Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1917-05-03
HOLLUEG To :.
MAKE PEACE
OFFER SOON
Will Give Terms to the ReiChStag
on Thursday.
100000 GERMANS STRIKE
Berlin Claims May Day Protest Failed,
But Neutral Reports Say Krupp
Works Are Isolated to Sup
press News of WaIkouts.

Works Are Isolated to Sup
press News of WaIkouts.
Amsterdam, May with the dawn
OF May day the word peace was
flashed across the German empire
Toward noon, as an eXDectant army
of correspondents waited yainly for
positive word that the great indus
trial strikes had come a dispatch Of
scarcely a score OF words came to The
Hague
1t quoted the Berliner Tageblatt as
announcing the imperial chancellor,
DR.. Won Bethmann-Hollweg will make
another peace offer in the refchstag
Thursday.
This announcements credited to one
OF the most influential and best in
formed Berlin organs, promptly made
the world forget, for the moment at
least all other sensations and settle
down once more 10 peace talk.
In even greater degree it evidently
made the great bulk Of the German
workers forget today was der tag"
of the reds"
AS is usual, the Tageblatt's an
nOuncement is believed to have been
republished throughout Germany.
Whether this eleventh-hour stroke of
Wnhelmsrasse actually ayerted 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 matelialize, no
cessation of work was reported, 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 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 near the Dutch from
tier.
\ Central News dispatch said 80
woman workers were killed by an ex-
plosion in munitions factory at Trois-
dortf. near Cologne
Another dispatch gave the number
of strikers at 100000, mostly women
and munitions workers.
Significance was attached to a dis
patch dated Monday, quoting the Koel-
nische Volkszeitung as saying the Ger
man Socialist leaders announced they
were 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 Il general strike
had failed added the conservative So
cialists had won their campaign
against a strike.
Germans Blame Rulers
Washington. May 2.-The discomfort
that is spreading through Germany is
laid directly at the doors OF the gov
ernment for permitting food pirates"
to hoard stores while the poor starve
on the insufficient government ration
in Il remarkably frank article in the
Yossische 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 1T the 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:
The idea of stopping work at 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
THE 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 at prOhibitive prices.
"This food is consumed by persons
who are not giving their whole force
TO the defense of their country"