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Show NEWS REVIEW OF CURRENT EVENTS Russians Overrun Poland While the Allies Seek to Devise-Ways Devise-Ways to Stop Them. ENEMY CLOSE TO WARSAW League of Nations Council Adopts Basic Plans Railways Satisfied With Rate Increases Communist Commu-nist Labor Party Leaders Convicted in Sweden. By EDWARD W. PICKARD. Suspicions that the soviet Russians were not acting in good faith when they offered to uegotiale an armistice with the Poles were well founded. No sooner had the Poles reached the place of meeting than the Russians broke off the negotiations aud demanded that another discussiou be opened at Minsk. All the time their armies continued con-tinued the fierce attack designed to cut off the Danzig corridor and to cap- slon would be given Russia to send a number of bolshevist commissioners Into that country to control the export of Polish supplies of all kinds. Russia would then undertake to evacuate Poland completely In favor of Germany, which would hold the country as a guaranty against future credits to Russia in return for German Ger-man goods and German labor. There has been a lot of sarcastic criticism of the League of Nations because be-cause it has not taken cognizance of the Russo-Polish war. In a letter to Lord Robert Cecil, Viscount Grey, former for-mer foreign minister, has this to say: "The league hud nothing to do with the Russian-Polish war and it is a crime against the league and its members mem-bers to charge it with responsibility when the responsibility clearly did not rest with the league, but with individual indi-vidual governments. "The league was not invoked to restrain re-strain Poland, one of Its own members, mem-bers, from aggression or, as the prime minister calls it, reckless and foolish action, as it should have been. To invoke in-voke the league now to support Poland by arms against the consequences of her action is not merely illogical ; it is in fact, a great misuse of the league." The council of the League of Nations, Na-tions, In session at San Sebastian, Spain, is busy with plans for the pre- bllng by middlemen will be greatly lessened. The railways appear to be fairly well satisfied with the rate increases authorized by the interstate commerce commission, and announce that they are preparing to spend $700,000,000 this year for improvements and betterments. bet-terments. The increases granted are in freight rates, an average of 35' per cent for the entire country ; for passenger, excess baggage and milk rates. 20 per cent; for Pullman rates, 50 per cent. It is estimated the increase in-crease in earnings will amount to $1,-5S3.000.000, $1,-5S3.000.000, and that the net operating operat-ing Income of the roads will now be $1,134.000,000 about $100,000,000 less than the roads asked. As to the effect on the general public, pub-lic, there is difference of opinion. Some experts figure that the increased rates will mean the adding of more than $1 a day to the cost of living of the average family. Others, equally expert, Insist that the resulting better transportation and higher rate of production pro-duction will bring lower prices. After a trial lasting many weeks, a jury In Chicago convicted William Bross Lloyd, millionaire sergeant at arms of the Communist Labor party, and 10 other members of that party, of sedition, and all of them were sen- ture Warsaw. At this writing the former for-mer part of that program has been temporarily checked by Polish successes, suc-cesses, but the latter part is about to be carried out. With the red army within a few miles of Warsaw, the civilian inhabitants of that city were In flight and the government was preparing pre-paring to move to Cracow. The Russians Rus-sians had captured the great fortress of Brest-Litovsk and ,had crossed the Bug river northwest of that place, advancing ad-vancing in echelon iu such a way as to force the Poles to evacuate the strong forts west of Brest-Litovsk and eventually to drive them out of Warsaw War-saw If succor did not come. Further north, soviet troops that had crossed the Narew river were defeated, and In the south, where they threatened Lemberg, they were being held and even pushed back Id some places. Since it was agreed that only outside out-side aid could save Poland from being be-ing crushed by the bolsheviki, the main question was the source and nature na-ture of that aid. Premier Lloyd George, placed in a most uncomfortable uncomfort-able position, was said to have called Krassin and Kamineff. the soviet representatives, rep-resentatives, to conference and to have demanded that the advance into Poland be immediately and unconditionally uncondi-tionally stopped, even before the signing sign-ing of an armistice, or else Great Britain Brit-ain would declare war. If this was his determination, it was reached despite the views of a considerable part of his cabinet, including himself, that peace with Russia must be forced by economic rather than military measures. meas-ures. Others of the ministers, lead by Winston Churchill, were said to favor unrelenting warfare on the bolsheviki and the extension of unlimited aid to Poland. There was a rumor in London Lon-don that the allies had determined to send six divisions to Poland, presumably presum-ably some of the occupational forces from Germany. Also, the memhers of the supreme council of allied ambassadors ambas-sadors were hurriedly called from their vacations to meet in Paris. The reply of Moscow to Lloyd George, according to the London Times, was a refusal to halt the bolshevik bol-shevik advance on the ground that the army had been promised the looting loot-ing of Warsaw. The Russians said they were prepared to offer Poland complete independence and wider boundaries, but that they insisted on a separate peace with the Poles. The allies realize that In sending an rirmy to the rescue of the Poles they may be compelled to violate the neutrality neu-trality which Germany has proclaimed, and the sincerity of Berlin. Is so questionable ques-tionable that this may be done without with-out much compunction. A sinister aspect as-pect is given the stand of the Germans Ger-mans by the report that before the Tolish offensive began they made a secret 'reaty with the Moscow government. gov-ernment. The treaty, it