davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
Bisbee daily review., 1916-07-06
Thursday Morning, July 6, 1916.
ARMY STANDARDS

ARMY STANDARDS
 There is much basis for the complaint that pres ent army requirements drastic This is o. the main reasons why there much difficulty n dinary times in keeping army recruited up its de strength At present. when there is need of SC many more the regular army, the navy and the National Guard especially unfortunate that thousands of eager young men, who are excellent fight ing stock should be barred automatically because of nominal defects which are of little importance warfare
 The size requirement. which is so strictly insisted on seems especially absurd In medieval days it de srabIe that soldier should be tall. His height and reach gave him advantage in the handto-hand com bats the bulk of the fighting But we have passed the stage spears swords and battle Armies now fight at long distances REes highpow- CT shells eliminated the giants advantage Indeed in one important respect size has become handicap makes the soldier better for the enemy Thus in the RussoJapanese it always easier for the Japs hit Russians than for the Russians to hit the Japs And when it to close grips the Jap showed himself the equal of his bis adversary. Medium or small is indication of weakness It uay greater endurance. which is the thing that counts Foreign today recognize these facts
 
 The British have found that five feet high not inferior in lighting power to men five feet six eight
 It might be proper too to lower the standard little with regard eyes teeth It is certainly better all things considered that soldier shoun be able perfectly without glasses And yet the of glass es doesn't seem to interfere with shooting which is sol diers main business Many of the best civilian marks men glasses Col. Roosevelt, who is near sighted that he coud pass strict army test found his thick gases hindrance either his perous Afr can hunting trip his Spanish campaign. prngy large proportion of German soldiers glass es and certainly they proved themselves effective fighters Germany simply recognizes eye defects nev able, and has an occust with every regiment bri gade
 Imperfect teeth, too not the handicap they for mery modern soldier is not obliged either to bite cartridges gnaw hardtack It is enough if he has no dental cavities abscesses pain him and poison his system And regimental dentists can see that
 It is of to disqualify recruits for organic defects of the heart lungs, kidneys etc. But most of the men turned away from recruiting stations refused for significant Most of them in have suspected that there anything wrong with them. While the life insurance companies only refuse about applicant in nine, the army and navy refuse the great majority applicants They not only much excellent material but they seriously dis courage enlisments It is shock to healthy young American to told that physically unfit" It is unjust him. and it keeps his friends from voIun teerng
Bisbee daily review., 1916-07-06
WASHINGTON WON
 BY CARRAMzA NOTE
Continued From Page D

Continued From Page D i quo, beyond the border, which the de | facto government suggests as a sub stitute for it's previous demands for | immediate withdrawal of the Ameri- | can troops. It is stated as follows:
 Tn the meantime" (pending medi- ation or direct negotiotion) this gov ernment proposes to employ all effort that may be at it's disposal to avoid i recurrence of new incidents which may complicate and aggravate the sit uation. At the same time. it hopes that the American government on it's part, may make use of all effort to ore vent also acts now on it's military and its civil authorities on the frontier. that might cause new complications" l" While the object of the negotiations is thus clearly outlined and appears acceptable to the state department the subjects to be considered specifi- cally will have to be arranged later. President Wilson has made it clear time and again, that gradual with drawal of the expeditionary force would be ordered, once he was as- sured that CarranZa forces would be employed actively in breaking up ban dit preparations for new raids. It has been noted already that the Mexican troops have occupied and poiiced the territory relinquished by General Pershing, as he drew his men north ward.
 Withdrawal Predicted
 Army officials believe that this. taken in connection with the new as- surances given in todays note. may lead to complete withdrawal of the forces, as rapidly as is possible with out endangering the border. In effect the latest note proposes that the clock be turned back to the time immediate ly following the Columbus raid. and when negotiations were afoot for the passage of American troops into Mex ico, in pursuit of the raiders. Condi- tions have changed since then. how ever, General CarranZa having assem- bled a considerable army in northern Mexico and the United States having called the entire national guard to the line for patrol duty. It is regarded as improbable that any plan for Ameri- can pursuit of bandits except possibly within limited areas where a hot trail is followed and no Carranza troops are available will be discussed in the new negotiations.
 A plan for border cantonment to which reference is made in the note, was proposed by General Obregon at his conference in Fl Paso with Major General Scott, chief of staff of the army. General Scott would not con slider it then because of it's stipulation that General Pershing's column would be withdrawn immediately. That
Bisbee daily review., 1916-07-06

