter division self sustain
ing.
To prevent the unnecessary accu
mulation of letters containing valu
able inclosures, a provision was con
tained in the last postal appropriation
' law reducing the limit of time that
such letters shall be held awaiting re
clamation from four years to two
years. The postoffice department has
decided to discontinue the final dis
position of dead parcels by the post
offices at Pittsburg and Cleveland
8uch matter formerly going to Pitts
burg will be sent to New York City,
while that in Ohio, formerly going to
Cleveland, will be sent to Cincinnati,
i and matter from the southern penin
sula of Michigan will go to Chicago.
Dead mail received by the division
, of dead letters during the year con
i tained 677,700 misdirected letters,
’ 115.776 unaddressed letters, 228,700
• letters held for postage, 440,200 letters
- written on hotel letter paper by per
I sons unknown to the hotels and 104,
s 700 letters bearing fictitious signs
tures.
ALASKA TENDER
LONG BEACH, Cal., Dec. 28. — The
new steel lighthouse tender Cedar,
built for the Alaska service, was
launched here yesterday.
511,01 JOB BE
SPENT 1317 ON
0.0.
SEATTLE, Dec. 28. — The Alaskan
engineering commission has added
three more offices to its suite in the
port commission building. It is ex
ported that the government will spend
$11,000,000 on railroad construction
next year.
-A
WASHINGTON, Dec. 28. — All ru
mors of the intended resignation of
Secretary of War Baker vanished yes
terday, when he left for Cleveland to
close up his business there and also
to sell his home.
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EL I’ASO, Dec. 28. — The friends
of Villa announce that he has altered
his attitude toward Americans and
other foreigners in Mexico during the
occupancy of Chihuuhua City. These
friends appealed to him not to kill any
more foreigners and the fact that none
of them were molested at Torreon in
dicates that Villa heeded the appeal.
The Villa partisans here say that the
bandit leader will establish headquar
ters at Torreon for his ten thousand
men. A campaign for the control of
the entire state of Chihuahua is pre
dicted.
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KATALLA GIL IS
The Katalla oil fields in Alaska pro
duce crude oil that is worth five times
as much as that from the California
fields, according to Judge Robert
Gray, of Katalla, who is a guest at
the Stevens, says the Seattle Post
Intelligencer. The crude oil from the
Alaskan fields has a gravity of 47,
and is easily refined into distillate
and gasoline. The production of the
district this year will average about
$15,000 a month, two-thirds of the
output being distillate and one-third
gasoline. The product is sold almost
entirely to Prince William Sound con
sumers.
According to Judge Gray it is the
purpose of the new owners of the Ka
talla wells to sink several new shal
low wells on their claims in order to
increase the production. The gasoline
output at present amounts to 44,000
gallons pei month.
Judge Gray was a member of the
first territorial legislature of Alaska.
He is on his way to visit relatives in
Texas, whom he has not seen in thirty
years. He expects to return north in
the spring.
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The Admiral Watson goes to Kodiak
on this trip, and is not expected back
here until uext Tuesday evening or
Wednesday morning.
WANTS ALASKA
Seth Mann, attorney and manager of
the transportation bureau of the San
Francisco Chamber of Commerce, ad
dressing the members of the Alaska
bureau of the Seattle Chamber of
Commerce, whose guest he was at a
luncheon held in the Arctic Club re
cently, argued for a larger measure
of home rule for the Northland, a een
Iralized administration of its affairs,
he said that shall remove it from the
officialdom and bureaucracy to which
It is now subjected at Washington.
Judge Thomas Burke and Judge
Fred M. Brown, of the Third judicial
division of Alaska, also spoke, Scott
C. Bone, former chairman of the bu
reau, presided.
Mr. Mann, who was President Wil
son's personal representative on the
Seattle Chamber of Commerce's trip
to Alaska three years ago, said that
trip served to emphasize the import
ance of Alaska to the nation at large,
30 that Alaska and its development is
something to which we cun give our
ittention.
"In my report to President Wilson
made after that trip,” said Mr. Mann,
"I said that Alaska could not be de
veloped without a railroad, and that
no such road could be built by private
capital, and that there was a prece
dent for the government undertaking
the building of such a road In its
building of a railroad across the Isth
111 u a Ui A Iiuauia.
Development Method Important.
"That project having been launched
the question which now remains to be
determined is: "What is the best
method by which to develop its coal
fields, and you here are better capable
of advising as to that than anybody
else.
