davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
New-York tribune., 1918-12-11
Confscating Mexican Oil Fields

Questions of great delicacy are raised
by the action of the Association of Oil
Producers in Mexico in breaking off fur
ther negotiations with the Carranza gov
ernment and virtually threatening to
withdraw from operations in Mexico.
There is now before the Mexican Con-
gress law known as the Petroleum
Code, which aims to carry into effect the
provisions of the new Mexican constitu-
ton, which began operations on May / of
last year. Under the proposed code it is
held that all the petroleum in Mexico is
the inalienable property of the nation
and that the Mexican oil fields may
therefore be worked only under conces-
sons or licenses. This seems to sweep
away all the existing rights of the oil
companies and to give them only a GER
tain preferential right to obtain conces-
slons ahead Of the general public
The oil producers hold that the new
law is in its intent confiscatory and
designed simply to seize the oil lands
for the benefit of the Mexican govern
ment. 1t seems in fact only part of
general plan virtually to appropriate all
foreign owned property, including cop
per and other mines, smelters railroads,
ranches and the like In the oil fields
alone it is estimated that something
like S300,000,000 of property is in
volved. The position of this govern
ment was very clearly set forth by
President Wilson in his note to Carranza.
in which he said:
"The United States cannot acouiesce
in any procedure ostensibly or nominally
IN the form of taxation or the exercise
of eminent domain but really resulting
in the conhscation of private property
and arbitrary deprivation of vested
rights. In the absence of the establish
ment OF any procedure looking to the
prevention of spoiaton of American
citizens, and in the absence of any as
surance, were such procedure established,
that it would not uphold in defiance of
international law and justice the arbi-
trary coniscations of Mexican authori~
ties, it becomes the function of the gov
ernment OF the United States most
earnestly and respectfully to call the
attention of the Mexican government to
the necessity which may arise to impel
1t to protect the property of its citizens
in Mexico diverted or injurously affected
by the decree above cited"
The difficulty, it is said, is that there
is an ingrained belief in Mexico that
this and similar notes were just a part
of the y Yankee bluff" and that on
showdown this government would do
nothing. 1t WAS generally believed in
Mexico that Germany would win in the
war, and in that eveaI it was expected
that Germany would be MeXico's power
fu best friend Ia 14cA an4 differences
New-York tribune., 1918-12-11

cradle foreign trade. prices in this coun-
try are not going drastically to decline
unless they decline equally in other
countries. For the reasons which Mr..
Vanderhp very succinctly set forth and
which have often been cited in these
columns, this seems at present at least
a doubtful prospect. 1t is impossible
to more than double the outstanding
volume of money, currency and credits
in the world without profound and
enduring effect upon prices, or, if you
prefer, in depreciation of the buying
power of money
New-York tribune., 1918-12-11
Bolshevism No Shield

Karl Liebknecht, the German Sparta
Lenine. He ignores the Great War. The
only war which interests him is the class
war between the proletariat and the
bourgeoisie.
He states his policy frankly: eve re-
fuse peace with the Entente and intend
to overthrow the present government
within fortnight"
There has been a marked tendency in
Germany to welcome a certain amount
Of Bolshevsm in the hope that the lack
of a stable government may be made an
excuse for trying to dodge reparation to
the Allies. But the German people are
sadly deceived if they think that they can
make Bolshevism a shield. They may be
willing to submit to halfway regime
of Russian terrorism, which will make a
show of sabotaging industry and weak
ening Germany's capacity to pay her
enormous war debts.
There can be no easy escape of that
sort. The German people are fully capa-
BILE Of dealing with the Spartacides. The
army gladly accepted peace with the En-
tente. 1t was tired of fighting the Allied
armies. 1t can easily suppress Lieb-
knecht and his unorganized Red follow
ers If it doesn't, Germany will be occu-
pied by Fochs troops, who will make
short work of Bolshevism.
Germany must pay now or later. Her
debt cannot be lessened by Irritation
with Bolshevist anarchy
New-York tribune., 1918-12-11
A Protest
TO the Editor of The Tribune.