The Georgia Central Railroad has taken steps to bate the nuisance It has issued orders that here fter any COW standing lying or gaoping on the track, n front of train is to be pursued and thoroughly nked by the trainmen. regardless of complaints from passengers. No doubt this humiliation will oon bring the cows to terms
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-03-22
Spring and Prosperity

Tn the division of the seasons the almanac, for some unexplained req son. gives March 1 as the beginning of spring, but astronomically spring begins only now.
 This far south the truck farm and the home garden should have good start early in March, but in the far north, after normally cold winter, the ice gorges only begin to move and melt away about MarchN22
 No matter, however, in what cllme the people of this country find them selves, spring is now here and with the exception of an occasional drop in temperature to the freezing point between this date and the middle of April, the weather will continue to invite activity both in trade and ag- riculture.
 Of the four periods of the year upon which business forecasts hinge spring, summer, autumn and winter spring is naturally accompanied by feeling of greatest buoyancy. It IS the season of hope and inspiration, not only for the poet, but for the mer- chant, the builder and iron maker.
 This spring comes a-burgeoning to the attuned harmonies of happy farm life and honest toll in mill and mine. It is planting time in the south and it is the time when the thrifty sales man is disposing of his wares.
 In the Birmingham district, where the pay rolls are above normal, this spring will witness a revival not only in all branches of mercantile business, but in the real estate market as we'll If the realty business has been some what slow to start up, it will soon be in the prosperity line.
 Not in many seasons have spring and prosperity been So intimately re- lated in Birmingham as they are to- day,
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-03-22
THE NEW SOUTH

From the Wall Street Journal.
 In the Manufacturers Record is an an- alysis of the crop returns of the south ern states, marvellous in the light of the desolated south of 50 years ago.
 All farm crops of the United States ex-
 elusive of animal products, in 1915 are
 placed at $s, 7SS, ,9O6, GOO. Of this total. &. .607, ,349. GOO was contributed by the south. Crops of the whole country last year were worth $526O70,000 more than in 1914.
 The farms of the south made 60 per cent of this gain. Greeley's slogan seems no longer applicable. Go south, young man. Go south!
 When animal products are considered the total new wealth created by this re- zion in the past year rolls up to the enor- nous sum of s3.6OO,OOO,o0O This means
 more goods purchased from the manufac- turing districts, continentally affecting wage earners and the holders of indus trial and railroad securities.
 But in all the analysis and comparisons with other sections of the country 'here is nothing so striking as the value of the different crops. These figures are striking and important because they show that the diversified crops were worth twice as much as the most valuable cotton crop l that ever whitened the fields of the south. | Adding crops and animal products to-
 gether, the cotton crop of this past year
 represented less than 21 per cent of the total The south can no longer be called | a e-crop country.
 1 Such farming does not mean less cot
 ton, but more. oR less land and at less
 outlay. It means the farm families be-
 come more nearly self sustaining and on | a cash basis. This is a more desira ble
 condition than the one-crop system whereby farm family lives a year on credit on the strength of what they hope
 to raise. The business world with goods
 and transportation to sell is interested ir l just such improvement in the purchasing | power of any section. whether it be i south, north, east or west. Wall street | joins hands with the south, as with any
 other section which is making good and earning credit
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-03-22
Sentiment Abroad