is asserted, contained tvie following provisions: Russ'a, without interference from Germany, would he allowed .o appropriate appro-priate all of Poland's arms, munitions, rolling stock and foodstuffs. After the conquest of Poland permls- vention of future wars, and during the week it took several important steps. First it adopted the French plan for an international general staff of military mili-tary experts to devise plans of operations oper-ations in event any state makes war or violates an agreement. This action, which was opposed by the United States last year, is thought to be preliminary pre-liminary to combined action against bolshevik Russia and against Germany If she unites with tie bolshevlsts. Another An-other French plan, though presented hy Italy, also was adopted, for the establishment es-tablishment of an International blockade block-ade committee and justifying the blockade principle. The plan of the advisory jurists' committee for an in-terantional in-terantional court of justice was adopted adopt-ed as submitted. This was almost entirely en-tirely the work of Elihu Root As had been expected, the Greeks pretty much cleared Thrace of Turkish Turk-ish nationalists, but Kemal Pasha was not beaten and opened a strong offensive against the Greek forces in Asia Minor along the Bagdad railroad. At Simav, northeast of Smyrna, which is outside their area of occupation, the Greeks were defeated in a 24-hour battle bat-tle and forced to retreat. In order to prevent Greek occupation of Constantinople Constan-tinople the Turkish cabinet was hurriedly hur-riedly reorganized, practically all the new members being friendly to Great Britain, and preparations were made for the signing of the peace treaty. But Constantinople is threatened from another direction, according to reports from Sofia. It is said a strong Communist party is being organized In Bulgaria by Madjaroff, -a Russo-phile; Russo-phile; that all its men members from twenty to forty-five years of age, are being given arms and trained secretly, and that the purpose is to co-operate witJi the Russian soviet troops in a drive on Constantinople. The strike of bituminous coal miners min-ers in the middle Western states, being be-ing unauthorized and disapproved hy the union, is petering out and the fear of a fuel famine is decreasing. President Presi-dent Wilson asked the men to return to work pending adjustment of their complaints, and President Lewis of the United Mine Workers of America gave the same advice, making it as nearly mandatory as he could. The strikers in Illinois and Indiana slowly slow-ly returned to the mines. Those of Kansas were more stubborn and A. M. HowaL president of the state union, bitterly attacked Lewis aud refused to abide by his instructions. So far as Illinois and the Chicago region are concerned, the Illinois public pub-lic utilities commission took action that should relieve the situation there very markedly. This was an order forbidding the reconsignment of cars of fuel after they have reached their destination and providing that on all carload shipments of coal, lumber, or other shipments in open top cars the railroads shall make a charge of S10 a day for each clay or fraction thereof there-of that a car is held beyond the "free time" allowed by the road. In this way, It in believed, the evil r-f gam- tencea to imprisonment, in aauition Lloyd was fined $2,000 and two others $1,000 each. Throughout the country geueral satisfaction was felt In this result of a case that was considered one of the most important ever held in an American court. As Special Prosecutor Prose-cutor Comerford expressed it : "The verdict convicts the movement as well as the men behind it, and establishes -a precedent which makes criminal the meeting of men for the purpose of advocating the overthrow of the government." gov-ernment." Something like 50,000 Democrats gathered in Dayton. O., Saturday to hear Governor Cox told formally that he is the party's nominee for the presidency. pres-idency. The notification ceremonies took place in the Montgomery county fair grounds where a temporary amphitheater was erected. They were preceded by a parade in which about 20,000 persons took part. The town was handsomely decorated and the 'residents opened their homes to the visitors. In his speech of acceptance Governor Gover-nor Cox declared that the United States should enter the League of Nations, Na-tions, immediately ratify the peace treaty and state our interpretation of the covenant as1 a matter of good faith and as a precaution against misunderstanding misunder-standing in the future; the interpretation interpreta-tion clearly to show that the league is not an alliance and that its basic purpose is peace and not controversy. On the matter of prohibition he said that any candidate for the presidency who says he does not intend to enforce en-force the law is more unworthy than the law violator. He declared he favored fa-vored the repeal of war taxes and the reduction of federal taxation, and suggested sug-gested a volume of business tax instead in-stead of the excess profits tax. In dealing with other issues he followed along the lines of the San Francisco platform. In the Missouri state primary Breckinridge Breck-inridge Long, who campaigned on a League of Nations and law enforcement enforce-ment platform, won the Democratic senatorial nomination, and the Republicans Repub-licans renominated Senator Spencer. In Kansas the Republicans renominated renominat-ed Senator Curtis and Governor Allen. Al-len. According to incomplete returns. Representative Scott Ferris was leading lead-ing Senator Gore for the senatorial nomination in Oklahoma. Former Senator Bailey was an easy winner in Texas. New York's unofficial Democratic convention put up a state ticket headed head-ed hy Gov. Alfred E. Smith and selected select-ed Lieut. Gov. Harry C. Walker for senator. Its platform calls for modification modi-fication of the Volstead act to permit 2.75 per cent beer and urges recognition recogni-tion of the Irish republic. In aviation the week's triumph was the successful opening of the New York to San Francisco air mail route; its tragedy was the death of Lieutenant Lieuten-ant Locklear, noted "stunt" aviator, when Ms plane fell 1,000 feet at Los Angela. |