davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Watertown weekly leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1912-1917, 1916-02-15
Jap Gets Reprieve.

Washington, Feb. 11.-At the re-
quest of the Japanese ambassador,
Viscount Chinda, President Wilson
granted 6O-day reprieve to O. Itow, a
Japanese sentenced to be hanged Feb
ruary IL at Juneau, Alaska, for com
hitting the murder of companion.
The Watertown weekly leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1912-1917, 1916-02-15

10th in reply to mine of February 9th.
1t is evident that we hopelessly dis
agree upon what l conceive to be fun
damental principles. This makes mani
fest the improperly of my long re-
naming your seeming representative
with respect to these matters.
Il hereby tender my resignation as
secretary of war, to take effect at your
convenience.
Sincerely yours,
''LINDLEY M. GARRISON"
Resignation Is Accepted.
"The White House, Washington, Feb.
10, 1916.-My Dear Secretary: l must
confess to feeling very great sur
prise at your letter of today offering
your resignation as secretary of war.
There has been no definite action
taken yet in either of the matters to
which your letter Of yesterday refer
red The whole matter is under de-
bate, and all the influences that work
for clarity and judgment ought to be
available at this very time.
But since you have felt obliged to
take this action, and since it is evil
dent that your feeling in the matter is
very great indeed, | feel that l would
be only imposing a burden upon you
should l urge you to retain the secre-
taryship of war while l am endeavor-
ing to find a successor. I ought to re-
lieve you at once and do hereby &C
cept your resignation, because it is so
evidently your desire that l should do
so. l cannot take this important step,
however, without expressing to you
my very warm appreciation of the dis
tinguiShed service you have rendered
as secretary of war, and l am sure that
in expressing this appreciation l am
only putting into words the judgment
of our fellow citizens far and wide
with sincere regret at the action
you have felt constrained to take
Sincerely yours,
WOODROW WILSON.
Hon Lindley M. Garrison, Secretary
of War
Letter to Breckenridge.
"The White House, Washington, Feb.
10, 1916.-My Dear Mr.. Breckenridge:
l can quite understand why you deem
it incumbent upon you in loyalty to
your chief to follow his example in
rendering your resignation, and since
l have accepted his resignation, | am
sure it will be your desire T. at 1 ac-
cept yours also. l do so with genuine
regret because you have in every way
fulfilled the highest expectations and
rendered the country the most consci-
entious and efficient service
ct is with genuine sorrow that |
see this official relationship between
us brought to an end.
Cordially and sincerely yours,
WOODROW WILSON.
Hon Henry Breckenridge, assistant
secretary of war"
Critical Juncture Seen.
The first of the preliminary CORE
spondence is letter by Secretary Gar
rison dated January II. He wrote:
WAR Department, Washington, Jan.
II, 1916.-My Dear Mr.. President: In
my judgment we are facing critical
juncture with respect to the military
The Watertown weekly leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1912-1917, 1916-02-15
NEWS OF THE STATE

Superior.-While he held $125 in
paper money in his hands, thugs
who pounced upon him searched
the pockets of Gust A Erickson, a
woodsman, and took an empty pocket
book, a hospital ticket and a knife
The Watertown weekly leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1912-1917, 1916-02-15
Couldn't Do Himself Justice.

First Chauffeur-This recommends
ton from your last employer doesn't
speak very highly of you.
Second Chauffeur-Well, I'm a mod
est guy. You see, | wrote it myself
IudQa
The Watertown weekly leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1912-1917, 1916-02-15

Birchwood.-The A. V. & S. COM
pany refused a large order from
the British government for veneer to
be used in the construction of air.
craft and motor vehicles. The plant
is heavily stocked with orders
The Watertown weekly leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1912-1917, 1916-02-15

Cambria.-Mr. and Mrs. Christian
Umbreit celebrated their golden wed
ding anniversary with all their
children and grandchildren and
other relatives present. Rev. S. ]. I'm
brett of Japan, F. W. Umbreit,
brother from Iowa, and A. c. Umbreit
Of Milwaukee. nephew, were here.
The Watertown weekly leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1912-1917, 1916-02-15

1t is manmade dress of one piece,
or simply a coverall blanket.
Sir Francis cows are dressed regu-
larly every winter in suits of hemp
cloth made at his own manufacturing
establishment to protect them from
the cold and snow, minimize the dan
The Watertown weekly leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1912-1917, 1916-02-15

This is Miss Olosega, late of Pago
Pago, Samoa, whom Lieut.. and Mrs j.
N. Davis have brought to the United
States to be educated. Her first les
son was to discard the picturesque
though scant costume of the South
Pacific, and she seems to take kindly
to the garb of civilization, walking
stick and all, except the shoes, which
have proved troublesome
The Watertown weekly leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1912-1917, 1916-02-15