Despite the enormous sums con- tributed to the war victims of Europe by generous Americans, shiploads of food and clothing given away and heroic efforts made to alleviate sui fering in many lands, there is a uni versal tendency to jeer at the United States for making money out of the war"
 England, Germany, Greece, France, Italy and Japan ridicLle America and, according to the Cartoons magazine, India has followed suit. In recent copy of Hindi Punch of Bombay a cartoon of Uncle Sam and Japan ap- pears. The figures representing the two countries have large bags of money under their arms. Ihe cartoon is entitled, "Make Hay While the Sun Shines" Says Japan to Uncle Sam: "I'm filling my bag with Indian silver while the Austrians and Germans are busy with the war. Are you?" Uncle Sam replies: Ditto, ditto. And some thing more. Pm filling mine with the gold of the allies, besides"
 It is small wonder that cartoonists abroad portray Uncle Sam as mer- cenary old fellow, when American cartoonists have developed the same idea in many of their drawings. We may boast of our generosity to Bel gium and to Poland, the work Ameri- can surgeons are doing abroad and score of philanthropic enterprises designed to mitigate suffering in Flu rope, but the total sum contributed for all these causes is only drop in the bucket compared to the millions American manufacturers are making out of war contracts.
 Yet, the attitude of Europe toward the United States in this respect is rather inconsistent. There is prob ably not one of the nations so bitterly assailing America for profiting by the war that would not do exactly as the United States is doing if similarly situated. The esteemed allies cannot get over the fact that Uncle Sam has contrived to remain neutral, and Ger many is angered not so much bec----e ] he has made money out of the war,
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-03-22

were proverbial. He made indeed a model senator and if he gets to Con- gress he will be found working elbow to-elbow with Alabama's distin- guished senators, Bankhead and Underwood, and with all the influen- tial democrats of the House. He has in him the making of great public servant, and the true democrats of the district will do we'll to rally to his standard.
 Mr. Rice as a man of affairs is fully equipped for high office; but being committed to the undemocratic nation wide prohibition craze he would be as much out of touch with the national leaders as ex-Congressman Hobson with his prohibition hobby, or as Con- gressman Huddleston, who free lanced his party in his vote in the House.
 Personally, MT. Rice is one of the best liked men in Jefferson county, and so is Mr. Huddleston popular and deservedly popular; but this is a time when the personal equation should give place to measures of large party concern.
 Let's make MT. Judge, who puts the national democracy above isms, this districts representative in the Sixty fifth Congress.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-03-22
St. Clair for BrOwn

''St. Clair county has not furnished the congressman from our district in many years" said P. B. Haraldson of Ragland editor of the St. Clair County News, who was in the city yesterday, but we ex- pect to break the record and elect Watt T. Brown in the May primary. The race in the Seventh district may not be as spec tacular as some of the other congress sional fights, but 1t Is none the less in teresting to the people in our section of the state
 Congressman Burnett, who is can didate for reelection, and L. B. Rainey, enc of his opponents, are both from Etowah county, which has furnished the congressman for many years. St. Clalr county proposes to land the job for her man, Watt Brown, and we people are confident of success. There has been no mud singing and no bitterness in the fight up to the present time. MT. Brown and Mr. Rainey are making active cam paigns and Congressman Burnett has made a number of addresses in the dis trict."
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-03-22

Granville Fortescue in the Saturday
 Evening Post.
 "HIS Swiss militia is business
 army. From the first the recruit IS
 IL trained under field conditions-no fancy manual of arms exercises in million dollar armories; no reviews; no parades. The recruit devotes full eight-hour day to intensive training All exercises take place out of doors The corps of instruc- tors, specially trained staff. who per form their never ending duties with reil- gious idealism, cram more specific mill tary instruction into given time than is the case with any other army in the world
 fourth class man at West Point-and he has few idle moments-has a sinecure compared with the Swiss recruit. Night work, long, fatiguing marches and trench digging bring no let-up in the usual eight-hour day schedule of exercises. The men come through the course as lean as leopards. Perceptions are razor sharp Faculties are on edge. This 6o- day period of concentrated military toll completed, the militiaman goes home He has a solid foundation in all the duties of a soldier.
 ' Is national life affected by this training favorably or unfavorably? A Swiss would laugh if you asked him that ques- ton. Discounting the patriotism of the people, you have the answer when you know that the majority of Swiss citizens
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-03-22
THE LEGION

