Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1917-05-02
PEACE OFFER To
Be MADE SOON
BY germany
Won Bethmann-HoIIWeg to Make
Offer to End War on
Thursday.
100000 MEN ON STRIKE
krupp Works Isolated to Prevent
WaIkout-Neutral Reports Tell
Different Story From Der.
lin Observation-Disclosures
Suppressed.

Amsterdam, May 2.-With the dawn
of May day the word peace was
flashed across the German empire.
Toward noon, as an eXpectant army
Of correspondents waited vainly for
positive word that the great indus
trial strikes had come, dispatch of
scarcely score of words came to The
Hague.
1t quoted The Berliner Tugeblatt as
announcing the imperial chancellor,
DR.. Won Bethmann- Hollweg, will make
another peace offer in the reichstag
Thursday.
This announcement, credited to one
of the most influential and best in
formed Berlin organs, promptly made
the world forget for the moment ut
least all other sensations and settle
down once more to peace talk.
BerIin's Claim Quiet.
In even greater degree it evidently
made the great bulk of the German
workers forget today was der tag"
OF the 'feuS. ri :.
As is usual, the Tageblatt's an
nouncement is believed to have been
republished throughout Germany.
Whether this eleventh-hour stroke of
Wilhelmstrasse actually averted the
nationwide strike of the munitions
workers is not positively known.
A brief Berlin dispatch, believed to
be officially inspired, stated the gen
eral strike failed to materialize no
cessation of work was reporter, no
parades were held and no disturbances
occurred. This, the dispatch said, was
the situation at noon.
From neutral frontier sources in
Holland, Switzerland and Scandinavia
came persistent reports of a different
story.
Half Of Workers Strike.
The Hague correspondent of the EX-
change Telegraph learned more than
one-half of the munitions workers in
the Rhine provinces decided to strike /;
that Essen, home of the Krup works.
was completely isolated from the rest
of the empire, to suppress news OF the
strikes at the gun works.
Strikes also were said to be~general
in small towns hear the Dutch from
tier.
A Central News dispatch said 30
woman workers were killed by an ex-
BI6sf6n in a munitions factory at Trois-
dorff, neai' Cologne. 70 1if''92
100000 on Strike, Report.
| Another dispatch gave the number
of strikers al. 1,OOO,O 900, mostly women
and munitions workers.
| Significance was attached to dis
patch dated Msmfhy, quoting4the Koel-
njsebs, EOlkszeitung as saying the Ger
man Socialist leaders announced they
We're unable to assume responsibility
for the maintenance of peace and Or
der in Germany "after tomorrow, May
day."
The Berlin message, which asserted
the radical plans for general strike
had failed, added the conservative So
cialists had won their campaign
against strike.
Germans Blame Rulers.
Washington, May 2.-The discomfort
that is spreading through Germany is
laid directly ut the doors of the gov
eminent for permitting food pirates
I to hoard stores while the poor starve
on the insufficient government ration
in remarkably frank article in the
vossische Zeitung transcripts of which
reached the state department.
To this cause Is attributed the
strikes which have caused violence
throughout the empire and which Hin
denburg warned were costing the lives
Of thousands of men atthe front.
The charges are contained in let
ter from the general committee of
labor societies to the minister of war,
AS printed in the VOssiche Zeitung
this letter said: IF. -t
"The idea of stopping work Mt least
to such an extent could not have
gained ground if dissatisfaction had
not existed among the working classes
the chief cause of which is the insult
ficient regulations for the distribution
of food.
'Ihe workers know the undeniable
fact that there are still gathering large
quantities of good outside of govern.
ment control which can only be OBJ
tanned ut .prOhibitive prices.
"This food is consumed by persons
who are not giving their whole force
TO the defense Of their country" !