Beloit.-Schools were closed in
the village of Alton, north of here,
because of the ice jam at the town
line bridge. Water filled the base
ments OF schools and made it impos-
sible to heat the buildings.
Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1916-02-02
TRACTORS AND HIGHWAYS

NUR friends of the Pennsylvania
Threshermens and Farmers
Protective Association have an
other grievance. They are out in a
protest against their insurance rate
under the compensation act. Without
discussing this particular objection we
may be permitted to observe that this
association must be careful if it would
escape the criticism of wanting
everything in the way of protection
while giving little in the way of re-
turn therefor.
There was a great deal OF criticism
of this association in its fight against
the State Highway Department on the
question of general use of the i'm
proved roads without properly safe
guarding the same from damage by
traction engines. Those who use the
highways built at great expense are
frequently confronted with the reck-
lessness of drivers of traction engines
who do more damage in one trip over
an improved highway than hundreds
of automobiles in the course of sea-
son.
1t is still a serious question whether
these traction machines should be
permitted to use the highways without
proper protection for their heavy
wheels which do so much damage.
Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1916-02-02
MANAGING. THE CITY
The Western Way
BY Frederic J. Haskin

you are an employer you know
how hard it is to fire anyone, and
how much harder to keep the pay
roll from growing at an alarming rate.
To reduce and keep down the pay
roll OF a city is just about four times
as hard. Yet that is what the COM
missioners of Oklahoma City have
done, with directness and lack of
ceremony which is very Characters
tic of that city.
AT an early meeting of the new
commission, one of the members
moved that the five clerks in the
auditors office be reduced to three.
Another one wanted the seven clerks
in the water department reduced to
-FOUR. So each of the commissioners
moved reduction in his own depart
ment, and the proposals were voted
on in bunch. In twenty minutes the
payroll of Oklahoma City was cut
in half, and the people were saved a
good many thousand dollars q year.
This actual economy in government
is Oklahoma Citys chief claim to dis
| tlnction, and it is very considerable
one. In every commission govern
ment campaign, economy, efficiency
and honesty have been held up as
the blessings that commission gov
ernment would bring In most of the
cities that have made the change, ad-
ministrations have become more eff
cient and more directly responsible to
the people, but very few of them
have actually saved money, and still
fewer have materially reduced the
number of city employees. The city
hall pie counter is too ancient an insti-
tuition in American town life to be
! easily uprooted. But Oklahoma City
is young and traditions are nothing to
her. She abolished the pie counter
at a swat.
That same independence of tradi-
tion and daring directness are charac-
teristic of the Oklahoma City charter
throughout. 1t embodies all the new
est wrinkles in commission govern
ment. The commission consists of a
mayor and four commissioners, elect
ed at large. The mayor gets $4,000
a year and the commissioners $4,000
each, which is pretty good pay for
such positions in a town of $4,000
The Des Moines plan of a free-for-a
primary, in which anybody could run
for nomination, was adopted. This is
followed by an election, in which the
candidates are the two who received
the highest vote for each office, max
ing a field of ten from which five are
| elected.
| Machinery by which the people
could recall any member of the COM
mission at any time is provided. The
people are also given power to initi-
ate laws and to require the commits
sion to refer any of it's laws to them
for approval or rejection whenever
they desire. The claim of the friends
of the initiative, referendum and re-
call-that they make public officials
at all times responsive - seems to
have been justified in Oklahoma City
The people have been so we'll satis-
fled with the government that they
have not used the weapons, which
President Wilson once called "the
gun behind the door"
Oklahoma City employees are also
under a rigid civil service system
The commission appoints a civil
service board, but has no administra-
Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1916-02-02
A PARABLE
INeW Ynrk Srn-l

Passing over the interesting problem
in biblical chronology raised by Colonel
Roosevelt's establishment of the year
16 as that in which a certain man went
down from Jerusalem to Jericho and
fell among thieves, the application of
tion toward Belgium made yesterday
in the Colonels address before the
Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences
compels attention. Colonel Roosevelt
lilIens Belgium, violated by Germany,
to the victim of the thieves, and as
serts that the United States has played
the part of the Levite that passed on
the other side without trying to help
the man."
1t is not recorded, so far as we are
aware, that the Samaritan who sue
'cored this unfortunate man expended
his energy in pursuit of the thieves, or
even gave to their conduct subsequent
to the assault they had committed seri-
GUS thought. The Samaritan, instead,
''bound up his wounds, pouring in oil
and wine. and set him on his own
beast, and brought him to an inn. and
took care of him." The Samaritan
gave to the host of the inn two pence,
and said to him:
Take care of him; and whatsoever
thou spendest more, when l come
again. / will repay thee"
Colonel Roosevelt's biblical eXcur-
sion seems to have produced a curl
ously inappropriate illustration for the
illumination of his argument. The
Samaritan practiced benevolence, not
Yengeance; and the United States has
been benevolent to Belgium.
Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1916-02-02
SOLVING THINGS
saturday Evening Post. ]