To the Editor of The Tribune.
Sir: The appearance of the name Of s
S. Mcclure in the list of those "who had
helped the propaganda or were involved in
the German schemes cannot help drawing
from those who know him and his work the
most indignant OF protests To be thus
classified, loosely and without explanation.
Is an injustice to any citizen.
Mr.. Mcclure has been not only pro-Allv
throughout the war, but notably pro- Brit
ish throughout the thought of his whole
life. AS a Journalist he has expressed the
truth as he saw it, without fear and subject
to no influence. He gave in the winter of
19171S his devoted and unremunerated
service to the Department of Justice at
Washington. He offered with proud LOYALTY
the selvces-the lives if need be-of two
sons and two daughters toward the VIM
ming of the war. In his book "Obstacles to
Peace" he was among the first to contribute
to the cause of Allied justice bv placing
the blame for the war, through incontro
vertible documentary evidence, on the lead
ers of the Central Powers, and was able to
grasp and to clearly expose in the early
days of the war the incredible obtuseness
and turpitude of the Teuton psychology
That the name of man of the s,no1e-
hearted patriotism of s S. Mcclure could
appear in such list is in itself the most
striking proof OF the besmirching mower of
Hun propaganda.
MARY MCCLURE LYON.
Princeton. n J. Dec 7 lQ1S
New-York tribune., 1918-12-11
Shall We Go TO Berlin?
By Frank H. Sirnonds
(Copyright, 1913, Neav York Tribune Inc.)

t<eNS VI AiC1 lCfOIUClOIl, SHAH Dc dDiS TO
resume control of her own affairs. 1t
is not a question of conquest; it is not
case of punitive occupation; the ques-
tlon of the hour is one of saving the
world from new and dangerous ex-
tension of Bolshevism, and the solution
seems to be the temporary occupation not
merely of Berlin, but of the whole Ger
man territory
lie would be an optimist who could
believe or assert that in the month
which has followed the signing of the
Armistice of Senlis conditions in Ger
many have improved. In point of fact
they have steadily grown worse, because
each day and each week in which chaos
continues the disintegration becomes
more complete. The mass of the German
people, to judge from the accounts we
receive of the observations of Allied
correspondents in occupied districts, are
apathetic, stunned, not yet shaken by
violent emotions, but deprived of all the
forms and machinery of organized ex-
istence.
And in the same time the industrial
and economic conditions are not improv-
ing. Germany is great industrial ma
ton, and the whole industrial establish
ment is not only paralyzed, but destined
to remain paralyzed for a long period.
The iron districts of Lorraine and
Silesia are lost to France and to Poland:
the coal regions Of the Saar will in
evitably be occupied by the French dur
ing the period in which the French mines
about Lens, ruined by the Germans
wantonly, are being restored German
shipping will hardly be able to begin op-
erations again for many long months,
and Germany is destitute of raw ma
terlals necessary for her factories.
All the elements of eventual anarchy
are thus present in Germany at this mo-
ment. But there still remains the deep
seated tradition Of order and of disci-
pine and the unmistakable desire of the
mass of the people to resume life with
out more Of disorder or riot This latter
IS solid foundation on which to build.
while it remains, but it will not endure
indefinitely. If it goes, then we shall
face something approximating the Rus
sian situation, made almost insoluble by
the lack of any stable elements.
These are the facts which underlie
the present reports of an extension of
Allied occupation as far as Berlin. Such
an occupation may easily be on the in
vltatlon of those elements in Germany
which must be the foundation of future
reorganization. The Allies cannot permit
the repetition in Germany of the Russian
events; Germany seems more and more
to be approaching a state of comp etc
helplessness in the face of the rise of
anarchy. Therefore, nothing is more
probable at the present moment than that
Allied armies will have in the next few
months, by their presence, to save Ger
many from ruin and preserve order un-
til such time as the elements of order
and stability in the country can reas-
sert themselves.
New-York tribune., 1918-12-11
SHOES G. SHIPS g.
SEALING WAX
LIEUTENANT ALAN MUTT, d. s. c.

