Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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DR. OLIN SAWYER ASKS QUES TIONS ABOUT BLEASE. Has Not Blease Already Decided in Germany's Favor??Should Not a Man Be Sent to Washington Who Believes in Country and President? To AU Reformers: In justice to myself and the cause of my country in this war, and all those who have asked me by letter and otherwise if it is true that I am not supporting ex-Governor Blease for the sentae, my emphatic answer is that I am not, but that I am doing all I can to elect Mr. Dial to the sen . ate. When I cast my first vote in 1S94, which was for the late Senator Till man, I was a Reformer, and I am still a Reformer. But such State po litical questions as those sink into insignificance before the most serious issue that ever confronted our peo ple?the war. I have supported Mr. Blease vigor ously in every campaign since 1910, for he always runs, and always will, I reckon, but would not support my own brother if he had "studied this war question from every standpoint," as Mr. Blease said he had, and had taken the position, expressed the opinions and held the views that Mr. Blease has on the war, President Wilson and the members of congress who voted for our country to go to war. I think Mr. Blease is sincere in his opposition to the country going to war, his well known hatred of Presi dent Wilson and his convictions that the members of congress were wrong in voting for war. E'is conversations, his speeches and his entire course and i attitude show it all along. Then he is '' conscientiously and constitutionally wrong on the whole war question, and that makes his. candidacy for the sen ate, a more serious menace to the peo ple of the State and nation, at least until Germany is defeated and treat ies are made with her and her allies that she will not consider scraps of paper. In an open conference called by Mr. Blease and held in Columbia May 14, 1917, I, along with several others, made emphatic speeches declaring our . absolute loyalty to the country and to the support of -President Wilson and his administration in this war, and I stated among other things that I did not see any honorable way that we could have ignored Germany's insults and kept out of the war; that I did not see what else Germany could do to make us fight unless the / kaiser had come over here and slap pd the president's face. We were speaking to loyalty resolutions which were passed, both Mr. Blease and Mr. in- .John P. Grace voting for them. Then, just before adjournment, Mr. : Grace arose and made a very bitter aiiti-war," .anti-Wilson and what I think, measured by true American standards,- would be considered pro German speech. The speech bristled with about the same sentiments and ^??>*'s?tot-:'that Mr. Grace's editorials in the Charleston American did along then, as reference to the files of that "paper will show. When Mr. Grace concluded Mr. Blease arose and with characteristic emphasis said: "So far as this war is concerneTT, I endorse Mr. Grace's position. I don't know what we are fighting Germany for, and I don't think the United States hod any business in this war." The papers carried reports of the proceed in rrs of that meeting the next day. 1 came home and wrote a state ment of my feelings and convictions on th<? war situation and our great president which the News and Cou rier r-nA The State published on May 20. 1917. Sometime later in June in a discus sion of the war question Mr. Elease said that every congressman and sen ator would be swept out of office at the next election for voting for this unnecessary war. That this talk of making the world safe for democracy was foolish. That we had nothing to do with the governments of oth er countries. That France was a decadent nation and not fit for any thing but fiddling and drinking wine, and that England had always been proud and self conceited and doom ed to .failure. That the trouble with Woodrow Wilson was that he wanted to be a king himself. That if he were in the senate he would introduce a joint resolution authorizing and di recting the president of the United States to bring every one of our ships away from over there and place them along the Atlantic seaboard and wait until Germany came over here to attack us. I have not seen or heard anything from Mr. Blease to show that his at titude and convictions on these se rious war questions and President Wilson and his administration have changed one particle. His speeches at Chapin, Pomaria. Filbert, Ander son and Pickens continuing into the late summer of 1917 certainly do not show it His dare to President Wilson's administration at York on June 20, this year, to take the bridle off and send somebody down here from Washington to debate this war question with him, that he might yet be able to prove that he has