E. Morlae, in the March Atlantic.
 In my own section of the French Legion there were men of all races and all na- tionalites. There were Russians, there were Turks, an Anamite. a Hindu. There were Frenchmen from God knows where. There was a German, God only knows why. There were Bulgars, Serbs, Greeks, negroes, an Italian, and Fiji Islander fresh from an Oxford education-a silent man of whom it was whispered that he had once been an archbishop-three Ara bians, and handful of Americans who cared little for the quiet life. As Bur bek -kar, the Arabian bugler, used to say in his bad French, "Ceux sont le rata international ('They're the Interna- tional stew')
 Many of the men I came to know well. The Italian, Cont, had been profession al bicycle thief who had slipped quietly
 into the Legion when things got too hot for him. When he was killed in Cham pagne. he was serving his second enlst- ment. Doumergue, a Frenchman who was a particularly good type of soldier. had absconded from Paris with his em- ployer's money and had found life in the Legion necessary to his comfort. A striking figure with a black complexion was Voronoff, a Russian prince whose precise .antecedents were unknown 10 ms mates Pala was Parisan l.Apacne-' and looked the part Every man had left a past behind him. But the Americans in the Legion were of a different type. Some of us who volunteered for the war loved fighting, and some of us loved France. I was fond of both
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-03-22
IN DARKEST ALABAMA

From l4iIe
 Special cable to the New York Times.
 London, January 17.--What can be done
 with the 2Go,OOo,03O gallons of vodka now
 held in stock by the Russian govern
 ment as a consequence of the prohibition of the sale of the spirit?
 Chills and fever tonic eve need not
 advertise the maker) sells at $1 for a half pint in Alabama. Beer-at 9 cents tea cup-has taken the place of tea in some
 hotels and is served at the table in tea pots. Blind tigers flourish, and bell hcps' can procure from them for patrons Gllegally) poor whisky at 75 cents a half pint in any city in Alabama and Misss- sippi. Or it ma: be imported Qegally), from a neighboring wet state if for the private consumption of the importer. The government could very well pur- chase the vodka from Russia and dis tribute it-at s1 a half pint-as tonic"
 in the prohibition states. and thereby raise sufficient funds to pay off the ex- penses of preparedness-at the same time entirely offsetting the dangers of the swamps and quagmires in those regions.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-03-22

From the New York Sun.
 REGENT report of the United ~ States public health service dis
 A cussing the Sale and Use of ln-
 toxicating Liquors" furnishes data that
 should give pause to those whose well
 meaning effort in the direction of prohipi-
 tion has been based chiefly on sentiment
 tal grounds. From the available data it
 would appear that the annual per capi-
 ia consumption of alcohol in the United
 States amounts to about p gallons, hav-
 ing increased from four gallons in 1850 to
 over p gallons in 1910. since which time
 there has been a very slight decrea SC.
 The fact that the steady and rapid in-
 crease. of alcohol consumption up to 1910 has at last been checked proves conclu- siveiy that the former sentimental tenn perance agitation by song, drama and lit erary output was lamentably unsuccess- full and that the decrease in consump- ton did not begin until sentiment was substituted by logical demonstration Of the depreciating action of alcohol upon the physical and mental activities of the body
 Legislation designed to restrict the manufacture, sale and use of intoxicating | louors has been winning place rapidly | only in the past five years. During the year ending January, 1916, eight states be- gan to enforce statewide prohibition. 1 info | tive in this year total of 19 states will | have adopted this system. The exag- gerated data presented by partisan pro- hbitonists have damaged the cause of l temperance seriously; for example, Capt. | R. P. Hobson asserted in an address at l Germantown, Pa, that about 2,3OO,O0O Americans were killed by alcohol in one 1! year and that 2000 Americans are slain | each day by alcohol, when the fact is that
 in 1912 all the deaths between the ages
 of 14 and 50 would be about 1000 day from all causes. Captain Hobson also made the unfounded statements that alco-
 hol caused 5000 American men to murder | their wives each year, and 2500 to kill their children. Tn nine prohibition states l 12 persons in 100000 population were con victed of murder and in the 12 licensed states 3.6 in 100000 were so convicted. l Georgia, a prohibition state, had 7l5 l prisoners condemned for murder, and
 New York only 42. The Hobson argu-
 ment proves a veritable boomerang. l Malignant, narrow and unrelenting par | tisanship has been serious detriment, besides causing direspect for law by reason of it's failure to be enforced. On
 the other hand, Chief Surgeon Maus of 1 the eastern department of the United States army reports that alcohol is the greatest factor making for inefficiency i'll the army, and estimates that it's inter-
 diction would reduce the sick rate Is per l cent. He adds that alcohol is responsible l for practically all the crimes committed l by soldiers; it diminishes capacity for
 work. marching endurance and accuracy
 in rifle practice. and impairs the ability of officers to command troops. Suct
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-03-22
Still Defaming Birmingham