LIEUTENANT ALAN MUTT, d. s. c.
Killed IN action, Sept. 2s. 1918
MO WREATH l bring. What need
for mine?
The aurels Of score Of lands,
Wrought by hundred million hands,
Lie in one wreath at Valor's shrine.
Of love the more, of praise the less;
So be my gift spray of flowers
In memory Of our happy hours,
Recalled with pride and thankfulness.
For glory, from a mighty deed,
Full grown, like great Athene, springs,
But friendship grows from little things
And ripens slowly from the seed
He worked by patterns nobly planned,
He built of oak straight grained and
clear,
Unvarnished and without veneer,
And fashioned with thoughtful hand.
So fair to him was Natures form,
So friendly in her every mood,
Through long communion understood,
Her birds, her trees, her sky her storm.
So well he knew her kind embrace,
That when her beckoning call was
made,
He stepped to meet her unafraid
And with a smile upon his face.
ALBERT E. LOBECK.
New-York tribune., 1918-12-11
iii Conceived and Unwarranted

In the chorus of protests and resigna-
tions aroused by the appointment of Mr..
Hearst to head the Mayors committee
for a soldier memorial in France, an
other and only less important objection
is in danger Of being overlooked. That
is the faulty conception of the whole
project. The scheme calls for a monu-
ment erected in France to the memory
of New York soldiers who died there.
We think such a memorial i'll conceived
and pernicious.
The reasons against the project were
admirably stated by Mr.. Frick in his
letter declining to serve on the Mayors
obvious practical objections. France
would be inundated with statues desra-
BILE and undesirable if such a system
spread. Rivalry would spring up be-
tween cities and states, with manifest
unfairness to the smaller and poorer
communities. But more Important as
Mr.. Frick well said, was the possible
revival of sectional prejudices and a
weakening of that new national unity
which we all feel to be our greatest gain
from the war:
GAIL of our soldiers in this great war
fought, as I understand it, as national
army for their common country. New
York fought for Wyoming and Wyoming
for New York; Texas for Wisconsin and
Wisconsin for Texas-one for all and all
for ore-a mighty union, solid as a rock
in defence of national freedom. Ought
we who remained at home, even in praise
worthy endeavor to prove undying
gratitude, do anything that might tend in
history to apportion the credit between
even states, to say nothing of innumera-
BILE towns and villages?"
This expresses exactly what we all
feel. 1t will be we'll for us to have focal
memorials here in America for our hon
ored dead. That is customary and fit
ting. But surely, overseas, in the face
of the world, we stand not states or
Cities but a nation one and indivisibe.
Our memorial in France should be ma
tlonal in source and inspiration. Our
men fought not as New Workers, or Tex
ans, or Oregonians, but as Americans.
So they felt and SO we felt toward them.
We New Workers were as proud of our
long, outstanding Southern mountain
eers, for example, as of any troops in
the uniform. There was a generous
rivalry in the field between regiments
and divisions. There is intense local
pride at home. But all these emotions
are swallowed up in the far greater
pride in our nation, for which all these
men gave and gave and gave
The sooner Mayor Hylan appreciates
his blunder the better Any committee
headed by Mr.. Hearst is foredoomed to
failure. When the purpose of the COM
mttee as we'll is mistaken, there is only
one way out, and that is back.
New-York tribune., 1918-12-11

The "First Paper in History Longing
for Quick Death" has made its bow. 1t
is written, edited and published by
wounded soldier patients at the Walter
Reed Hospital, in Washington. The
Come Back, as it is appropriately
known, wants to be medium of comfort
and cheer The first issue promises well.
From the announcement of "our policy"
we quote: 1--WE are not soliciting ads of
crutches, braces and wooden legs This
is going to be q cheerful sheet--or bust"
1T is no reflection on the publication to
hope that the entire personnel shall soon
become disqualified for service on the
staff.
New-York tribune., 1918-12-11
The Hearst Insult

To the Editor of The Tribune.
Sir: AS chairman of Mrs. William laws
Committee for the Severance of All Social
and Professional Relations With Enemy
Sympathizers, beg to make public pro-
test, on behalf of my committee, against
the craftsmanship of William Randolnh
Hearst, appointed by Mayor Hylan to well
come the returning American soldiers.
10 my mind this exaltation of Mr.. Hearst
is an insult to the men who wore the United
States uniform, and is an outrage prac
tsed on the American people, who have
supported the war so splendidly
1T is obvious that the indignation gener-
ated by Mr.. Hearst's appointment rests
justly on the facts that this man has been
continually identified with pro-Germans
that in his newspapers were started moi
taAons of the most nefarious sort against
nations whose interests and ours are now
united, and that no eleventh. -hour chance of
heart has ever entitled Mr.. Hearst TO he
considered the representative New Yorker
who is to have the official honor of rece;v.
ing, with gratitude and infinite admiration
the defenders of this country.
MRS. WILLIAM JAY
Authorized by:
Mrs. Schuyler Warren,
Mrs Francis Barlow,
Mrs. c. X. Wright,
Mrs. David Rumsey,
Mrs. Robert Sturgs,
Mrs. Mary Hatch Willard.
New York Dec. 8. 1913.
New-York tribune., 1918-12-11
BACK HOME STUFF
Kip Nichols