been right all the time on this war. Last week in a speech in Spartanburg he said he had never denied he was against the country going to war and he never would. Then brushing aside all personal considerations, call Mr. Blease's posi tion whatever you may?unnatural. un-American, disloyal. pro-German? it affects the situation very little. But the real question is, why should the people of the State send him to the senate under such serious and vital circumstances to them and to the nation? Is it not perfectly clear that he would belong to that "little group of willful men." as the presi dent so pointedly defined them, who are out of harmony, out of sympa thy, out of touch with their great president, their government, their country and the vast majority of the! American people who feel and be-j lieve deep down in their hearts that Germany is wrong and that their eonntry is rietit. and that we ar? fighting an unavoidable war of de ALLIES STEADILY GM HUNS FORCED TO GIVE GROUND IN THREE IMPORTANT SEC TORS. Germans Retreat Over Front of Nearly Six Miles in Lys, West of Armcn ticres?French Fight Way Forward Between Matz and Oisc Rivers. By Associated Press, j The Germans on three important : sectors of the western battle front j have been compelled to give up po jsitions of great strategic value u^der j the onslai' Thts of the British and French troops. i In the "Lys sector west of Armen tieres the enemy has retreated over a front of nearly six miles, leaving the town of Merville in British hands. Be tween the Matz and Oise Rivers the French have fought their way to the western outskirts of the dominating position of Lassigny and farther south in this hill and wooded region have debouched from the Thiescourt Wood and also captured the town of Pimprez situated in the Oise valley on the Noyon-Compiegne Road. Around the curve in the battle line northwest of Soissons the French from near Carlep?nt to Foncenoy on the Aisne, a distance of approximately nine miles, have driven back the ene my to an' average depth of more than a mile and captured seveial villages and 2,200 prisoners. Unofficial reports record the cap ture by the British of the railway sta tion on the western outskirts of the important town of Roye, one of the pivotal points on the battle front be tween the Somme and Oise but there is no official confirmation of this. Viewed on the war maps, the gains in new operations are most import ant ones for the allies for, aside from wide areas over which the enemy has been compelled to acknowledge de feat, the weakening in the German defense is becoming daily more no ticeable and apparently within a short time they probably will be forced to commence a retrograde movement on a scale that will mean the entire blotting out of old lines and the tak ing up of new ones to the east and southeast possibly from the region of Rheims to Ypres. The Lys salient is fast fading away under the attacks of the British and the voluntary- retirement of the Ger mans to new defense positions east ward and seemingly the big westerly bulge into the Allied line between Ypres and La Basse soon must disap pear. Under the new gains of the British around Roye and particularly those made by the French from Lassigny to the Oise valley( and northwest of Soissons the Germans now are in a bad predicament. Here their po sitions are dominated by the Allied guns from the west, southwest and south for many miles and apparently a retreat eastward across the plains o- Picardy and over the Somme and even from the western Aisne will be necessitated. The latest German official commu. nication asserts that French attack's beween the Oise and the Aisne deliv ered over a wide front, failed, but the French war office statement is specific in announcing the penetration of the environs of Lassigny, the cutting of a passage way through the Thiescourt Wood and the capture of Pimprez. That there has been hard fighting, however, is indicated by the British official statement, which says 'that northwest of Chaulnes the Germans succeeded in penetrating the British lines at several points but later were driven out. On the other battle fronts there is little activity except in the nature of artillery duels and patrol encounters. PETROLEUM PRICES REGULAT ED. ! Fuel Administration Accepts Plans Recommended by National Wax Service Committee. j Washington, Aug. 19.?Plans for j the stabilization of petroleum prices, I recommended by the national petrol j eum war service committee in New York last week were accepted today by the fuel administration, which an nounced its belief that the agreement will prevent any radical change in consumers' prices of gasoline and oth er oil products. The plan provides generally for -maximum premiums of oil of various grades in the fields throughout the country. I fense for ourselves and other nations I and