davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-01-24
RUSSIAN COMMANDERS

proved right. The Germans failed to take frontier before they could make sec ond attempt. Nicholas standby here was his chief-of-staff. Gen. N. N. Yan- ushkevitch, Yanushkevitch is the most notable of Russias thinking generals. He is young man of weak physique and unmilitary looks, by origin a Pole. Yan- ushkevitch planned both the defense of Poland, on the Vistula, and the invasion Of Germany via Breslau and Posen. That was in 1908. Minister of War Sukhomlinoff had dismantled the west Polish fortresses on the ground that they could not With stand a German attack, and proposed to dismantle Warsaw's forts. This threw the defense and offense plans of Minister Of War Kuropatkin into the smeting pot. Yanushkevitch drew up new plans. These plans have been adopted in essentials by Grand Duke Nicholas. but modified in de- tails. Had they been wholly adhered to Russias strategic position would be bet ter than it is. In Yanushkevitch's plan, the East Prussian salient was not to De invaded until the central Russian armies were well established in Siesia and Posen. Instead of keeping to this plan, the Rus sians in August dashed into East Prussia and reached Konigsberg and Allenstein. Their main advance on Posen and Bres- lau was not ready. As result came the terrific battle of Tannenberg in which Samsonoff was overthrown and killed and nearly four army corps wipec out of existence. Grand Duke Nicholas was not responsible for this change in his and Yanushkevitchs plan of campaign. The East Prussian raid was undertaken for political considerations-in order to weak en the German attack on France. Never was more clearly shown the mistake of letting politics interfere with strategy. After Tannenberg, Yanushkevitch offered to resign. He is u real scholar and think CT and he makes a good complement to Grand Duke Nicholas who is a man of action.
 General Alexander Brusiloff, who now commands against the Austrian flank on the slopes of the id-Carpathans. is the coolest, boldest. most unsparing of the Czar's generals He Is thin, fastidious. squeamish. physically delicate man, given to poetry and art, and unshrinking in battle. Brusiloff beat the Austrians at Tomasheff by sacrificing 10OO0 more men after the first TO- 900 lives were spent in vain. During his absence a shell burst
 in his tent. killed his adiutant, and tore
 his maps to bits. The blood-stained bits were taken to another tent. pasted to- gether and put to new use. They have
The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-01-24
BY BYRON LOMAX

been sent for exhibition in the Moscow Palace of Arms. Brusiloff likes frontal attacks. He says they are less costly than the favorite flanking assaults Be- fore the war he lectured to the Moscow Military Historical Society,"" and proved his thesis by figures. The proportion. of losses in frontal attacks Is greater, but the absolute loss, considering the greater number of men engaged, is greater in flank attack, as the Austrian right was unprotected, and the left's only protection was a fortified orchard. The Russians were in superior force. Brusiloff sent his infantry in thick masses up a bullet swept slope, and captured the Austrian trenches in half an hour.
 Brusiloff was once military governor in Poland. Bombs were flying about. When three in three successive weeks had exploded near his carriage, he issued 6 proclamation saying that he would arrest three rich citizens for every future case of bomb throwing The bomb throwing ceased. It had been subsidized by the
The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-01-24
mecAtlav sand eat ndhng grass
 


his moujlk warriors the rough hammered, familiar grand duke is "Batka," Father" Soldiers who abjectly address lieutenant as High w ellborn- ness say "Batka' freely to the commander-in-chief. When the Russian battle line shook on the Wis., tulo, and Hindenburg nearly carried his plan of seizing Warsaw and Ivangorod Nicholas got sheaves of telegrams from private soldiers in South Russia, Siberia and the Caucasus, and all began "Batka." We are coming, father, to help you" You are welcome, rebiata (children)," replied Big Nicholas. Nicholas, people say, swears when his officers blunder, and yarns go around that he personally whacked the blundering General X. and the disobedent Colonel Y. Truth is, Nich- oas is rough, tough individual; some- what choleric; always good-hearted; all weys ready with praise for real fighters. He has the psychology of the peasant and not that of the irresolute pedantic ''in- telhgent.' That makes him a soldiers general.
 Nicholas is personally brave. He pre- fers fighting to thinking, and his ideal fights took place in the seventeenth cen tury when royal commanders led charges themselves. The staff train is 80 miles behind the battle line, and this chafes Nicholas, who wants to see fighting When plans are ready and map and desk work is done Nicholas appears in his motor ear behind the fighting line During the fight for the Piiitsa position after the first German retreat from Warsaw, Nicholas got under fire. lis whereabouts was carefully kept from the Germans but the soldiers fighting between Rawa and Romascheff saw his car speeding northwest parallel to their lines and slight Big Nicholas sat imperturable. At Kosh- enitsa, on the Vistula, Nicholas was wher- ever the fight was hottest. "Batka's" appearance so inspired ethe soldiers that General von Plehve. when in difficulties east of Czenstochowo spread the tale that the grand duke was coming along. "Idyot Batka," bawled the soldiers, and held their ground After the Koshenitsa fight Nicholas summoned Ivan Patrokhin Sam uil Schumer and Andrei Rybinsky, three battlefield heroes, and kissed all three Officers, with whom Nicholas never shakes hands. stared.
 Nicholas himself planned the first re- treat to the Vistula. but he resolutely re- fused to abandon Warsaw and retreat to the Bug. He beat down opposition. A Warsaw, was in favor of abandoning the city, and turing the Germans to Brest- Litovsk Nicholas opposed this and he
The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-01-24

