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Show NEWS REVIEW OF CURRENTJVENTS D'Annunzio Gives In and the War Over Fiume Is Ended After Hot Fighting. GERMANY WONT DEMOBILIZE Refusal to Disband Civil Militia May Lead to French Occupation of Ruhr District Bolsheviki Threaten Western Movement Industrial Indus-trial Events in America. By EDWARD W. PICKARD. As was easily foreseen, the Italo-Flume Italo-Flume war has come to a speedy end with the collapse if D'Amiunzio's resistance. re-sistance. The poet, who had declared he would Interpose his bloody corpse between the Italian forces and Fiume, thought better of it, and on Wednesday Wednes-day Issued a proclamation saying that he now felt disposed to defend his life by all means, since it was not worth while to throw It away in the service of a people whom he now despises. Therefore he was about to leave Fiume by airplane. The mayor of that city and its director, of national defense agreed to recognize the treaty of Ra-pallo. Ra-pallo. D'Annunzio consented to release re-lease his legionnaires from their oaths of allegiance, and it was arranged that they should be disbanded and that the Italian government should Issue a proclamation of general amnesty. There was rejoicing throughout Italy over the settlement, for the Italians did not at all like the job of shooting down their fellow countrymen. Peace was not attained without much bloodshed, for the legionnaires fought desperately and bravely for several days after General Caviglia's troops began the real attack. Taking advantage of the rough terrain about the city, they laid many ambuscades and conducted a- guerrilla warfare with hand grenades and machine guns that cost the lives of many regulars. In the city they poured a hot fire from the balconies, roofs and windows of apparently abandoned buildings, and even the women helped. The Italian military authorities refused to use artillery ar-tillery against the city itself, striving to save it from destruction, but the warships in the harbor bombarded the outer defenses. D'Annunzio was slightly wounded in the head by a fragment of a shell. The curtain has now fallen on this latest tragl-comedy of the warrior poet, who says he is ashamed of being an Italian. Relations between France and Germany Ger-many reached another critical stage at the end of the week, when Berlin, through the undersecretary for foreign affairs, warned the British and Italian ambassadors that it would be Impossible Impos-sible for Germany to resume the conference con-ference on reparations at Brussels January 10 unless France withdraws its demand for the dissolution of the civil militia, which is called the ein-wohnerwehr. ein-wohnerwehr. In this way Germany seeks to take advantage of the somewhat some-what strained relations between Paris and London and Rome. By the Spa agreement Germany was to complete her demobilization by January 1, and If this Is not done, as her intention appears to be at this writing, France will have the right to occupy the Ruhr district or Frankfort. Plans for the neeessaVy military operations opera-tions already have been drawn up by Marshal Foch and General Weygand. The report of General Nollet, the French chief of the interallied commission com-mission of control In Germany, was what precipitated the matter. He told the council of ambassadors In Paris that the civil militia was a real military mili-tary organization of nearly two million soldiers, camouflaged as a policing force, and he presented the case In such warm lartguage that the ambassadors ambas-sadors did not know Just how to handle it. So they passed It up to the supreme council, which Is to meet early in January in Nice or Cannes. Premier Lloyd George said he could not take it up because of pressing domestic do-mestic affairs, and Premier Glollttl of Italy declared he could not leave because be-cause of the Flume crisis. So far France has been insistent on the complete com-plete disarmament of Germany, and it is not unlikely that she will proceed alone with the military meusures seemingly justified by Germany's violation vio-lation of the Spa pact. Then It will be up to Great Britain and Italy to decide whether to support their ally or to call her off, as they did once before, be-fore, in the interests of a financial settlement with Berlin. According to secret information received re-ceived by the French foreign office, tlie Russian Reds not only are threatening threat-ening to overrun and absorb Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan, but also are preparing for another attack on Poland Po-land and the Baltic states, and possibly pos-sibly on Roumanla. In the Minsk region re-gion soviet troops are being concentrated concen-trated In large numbers, threatening especially Lithuania and Poland ; and farther north about 50,000 of them were said to have crossed the Latvian frontier and occupied several towns. Esthonia, too, was alarmed by the presence of large bodies of Red cavalry cav-alry on her borders. Negotiations for permanent peace between Poland and Russia were broken off by the soviet representatives, who said In effect that the Red victories elsewhere made the treaty unnecessary to them. In Podo-lia Podo-lia the Russians are gathering he.avy forces to compel Roumanla to evacuate evacu-ate Bessarabia. The lakes ' and marshes are frozen over and campaigning cam-paigning will be possible until March. Meanwhile all efforts of the soviet authorities to arrange for resumption of trade seem to have fallen flat, owing partly t their Impudent bad faith In trade matters and yartly to their failure fail-ure to stop spreading their propaganda in other countries. The United States government decided that Martens, the soviet "envoy," should be deported, and Moscow advised him to abandon his work here and submit. Most of the nations are now coming to the view that bolshevlsm In Russia will die out before long if left to Itself, and are proceeding on that theory. Evidence Evi-dence that the bolshevist leaders themselves are changing their policy lies in the fact that they are now granting many concessions to foreigners, foreign-ers, which Is absolutely contrary to bolshevist principles. In addressing the soviet congress in Moscow Lenlne explained