peoples who love ? tue simple j rights of living and being free, of j having homes and families, and the ! precious liberty of pursuing the or I dinary course of life in accordance with their own wills? But Mr. Blease believes that our country is wrong and. therefore had no just cause to enter this war. Then he must believe that Germar has been and is within her right: not withstanding all the crimes she has j committed from petty larceny to mur j der, house burning and rape. With [ any man holding such views is not ! the case already decided against our [ country and in Germany's favor, if i he should be in the senate when the j time comes to demand that Germany j pay for some of the property she so I barbarously destroyed, and when the j time comes for the senate to consider j and ratify treaties with Germany that ! will in the future restrain her greed j for power, plunder and blood-thirsti { ness? j No. people of South Carolina, this J is no time to vote for this man or I that on personal grounds or the j usual questions of State polities, i taxes, etc., but in God's name let us j send a man to Washington who at I least feels that his country, his pres j ident and his people are fighting for j mankind and his children, and not J for the love of power, conquest or I vaingloriousness. Can any man be } lieve that Cole L. Blease is that man ? j I can not. Mississippi has spoken for God, home, native land and Woodrow Wil son! Can South Carolina do less? Oiin Sawyer. Ceorgetown. August 21. MEW NEEDED NOW. IMMEDIATE ENACTMENT OF MAN POWER BILL URGED. Last of Week Will Find Proposed 31easure Under Del>ate in Both Ends of Capitol With Passage to Follow Shortly Thereafter. I - Washington, Aug. 19.?Congress prepared today to enact quickly the new man power legislation, extend ing the draft age limits to 18 and 45 years for the American military pro gram which Genera1 March, chief of staff, told the house military commit tee should win the war in 1919. While the house committee began work on he bill by hearing General March, Secretary Baker and Provost Marshal General Crowder, the senate set aside its summer vacation agree ment in order to take up the measure Thursday. It appeared probable the bill would be debated simultaneously in the senate and house the last of this week and passed soon thereafter. Senate prohibition advocates agreed to temporarily lay aside the national prohibition bill and give the man power program the right of way. Before the house committee Secre tary Baker and his aides again urged action on the bill, discussing various phases of the enlarged program which calls for an army of nearly 4,000.000 Americans in France by June 30, 1919. with another million in training in this country. Predicting that the war will be won or lost on the western front,. regard less of what happens elsewhere. Gen eral March told the committee that with SO trained American divisions of about 54,000 men each, in France, un der an American commander victory ought to rest on American arms next year. Reiterating his belief that such a force could go through the German lines at will, General March went fur ! ther and electrified the committee men by declaring such a force "should bring the war to a successful conclu sion in 1919." To exert this American man pow 1 er in securing victory, General Marcl said, "every single man" between 1^ and 45 in Class 1 would be needed by next spring. ShiDping facilities are assured, he added . \d mainten ance problems have been considered in the program. Suggestions that the five million army program would exhaust Ameri ca's man power were laughingly de nied by General March but hejoinee Secretary Baker in explaining that i represents America's maximum -effort for the present." |> Plans for calling new registrants under the proposal explained by*Sec retary Baker provide for three class es?probably to be called in order' those between 19 and 37 years of age those between 37 and 45, and thost between 18 and 19. Mr. Baker ,, die* ' not object to separate classification ol ; 18 years old youths, but he and: Gen era! March said all eligibles probab ' ly would be called out/not later, than next spring. | . The secretary told the com^ttet 1 his previous statement of the depart ment's intention to liberalize the draft ? regulation in dealing with the plde: : 1 men to be made subject to call, hac ! been misconstrued. He ..said there ? j was no intention to exempt marrieo : men as a class and that married mer. who do not support their wives or are ? not engaged in useful ' occupations will be-called as they now are. Discussing the "work or .fight" ;j amendment of Senator Thomas of j Colorado, to the senate bill, Secretary 1 j Baker said it 'seems entirely consist ! ent" with the present regulations anc ; is unobjectionable. He said it doe. {not provide for conscription