p. 21 | News and Miscellany

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Aug 24, 1916

News and Miscellany

Notes and clippings from the daily and weekly press

—The royal material testing office at Gross-Lichterfelde, a suburb of Berlin, announces the interesting discovery that paper can be manufactured from cotton stalks. The discovery is not considered of much importance for Germany, which produces no cotton, but is pointed to as of vast importance to the United States, the greatest producer of cotton in the world, because of the shortage of paper in this country.

—The Salvation Army recently admitted that it is worth $8,353,179 in this country in order to obtain permission from the supreme court, Brooklyn, N. Y., to mortgage property at Court and Carroll Streets for $8,500. In the petition it is stated that its real estate holdings total $6,846,051.59, and personal property $1,507,128.08. Its liabilities are $4,256,637.98, of which nearly $1,500,000 is unsecured.

—The Prohibition party at its recent convention in St. Paul, Minn., adopted a platform which expresses opposition to the “wasteful military programs of the Democratic and Republican parties,” but favors “preparedness for peace.” J. Frank Hanly, former governor of Indiana, was named as Presidential candidate of the party, and Dr. Ira B. Landrith, of Nashville, Tenn., was nominated for the Vice Presidency.

—Sir William Ramsay, regarded as the foremost scientist of modern times, died at his home in London, England, on July 23. Sir William was born in Glasgow, Scotland, Oct. 2, 1852. He had been for many years professor of chemistry at University College in London, and in 1904 he was awarded the Nobel prize for chemistry. He was the discoverer of argon and helium, and was widely known for his experiments in connection with radium.

—The past two years have been years of horror, not merely to those in the trenches and at the battle’s front, but to the noncombatants, the innocent and helpless sufferers in the lands overrun by invading forces, and to homes bereft of breadwinners. Hundreds of thousands have died from famine and neglect in these twenty-four months of carnage. The United States has not been slow to hear the cries of the suffering beyond the seas. Her gifts to the famine-smitten countries have been in excess of $36,000,000. Of this amount Belgium has been helped most generously with gifts approximating $10,000,000 from this country. Germany has received over $6,000,000 for the needy of the Central Powers. There has been contributed for the Jews, $5,580,000; for Armenia and Syria, $1,025,000; for Poland, $800,000; for Serbia, $210,000; and for Albania, $37,000. It is said that Poland’s population of 34,000,000 has been reduced by the war to about 20,000,000, and that while many fell in battle, the greater number died of starvation. Because of diplomatic difficulties it has been next to impossible to send food to them. No children under seven years of age are to be found in Poland, all of them having died of starvation.

—The general railway strike, which has hung a threatening cloud in the horizon for months, still seems to be pending. On August 9, armed with a practically unanimous vote from 400,000 railway trainmen, heads of the four railway employees’ brotherhoods met the railroad managers, demanding again the eight-hour day. The alternative the Big Four will lay on the table will be a nation-wide strike, tying up every freight and passenger train in the United States. The railroads have given no indication of the course they will take in meeting this demand, but the Federal Board, backed by President Wilson, is ready to offer mediation to avert what would prove a nation-wide calamity.