rich citizens whom his proclamation threatened. Personally, Brusilon is a fearless man. He shows himself to his troops often, says nothing, rides slowly and deliberately between the rows ot trenches, and makes critical remarks Nobody ever heard Brusiloff praise or blame a junior officer. Every evening he summons the higher commanders to his headouarters and says categorically; That was wrong. You should have" "You did that we'll" No discussion is allowed. For his taciturnity and remote ness Brusiloff is called Brusiloff-Dalioki, "Far-off Brusiloff." Some think that Brusiloff's coldness and remoteness is pose.
 Gen. H. V. Ruxski is the commander who most of all has captured the mou1lk soldiers imagination. Ruzski is the con oueror of Galicia He is the picturesque, chivalrous figure, the Skobelen of the war. Like Skobeleff. he loves war, apart from it's politcial and moral values. It IS a sport. When Ruzski became commander of the southern group of arnhes' ne is- sued a proclamation to his troops m the style or NapOleOu, luAi oA Sio"iAiS efAN--SS'' about ..the promised land," ''the historic aims of Russia," "our unconquerable ar mies," The proclamation surprised the stan. as Ruzski till then was known as ..the German" and was considered dry but able book soldier. Ruzski IS both. He has profound knowledge of strategy. His pamphlets and lectures on past cam pafrns are the best known. He has an oriental imagination, restless energy. and a delight in fighting. Ruzskis plans of battle as executed north of Lemberg are models. They consisted of tremendous attacks on the Austrian center violent feints carried out for two or three days on one flank, and then a surprise and real attack on the other flank. This strategy varied in details. Sometimes the sup posed feint flank attack turned out to be the real attack At Rawa Russka, north west of Lemberg, Ruxski thrice shifted the main weight of attack from east to left. When the Austrian-. puzzled tt know which flank was really threatened reinforced both at the expense of theii center, Ruxski abandoned both flank at
 tacks. concentrated four dense columns opposite the enerny's center near Balsec and broke in two the Austrian line. Only the resistance of a Hungarian division
 which let itself be annihilated. saved thu
 Austrians from disaster. Az 1t was. they
 were badly beaten, and abandoned theil last hope of holding Lemberg city. Rug
 alki now commands the northern group o
The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-01-24

so that when the doors are open you can stand at one end of an empty train and look through it clear to the other. This enables the cattle to be driven through the train in single file without crowding. the animals march from car to car into the pens of the factories.
 These factories save the by-products just as carefully our factories do. Every part of the animal goes into something The hides are dressed and cleaned salted and dried, and shipped to Europe or to the United States. The bones are cut up for knife handles and other sue hthings, and the offa1 goes into fertilizers, which are largely exported A great deal of canned meat is made, and also canned soups and tongues.
 They are now employing 2S00 hands in the La Plata factory, and of these 300 are Argentina maidens, wno come in from the country about. The girls age nice looking. They are young and fresh and in their uniforms of cal $ and aprons furnished by the company they seem quite attractive. They are well paid for this part of the world The most of them work by the piece and make from so cents to $1.50 for 0 day of eight hours. With tho single exception of the butchers, the most of the men are Italians and Spaniarus The butchers are native Argentines They come of the class known as the gauchos or cowboys, and they have been using the knife almost from tho time they were born. All of the killing is done by them. The common worN- men receive about S1.50 a day and skilled labor is higher than in the Uni ted States.
 The American packers tell me that it is doubtful whether the meat sent on. by the Argentine will materially re- Since the demand from the United States has arisen the prices of cattle have doubled and now there is an ad- ditional rise on account of the war. The farmers have never gotten so much for their steers. When Europe was the only market there was a combina- tion among the European owners of these packing establishments that kept down the prices of stock and until re- gently England has had the cheapest
 meat of any place in the world. Even last spring, when beef was so high iu the states, some of that sent to Eng land from other countries was shipped across to New York and sold there. The present high prices are increasir E the number of stock on the farms, but this is necessarily slow, and it will be c long time before the country reaches the limit of it's grazing and killing capacity. There are now only 3o.000, ,0CO cattle in Argentina, but if all the lands were used and the farming was as in
The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-01-24