of labor as contended by the representatives of organized labor, but merely would b( a declaration by congress of the "work or fight" principle already put I into effect by draft regulations. , " Secretary Morrison of the Americar , I Federation of Labor, appeared in op ! position to the amendment and i* J was arranged to hear him and other I labor representatives tomorrow, j Chairman Dent said tonight he hoped l to report the measure Wednesday or j Thursday, probably with amend ments. If sentiment in the commit tee for provisions specifying the or der of classes to be called and tc specifically defer calls for 18 year old j boys, is reflected in the reported bill Representative Kahn of California, j ranking Republican member, plans a I minority report in favor of the ad I ministration plan. j General Crowder told the commit tee that men now in Class 1 will be exhausted after the September call and urged speedy action on the bill to provide sufficient men for future j calls, although General March said ho I thought there would be enough men to last until November without the j new legislation. j By January 1, General Crowder , said he hoped to complete "classify i ing the nation." I _. i DRAFT BILL AMENDED. j House Committee Alters One Feature i of Man Power Bill. Washington. Aug. 21.?A favorable ; report \v;us voted by the house mili ! tary committee on the man power bill ! amendment, providing that youths j between IS and 20 shall be placed in j a separato classification and called j only after the men from 20 to 45 are i in service. American Casualty List. Washington, Aug. 21.?The army casualty lists issued today t">< iled ?>Z'l Killed in action, f>i>; mis>,. g in ac tion. 144: wounded severely. 94; died: j Of wounds. 14; died of accident and] j other causes. 2: died of disease. 7; j ! wounded degree undetermined. 20.! i Died of disease, Edwin A. Cribb. j j Rh ems. s. <\. missing in action, Wor-; 1 rie Ward, Saluda, S. C. I j Marine Corps Casualties. \ Washington. Aug. 21.?The marine} casualty list contains only 15 names. I Killed in action. 5; died of wounds,' l; wounded severely, :>.; wounded, de-j give undetermined, f?. \ \ ! ins Material LIME, LATH, BRICK, CEMENT, SIDING, CEILING, PLASTER, SHINGLES, FLOORING, MOULDINGS, FIRE CLAY, FIRE BRICK, ROUGH LUMBER RU?FING PAPER Booth & McLeod, Feed-Stuffs HAY, CORN, OATS, HULLS, TANKAGE, MIDDLINGS, RICE FLOUR, WHEAT BRAN, SUGAR FEED, MEAT SCRAP, CHICKEN FEED, OYSTER SHELL, SEED OATS AND RYE, COTTON SEED MEAL Inc., Sumter, S. C. ENEMY VISITS SHORE. BELIEF THAT MEN FROM SUB MARINES CALL. First Officer of Lost Steamer Says lie Saw German in New York Saloon. Washington, Aug. 19.?Information furnished by officers of vesels at tacked by German submarines along the American coast has strengthened the belief held by several experienced officials here that the enemy raiders have had communication with persons on shore and may even have landed members of their crews in an effort to secure reliable information. The navy department officials refused to night to indorse this belief though admitting the possibility. Positive claim that he met in a New York saloon an officer from the sub marine that sank the steamer O. B. Jennings, is made by the first officer of that vessel, according to a story reaching the department. The recog nition between the American and Ger [ man is said to have been instantane ous, the latter making his escape when the American appealed to a brother officer accompanying him for confirmation of his belief. Other instances have been heard, not so well substantiated of the dis sovery of evidence that German sub marines have been in close touch with the shore. One story along this line warS that the captain of a coastwise vessel, being ordered to the submarine with his papers, was astounded to see on the deck of the German com mander, copies of the New York dail ies of the same date. Communication between the raiders and the mainland is possible at scores :>f places along the Atlantic shore, naval officials believe, the irregularity of the American coasts at .certain points making such possible. Recently the precautions taken by authorities to prevent such communi cation have been greatly augmented both by shore patrol and other meth ods which can not be discussed. It can be stated, however, that no offi cial report has been made given any definite eviJence of any enemy boat having landed. From authoritative sources it was learned today that there is reason to. believe three German submarines have been operating on the Ameri can coasts at three separate points. Two of these have recently "ceased operating" either because their stores have become exhausted or as a result of damage receivd in contact with patrol fleets. It is known the activi ties of one boat ceased immediately after a destroyer reported having dis