that this was a temporary necessity, as the country must have materials for Its economic rebuilding. Information received by our state department de-partment is that the bourgeoisie are more numerous than ever in Russia and are gradually regaining control, Mid that the tendency Is toward the formation of an autocratic government. govern-ment. Following stormy sessions In Tours, in the course of which the members sometimes came to blows, the French Socialist party has split Into three factions. The left wing has voted to obey the commands of Lenlne and to adhere fully to the third Internationale Interna-tionale ; the right wing opposes throwing throw-ing the party organization into the hands of the communists ; and the centrists cen-trists adhere to the Internationale with reservations. This last faction may split, one half Joining the left wing and the other going with the right. A woman agent of the Moscow Internationale, who reached Tours despite de-spite the efforts of the government to keep her out, had much to do with the stand taken by the extreme radicals. British organized labor has definitely definite-ly ranged itself against the government govern-ment in the Irish controversy, at least so far as government methods are concerned. con-cerned. The labor commission which visited Ireland has made its final report, re-port, in which it scathingly denounces the course of the English authorities in Ireland and expresses the belio that coercion will be unable to suppress sup-press either the Sinn Fein movement or the "republican army." The latter, it asserts, is formidable because it is not concentrated and has the sympathy sympa-thy and support of the vast mass of the population. Of murders and reprisals re-prisals the report says : "So great has been the provocation by the crown forces that 80 per cent of Irish men and women now regard the shooting of policemen and the throwing of bombs at lorries with the same philosophic resignation that Mr. Lloyd George displays toward arson and pillage and the shooting of civilians civil-ians in the presence of their wives and children." The auxiliaries black and tans and most of the royal Irish constabulary constabu-lary are declared utterly unlit for their duties. To a meeting of 000 delegates representing repre-senting three million trades unionists the members of the commission told in detail what they saw and learned in Ireland, and a resolution was adopted adopt-ed demanding that the government grant a judicial investigation into the action of crown forces in Ireland with view to punishing those guilty of crimes. The time limit, for turning in all arms in Ireland expired Wednesday, and the officials admitted very few had been surrendered. The Irish Women's Organization has issued a circular defying the order of the government rendering liable to death anyone harboring a rebel. The circular says: "The women of Ireland consider It a crime for any young Irishman of military age not to carry arms in defense of his country, ad it is even a greater crime for any person of Irish blood to refuse to harbor or assist our brave soldiers." Though leaders in business and finance issue frequent statements to the effect that business stagnation in America has about reached the low point and that the future really looks rosy to them, the mass of the people are far from being optimistic, and it must be admitted that conditions seem to Justify their view. Demand has fallen to a minimum, and of course production has decreased in proportion. propor-tion. Prices have declined, but while this is a source of satisfaction to the consumer, it is painful to the producer, and the producer who is especially mournful is the farmer. What congress con-gress is planning to do for him in the way of an emergency tariff may help, but most economists doubt it. There were several occurrences of note last week in the industrial field. The most startling, perhaps, was the closing down of the Ford automobile works at Detroit for an Indefinite period. pe-riod. This was said to be due to a marked falling off in orders and the return of many cars. Under normal conditions 50,000 men are employed in the shops that closed. The employees were told not to report before February Feb-ruary 1. Another interesting event was the refusal of the union employees of the Pullman company in the car works at Pullman, 111., to have their wages reduced as -far as 20 per cent. The suggestion had been accepted by the employees' industrial relations committee com-mittee In consideration of the declining declin-ing commodity prices and the readjustment re-adjustment in Industry. They said they realized the company must get more business in order to avoid drastic dras-tic reduction of working forces, and that It must cut costs to meet Increased In-creased competition. The wages of the employees have more than doubled dou-bled In the last four years. The union men made no threat of striking if wages were cut, but intimated that trouble would follow such action. Many of the shop workers are not In unions. Employees of some other big concerns, con-cerns, especially in the textile and clothing Industries of the East, have been compelled to accept reductions in wages rather than have the works close down. In the effort to carry out the Republican Re-publican promises of reduced expenses, the house appropriations committee cut ?420,914.192 from rjhe estimates for the sundry elvil hiU for the fiscal year 1922, leaving ?3&f.Cn,292. The largest single reduction was 147,000,-(X10 147,000,-(X10 of what was as.kett for the federal shipping board. The committee also recommended a cut of more than eleven elev-en millions in the pest office department depart-ment appropriation bill ; but the total to-tal reported is $57-;,964,721, which Is nearly seventy millions more than the appropriation for this year. The Democrats pointed out that the total carried by both bills adds about seventeen millions to the cost of running run-ning the government ; but the Republicans Repub-licans retorted that they had made large cuts In the sums asked by Democratic Dem-ocratic heads of departments. Those who are clamoring for a reduction In federal taxes may draw their own conclusions con-clusions as to the prospect. |