p. 21 | Current Mention

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Feb 11, 1909

Current Mention

— The federal government has entered suit against more than one hundred corporations and individuals in Oregon to recover an aggregate of 353,288 acres of land in that state.

— A rupture of diplomatic relations between Chile and Peru is arousing some apprehension among South American countries. The Chilean squadron of war-ships is reported to have been ordered north.

— A new and very powerful explosive called gerite was tested at Genoa, Italy, February 2, with extraordinary results. Armor-plate which dynamite could not bend was completely shattered by the new explosive.

— The governor of Oklahoma, Charles N. Haskell, and six other persons, are under indictment by the federal grand jury at Muskogee, Okla., charged with conspiracy to defraud the government by obtaining valuable lots of land in Muskogee in an illegal manner.

— There is considerable activity on the Pacific Coast at the present time in the matter of the shipment of military and naval supplies to Hawaii and the Philippine Islands. These shipments include two large disappearing guns for the Pearl Harbor naval station in the Hawaiian Islands.

— During the month of January the Dead Letter Office handled a total of 1,040,563 pieces of misdirected mail matter.

— Prof. Abbott Lawrence Lowell has been elected president of Harvard College, to succeed Pres. Charles William Eliot, who resigned from the presidency some months ago.

— The United States representatives who have been administering the government of Cuba since the time of the last uprising in the island, withdrew from Cuba on January 28, turning the government of the island over to the people of Cuba.

— February 1 an international conference on the opium question convened at Peking, China. Representatives of the following nations were in attendance: China, Great Britain, Japan, the United States, France, Germany, Holland, and Turkey.

— A severe storm swept over Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia on February 5, doing a vast amount of damage to property, and resulting in the death of over a dozen persons. It is feared that details from the devastated regions will greatly increase the list of known fatalities.

— The revolutionists in the province of Ispahan, Persia, have deposed the governor of the province, and assumed control of the local administration, warning the representatives of all foreign governments that all loans and concessions will be repudiated unless approved by the Persian Parliament.

— On account of the failing health of the emperor of Abyssinia, there is now considerable unrest in that country. The forces of the designated heir of the throne have had an engagement with the followers of the present empress. At the same time the population of a portion of the country is demanding that a descendant of a former dynasty be declared heir to the throne.

— President-Elect Taft, with his consulting engineers, inspected the entire line of the Panama Canal after his arrival on the Isthmus, and started on his return for the United States on February 7, landing at New Orleans, where elaborate preparations were made for his reception. Mr. Taft expresses himself as highly gratified with the progress of the work on the canal.

— The battle-ship “Delaware,” the largest battle-ship afloat, was launched at Newport News, Va., on February 6. This vessel is of twenty thousand tons displacement, as fast as the fastest battle-ship, and will be able to hurl at one broadside three thousand pounds’ weight more of projectiles than all of Admiral Dewey’s fleet at Manila together. She is one of four now under construction.

— The American battle-ship fleet left the port of Gibraltar on the morning of February 6, direct for Hampton Roads, Va., where it is expected that it will arrive on February 22, Washington’s birthday. The only unfortunate incident of the voyage was the conviction of the captain of the “Georgia” on a charge of intoxication. The captain has been suspended from the service for six months, and returns merely as a passenger on his own ship.

— Severe floods are reported in the western part of Germany, and more than fifty deaths had been reported up to February 5.

— On January 22 floods in the gold-mine region of the Transvaal, South Africa, resulted in the death of 173 persons, most of whom were caught in the mines.

— The naval supply-ship “Eva” left New York for Messina, Sicily, on February 1, with 500 portable houses for the earthquake sufferers, and the American Red Cross proposes to send 2,000 more.

— The negotiations between United States Commissioner W. I. Buchanan and the new government of Venezuela have reached a stage where no progress seems possible. The new president seems as averse as was President Castro to the settlement of the claims of two American corporations against the Venezuelan government. It was over the settlement of these two claims that negotiations were broken off some months ago between the two governments.

— Both branches of the legislature of Tennessee having passed the State-wide prohibition law over the governor’s veto, it was expected that a similar fate would await the governor’s veto of the bill prohibiting the manufacture of intoxicating liquors in that State. The Senate, on the afternoon of February 3, fulfilled the expectation so far as it was concerned, passing the measure over the veto by a majority of twenty to twelve. On the following day the measure was taken up by the House, and passed over the veto by a majority of fifty-nine to thirty-seven.

— Russia has proposed a plan to the governments of Bulgaria and Turkey by which it is expected that the present danger of war will be averted. Turkey had demanded from Bulgaria an indemnity of $24,000,000. Bulgaria had agreed to pay $16,400,000. Neither party would alter its position. Turkey owes Russia $1,600,000 a year for a century. Now Russia proposes that Turkey omit paying this amount to her for a certain time, but instead Bulgaria pay to Russia $1,600,000 a year until $16,400,000, with interest, has been paid. The interest will bring the total amount paid by Bulgaria to Russia up to $24,000,000, and Russia will give Turkey credit for that amount on Turkey’s indebtedness to her.

— The Nevada Legislature has echoed the anti-Japanese sentiments of a portion of the California Legislature in the passage of resolutions urging California to enact legislation inimical to the interests of the Japanese. The Nevada Legislature also took occasion to censure the President for using his influence to discourage the passage of such measures. One of the objectionable measures came up for passage in the California Legislature on February 3, but was defeated by a vote of forty-eight to twenty-eight; but on the following day the most objectionable of the proposed measures was passed. President Roosevelt immediately wired a protest, and the governor of the State has asked for a reconsideration of the action. The bill which passed the assembly provides that Japanese children shall not attend the public schools attended by white children.