"We may expect a great commerce
with that territory as a result of the
development of that great territory's
resources, so 1 regard It as a day of
congratulation for the people of Alaska
and Seattle, and in fact of the entire
world that Alaska’s commerce has al
ready increased upward of 30 per cent,
and that 40 per cent would be a great
er measure of the commerce between
Seattle and Alaska in the short time
since the national government has
evinced an interest in land whose
treasures have been too long kept
locked up.
The activity of the federal govern
ment is a demonstration of the gov
ernment's interest in the territory and
its people, and the confidence its ac
tion has inspired throughout the coun
try, and on the coast as well as in the
interior of Alaska has vouchsafed and
guaranteed Sts future.
"The congratulations we feel that
the development of Alaska is assured
have become mutual. The problems
of details are now in your bauds as to
schools, fisheries and land laws, and
the responsibility concerning these is
now largely yours.”
Lane for Local Government.
Mr. Mann then said that the idea
had already been advanced by Secre
tary of the Interior Franklin K. Lane
for a local administration of Alaska
through a branch government located
in the territory, and which would
make unnecessary the delays in the
settlement of questions now required
because they must be referred to the
various bureaus in Washington.
In the old day of the Russian gov
ernment of Alaska the cry used to be
'St. Petersburg and heaven are a long
way apart.' " said Mr. Mann, smiling
ly, "but in one day it has been and is
Washington and Alaska are a long
way apart, and with but little heaven
until recently.' ”
Mr. Mann, after declaring for a larg
er measure of home rule for Alaska,
an administration, he said, through
which its government shall not be left
to the officialdom at Washington, D.
said that a poetic touch was to be
found in the great Northland, that
people did not go there merely
to make money and return to their
former abodes any more than the ear
ly pioneers went to California, for, as
in the latter case, those who did go
merely for gain and who expected to
return when they had made their for
tunes found the country so agreeable
that they remained.
"And such has been the case with
the hardy pioneer of Alaska," said Mr.
Mann. “They have grown to love the
territory's vastnesses, its rivers and
mountains and delight in its advance
ment.”
I lumiua 1JUJ RC, trniUCHL Ul
the Seattle Chamber of Commerce,
who followed .Mr. Mann, expressed the
sense of obligation the members of
that body felt for the work done by
Mr. Mann In behalf of Alaska.
"Mr. Mann added a neighborly act
to a national act, and we .are Indeed
his debtors," said Judge Burke. “We
, recognize also the good work of Sec
: retary Iatne In forwarding the inter
' ests of Alaska.”
Restrictions Hamper Development.
| Judge Burke, continuing, said that
| it was useless to expect settlors to go
I to Alaska upon limited or restricted
leases of its coal lands, and that while
a monopoly was not wanted, develop
ment could not be obtained through
a Bate deposit vault; nor could a coun
try's resources be kept locked up.
“The people of the west do not want
monopoly In Alaska, but a develop
ment of that territory's resources
which is consistent with the country's
present needs," concluded Judge
Burke.
Judge Fred M. Brown, of the Third
judicial division of Alaska, was the
closing speaker. K« said that the
Alaska bureau's trip to Alaska had
done more for that territory In three
years than all that had been done for
it in any period prior to that event;
that the few friends able to speak In
telligently for It had been increased
to substantial proportions, and that
Alaska has at least reached a point
when Its great resources are about to
be developed.
LONDON, Dec. 28.—The Lloyds announce that the Danish
nark Josan has been sunk.
28'—Tlie foreign offices have inforced
(Jreece of its unfulfilling the promise to demobilize the Greek
army.
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BERLIN, Dec. 28.—]f is officially announced' that the de
feat of the Russo-Roumanian forces bv the invading Teutons
has been completed. Tin- Russians who attempted to regain
ost ground were thrust back and ejected from new positions
with heavy losses. During yesterday’s fighting 300,000 pris
oners were taken.
TOKIO, Dec. 28. Great Britain’s war ban on importation
of knitted goods will probably prove to be a great blow to the
Japanese knitting industry. During the ten months ending
October .>1, the total value of this line of goods exported to
Bieat Britain reached $9,000,000. In addition contracts entered
into call for delivery of additional goods up to next June,
amounting to $6,000,000.
Exporters have held conferences urging the Japanese gov
ernment to strive for the rescinding of the order. It is claimed
that the order is not a friendly measure of an allied nation, and
that it will injure the friendship between the two countries. It
is also feared here that similar bans will affect other lines of
Japanese manufacture.
As a result of tin* Japanese representations the British
government lias announced that the enforcement of the prohi
bition order would be postponed until January 1. The press is
expressing hope that the authorities will further be persuaded
to take into consideration the situation facing tin1 manufactur
ers and workers in Japan, and see whether there is not some
way of permanently modifying absolute prohibition.