If you should happen to look back
a year you would recall, with surprise
that the country then had great and
urgent problem on its hands. 1t was
the worst period of industrial depres-
sion we had known for q long while.
The number of unemployed men was
estimated all the way from two mil
lions up. An investigation in New
York city indicated upward of two
hundred thousand there. 1t was gen.
orally felt that something of perma-
nent nature must be done to solve this
eXigent problem of unemployment.
Many meetings were held, committees
appointed. plans proposed. You will
find q great deal about it in the news
PAPERS of a year ago.
OF course there is no problem now.
Labor is quite fully employed. Short
age of hands is complained of here
and there.
Mostly our problems solve them
selves. in so far as they get solved at
all. Possibly two or three years hence
somebody, in looking over the news
paper files to find the price of eggs this
winter, will notice some big headlines
and eXclaim:
by Jove. I'd forgotten all about
that agitation for preparedness against
war;"
Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1916-02-02

tive control over it. Anybody who
wants a job with the city goes before
the board and takes an examination.
The board certifies a list of the COM
petents to the commission, and when
ever anybody is appointed to q job it
must be from this list. The commits
sion has no power to appoint anyone
else. Neither has the commission
power of removal of city employees,
except on charges preferred before
the civil service board, and after the
board has sustained the charges. If
the board finds the charges not well
grounded, the employe cannot be
discharged.
Heads of departments and certain
other officers are excluded from the
civil service by the charter. These
are the private secretaries to the
commissioners, the corporation coun-
sci, the chief of police, the Superin-
tendent of the water department, the
city engineer, the city clerk, the
auditor and the treasurer AS re-
suit of the civil service, the old sys-
tenn by which city officials parceled
out the jobs to the faithful, has been
abolished. In fact, the operation of
the civil service board, together with
the businesslike administration of
city affairs, has been so successful
that the former job-giving system has
been practically forgotten by the
people of the town and abandoned by
candidates as a method of getting
elected.
When the commission took Office it
found an antiquated, imperfect sys-
tenn of accounting in operation. 1t
was not rare for bills against the city
TO be paid twice. The new system
makes such a thing impossible, and
gives the city, for the first time, a
daily knowledge of what it is collect
ing and what it is spending.
The commission effected a saving
of about $4,000 the first year of it's
work. This saving was effected, not
by curtailing the municipal services
or slowing up on improvem ents but
by getting more for the money spent.
Oklahoma City, being new and having
been located where there was plenty
of space, has unusually wide streets
yet it has 143 miles of paving, mostly
sheet asphalt of good quality. The
fire department, scattered through ten
stations, has been two-thirds motor
lied and will be all motor in another
year. In spite of reduced expendi-
lures, the street paving has been
kept in repair and the streets kept
clean to such a degree that the resi-
dents of the town are proud of them,
and boost that no city in the country
has better thoroughfares. The sys-
tenn of public lighting has been mate
rally extended and many miles of
additional water mains have been
laid-all on reduced total of addi-
tional expenses, and with a fewer
number of city employees. The number
of consumers of water has increased
from 5000 TO 10000; yet four clerks
keep the accounts of the office now
where seven were employed under the
old form of government.
The five commissioners of Okla
homa City divide the work of the city
among themselves and each man is
held directly responsible by the COM
mission-and to some extent by the
people-for the affairs Of his depart
ment.
Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1916-02-02
HOW WE GROW

NITY COMMISSIONER LYNCH
~ submitted to Council yesterday
an interesting and encouraging
report of the construction work of
his department during the last year.
He showed that twenty-seven high
ways, in whole or part, were paved at
an approximate cost of $4,000; that
thirty-four sewers were constructed,
costing almost $4,000, and enlarging
our drainage system in several i'm
portant particulars; 2,296 new street
signs were installed, besides other
signs; another street sprinkler and
two more street sweepers were added
the new asphalt repair plant was put
in operation, and street repairs costing
almost $4,000 were completed, the
net cost to the city being about ST.
900, the remainder being paid by cor
porations.
OF course, there was much more
done by the department, but these
high lights from the report show the
activities of a modern city and how
diversified are the duties of Commits
sioner Lynch in the course of the
year.
incidentally, watch Harrisburg
grow!
Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1916-02-02
THE STATE FROM DAY TODEY