charged depth bombs near the spot where the u-boat submerged. One of the three submarines, it is considered certrsin, was especially equipped for duty as a cable cutter. This is held to explain the sudden parting recently of two Atlantic cables. A naval repair ship, escorted by fighting craft, since has picked up and spliced both cables. .Descriptions of the submarine oper u.tir;g in American waters almost without exception give their leng^n as ?00 feet and their armament as two guns either ~>.l or 5.i* inch caii tie. Naval experts deduct from oth er information that the enemy craft have a cruising radius of not less than 17,000 miles. The German admiralty now has in commission between 160 and ISO sub marines while the total number de- \ stroyed by the Allies has passed thei 200 mark, according to the most re-j liable information here. If correct,; these figures would indicate new Ger man construction has barely held its; own over the period of the four years as at the beginning of the war thei Germans are known to have hud about 150 submarines. The toll in the last six months, j however, has been many times that' attained in any previous period andj j the constantly increasing Allied anti- j ! submarine forces, according to naval officials, will put the ratio contin- > ually higher as time passes. SEIZURE OF WHEAT. I i j Government Takes 1.O87.000 Pounds Which Was Stored Awaiting Ship-1 meat to Germany. i New York. Aim. 20.?Seizure byj the government of a million, eighty seven thousand pounds of devitalized wheat gluten which was intended for Germany through Switzerland, wasj announced by a statement by Alien Property Custodian. A. Mitchell Palm-, er. The grain, worth $20<L?ufl in pre-j war time, was discovered In June in.i a warehouse ready fur shipment. * ! LAST HEIGHTS TAKEN IN IM PORTANT REGION. Fact That Only Machine Guns OffcU Resista * Indicates That Artillery Has Gone. With the French Army in France, Aug. 20 (By the Associated Press) ? The operations begun this morning by General Mangin's troops between the j Aisne and the Oise, southeast of Noy j cn and' northwest of Soissons, looks j this evening to be a splendid suc i cess. General Mangin has taken from i the Germans at Cuts and Mont de j Choisy the last heights remaining I south of the Oise in that region, j At Mont de Choisy the French I troops are within two and one-half ! miles of the Oise at Pontoise, the di i rect road to which is now under fire ! of the French batteries. Carlepont, to the southwest, is also : in the hands of the French tonight, and from this place their guns com J mand another road to the Oise at Sempigny, directly south of Noyon. General Mangin with his right sol idly on the heights north of the Aisne around Gontenoy, is sweeping the Germans off the high ground south of the Oise, obliging them to retreat across the river or retire eastward, j In either event the success of the j movement will expose the region (about Noyon to artillery attacks from ? the south, the southeast and the ; southwest. ' The Germans are fighting hard J against this danger, relying principal fly vupon machine guns as in the Thies i court region, thus indicating that some ! of their artillery already is across or 1 is on the way across the river Oise. I The count of prisoners and an inven 1 lory of the booty taken still are in j complete. One corps in this opera tion had counted 1.500 prisoners up to noon and had immense quantities j of captured war materials of all j sorts. SPAIN'S NOTE TO GERMANY. i_ i ; nuns Notified That German Slrii j Will be Used to Replace Submarine ! Victims. 1 Paris, Aug. 21.?Spain has inform ! ed Germany that hereafter she wil ! use German ships in Spanish ports in l place of tonnage sunk by German .' submarines. The announcement was ? made in an official statement, after a I meeting of the cabinet at San Sebas tian. i_ j 'PREMIER CLEMENCEAU'S OPIN ! ION. ! Sees Victory for Allied Arms Before Another Twelve Months Hav< J Passed. Paris, Aug. 20.?It is the belief o:% j Premier Clemenceau that a complete i triumph will be won during the pres ! ent vear by the arms of the entent< ? Allies and that the war will have end i ed before another year has passed, (according to the understanding reach ted by United States Senator J. Ham ilton Lewis, of Iillinois. of remarks b> ; the premier during a lengthy conver j sation with him. The gist of the con ; versation with the consent of M j Clemenceau has been given to the I Associated Press by Senator Lewis. ! Premier Clemenceau paid high trib i ute to President Wilson as a con I structive leader and said he was ! greatly impressed with Newton D. j Baker, the American secretary oi war. as a man of great resources. The premier declared that when the American troops arrived uncertainty existed as to whether they could bring their undoubted courage into imme