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GENERAL NEWS NOTES OF THE DAY Violent German efforts to wipe out tiie saline before Cambral have brought little tactical success, as General Byng has withstood successfully for three days all attempts to break through. About Gon-nelieu the Germans have gained slight terrain at heavy cost and the British have evacuated Mas-nieres, south of Cambrai. The Germans have suffered heavy losses in dead and wounded and the British have taken many hundreds of prisoners. In the important sector west of Cambrai, embracing Bourlon wood, the dominating position in this region; the Germans have made no impression on the British defenses, nor have General Byngs men given, ground between Bourlon wood and Moeuvres, the northern side of the salient. The heavy attacks against the region of Masnieres were driven off by the British with costly losses for the attackers, but a sharp salient involving the village made its abandonment ueeessrfvy. Southwest of Masnieres. to. Ward Gonnelieu. the Germans still hold La Vac-querie, where it is said the dead in twelve hours have numbered more than in any similar period since the beginning of the war. The British have readied Gonnelieu and fighting was in progress Sunday in and around the village. In this region the Germans used four or five divisions Friday and attacked in massed formation Saturday and Sunday. At least six or seven divisions were used by the attackers in their fruitless efforts to break the northern leg of the salient. Northeast of Ypres. in Flanders, the British have captured fortified buildings and German strong points on the main ridge north of Passchendaele. Oil the remainder of the western front the artillery continues active. The German crown prince has not repeated his attacks in the Verdun region. Congress reassembled yesterday for its second war session, but did little more than go through the formalities of the opening. The work actually begins when President Wilson in his address today at 12.30 oclock outlines the administration program for vigorous prosecution of the war. Estimates of more than 3,500,000,000, the greatest in the nations history, submitted to Congress yesterday as the basis for computing the cost of the war during the fiscal year 1910, gave Congress some idea of the magnitude of its task in putting the full force of America beside that of the allies in the world fight for democracy. Here follows a statement of the estimates by general headings: Legislative, ..020.325; executive, 1917.sh5,329,369; judicial, 81,390,-390; agriculture, 0,458,531; foreign intercourse, 1917.sh,535,072: military army. ,015,93G,554; navy, Sl. 014.077.503; Indians, 2,255,210; pensions, 57,-000,000: Panama canal. 3,171,024; public works practically all fortifications, ,504,918,053; postal service. 31.S18,34n; miscellaneous. ,020,208,317; permanent annual appropriations, 11.1G0,S25; gross total cents omitted here and above, 3.504,3."V7,904; deduct sinking fund and postal returns, S3, 032,345; net total, 3,018,725,595. American army engineers, working in the region of Gouzeaueourt, joined the fighting ranks of their British allies and helped them stem the onslaught which resulted in Gouzeaueourt being enveloped for a time. Many of the Americans were caught in the German turning movement about Gouzeaueourt and only escaped death or capture by lying concealed for hours in shell holes until the British had succeeded in pushing the invaders back. Hundreds of other men from overseas were subjected to tremendous shell fire from enemy artillery and great quantities of gas shells were thrown in the territory where they were working. The German attack was made with greatly superior numbers and every available man was needed on the British side to arrest its onward sweep. The Americans gave every ounce of their strength to this task, both as fighting men and as workers, and the important part which they played has drawn the highest -praise from- the British authorities. Says a dispatch from Rome: , The .enemy has , again turned his attention, to the lower Plnve river, where large forces of "his infantry with machine guns have attempted to seek a. lodgment inside the inundated, triangle between the Ptavc and Old Piave. This inundated region is crossed laterally by several roads which stand just above the water and, taking advantage of this, the enemy has advanced his forces along these high stretches anil given considerable trouble witli sniping from the upper windows of farmhouses. From Tokio comes the following: Japanese residents at Harbin have formed a volunteer corns for protection against robbers and anarchists, who are creating great disorders there under the guise of a holshevikl revolutionary move. Dispatches from the city today said the foreign consuls had made formal protests and that the Russian authorities were endeavoring to guarantee order. Military authorities and the state public utilities commission have begun separate investigations into the cause of the wreck of the Illinois Central train near Bartlett, 111., Sunday night, which imperiled the lives of about SOO national army men and injured five civilians and thirty-seven soldiers, who were returning to Camp Grant at Itockford, from a week-end furlough in Chicago. Mexican bandits raided a cattle ranch near the border Friday and United States cavalrymen followed them into Mexico, gave battle to them on Saturday morning at Buena Vista, a few. miles across the Texas border, killing thirty-five of their number. One American lost his life in the battle. General Von Ludeudorff, rigiit-liand man of Field Marshal Von Ilindenburg, is quoted by a correspondent of the Vienna Neue Freie Iresse as making the prediction recently at German headquarters that the war will not end in a draw, but be decided in favor of the central powers. General Byng is regaining bit by bit the ground won by the Germans at so heavy a cost last Friday in the Cambrai battle, now characterized as the heaviest attack ever delivered on the British by the German armies, except in the case of the first battle of Ypres. Mexican bandits said to be followers of Luise de la Itosa, numbering about 300. .have captured the town of Agua Legua. on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande, fifty miles below Zapata, Tex., according to reports reaching Laredo, Tex., yesterday. A message to the American people from General Pershing reads as follows: "Tell them there is no ground for the heresy that Germany cannot be beaten. Germany can be beaten. "Germany must he beaten. Germany will be beaten." Japan is waiting to hear what the Supreme War Council at Versailles lias decided as to the Nippons" future part in the war. It Is regarded as certain that. Japan will take more active part and may send troops to the western fronts. More complete control and regulation of merchant shipping was recommended to Congress yesterday by the shipping board. Greater power is needed, it was pointed out. especially to prevent extortionate ocean freight rates. The Treasury Department yesterday announced that the government will buy up the countrys entire silver output. Irices will be fixed at a "fair" profit to producers, it was stated by Director of the Mint Ray Baker. Report that General Kaledine. with 100,000 Cossacks, had captured Rostov and was marching toward Moscow was received at Copenhagen yesterday via Haparanda. Bulgaria has decided to open negotiations with Russia, in accordance with her allies, and has sent a reply to this effect to the Russian government, a Sofia dispatch says.