country has shipped away beef 10 the amount of more than s200,0Oo,o0o iu value. It's exports of frozen mutton have been about half as much as those of beef and the packing business is just at it's beginning. Argentine has some items of meat export that we do not have in our government statlstlcs. Jerked beef for instance, brings III about s1,590,000 a year, and powdered meat sells for almost as much. The ex- tI act of beef brings in more than u million dollars and condensed soup Is now sold to the extent of nearly s2oo- coo per annum. This chilled meat product of last year amounted to S56,- coo, GOO in gold, and since 1885 the meats sent abroad have brought in aimos. $500, ,000,.
 At present fully one-half of the meat exporting is backed by American capi- tai although the companies are doing their business as Argentine organiza- tions They work independently of one another and so far there is no com hination or American trust. I am told that the English and other companies are very jealous of the Americans and that they accuse them of taking the profits out of the business by raising inc prices of cattle As 1t is now the hest cattle go to the American fac tories.
 have before me the Argentine year book, which gives the figures as to the various meat companies. There are al- together Il in the republic, including one in New Patagonia which is shipping 16oooo frozen sheep every year; another at Bahia Blanca. the great port of the south, and several meat preserving institutions scat tered over the country. The latter are owned by a British syndicate, which has a capital of $6,O00,0O0, it's chief business be- ing in preserved meats and meat extract.
 As to the frigerificos or meat freezing establishments, the oldest is the San cinema, founded about g years ago with a capital of $SO00,000 in gold, and half as much in bonded indebtedness. This com pany has been paying dividends of lo per cent and upward on it's common stock And then there is the establishment or James Nelson 2 Son, which was registered in 1892 This is the Las Palmas Frigeri- fico, situated on the Parama river It has a capacity of 800 cattle and 300 sheep per day. The Frgerfico Argentine is an ltal- ian organization with a capital of $20o0,- coo and dividends of per cent It Is sit uated In BuenoS Alres, OH .ho isnehoSio river and not far from the La Blanca Cold Storage company. The La Blanca capital is Sl,500,000, and that of the La Plata is $75oo.O00 but the La Blanca or Armour organization will be materially increased by its sister plant at La Plata, which is now building Both of these companies do an enormous business Ihe net profits of the La Plata in 1911 were over S659, GOO, and it is paying something like F per cent dividends on it's common stock. In addition there are other com panies engaged in the manufacture or meat extracts and preserved meats, one of which dates back to 1865. Altogether the meat business is only in it's beginning, and with the increase in the number or cattle and the extent of the pastures in the undeveloped lands of the north and west, it will some day be many times what it is now.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-01-24

armies, opposed to the German generals, Morgen and Francois.
 center, abandoned both flank attacks, con- centrated four dense columns opposite the enemy's center near Balsec. and broke in two the Austrian line. Only the resistance of Hungarian division, which let itself
 ebannihilated. saved the Austrians from disaster. As it was, they were badly beaten. and abandoned their last hope of holding Lemberg city. Ruzski now com mands the northern group Of armies, op- posed to the German generals. Morgen and Francois.
 and Dragomiroff. Plehve. as I write is fighting desperately to stop the Austro- German dash east from Czenstochowo. The dash threatens Grand Duke Nicholas left wing. Plehve's operations are vital. as the Russian right wing has already been driven in along the Vistula, and a success of the Austro-German advance in the south would bend the Russian bat tie line into a dangerously compressed bow and deprive it of it's natural lines of supply and of retreat Plehve has just fought a terrific battle at Mstov, which, he claims, has stemmed the en- emy's advance Plehve made his name as a marcher He marches his men half tn death, makes them fight hard, and then gives them long rests. His tactics. like his name, are German. Nearly all Russian generals move slowly and eau tiousiy. Plehve makes quick dasnes. Plehve, like Brusiloff. believes in throw ing away lives. On the march from the Vistula to Czenstochowo he fought five actions, each of which, a generation ago, would have counted as first-class bat tie. A hundred and ten thousand men were put out of action, but the Russians gained ground quickly, and caused the Germans heavy loss. Tn the last days of November, Plehve received big rein forcements. Threatened by new German forces marching east from the Weljun angle of Poland, he changed front with lightning speed. He is now fighting a battle which may decide the whole war. Plehve is a good looking, youthful and polished man. He belongs to the same German-Lithuanian Plehve family as vlacheslav Plehve, Nicholas IT, most despotic minister of the interior who was blown up in the Nevsky Prospect during the Russo-Japanese war.
 A fighting commander of high calibre is Lieutenant General Dragomiroff. Dra- gomiroff is noted for his bayonet at- long military governor of Kieff, a great exponent of bayonet and close-in fight ing, and deadly foe and critic of the scholarly. irresolute KuropatlSin. 'Pulya- durak-Stuik molodets"-'t bullet is 2
The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-01-24