diate action after having been trained to a life of peace. The first showing of the American troops had amazed France with their bravery and sol dierly perfection, he said. The premier declared the work o! the American troops on the battle field did more to terrorize Germany than any other thing the enemy has met. He said France has every con fidence now that this war was on th? way to immediate victory. Senator Lewis said Premier Clem enceau gave him messages to Presi dent Wilson and the people of the United States. COTTON FREIGHT RATES. Existing Hates Will be Continued in Force. Washington. Aug. 21.?Existing freight rates on cotton shipped in any quantities will be continued one year, the railroad administration announc ed today. GERMANS FILL BUK. i HUNS PUT TO TEST FROM SOIS SONS TO BELGLAN BORDER. I Mangin Launched New Offensive on I Front of Fifteen 31ilcs, Capturinjr Eight Thousand Prisoners and Scoring Decided Advance?Haig Strikes Blow to Good Effect Along i Scarpe River. By Associated Press. From Soissons to the Belgian bor der the German armies in various important sectors are being put to the test by the French and British. And it is a test that seemingly bodes ill for the Teutonic arms, for nowhere have they been able to sustain the shocks. Northwest of Soissons, from the Aisne to the Oise, north and north ward on the famous Lys salient, the Germans everywhere have been com pelled to fall back under the pressure of the French and British troops. In a new offensive launched by the French, General Mangin over a front of approximately 15 and a-half miles, from Pailhy on the Oise to the Aisne near Soissons. the French in bitter righting have carried forward their line to an average depth of two and a-half miles and in the first phase of the battle had turned to French pos sessions numerous enemy held villages and farms. In addition more _than 8,000 Germans had been herded be {hind the line as prisoners. At last reports Mangin's men were still hard after the enemy, and un* official accounts placed the French on various sectors well in advance of the positions outlined in the French official communication. Along the Scarpe River." east of Ar ras, Field Marshal Haig's forces also have kept up their harassing tactics against the enemy who has been com pelled to fall back eastward along the Scarpe River. The Germans resist ed vigorously but all to no purpose and the British advanced their lines to the east of the village of Fampoux. Although Haig claimed only a slight forward movement here particular significance attaches to it by reason of the fact that the Germans have been driven back until they are vir tually upon the old battle line as it stood in December', 1917. Northward the Lys salient again has been narrowed down by the op erations of the British, who north of Mervllle have taken the village of Verhock and La Couronne and also reached the hamlet of L'Epinette. This gain represents a forward move ment of about a mile and a half and places the British astride the road running southward to Estaires. Taken all in the all, the new vic tories of the Allied troops are high ly important ones. The advance of the French northwest of Soissons, taken in conjunction with the suc cessful maneuvers on the Lasigny sec tor and south of Rove, where BeuvT raignes has been captured, seemingly means that the enemy forces from ihe Somme to the Oise soon must give up their positions and retreat eastward. Indeed, it seems not im probable now that Noyon is well outflanked on the south and south east and the German line is none too secure north of Soissons and that the enemy will be under the neces sity of moving his troops northward from the Vesle towards, if not across the Aisne. The Germans still are stubbornly contesting with the British points of vantage on the line, south of the Somme near Chaulnes and north of Rove, which are still in German hands and which are the keystones to the enemy defense liens. With the capture of Beuvraignes by the French however. Rove apparently is on the eve of falling and with its fall doubtless the entire line northward to ' the Somme also will give way. The Germans in the Merville sector of the Lys salient everywhere are be ing closely followed by the British as they give up positions under attack and at last accounts they were show ing no indication that an immediate halt is in their mind. On the Lys front, although the Germans are -bowing some resistance they are not putting their wonted heart into their work. There has been little fighting alone: the Vesle river where the American and French are facing the enemy. Major J. W. Bradford is at home on thirty day sick leave. He is recuper ating from an operation for appendi citis, which was performed in New York several weeks ago. At the time he was stricken he was en route from Camp Severe for France.