Kip Nichols lived in Kanes Alley in the
lower end Of town. He lost his leg when
he was eight years old Tipping freight
trains. He could with the aid of crutches
outjump any boy in town, and he used to
swim out in the middle of the river and
take the waves from the stern wheel steam
Lizzie Bay
Kip's father caught fish for living, and
he and Kip used to peddle them around
town in a pushcart. Nobody back home
ever knew Kip's mother Kip used to chew
tobacco before his father, and on Saturday
night they would 60 into the Blazing Stump
togethe. and play cards and drink
Kip had quit school in the eighth grade
because he threw blackboard eraser at
Professor Holbrook, the writing teacher.
Mr.. Nichols was struck by lightning on the
levee one day and was found black and
charred.
Kip wouldn't look at the body or go to
the funeral but he paid all the expenses,
and the next Sunday morning he went to
the Baptist church blind drunk and BIAS
phemed the Deity and swore at the congre-
cation. The Rev Alva Gee walked down
from the pulpit without finching and
grabbed Kip firmly by the arm. He walked
him into his parlor, in the parsonage next
door.
At o'clock that afternoon they were
still there, and Jim Hott, who went to call
on the parson, said he was kneeling with
Kip in prayer the floor and that Kip
was crying Kip Strengthened up for
while, but went back to drinking again, and
finally left town. DOM
New-York tribune., 1918-12-11
Artillephoning

War leaves it's mark on everything.
Long since Mr. Shonts's passengers adopted
the tactics of the massed attack. Now the
telephone company has torn a leaf from
the artillerist's manual. Operators find
number with the celebrity a gunner uses
in registering on a target, and with the
same method Only "celerty" isn't Just
the word
The gunner, to hit his mark, "brackets"
He shoots the target; he shoots under
it. Then he establishes a mean, and hits
t-sometimes.
You demand Riverside 1868. Immedi-
ately the artillephonist goes into action.
''Click"
"River 8263?"
"Wrong number This is River 1928"
Overshot. Words with the operator.
"Click."
"River 8263? 2"
"No. This is River $685."
Undershot. Bracket established. More
words.
Eventually the gunner gets his mark
Maybe the artillephonist does too. We
don't know. We just hang up and write
a postal.
With all these 1leaU republics spyingi1aq
into being, 1t looks as though our small
son 7oos certain to be President some day.
F. F. V.
New-York tribune., 1918-12-11

with this country. That hope having
gone, the Carranza government now
seems testing out the government at
Washington as to how far it will go.
1t happens that Great Britain likewise
has very heavy property rights involved,
and that nation is not given to acques-
cling in raids by impecunious nations on
its foreign investments. This fact may
very materially alter the present situa-
New-York tribune., 1918-12-11

days in Berlin and in Germany
generally all suggest unmistak-
ably that it will be necessary for Allied
armies to go to Berlin Such a step
will not have any relation to the war
that is over. 1t will not be in order to
initiate the triumphal entry of German
troops into Paris in 1871 or to add to
the emphasis of Allied victory; it will
be solely to preserve Germany from the
rapidly growing menace of Russian
condition.
We know very little Of the origin of
the revolution which followed immediate
ly upon the collapse of German resist
ance. 1t may or may not have been
wholly or in part arranged. There re-
mains the strong suspicion that the
Kaiser left his country convinced that
he would be recalled at no distant date.
Even stronger is the suspicion that the
military leaders abdicated in the hope of
fastening upon the Socialists and Lib
erals the responsibility for the surrender
to the foe
But whatever were the immediate pur-
poses of those who aided in making the
revolution possible, it is plain that events
are now taking a course far different
from that which could have been de-
sired not merely by the imperial and
military elements, but by the Liberal
elements whose Liberalism stopped short
of IL IL, i
still Enthusiastically the German revolu-
tion is going the way the Russian and
French revolutions went; it is drifting
toward anarchy and terrorism.
The cause is simple to recognize For
seventy years, ever since the reaction
following the short-lived outburst of
democracy in Germany in 1848, the Ger
man people have been ruled with an iron
hand and by an executive with power
which was absolute Having been for
two generations the most governed
people in the world, the Germans now
find themselves without government.
without machinery for government, with
out masters, without leaders and with an
incredible burden of discredit resting
upon all the men and the machinery
which in the past have regulated them.
In addition, there are all the conse
quences of war-weariness, misery, pr-
vation-added to the inevitable concomi
tants of defeat-humiliation and bitter
ness. And in this situation the in
evitabe has been taking place The old
leaders are gone, or so nearly discredited
as to have no appeal The new names
are names like that of Liebknecht. which
connote anarchy, not order. Germany is
sinking day by day into a condition out
of which only one thing can come. and
that is disorder, riot, terror
1t therefore becomes more and more
manifest that if Bolshevism, which still
dominates what was once the Russian
Empire, is not to advance to the riqht
bank of the Rhine order must be nre-
served in Germany against the hour
when Germany, herself recovering from
the shock Of her defeat and Che earth
New-York tribune., 1918-12-11
In Whose Bosom?