The liquor interests of the country
 are having published in various peri
 odicals circulated among hotel men,
 notably the Hotel Review of New
 York and the Hotel World, the identi- cal statements in regard to Birming- hams financial situation that were used in Montana so flagrantly that George B. Ward, president of the city commission, made public categorical denial. According to these grossly ex- aggerated claims, prohibition in Bir- mingham has crippled practically every department of civic government. Sanitation, education, the police, fire protection and other vital interests of the people are in such deplorable condition, according to the liquor deal CTS, that life in Birmingham harkens back to the dark ages.
 There is no estimating how much harm was done to Birmingham by the campaign carried on against prohibi- tion in Montana. This city was held up as horrible example" of the effects of prohibition on municipal govern ment and prosperity. MT. Wards de- fense of the city was vigorous and gave the lie to Birmingham's de- famers, but it could not entirely cor rect false impression which had been created by extensive advertising.
 Even greater injury may be done to the city if the liquor interests are to use Birmingham in their national campaign against the prohibitionists. Articles published in widely circulated trade journals will give the city a reputation from which it will take years to recover.
 The Age-Herald is local option newspaper and as such has often de- plored the fanaticism of prohibition ists whose zeal prevents them from seeing but one side of the liquor question, but this newspaper also be- lieves in fair play. The statements made by the liquor men in regard to Birmingham are untrue and are simply being used to discredit prohi- bition.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-03-22
The Three-Cornered Contest

The three-cornered congressional race in this district between George Huddleston, Thomas J. Judge and Charles E. Rice promises to become exciting as the date of the democratic primary approaches. As each of the candidates is of distinct political com- plexion the voters will make their choice according to their particular bias or conception of the democratic ideal.
 To begin with, each candidate is we'll known to the public as man of personal probity and honesty of purpose. MT. Huddleston, elected as a democrat to succeed Oscar w. Un- derwood, is asking for reelection. But he made bad start when he voted with the republicans against the report of the democratic majority on rules, and whatever influence or standing he might have had on the democratic side of the House was gone. To all intents and purposes, therefore, the Birmingham district has been unrepresented in the Sixty fourth Congress.
 MT. Judge, state senator, announced ris candidacy for Congress early in the campaign, and in view of Mir. Huddleston's indifference to party precedent or discipline many of the stanchest democrats of Jefferson county were quick to pledge their al- \ legiance to the leader whose loyalty to the democratic organization was established and unquestioned.
 As between Huddleston and Judge there would have been little reason for doubt as to the result.
 With MT. Rice in the contest how will it be? Senator Judge should still have the best chance of winning. He made Q good record in the lower house of the legislature of 1911 and an ex- ceptionally fine record in the upper house of the last legislature. While standing squarely for local option he ;; was respected as we'll by prohibition (ists as by the men of his own affilia- <tion. He displayed rare tact and his ! slnir dealing and his tireless energy