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GENERAL NEWS NOTES OF THE DAY. ■ on I b regard to the railroad disaster at Amherst. 1 a Cleveland statement of yesterday says: Investigation to place the blame for the double wreck v of three New York Central flyers at Amherst, in- ] eluding the Twentieth Century Limited, which took J a toll of tWBBty-aevea lives and injured over forty f persons, two fatally, was under way here today, t Hotli state and federal officials were to attend a t hearing of railway employes involved in the dis- 1 aster summoned to tell their stories of the wreck | h the New York Central. H. W. fflfl—P repre- I sentot the Interstate Commerce Commission. M. .1. t Heffcrman and V. S. Packard the state utilities i commission. Evidence already made public shows 1 ah there are but three possible explanations of the i cause of the wreck, and the probe was to be eon- 1 ducted along these lines: Did Engineer Herman 1 Hess of the second division of No. 86. whose train collided with the first section, fail to see a block stop signal? Did A. II. Ernst. Amherst tower- , man. fail to set the Mock signal against Hess a . train, as Hess alleges? Did the signal apparatus work properly. Krnst says it was faulty: this the New York Central denies. The train crews of the , Twentieth Century Limited and the first section of No. 81 were expected to be absolved. The engineer of the latter stopped because the block , signal was against him; the engineer for the , former had no warning of an obstruction in his j path. A contributing factor of the wreck was a , heavy fog. Although the New York Central claims ; but twenty-six persons, twenty-four of them pas- , sengers. lost their lives, morgue officials disagreed, saying they had parts of twenty-seven bodies. There were two bodies at Lorain, two : at LTvria and parts of twenty -three at Amherst. ; Sixteen of the twenty -seven had been identified, j The other eleven may never be. Seven of the un-known dead were men and three of them women. . Of the injured. Albert Keller. 5000 Lincoln avenue, . Chicago, cannot survive, and Wilbur Muhoney, To-ledo, is not expected to live more than a few hours. The French official report issued at Paris yester- day savs: To the south of the River Somme. the | way bining bet n prepared by a violent bombardment, the eiuiiiy penetrated to one of the advanced points of our lne at a point to the west of Yer- , mamlovillicrs. to the north of Chaulnes. A counter attack on our part, however, drove them out at , once. To the west of the River Mouse the Gcr- , mans last night delivered several counter attacks against our positions in the wootl of Avocourt. All these assaults, however, were driven hack by our curtains of fire and the firing of our machine guns and infantry detachments, which caused heavy losses , in the ranks of the enemy. This was notably the owe before the redoubt of Avocourt. where the , Germans left piles of dead bodies. There has been no new military endeavor in the region of Malan-eourt. To the east of the River Meuse and in the Wocvre district there has been intermittent bombardments. The Germans have throw* into the River Meuse. to the north of St. Mihiel. a great number of floating mines, which, however, have caused no damage. In Lorraine there has been activity on the part of cur artillery between Domevre and P.remonil. There has been no other happening of importance to report from any other point on the front. During the day of March 29, one of our aerial attacking squadrons threw down fifteen shells of large caliber on the Sablons railroad station of Metz ami five others on the railroad station at Paguy-Sur-Moselle. During the night of March -it. two French aviators bombarded the railroad station at M;;izieros-Los-Motz. seven miles north of Metz. Con. A. Y. E. Dnbail was appointed military governor of Paris today. He replaces Ccn. Michael Maunoury. who is rtdieved on the ground of ill health. Gen. Dubail. who is sixty-five years old, served in the Franco-Prussian war! When the present war began Gen. Joffre chose him to hold the Yosges. and in checking Gem. von Heciingen. he contributed to the victory of the Maine. An important statement from P.erlin yesterday says: The submarine ••crisis" in the German reichs-tag has passed, with a victory for chancellor von Rothmann-Hollwog. who urged a consiliatory policy teward neutrals. Leaders of all parties today expressed their satisfaction at the explanation made by the government at a secret session of the reichs-tags main committee. They were particularly impressed by the speech of Admiral von CapeOe, successor to Von Tirpitz at the head of the department