News and Miscellany

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Mar 16, 1916

News and Miscellany

Notes and clippings from the daily and weekly press

— Three sharp earthquake shocks recently occurred in Panama. The whole city of Panama and the Canal Zone were shaken. No danger to the canal locks or dams is reported.

— Hon. Elihu Root, whose remarkable speech before the Republican State Convention without doubt sounded the keynote of the Republican Presidential campaign, is seventy-one years of age.

— The New York Tribune, one of the largest and most influential daily newspapers in the United States, has recently issued an announcement that after April 1, 1916, it will not carry advertisements of any alcoholic liquor.

— Not many years ago the seed taken from cotton fiber was considered of no more value than the sawdust that accumulates in sawmills. But behold a change! The cottonseed now harvested in one year from our fields is worth $136,000,000. After the oil has been taken from the seed, the part remaining is used as food for cattle.

— A disastrous fire occurred on the Brooklyn (N. Y.) water front on February 16, causing the destruction of three British steamships, thirty-seven lighters and barges, a new 900-foot pier, and about $1,000,000 in merchandise. The total loss is estimated at about $4,000,000, several persons were injured, and one life was lost. Defective electric wiring is thought to have been the cause of the fire.

— Census Bureau experts report estimates showing that the population of the United States on Jan. 1, 1916, was 101,208,315, and that by July 1 it would be 102,017,302. Western States have led in the growth, Washington heading the list, with Oklahoma, Nevada, North Dakota, and New Mexico following in the order named. The bureau’s estimates are based on the rate of increase between the 1900 and 1910 censuses.

— Lindley M. Garrison resigned as Secretary of War, because of dissatisfaction over the President’s attitude toward national defense legislation, and the pending bills providing for the independence of the Philippines. Henry Breckinridge, Assistant Secretary of War, also resigned his office, out of loyalty to Mr. Garrison and a belief in the principles for which Mr. Garrison stood. Both resignations were accepted immediately.

— Judge Ben Lindsey, of Denver, has left the Ford party to start a war relief campaign. This is different from the previous abortive effort to stop the war. The judge is launching a scheme for the purpose of raising $50,000,000 to aid war orphans. He says the accounts of suffering in the lands of the belligerents are so terrible that no language could adequately detail them. It is said that Mr. Ford gave his hearty approval to the plan before the judge and Mrs. Lindsey left the peace party at Christiania, and that he has also promised financial support to the scheme.

— The trade between the United States and South America reached a new record during the past year, according to the figures made public Friday by the foreign trade department of the National City Bank of New York. The imports from South America amounted to $320,000,000, and the exports to $145,000,000. This combined total is $92,000,000 in advance of the figures of 1912, which was the previous banner year.

— A month’s celebration of the national golden jubilee of the Young Women’s Christian Association was begun with an elaborate banquet in New York City on February 1. There were present on the occasion 3,339 women diners, and nearly 3,000 men and women spectators in the galleries of the Sixty-ninth Regiment Armory, where the banquet was held. The gathering was addressed by Theodore Roosevelt and Mayor Mitchel of New York.

— In the days when the horse was king of the road, the people of the United States bought 1,000,000 buggies a year. The sale of automobiles is just reaching the mark set by the buggy. Last year, 448 manufacturers produced 892,618 vehicles, and orders for 300,000 remained unfilled. This year, plants are being increased to provide the 1916 market with at least 1,000,000 cars. There were registered in 1915 in all the States 2,400,000 motor cars, which is more than one for every mile of public highway in the Union.

— The heads of the nineteen great coal companies in the anthracite field met in New York City on February 3, and rejected all the demands made by representatives of 147,000 miners. The miners demand twenty per cent increase in wages, complete recognition of the United Mine Workers of America, a two-year working agreement, an eight-hour day, and changes in methods of fixing wages. The anthracite operators and their men have been at peace for thirteen years. The operators say to grant the demands would make necessary an advance in the price of anthracite to domestic consumers of sixty cents a ton. The raise in price would apply to all domestic sizes. The coal companies assert that they will lay their whole case before the people, and let the consumers themselves decide.

— Many millions of dollars will be added to the railroad pay rolls if the 400,000 men in train service force the carriers to meet their new demands for higher wages, which are expected to be presented in March. Engineers, firemen, conductors, and trainmen from Maine to California, on every mile of railroad in the country, are now voting authority to their leaders to bargain with the roads for more pay. A simultaneous demand will be made on all the roads to adopt the new rates if the vote is favorable. This is the first country-wide demand by railroad workers for more wages. The battle ground for bigger pay checks has never before extended beyond the boundaries of one section of the country,—the East, the West, or the South,—and even in these territorial struggles the four brotherhoods have never made joint demands. Some of the leaders of the men have announced that this will be a fight to a finish, and that they are opposed to arbitration.

— The world’s largest telescope is now being installed at the Carnegie Solar Observatory, near Los Angeles, Cal. The tube, which was sent by steamer from New York, with its casings, weighed 47,000 pounds, and was refused by railways because too wide for flat cars and too high for some tunnels. The lens of the telescope weighs four and a half tons, and although several years’ work has been expended on the instrument, it is not yet completed. It will be finished in 1917.

— There are several centennials occurring during 1916, one of them being a weather centennial. The year 1816 was known as “the year without a summer.” January was so mild that fires were allowed to go out except for cooking purposes. In April there was snow, frost, and ice, and in June all vegetation was practically wiped out by the cold weather. There was a severe snowstorm June 17, 1816, and snow, frost, and ice continued through July. It was not until September that the weather conditions were normal once more.

— An interesting study of the relation of a college education to the present governing bodies of the United States, was issued last week by a New York newspaper. It is shown that sixty-eight per cent of the United States Senate and sixty-two per cent of the members of the House attended higher institutions of learning. The University of Michigan leads, with twenty-six of its alumni in Congress; Harvard is second, with twenty; the University of Virginia is third, with nineteen; and Yale is fourth, with sixteen. More than one fourth of the total number of college men now in Congress are from the alumni of these four institutions.

— One hundred years ago on May 8, representatives of the various State Bible societies met in Garden Street Dutch Reformed Church in New York and organized the American Bible Society. It was a historical gathering, a convention of men distinguished in many directions, who were impressed with the need of coordinating the work of spreading the Bible. Among them were Hon. Elias Boudinot, who was president of the National Congress at the close of the Revolutionary War and signed the treaty of peace with Great Britain; Rev. Dr. Lyman Beecher, father of “all the Beechers;” James Fenimore Cooper, the novelist; and others of equal note in various walks of life. After the organization Dr. Boudinot was elected the first president of the society; Hon. John Jay, the first Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, was chosen vice president, with others; Rev. Dr. J. M. Mason, secretary for foreign correspondence; Rev. Dr. J. B. Romeyn, secretary for domestic correspondence; and Col. Richard Varick, second mayor of New York, treasurer. The American Bible Society has made extensive plans for the universal observance of this centennial anniversary of its birth, May 7 being designated as Universal Bible Sunday. Exercises will be held not simply by churches as such, but also in Sunday schools, young people’s societies, and other organizations. Assurances have been received already that the day will be observed in practically all climes in grateful recognition of the blessings that have come from the Book.