News and Miscellany

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D.C. · Mar 25, 1915

News and Miscellany

Notes and clippings from the daily and weekly press

— A presidential mandate has been issued by Pres. Yuan Shi Kai, of China, instructing the minister of education to prepare the way for a uniform system of public schools to be established throughout China. The schools, according to the plan, are to be modern, patterned after Western ideas to a large degree, but not to the extent of discarding the best teachings of China's ancient sages, “to whom the culture of the nation is due.”

— After being in session almost continuously for the two years of its existence, the Sixty-third Congress came to an end on March 4. This also marked the close of half of President Wilson's term of office—the first Democratic administration since Cleveland's last election, in 1892. Among the important measures passed by this Congress were the following:— Underwood tariff act. Federal reserve act. Clayton act to strengthen Sherman antitrust law. Act to establish a federal trade commission. Repeal of Panama tolls exemption for American coastwise shipping. Act to regulate cotton exchanges. Act providing for a government railroad in Alaska. Act to admit foreign-owned or foreign-built ships to American registry. Arbitration treaties with many foreign nations renewed. Twenty-two peace commission treaties ratified. Appropriations made total the enormous amount of $1,132,982,839.76. President Wilson expressed his satisfaction with the work of Congress in a statement in which he said that the longer it is tested the more will “the purpose and quality of its statesmanship” appear.

— The formation of the American Legion, an organization of first reserves for national defense, has been announced in New York City. The project contemplates the establishment of a first reserve of between 250,000 and 300,000 men, including many formerly in the army, the navy, and the militia, who will be ready for instant response to any call in an emergency.

— The president of Haiti—Davilmar Theodore—has abdicated his office of presidency and taken refuge on the Dutch steamer “Frederick Hendrik,” in the harbor at Port au Prince. Local officials have taken charge of the capital and are maintaining order. The United States will send a commission to the republic to put its finances in such a condition as will satisfy foreign creditors and restore order.

— The United States government has granted the use of the steamer “Vulcan” to carry 900 tons of foodstuffs to the starving Jews of Palestine. The distress in Palestine is due to the arrest of those economic activities on which the economic welfare of the people depends. The entire population of the Holy Land has been threatened with starvation this winter. The cargo will go to Jaffa and thence to Jerusalem in care of the United States consul. The food will be distributed under the direction of the consul and representatives of the American Relief Committee.

— Denouncing the drink traffic as doing “more damage to the country than all the German submarines put together,” Chancellor Lloyd-George, in an address delivered at Bangor, Wales, recently, announced that the government was about to take drastic measures to handle the liquor situation. He referred to the fact that Russia had abolished the use of vodka, and France that of absinthe, stating that the Russian minister of finance had said to him that “the output of Russian workmen had increased from thirty to fifty per cent since the sale of vodka had been prohibited.” “While it is not proposed to go to the extreme of either France or Russia,” the chancellor added, “we have great powers to deal with drink, and we mean to use them.”

— On March 1 the United States took one of its most forward steps when the law forbidding illicit sales or distribution of habit-forming drugs became effective throughout all States and Territories. The new federal law is stringent, compelling druggists to inventory and account continuously for all opium and allied drugs in stock or dispensed. Many States have drastic laws against commerce in opium and cocaine drugs, of which there is an estimated 4,000,000 victims in the United States, but the users of the drugs have been enabled to import the drugs from adjacent States. All this law-evading interstate traffic is now forbidden. A druggist now cannot fill prescriptions unless he knows them to be made by physicians formally registered and licensed by the federal authorities, and these prescriptions can be filled only once. Federal inspectors will visit the drug stores, examine the records, and investigate cases where physicians buy unusually large quantities of prohibited drugs. Violators of any provisions of the statute face a $200 fine, or five years in prison, or both.

— The modern system of waterworks, built by the American engineers, which will supply 12,000,000 gallons of water daily to Panama, Balboa, Ancon, and other canal villages, went into operation recently. The supply comes from a river which at one time was thought fatal even for bathing.

— A nation-wide and ultimately world-wide boycott upon the purchase and use of Japanese products is the announced aim of a new Chinese society organized in San Francisco, March 1. The embargo has been started by Chinese-Americans in an attempt to force Japan to recede from her demands upon the Chinese government.

— Fourteen miles out of Washington and twenty-six from Baltimore, there exists one of the most interesting communities in the United States—a town composed entirely of Negroes. It is an up-to-date place in every way, with water, good streets, and other improvements. Colored people living in that part of the country formed a stock company six years ago, with a capital of $200,000, and purchased this tract of land on the electric car line that connects Washington, Baltimore, and Annapolis. Prosperous colored people are building good homes in the town, where all the work is done by workmen of their own race.

— Although, as the Literary Digest points out, the word jitney is not found in the dictionaries, it is rapidly assuming a definite meaning to dwellers in Western cities. The “jitney bus,” as it is called, is an automobile operated for the accommodation of passengers at the rate of five cents (one jitney) a passenger. It was started in cities along the Pacific Coast several months ago, and immediately became popular. Now the movement is spreading toward the East, threatening to cut deep into street car service monopolies. The Digest gives the following figures as to what is being done in Pacific Coast cities in this direction:—

CITY	NUMBER CARS	DAILY RECEIPTS
San Francisco	300	$2,400
Transbay cities	450	3,600
Los Angeles	1,050	8,400
Portland	75	600
Seattle	500	4,000
Totals	2,375	$19,000