of marine. At the conclusion of the speeches, the progressive liberal party offered a resolution to postpone indefinitely the resolutions designed to hamper the chancellor in his dealings with America and other neutrals. These resolutions, offered by the national liberal and conservative parties, directed that the government should m-.ke no agreement with a foreign power limiting the use of the submarine, except with respect to passenger carrying ships. If an attempt is made to revise these resolutions in the roichstag. the progressive liberals will move an amendment. For the last sentence reading: The liberty of the use of the submarine weapon shall be teamed in negotiation with foreign nations, they will offer as a substitute the phrase: The liberty of the use of the submarine against Germanys enemies shall be reserved in actual and further negotiations. Though the gover-meut is expected to issue some sort of statement on the meeting every "effort has been made to keep secret the actual statements made by Bethmann-Hollwcg and Admiral von Capelle. To insure secrecy the reichstags inspector personally supervised arrangements for the meeting. Concerning the terms of the agreement for the use of Mexican railroads, a Washington dispatch of yesterday says: "Jen Funston today was expected to tender to the Mexican Northwestern railroad cargoes of supplies for shipment to the American forces beyond the border, under an agreement made with Gen. Carranza by the state department. The first chief helped to solve the arms most difficult problem in the chase for Villa by promptly granting renewed requests for permission to use the railroad. Carranza has agreed that the line can be used on a commercial basis, and this is construed here to mean that all service shall be paid for at regular rates. This does not involve the shipment of munitions nor the use of American guards on the Mexican trains. The state department will negotiate with Carranza further to bring about a more complete understanding pending the completion of the proponed protocol with the de facto government to cover the entire subject of the international pursuit of Villa. Assuming that Caranza had notified his officers on the border of the new agreement for the use of the railroad, an order was dispatched to *w*stsa late last night to tender suppli-s for shipment. Once the rail apply line is in operation, officials said, unless the motortruck service now in operation is needed H a supplementary Mi vice, it could be dispensed with." More than fifty penaaa, mu-t of them workers on their way to their days labor, were injured, mate of then: seriously, in two street car colii ions in the southwestern suburbs of Chicane yesterday. One of the injured, Francis Maloacy. a motorman. may die of his injuries. A dense fog that suddenly settled over tile prairies to the WCSt and south of the city was responsible for the collisions, it developed that in each instance at the points where the wrecks occurred there was but a single track to care for the traffic in both directions. « icci- dents wet* similar. In both cases the two can came together head-on. and with a crash that was heard far blocks. The first accident was at Lyons, where two ears collided at Ogden and Hailt m avenues. One of the cars was loaded with worker! on their way to the Cicero plant of the General Klectrie company. A girl proved herself a heroine in this emergency. Twelve persons were injured in this collision. The second collision, an hoar later than the one at Lyons, taint- at wTest Sixty-third street and South Fifty-sixth avenue. in Clearing;. The west-hound car was crowded with emplo.e. of the Coin Products Refining company, going to tie- big Argo plant. From Petrograd yesterday a dispatch s;..s: The following official i ommunieation was issued by the war office: Fighting continues in the Dvfamfe region, and there has been a violent artillery fire at •Saw phots s..tUli of Dvinsfc. In the region west tif Lake Heroes we nave dislodged the enemy from the | southern part of the W**d south of Mokritza. and I by our fire repassed later counter attacks by the enemy. There have been violent fusillades at state places in tie- rig ion of the Ogiaski canal. Near the ■ village of Bomino our detachments forced the wire ■ defenses of an enemy post and ejected from the trcachei the Germans defending them. The Germans fled over tie canal. Knemy aviators have dropped bombs in the II g I** of the Politsj and , I.ounnn-t/. stations. On the treat of the middle Stripa river we repulsed enemy attentats to approach our trenches. A thaw has commenced on the Whale treat. The marsh anil lake regions are