p. 20 | News and Miscellany

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Jan 28, 1915

News and Miscellany

Notes and clippings from the daily and weekly press

— Secretary Houston, of the Department of Agriculture, has announced that the American farms during 1914 eclipsed all records for combined value of their products, with a total of nearly $10,000,000,000. Crops were valued at $6,044,480,000, and the total value of the farm animals sold and slaughtered was $3,828,456,000.

— On December 29 a new election law for the Republic of China was promulgated in Peking. The most notable clause of the amended law is that which fixes the term of office of the president of China to ten years. This term may continue indefinitely if the senate, by a two-thirds vote, considers that the actual political situation makes such extension desirable.

— A great gale and snowstorm swept over the larger part of the United Kingdom on Dec. 28, 1914, causing considerable loss of life and much property damage. The telegraphic service on the Continent was disorganized, and communication with France was almost severed. Two feet of snow fell in many parts of the country, causing serious flooding of the rivers. Dublin was visited by the heaviest snowfall in many years.

— Notices have been posted calling on approximately 2,500 families of striking miners in Jefferson County, Ohio, to pay to the coal companies by January 15 ten months' house rent that they owe, under penalty of eviction. The families concerned reside in Warren, Mount Pleasant, Smithfield, and Springfield, and constitute the bulk of the population directly affected by the coal strike, which has continued without interruption since April, 1914.

— The Hoster-Columbus Breweries Company, of Columbus, Ohio, a $12,000,000 corporation, went into the hands of receivers on Dec. 23, 1914, on order of the United States District Court. “Decreased demand for beer, adverse legislation, and the voting ‘dry’ of many States and counties in the last eight years,” were given as the causes. Commenting upon the causes of the failure of the brewery to conduct a paying business, officials of the company gave out this statement: “The present situation was due solely to the loss of sales beyond any one's control.”

— The last appeal against Russia's prohibition decree failed on Dec. 31, 1914, when the councils of Petrograd and Moscow rejected a petition to authorize the recommencement of the sale of beer and light wines. The recent final order to discontinue the sale of all alcoholic drinks was issued with the reservation that the city councils should have the right to appeal for an authorization of the recommencement of the sale of three-per-cent beer and light wines. The extreme measures to enforce prohibition even extend to the sale of denatured alcohol, varnish, and every conceivable alcoholic compound, which are not salable without a permit.