Current Mention

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Apr 9, 1908

— During maneuvers at Portsmouth, England, April 2, the British torpedo-boat destroyer “Tiger” was run into and sunk by the cruiser “Berwick.” Twenty-two of the destroyer’s crew were rescued, but thirty-six were drowned.

— Because the Finnish Diet adopted a social-democratic resolution expressing sympathy with the Russian terrorists, the czar has decided to dissolve the Diet. The new elections will take place July 1, and the new Diet will meet August 1.

— The Supreme Court of the State of North Carolina on April 1 rendered a decision to the effect that the statute making it a misdemeanor for any one to carry into a prohibition county more than half a gallon of whisky or brandy, is unconstitutional. The chief justice filed a dissenting opinion, in which another justice concurred.

— There has been another abortive attempt at an uprising in Hayti, in which the chief of the cavalry and several other army officers are said to be implicated. This has given the government cause for searching all quarters of the city of Port au Prince; and it is reported that the French minister to Hayti is alarmed lest the government troops attack the consulate.

— The Pennsylvania Railroad has issued an order to discharge all foreigners employed on its system. The inference is that it proposes to make itself felt in the coming presidential election in the States where it operates. Similar action against foreigners has been taken by several other corporations in the State of Pennsylvania, and large numbers of men thus thrown out of employment are leaving for Europe.

— By an explosion of gas in a coal-mine at Hanna, Wyo., March 28, the workings were wrecked, and the twenty men who were working to extinguish a fire previously started, were killed. Some hours later while a party of fifty rescuers were at work, a second explosion occurred, which entombed these, and they all perished. In this same mine about five years ago 169 men lost their lives by a similar explosion.

— It is reported that 500,000 women will attempt to control the spring elections in the State of Illinois by exerting the influence of telepathy upon the voters. By this means they hope to route the saloons. They are attempting to use this force in the campaign. Whenever a speaker is advertised to speak in favor of licensing the saloons, the women go to the hall, and, by concentrating mental effort, endeavor to confuse him.

— Closely following the invention by Hiram Percy Maxim of a noiseless gun comes the announcement that another inventor, Oliver A. Smith, has perfected a device that produces the same result. It is simple in construction, can be carried in the vest pocket, and attached to the muzzle of the gun as desired. In this connection might also be mentioned a gun which, by the application of electricity, imparts an initial velocity of 30,000 feet a second to projectiles of all dimensions. It is the invention of W. S. Simpson, a Scotchman; and experts who have examined the model and its working express the belief that with these guns it will be possible to throw shells from London to Paris. Continually new engines of destruction are being perfected which render obsolete former means of defense.

— A resolution for home rule in Ireland, introduced by the nationalist leader, John E. Redmond, was adopted by the British House of Commons, March 30, by a vote of 313 to 157. This is the first time that a resolution for home rule has passed the House of Commons by a large majority. Gladstone’s bill of 1893 passed by a small majority, some amendments by a majority as small as five or six, and no provision by more than forty. The large majority seems all the more remarkable in view of the provisions of the resolution. It demands a parliament in Dublin and executive responsibility to that parliament.

— A funeral procession in Rome on April 2 was the pretext for a large assemblage which made an anti-clerical demonstration against the Austrian ambassador to the Vatican. Many anarchists later joined in the procession, and the police, in attempting to break up the crowd, killed three men and wounded fifteen others, some of them fatally. The mob returned the volley with bricks, wounding thirty-one of the police and soldiers. On the day following, the workmen inaugurated a general strike as a protest against the firing done by the police; and while the government took prompt measures to restore order, arresting seventy anarchists, yet the order of the mayor placing the flag over the Capitol tower at half mast would surely seem to indicate sympathy with the anti-clericals. No such action has ever before been taken under like circumstances.

— Some international interest is awakened over the attitude assumed by United States Consul Fisher at Harbin, China, toward the director of the Eastern Chinese Railway, who claims to have jurisdiction over the railway zone including Harbin. Acting under instructions from the State Department at Washington, Consul Fisher has refused to recognize or admit that he should have anything to do with the Russian administration of the territory, since he is the accredited representative to China alone. It is thought that this is one indication of the way in which the United States intends to maintain the “open door” in Manchuria. There have been many protests by China because of failure on the part of the railway management to live up to the terms of the contract made in 1896 between the Chinese government and the Russo-Chinese Bank, and at the close of the Russo-Japanese War both contending nations agreed in the Portsmouth treaty, completely and simultaneously to evacuate Manchuria, and to restore to China the exclusive administration of the province. When the American consul raised the flag over his consulate without in any way recognizing the authority of the Russians in this territory, Russia deemed it of sufficient importance to be taken up with the State Department at Washington. It is stated that the German consul at Harbin sided with the American, and the French consul with the Russian demands.