all I inundated, not only in the south, but albo in the : ■ on I 1 v ] J f t t 1 | I t i 1 i 1 1 , . a , , , j , ; , : ; j . . | , , , , , north. The melting of the thick covering of snow all the northern roads is creating extraordinary difficulties in the movement of troops and artillery. Department of Justice agents, following a trail which is saitl to lead to American sources of supply for Villa, have uncovered evidence in New York and other cities which they believe when fully developed will justify the charge that certain Americans are aiding the bandit to get munitions witli which to fight the Inited States Army. The allegation often made that Villa lias received aid from German sources also is being investigated, but no indication has been given as to whether any evidence has been found. The department is disinclined to act on its evidence that American money and supplies have gone to Villa while it is in the stage that will involve only subordinates. It intends to pursue the trail, if possible, to the men higher tip. Gen. Felix Diaz, nephew of the former president of Mexico, has landed in Mexico at the head of an expedition which is planning to start immediately revolution against the Carranza de facto government. The expedition went ashore on the gulf coast of Mexico, near the boundary lines between the states of Tabasco and Campeche. according to private information that reached inner circles in Washington yesterday. The party is said to be small, but composed of well-trained men with suffi-sient arms and ammunition. A telegram releived here today indicated that important developments might be expected from the states in southern Mexico bordering on the isthmus of Tchuantepec, which the Diaz forces expect soon to control. General Sarrail. the French comniander-in-ehief, left Saloniki yesterday for the front. Lieut. -Gen. Mabon. the Uritish commander, called on General Sarrail before his departure. The Pritisli commander then left for Athens, accompanied by several other P.ritish officers, and will be received tomorrow by King Constantino. Several suspected Bulgarians were arrested on Tuesday in the interior of Macedonia. M. Tomitch, an engineer of the Oriental railroad, fled to Monastir because he was suspected of being a Gorman agent. Another engineer employed by the same railroad has been ordered to leave within forty-eight hours. A Rome dispatch says: Four Austrian aeroplanes were brought down during the air raid over Venetian provinces on Monday last, and eight Austrian officers were made prisoners, according to the latest official reports. The raiders failed to inflict any damage of significance, it is declared, and only a few persons were wounded. It is announced that six persons were slightly wounded by bombs thrown from Austrian aeroplanes during the raitl which occurred in the province of Venice on Monday last. Exports of domestic merchandise valued at 20,-246,021 shipped through the port of New York during February established a new record from any American port, according to figures made public there yesterday by customs officials. The next highest month was November, 1915. 88,036,458, the increase in favor of February this year being 2,209,530. February. 1915. showed 09,493,437. Imports during February this year were valued at 03,084,535. against 1,015,800 for February, 1915. Ernest Schiller, a German, held up the captain of the Rritish steamer Matopp shortly after the vessel passed Sandy Hook last night, bound from New York for Vladivostok with a cargo of munitions and war material. Schuler, who was a stowaway, put the wireless out of operation, lacked the captain in his room all night and searched his papers and the ships safe. The man is under arrest at Lowes, Del., having been landed yesterday afternoon. Charles M. Witham and Joseph F. Marek, the sixteen-year-old youths who murdered Joseph Osborne, the hermit, in his hut near East Seventy-sixth street and Greenwood avenue, Oct. 20, 1915. were found guilty by a jury before Judge Thompson yesterday. The punishment was fixed at fourteen years imprisonment each. The jury deliberated eighteen hours before the verdicts were reached. Captain Hans Tauscher. husband of Johanna Gad-ski. the opera singer, and said to be an officer in the German navy, was arrested at New York yesterday by special agents of the department of justice on a warrant charging him with being concerned in an alleged conspiracy to blow up the Welland canal in Canada. Lieut. Gen. Ichinosuke Oka, Japanese minister of war. has resigned, owing to ill health. He has been succeeded by Lieut. Gen. Ken-Ichi Osaima, who has held the post of vice minister of war.
