p. 21 | Current Mention

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Aug 5, 1909

Current Mention

— Several political riots have taken place in Mexico recently, the one at Guadalajara on July 25 being the most serious. The rioters were making demonstrations against the candidacy of the present president of the republic for re-election.

— The city of Osaka, Japan, was visited by a terrible conflagration on July 31, which reduced to ashes a large portion of the city. Thirteen thousand buildings were destroyed, the devastated district covering a total of four square miles. A number of lives were lost in the conflagration.

— The Wright brothers have completed the official tests of their flying-machine, and it has been accepted by the United States government. In the endurance test, the machine remained in the air one hour and twenty minutes, with two men in it, breaking all records. In the flight of five miles and return, with two men on board, the distance of ten miles was made in fourteen minutes and sixteen seconds, a speed of over forty-two and one-half miles an hour. This excess of two miles above the contract speed gives the aviators a bonus of $5,000, making the price of the machine $30,000.

— In a collision of interurban trains at Cœur d’Alene, Idaho, on July 31, five cars were telescoped, killing eight persons and injuring more than sixty.

— Advices from Tokyo, Japan, dated July 31, state that 7,000 houses have been submerged in the city of Kirin, Manchuria, 225 miles from Mukden, and that 1,000 persons have been drowned.

— Following a suggestion by President Taft that the portion of the District of Columbia south of the Potomac River which was ceded back to Virginia in 1846 should be returned to the District, and that its recession to Virginia was unconstitutional, a bill was introduced in Congress on July 29 by Representative Greene, of Massachusetts, directing the attorney-general to begin proceedings for the return of the land to the District.

— A series of severe earthquake shocks beginning early on the morning of July 30 and continuing thirty hours, visited the central portion of Mexico, extending from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The city of Chilpancingo is reported destroyed, Acapulco badly damaged, and the City of Mexico damaged to a considerable extent. The loss of life, which is declared to be considerable, has not been definitely given. But in the City of Mexico six lost their lives in the falling of buildings, and the government palace was damaged.

— The report of the joint committee of the House and Senate on the tariff bill was signed July 30, and went to the House for adoption the following day. After a heated debate, the bill passed by a majority of fourteen.

— A concrete demonstration of the advance that has been made in the science of aerial navigation is seen in the airship world’s fair now in progress at Frankfort-on-the-Main which is to last one hundred days. In September the crowning feature of the exhibition will be the arrival of the air-ship Zeppelin II, for a series of exhibition flights. One and a half million dollars has been spent on the buildings and upon the grounds whereon will be held contests between air-ships, balloons, and dirigible balloons.

— The advocates of the big navy campaign have won the day in England, and four vessels are to be added to the current year’s ship-building program. Inasmuch as these greatly surpass the present Dreadnaughts, they are now designated as superdreadnaughts. The first lord of the admiralty stated to Parliament that the government felt it necessary to take this step in view of the building programs of other nations. He stated the time had arrived when the nation must take steps to insure Britain’s supremacy on the sea not only for the present but also for the future.

— The Spanish nation at the present moment finds itself in a most embarrassing situation. The recent battles between its forces in Morocco and the Moroccan tribesmen have been far from encouraging to the Spanish people. The Spanish troops have fought desperately, and in some instances have repulsed the Moors. A report from Melilla, Morocco, dated July 29, states that a battle had just been fought in which the Spanish had lost 3,000 men killed and wounded. An unusually large number of officers were slain, as disaffection among the troops had become so great that the officers were compelled to march into the conflict in front of their men. The reports indicate that the Spanish have been compelled to retire upon the city of Melilla, and that there is danger of the city’s being captured. An army of 6,000 Moors is also attacking the island and city of Alhucemas, and their numbers are constantly increasing. Notwithstanding the dire straits of the Spanish army in Morocco, a most serious insurrection has broken out in Spain. The masses are opposed to the war, and are doing all they can to interfere with the departure of troops for Morocco. Large bodies of the soldiers themselves have partaken of the same spirit. Well-organized bodies of insurrectionists have defied the local authorities, erected strong barricades in the streets, which they have defended even against the assaults of the infantry and artillery. In some of these encounters between the soldiers and insurrectionists the soldiers have refused to fire upon the people. In others they have used their weapons mercilessly, and large numbers have been killed and wounded. The government has expressed its determination to put down the insurrection regardless of cost, and to send a sufficiently large army to Morocco to defeat the Moorish tribesmen. These conditions are bound to interfere seriously with the industrial and economic conditions throughout Spain.