p. 20 | Current Mention

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Feb 13, 1908

Current Mention

—Ten men were crushed to death under tons of coal loosened by an explosion in a mine at Port Hood, Nova Scotia, February 7.

—Mayor McClellan of New York has vetoed the ordinance recently passed by the board of aldermen forbidding women to smoke in public places.

—Three distinct earthquake shocks at intervals of about two hours are reported to have been felt at Newburyport, Mass., in the early morning of February 4.

—The police of Pittsburg, Pa., have raided alleged mediums and fortune tellers, taking forty women into custody. All are being held in $300 bail for a hearing.

—In the iron-mining district of northern Lapland famine conditions are so serious that the inhabitants are reported to have slaughtered dogs and cats for food to prevent starving to death.

—The British government has finally succeeded in bringing their negotiations with Raisuli to a close, and in return for the release of Caid MacLean will pay $100,000 to Raisuli and guarantee him protection and immunity.

—There has been unrest recently in the province of Chikiang, China, but the disorders have been principally directed against the dynasty. It is now reported that rioters have burned a Presbyterian chapel and school at Kalhsing-fu as well as the official residence of the local magistrate.

—Two hundred night riders in the early morning of February 4 burned a tobacco warehouse valued at $40,000 at Dycusburg, Ky. They also severely flogged one of the members of the firm and the foreman of the company. The firm is charged with buying tobacco from non-association growers.

—Following the assassination of the king and crown prince of Portugal, it was feared that there might be a general uprising to establish a republic, but all seems quiet. The premier, Franco, who has ruled for months as practical dictator, has been deposed, and has left the country. The new king, Manuel II, has selected a cabinet that seems to be satisfactory to all political parties. The royal funeral, which took place February 8, one week after the assassination, did not call forth particular popular demonstration of sorrow, but nowhere along the route was disrespect manifested.

—By unanimous vote the United States Supreme Court on February 3 decided that the labor union boycott against D. E. Lowe and Co., hat manufacturers of Danbury, Conn., was a conspiracy in restraint of trade as defined by the Sherman anti-trust law, and therefore illegal. In the complaint it was alleged that the labor organization had undertaken to compel the manufacturers to unionize their shops. Failing in this, a boycott was declared against Lowe’s hats, and the company was published in the “unfair list” of the Federationist. It is needless to say that three adverse decisions by the Supreme Court within a month have greatly stirred labor unionists.

—On February 7 the United States battle-ship fleet left Punta Arenas, Chile, after a stop of several days, during which every courtesy was extended to the officers and crews of the war-ships, by the people of the southernmost city of the world. The next stop of the fleet will be at Callao, Peru.

—The Pullman Palace Car Co., on February 3, distributed $175,850 among the 3,770 employees of its car-service department who had been on the payroll during 1907 without demerits. It is the intention of the company to continue this practise of yearly giving an extra month’s pay to conductors and porters with clean records.

—The treaty of annexation between the Kongo Independent State and Belgium has been withdrawn, and will be returned to the plenipotentiaries with a view to arranging a new text and new conditions. Some other acceptable measure which will furnish King Leopold with revenues will be substituted for the provision with reference to the crown domain which has prevented the adoption of the treaty.

—Because of the aggressive attitude of the Turks in the frontier dispute with the Persians, the Russian Douma has voted an open credit for the maintenance of an army of 60,000 with full war equipment to execute a formidable military demonstration on the Turko-Persian frontier. The governments of Turkey and Persia have been disputing about the boundary line near Tabriz for some time past, and the situation is a serious one, as the interests of Germany, Great Britain, and Russia may be seriously affected by an outbreak of hostilities.

—A seventy-ton draw span in a new bridge being constructed in the borough of the Bronx, New York City, fell into fifty feet of mud and water February 2. It had been fully completed and tested, and officials of the construction companies say that it could not have fallen unless the bolts of support had been drawn. There have been many labor troubles during the building of the bridge. Only two days later, by an explosion of dynamite, serious damage was done to a city bridge being constructed by non-union labor in Cleveland, Ohio. This is the fifth attempt since January 1 to wreck bridges being constructed in Cleveland by non-union men.

—The czar of Russia seems determined to create a new and stronger navy at any cost, although the members of the cabinet are said personally to disapprove, and all parties of the Douma regard it as impossible. The government demands an expenditure of $500,000,000 for naval construction, and wishes the whole amount to be authorized at once, leaving it to the ministry to decide how it is to be spent each year. The Douma may be dissolved if it refuses. The naval program is said to involve the creation of five fighting squadrons, two of which will be stationed in the Baltic, two in the Pacific, and one in the Black Sea. The Russian Douma has sanctioned the expenditure of $10,000,000 to create floating batteries along the Baltic coast, which, owing to the present weakness of the navy, is at the mercy of Germany.