Now every one can see what was coiled
in the flag. Nobody has yet guessed the
riddle of its long and scandalous i'm
munity. Will the Senate committee
touch upon that?
New-York tribune., 1918-12-11
A Prophet Without Honor
CFrom The Chicago Tribune,

" 7077 7F5 CHtcdgo Tr6une1
Cleaning out a pgeonhole, we discovered
number of prophecies put away for fut
ure reference, including enc by George
Sylvester Viereck beginning, "When the
Germans get to England, as they surely
will'-- Which is as far as you need to
read.
New-York tribune., 1918-12-11
The Men Whose Lot Has
Been Hardest

By Theodore RooseUelt, in The Kansas
City Star
The Snowflake herald., 1918-06-21

The hat of Sen. Sutter being
thrown in the democratic ring
for governor makes a clear-out
issue of the l. w. w. in Arizona.
Suffers candidocy will force
HINT to defend his record, which
will be a defense of the |. w. w.
deportation in Cochise county.
There will be two kinds of demo-
Gratis in the coming contest for
governor-Hunt or |. w. W.
democrats and democrats. AS
it is almost impossible to get a
democrat to scratch his ticket the
campaign fur will now proceed
to fly. If Sutter captures the
democratic nomination the Hunt
or |. w. w. democrats will bolt
the action of the nominating
democrats and nominate Hunt or
another |. w. w. disciple. That
will put two democrats in the
race for governor so as to pro-
vide a way to keep democrats
from scratching their ticket and
thus keep the purity of their
democracy in tact. Let 'er rip!
The Snowflake herald., 1918-06-21

That Snowflake has the proper
geographical location as we'll as
the nucleus for making an i'm
portant town goes without con-
tradiction. But, sometimes the
best of locations and under most
favorable opportunities fail to
make towns. 1t takes quick ac-
ton and boosting and ability
to make the best of opportunities
to build towns. Just now there
is an opportunity to make Snow
flake the freight division for st.
Johns. Will we let the oppor-
tunity slip? An opportunity is
in the making to make of Snow
flake headquarters for a star
mail route. Will we sleep at
the switch" and fail to grasp it?
Wearing out cane bottom chairs
and talking about what the other
fellow won't do will not build
Snowflake.
The Snowflake herald., 1918-06-21

Two men were riding past a
neighbor's place and noticing
a couple of COWS energetically
moving a garden dismounted
and drove the COWS out and shut
the gate. A couple of blocks fur
ther on the gentlemen again got
down off their horses and drove
two COWS and a calf out of an al
falfa patch. There is a joke in
this. If we overlook the serious
damage to the garden and the
danger of the animals bloating
themselves in the alfalfa. The
joke is: The gentlemeninterfered
with the liberty of the COWS: We
understand that the main reason
this town can't incorporate is
that too many of us object to
curbing the freedom Of our COWS.
The Snowflake herald., 1918-06-21

The culvert at crossing of
Bridge avenue and Bank Street
over east side ditch needs blow
ing up with dynamite or with
pick and shovel and one built big
enough that will admit of the
water. The gravity flow at that
place is almost on a level and be-
ing too small in the first place
every obstruction that comes
along chokes the chute and floods
the streets, all of which is in vi
olation to the state irrigation
laws.