Remember that this is leap year,
and do not judge too hastily the dozen
or so young ladies of Mahanoy City
who popped the question to a dozen
bashful youths who were, forsooth!
taken unresisting TO the altar by their
captors. Notary Goyhe had published
an offer to grant free licenses to wed
on condition that the prospective
brides admit they had done the ask
ing. At least one result accomplished
is that the ladies will have no come
back if it does not pan out we'll; there
can be no II told you SOS"
There lives a York man with a
broken neck by the name of John
Klickenger That is the mans name.
The bone in the neck was crushed by
being caught between the elevator and
floor few days ago. His entire left
side is paralyzed, but the unusual has
happened and he is still alive.
A chicken thief is worse than a
bank robber. according to Judge Gar
man, of Luzerne. One year in Jail is
the penalty handed out to the offender
who comes under the judges power.
For stealing an overcoat another man
received two years. Ergo, two chick
ems equal one overcoat: Q. e. d.
The epitome of Indifference has been
found embodied in South Bethlehem
widow, who decided to be married to
another man three months after her
first husband had died leaving her
with her five-day-old child. The child
died. but that made no difference. and
even before it had been buried the
woman was away getting married. She
Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1916-02-02
THINK OF THE BIRDS

Many a tragedy of bird life is hap
pening now in the frozen woods and
brush and weed patches where jays
and sparrows and woodpeckers, red
birds and even q few robins that stay
with us through the winter are shiver-
ing and starving.
The food they CLEAN in winter, when
the weather is fair, is buried now
under snow and ice. The bugs and
larvae they find in crevices of the bark
of trees is sealed under sheet of ice
that even the woodpeckers bill cannot
pierce. A great many birds always
starve to death in such weather as
this.
In every back yard there should be
food for the starving birds. Some suet
tied to the tree branches; bread
crumbs, cornmeal, oatmeal, cracked
nuts in mesh bags suspended from tree
branches or placed in a box sheltered
from drifting snow, will save many a
bird life.
HE prayeth best who loveth best
both bird and beast and man. kan
sas City Star,
Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1916-02-02
SPREADING GOOD CHEER

NNE of the cheeriest places in Har-
~ risburg is the Pennsylvania Rail-
road Y. M. c. A. building on
Reilly street and one of the cheeriest
influences about the place is Frank H.
Gregory. the able secretary, whose life
work has been the upbuilding of that
very useful and popular organization.
Not content. however, with scattering
sunshine among the members who fire.
Guent the home of the association,
those in charge. by correspondence, are
making life less dreary for railroad
Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1916-02-02
ALONG THE COLOR LINE
IFrom die Crisis. ]

Arthur K. Bruce has been elected
president of the National Alliance OF
Postal Employees, colored organ
ization.
Plans are being discussed in Chi
cago, ILL.,, to buy building to be used
as a social center and school for the
industrial training of colored children
The Pyramid Art Association, for
the study of negro art. has been
formed in Syracuse, n. Y. Chapters
are proposed in other cities.
Denver, Col, at the request of the
colored people, has barred "The Birth
of a Nation"
On the afternoon of December the
Misses Dorothy Rosalind and Cynthia
Fuller presented a program of old
English and Scottish songs at the first
of a series of concerts at the Music
School Settlement for Colored People
New York city.
Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1916-02-02
GoNTPERs SPEAKS OUT

<AMUEL GOMPERS is one of the
y prominent labor leaders of the
country who is strong for pre-
paredness in the way of national de-
fense. He does not agree with some
of his associates in the labor world
that we should be lulled into a false
security by the propaganda of pacifists
under the leadership of Mr.. Bryan
and others. He says:
National defense and prepared
ness are but one phase OF national
life. Provisions for this purpose
must be a part of the whole plan
for national development. In other
words. military training and mill
tary institutions must be a part of
the life of the people, rather than
of a nature to ALLEVIATE citizens
from the spirit, the ideals and the
purposes of civic life.
Fear of militarism is clouding the
good judgment of many an otherwise
safe and sane citizen. Practically all
the potential eXponents of the program
of preparedness are just as anxious to
keep the country out of war as are
the professional peace-at-any-p price
orators and propagandists. We want
no mollycoddle theories in the up
building of the nation. We must be
prepared-not for war, but for peace.
while the organized labor move
ment deprecates war and is willing to
do all within its power to prevent
war;" he says, our experiences with
the practical affairs of life have
taught us that we can secure justice
and recognition of rights only when
we are prepared to defend and protect
our ideals of Justice"
A naval and military system which
includes the wage-earners and pro-
vides equal opportunity for all citizens,
he declares, is in little danger of
into militarism.