News and Miscellany

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jan 23, 1913

News and Miscellany

Notes and clippings from the daily and weekly press

— A serious flood situation exists along the course of the Ohio River. Railroad traffic is practically tied up, and thousands of persons have been obliged to abandon their homes.

— Intoxicating liquors will not be carried in the parcel-post, and the liquor dealers who contributed large sums of money toward the passage of the measure are very indignant.

— That 5,500,000 persons in the United States are illiterate, which is a larger percentage of illiteracy than exists in any northern European country, was recently asserted by Dr. Roland P. Falkner, assistant director of the census.

— On January 12 the liner “Uranium,” of the Uranium Steamship Company, was stranded on a reef near Halifax, Nova Scotia, having been thrown out of her course by a violent storm. The 880 passengers were rescued and landed safely at Halifax.

— Thirty-nine lepers, it is reported, recently were put to death in an atrocious manner by order of the provincial authorities of Nanning, province of Kwangsi, China. The sufferers from the dread disease first were shot, and then their bodies were burned in a huge trench.

— Reports from London state that unless unforeseen events should change the current of affairs, the war in the Near East will be resumed within a week, and Europe will witness the horrors of a winter campaign. The allies have firmly made up their minds to take up arms a second time.

— The wireless station at Nauen, Germany, reports that it was in wireless communication with New York on January 14. This, it is stated, is the first time direct wireless communication has been established between Germany and America. Nauen is near Berlin, and the distance from New York to Berlin is approximately 4,400 miles.

— There comes, by way of Berlin, the announcement that the Russian minister of justice is drafting a bill to do away with penal servitude, and the banishment of political and criminal offenders to convict settlements in Siberia. The move, it is said, grows out of the protests of the free inhabitants of Siberia, who feel that the convict element of the population is standing in the way of the development of the country. There are also said to be 20,000 escaped convicts living in the wilds of Siberia as outlaws, and this menace is a deterrent in securing settlers.

— Last year $98,225 was spent by Harvard undergraduates on cigars and cigarettes, while $73,250 was consumed in liquors. It should be added that $71,250 was expended for books.

— A disastrous coal-mine accident is reported from Japan. More than 200 men were at work in the Ubari Mine on the island of Hokkaido when an explosion occurred. Only three were rescued alive.

— It is estimated that the Panama Canal, when completed, will cost $375,000,000. President Taft has just announced his determination to submit the controversy with England over the rate question to arbitration.

— During 1912, 2,997 miles of new railroad tracks were laid, the smallest amount since 1897. On the other hand, not since 1906 have there been so many locomotives and cars ordered as last year, the total being 4,424 locomotives, 3,623 passenger-cars, and 226,195 freight-cars.

— Announcement has been made of the resignation of J. Bruce Ismay from his position as managing director of the White Star Steamship line, to take effect June 30, 1913. Harold A. Sanderson will succeed him. It will be remembered, doubtless, that Mr. Ismay was the director of the company that owned the “Titanic.”

— Rear-Admiral Robert E. Peary and Capt. Roald Amundson, discoverers of the north and south poles, greeted each other for the first time on the evening of January 11, at the annual dinner of the National Geographic Society held in Washington, D. C. The special gold medal of the society was presented to Captain Amundson in honor of his discovery.

— Some effort to care for the immigrant after he leaves Ellis Island will hereafter be made by the government if the Senate passes the bill which has just gone through the House appropriating $75,000 to establish an immigrant station at Chicago. The station is planned to be a headquarters for new arrivals, where they may be guarded to some extent against dishonest or vicious exploitation.

— Presidential electors in all the States met January 13 at the various State capitals and formally announced the votes of their respective States for President and Vice-President of the United States, and chose their official messengers to carry the votes to Washington, where they will be delivered to the president pro tem of the Senate. The returns will be canvassed February 12 in joint session of the Senate and House, when Woodrow Wilson will be formally declared elected President of the United States.

— The possibilities of attack from airships in time of war have at last been actualized. In the midst of a violent cannonade between the Greeks and the Turks defending Bizani Fort, a Greek aviator flew over Bizani and Janina and dropped a veritable hail of bombs into the Turkish fortress. The aviator was accompanied in his flight by a Greek officer who hurled the explosive missiles into the fortress, where they caused serious damage. The Turkish fire slightly damaged his biplane in the descent, but his reply was effective, and he landed safely.

— The Spanish secret police, among the best detectives in the world, have been investigating the facts in regard to the man who killed Premier Canalejas. They have learned that the plot was made and the man sent out from the United States. Also that other men were appointed to kill King Alfonso, and Emperor William of Germany. The Berlin police have been warned, and every foreigner going to that city is investigated.

— Robert W. Archbald, of Scranton, Pa., judge of the United States Circuit Court, detailed to service in the United States Commerce Court, was found guilty of “high crimes and misdemeanors in office,” on January 13, by the United States Senate, sitting as a court in impeachment. By a unanimous vote he was removed from office, and “forever disqualified from holding and enjoying any office of trust, honor, and profit under the United States.” Judge Archbald is the ninth federal official to be impeached by the United States Senate since the adoption of the federal Constitution.

— More than 150 American citizens have been murdered in Mexico since revolution has held that country in its grip, according to authentic information which has been brought to the attention of the State Department in Washington. While there have been few recent reports from Mexico, it is known definitely that the situation in that country is more serious than at any time since Porfirio Diaz was forced from the presidency. Among the lawless element the hatred of Americans is intense, and their lives are held cheaply. Citizens of European nations, likewise, have been murdered; millions of dollars’ worth of the property of American citizens has been stolen or destroyed; and apparently the Mexican government is absolutely powerless to give the protection demanded by the United States and other governments.