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GENERAL NEWS NOTES OF THE DAY Control of the nations railroads to bring about uniform operation for the war will be assumed by the government at noon today witli Secretary Me- 1 Adoo, still retaining his cabinet nost, in charge as director-general of railroads. This decision, the governments solution for the difficulties of the present transportation situation, was announced Wednesday night in a proclamation by President Wilson, effective at noon Friday, December 28, and taking over every railroad engaged in general transportation in continental United States, witli its appurtenances, including steamship lines. All lines will be operated as a single system under Director McAdoo. Evidence has been uncovered by government agents indicating that American Industrial Workers of the World, Russian Bolsheviki, Irish extremists and revolutionists of all countries at war with Germany are united in a world wide plan to overthrow existiug governments and social orders. This has been admitted by officials in Washington in connection witli news of the discovery of a quantity of guns and ammunition on the Russian freighter Shilka. which recently arrived at a Pacific port, manned by a mutinous Bolsheviki crew. American troops are guarding all known outlets to Van Home canyon, near Marfa, Texas, where 100 Mexican bandits are hiding. On Christmas morning they crossed the American border, raided the post-office and general store on the Brite ranch, twenty-seven miles southeast of Marfa, killed Michael Welch, a veteran stage driver and his two Mexican passengers. wounde,d,S9Tn:,iVeTH, foreman of the Brite ranch and carried away loot estimated to be worth ,000, besides horses stolen from the ranch. A woman, designated only as "H" and said to be m-ominent in the German secret service, directed the activities of Franz Schulenberg, alleged master spy, held in San Francisco on a presidential warrant, according to information divulged yesterday by federal officials. Schulenberg is said to have been active in plans to destroy bridges and public buildings in Canada and shipping and warehouses in Pacific coasts. j The government is confronted witli the necessity of taking control of Americas coal mines if a coal shortage for the period of the war is to be avoided, according to Dr. Harry A. Garfield, fuel administrator, in Ids testimony before the Senate subcommittee investigating the coal shortage in Washington. "It is not a question of when, but how soon," said Dr. Garfield. Ukrainian forces, according to a report from Pe-trograd, from the rkralnain Rada, have occupied headquarters of the fourth, eighth and eleventh armies on the Roumanian and southwestern fronts. Those who resisted wore disarmed and a quantity of guns and rifles were seized. The Ukrainians have occupied the station at Brailiff and disarmed the guards. The American steamship Tuscarora. formerly a lake vessel and requisitioned by the United States shipping board for Atlantic service, together with her entire crew of thirty-five men, is believed to have been lost at sea somewhere north of Cape Breton Island, according to advices received in shipping circles from Nova Scotia. Aroused by reports of shortages of winter clothing in national army camps, the Senate military affairs committee yesterday adopted a resolution requesting the secretary of war immediately to ascertain conditions by wire; supply deficient troops and suspend departmental routine, if necessary, by direct purchases from sources near the camps. Count Czernin, .the Austro-Hungarian foreign minister, told the peace conference at Brest-Litovsk that the Central powers solemnly declare their resolve to sign terms immediately to terminate the war on conditions equally just to all belligerents. The central powers also favor a general peace AVith-out forcible annexations and indemnities. David It. Francis, the American ambassador to Russia, has issued a rebuttal of the charges made against the American embassy by the Bolsheviki. He declared, according to a Petrograd dispatch, that he and his staff never interfered with internal affairs in Russia, nor aided General Kaledincs or any other faction". Early in December Germany suffered from storms and cold weather, the severity of which lias not been equaled for many years, according to an Amsterdam dispatch. For more than ten , days rain, snow and wind worked general havoc, interrupting telephonic and telegraphic communication. Assertions by Petrograd correspondents that the influence and power of the Bolsheviki is waning have never been made with such unanimity as in dispatches dated Sunday. Nearly all assert that defection from the organization is growing constantly. Christmas was celebrated by the thirty-three Industrial Workers of the World held in the jail in Wichita, Kas., by an all night riot which it was impossible to quell. The men broke up their cots, pounded their cells, groaned, yelled, sang and cursed all night. Guatemala City is practically in ruins as the result of an earthquake that began late Tuesday night and was still continuing at one oclock Wednesday afternoon, according to cablegrams to the State Department at Washington yesterday.. German atrocities against American soldiers have been officially reported to Washington. An American sentrv lias been found on the western front with his "throat cut, and. it is officially declared, "he must have been so killed after capture." A coal shortage of 50,000,000 tons for 1917 in the face of the greatest production of any year in the coimtrvs history has been caused by war demands, fuel administrator H. A. Garfield told the Senate investigating committee yesterday. The Bolsheviki government has decided to send special representatives to all countries, belligerent as well as neutral, to further the propaganda of internationalism. Two million rubles have been appropriated for this purpose. Villijalmur Stefansou, the arctic explorer, last heard from in a letter received March, 1910, has arrived with his party at Fort Yukon, according to word received by the naval department at Ottawa.