ing the great docks of Buenos Aires, and it was some distance up the river that we got a ferry boat which car ried us to the other bank and landed us at a group of great buildings made Of reinforced concrete and roofed with galvanized iron I had with me MT. Pierce, the manager of the Armour business in Buenos Aires, and he intro- duced me to MT. Story, who is in charge of La Blanca. It was with him and MT Fierce that I went through the fac tory.
 Before beginning our inspection we clad ourselves in white cotton over caots to protect our clothes from the dirt. We started in at the cattle pens where the animals were awaiting the killing, and thence wept from room to room until we saw the beef frozen stiff and being put into the steamer on its way to New York. Tho cattle pens are all under cover, and thelr area must be at least a half dozen acres. They are in two floors, the ami mals being kept at least two days in the pen before killing There were more than 5000 fine beeves on hand when we went through, and. as ] walked back and forth over the plat form under the roof I had a fine view l have never seen better steers out side our stock shows. The most of the animals were shorthorns and Here lords and I was told that their average weight as they stood there on the hool was more than 1900 pounds. There was almost no riff-raff among them. They had small heads, short necks, tine wide smooth. fat backs and the great flank that mark the type of good becf
 Nearly all of the Argentine stock has good blood, and the estanciaros arc breeding their cattle up to the highest standard A single man may own hun Greds of thousands of animals. and ar additional hundred pounds weight if steer would make an enormous diff ference in his annual profit. The farm. CTS cannot afford to keep poor stock and they realize the value of scientific breeding.
 Indeed, I believe that higher prices are paid for blooded stock here than ir any other part of the world. It is no uncommon for bull to bring $5009 and one was sold not very long aso that brought $35,000, and the purchaser had to pay the auctioneer's fee of S200, in addition. Nearly every large estancii in the province of Buenos Aires ha: bulls that are worth $5000 and upward and cows are often sold at 5000. O. late they have been importing man,
The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-01-24


 ElHE3l claim that their army can match Germany's in numbers
 and generalship German tech nical equipment transport. and instruc- tion are first. Not counting her end less reserves of physically fit peasants, Russia has as many equipped men in the field as Germany has. She has first class generals. mostly better known to Europe before the war than were any German generals. The next few weeks will prove whether these generals can break up the Austro-German armies and counterbalance their superiority in equip ment and technique
 People who counted on Grand Duke Nicholas, Russia's commander-in-chief, proving a representative figurehead, who would leave work and responsibility to his chief-of- staff. General Yanushkevtch. have been proved wrong Before the war Nicholas showed his strong charac- ter. For 10 years he has been the most influential of grand dukes, and close adviser of his cousin, Czar Nicholas When Grand Duke Nicholas took com mand, his staff tried to get it's way on certain important points. Nicholas told the staff that it must advise, and not dic- tate to him. Since then he has been &C., tual commander His chief-of-staff keeps him full of facts, considerations, figures, and his generals execute his orders, but Grand Duke Nicholas himself does the commanding and takes the praise or blame.
 seNikolai Nkolaievitch dominant characteristic is the desire for command and readiness to bear responsibility. He believes in himself Ten years ago he nearly tried a fall with the triumphant Japs. That was when Mukden Battle had finally shown Kuropatkin's timidity and incapacity. Nicholas was president of the Soviet gosudarstvennoi oforony." the committee which controlled all mill tary and naval affairs. He proposed that he should take the Manchurian command. He intended, he said, to fight decisive battle, to risk all and everything. the one thing which Kuropatkin could not nerve himself to do. Nicholas II ob- jected. If the grand dukes battle ended badly, he reasoned, the Romanoffs cause would be doubly prejudiced Instead of Grand Duke Nicholas. he appointed old Papa Linievftch. who had all Grand Duke Nicholas' self-confidence, but none of his quickness.
 Grand Duke Nicholas like Linievitch, is a soldiers general. He loves soldiers and they love him; and he treats officers distantly and ia so treated by them. To