p. 21 | News and Miscellany

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Dec 21, 1911

News and Miscellany

Notes and clippings from the daily and weekly press

— Hereafter chewing-gum will be banished from the ship-stores of the navy.

— Last year there were made in Switzerland 4,462,071 nickel and metal watches, 3,135,991 silver watches, and 1,010,905 gold watches.

— The Italian government authorized an extraordinary expenditure of $65,000,000 to cover the cost of the war with Turkey until the end of November.

— Forty nations are to be represented in the next Olympic games, which will be held in Sweden. Even China has begun to produce athletes, and some of these will compete in the games.

— Yale University is to become the possessor of the famous Shakespeare quartos and folios of the Huth collection, recently sold in London. These volumes were purchased at an estimated cost of $200,000.

— Chicago, it is announced, is to have a huge building for conventions, shows, and sports. It will seat 35,000 persons, will cover a space of 325 by 600 feet, and will be large enough for indoor baseball and football games.

— Within thirty months nearly two hundred persons have been convicted of cheating the government out of customs revenue in the port of New York. Only a few have received jail sentences, but the offenders have been obliged to pay fines and forfeitures amounting to $8,000,000.

— An American by-product of the Chinese revolution, is the stranding of Chinese students who are in this country, supported by the Boxer indemnity which we gave back to China. Their remittances from home have ceased, for China has need of all her money at home just now.

— In no previous year has so much cotton been ginned up to November 14 as during the present season, the census bureau's report yesterday showing a total of 11,269,986 bales, which is almost a million and a half bales more than were ginned to that date in the record year of 1904.

— Dr. Frederick A. Cook, the explorer, filed suit December 1 to recover $100,000 damages from the New York Times on the ground that his reputation has been injured, and public distrust has been engendered through the publication by the Times of a story that he was egged when he tried to lecture in Copenhagen on October 24 last.

— The Chinese in New York City have had a great parade in honor of the republican movement in their native land. The Bowery is accustomed to many strange sights; but the spectacle of its strange citizens with queues clipped off, riding in automobiles, and tramping in parade, carrying their new flag, was enough to stir it from end to end. The parade was led by the Young Chinese Association of America, to celebrate the victories of their countrymen in rebellion.

— After more than nine years of investigation by the government, the first criminal prosecution of individual meat packers under the Sherman Anti-Trust act, has begun before Judge George A. Carpenter, in the United States district court at Chicago.

— The Supreme Court of the United States has just rendered an interesting decision regarding the right of moving-picture promoters to use pictures based on the scenes described in copyrighted books. The right is denied them, and the decision is considered a hard blow for the moving-picture business.

— Great Britain is to be the only nation absolutely independent of cable communication with any part of the globe. This result will be attained, say the London papers, by a chain of world-encircling wireless stations, for which negotiations have just been concluded between the British postmaster-general and the Marconi company.

— The fresh agitation for a decrease in the German naval program, which calls for a reduction in 1912 of the number of big ships laid down annually from four to two, has met with official silence. An agency which is sometimes well informed in naval matters, however, states that an increase has been decided on. The government, it says, is determined to spend $90,000,000, spread over six years, on the augmentation of the fleet. It is not yet decided whether the increased appropriations are to be covered by new taxation or by a loan.

— The time for the French election is drawing near. It will take place in 1912, so that the two great republics of France and America will elect chief magistrates the same year. France elects for seven years; America, for four. An exchange notes the following contrasts: France rarely gives its president a second term, while the United States gives him a second chance, almost always. France's president's principal occupation is to sign documents, and go to the chief races on Sunday. The American President influences legislation, and if he went to a horse-race on Sunday, he probably would be impeached. The French president never takes the stump except to inaugurate a statue or open a chrysanthemum show. France pays $300,000 a year to its president; the United States, only $75,000.

— A movement has been started in Washington, D. C., by friends of the Indian tribes, their descendants, and those whose interests by intermarriage lie with the Indians, for the formation of the “Brotherhood of North American Indians.” The movement is being directed by a full-blooded Indian of education, a professional man resident in Washington, who does not care to disclose his identity at this time. Discussing the proposed brotherhood of his people, he said recently: “It is our purpose to amalgamate the remnant of our race into a compact organization along the lines of self-protection with a view of commanding and demanding justice at the hands of the national, or federal government; to bring about a unity of our people in the exercise of the franchise as voters, and fight for our rights at the ballot-box where our numbers can demand a hearing.”

— A 500-mile canal, projected to drain the great swamps of Florida, would reclaim 6,500,000 acres of land.

— Twenty-five million dollars is a conservative estimate of the sum to be expended by the various nations for aeroplane equipment in the next three years, said Jerome Fanciulli, an aeroplane expert of New York, at the New Willard. The appropriations already announced by the various governments for aviation purposes next year amount to nearly $5,000,000.

— A tailor whose firm has been continuously in business in Philadelphia for 105 years, has compiled from his books of measurements some interesting statistics. These statistics show that the American in the past century has grown taller, stronger, and slimmer—greater in height and in chest girth, less in the girth of waist and hips. The average chest of 1795 was 36 inches. It is 38 inches now. The average height was 5 feet 7 inches. It is now 5 feet 8½ inches. The length of leg has increased in the same proportion. The shoulders and chest have greatly developed. The waist, on the other hand, has lost 2 inches.

— “King - Emperor” George and “Queen-Empress” Mary, as they are officially styled since their arrival in their great eastern empire, landed December 2 from the steamer “Medina” at the quay at the Apollo Bunder, Bombay, India. They were met by the governor of Bombay and a large gathering of high officials of the civil and military service. A royal procession was formed. It was a mile in length, and comprised representatives of all branches of the European and native armies in India. It subsequently traversed all parts of the decorated city. Enormous crowds everywhere heartily acclaimed their majesties.

— The law for the care of the children of poor mothers in Illinois before Nov. 18, 1911, was that when mothers found it impossible to support their children, they were turned over to the juvenile court, and that court placed them in other homes, the county paying $10 a month each for their maintenance. The new law provides that, instead of breaking up the family, the mother herself receive the pension for the maintenance of her own children. On the first day when the new law went into effect, forty mothers, chiefly widows, applied for the pension, and each received a sum according to the number of children she had.

— In every State of the Union there will pass out of existence on January 1 a historic court practically as old as the State itself. On that day 76 United States circuit courts will cease to do business at the 76 different places they have been accustomed to meet. Arrangements for this change are now being perfected in Washington and throughout the circuits. The elimination of the circuit courts was one of the reforms provided for in the new judiciary code, enacted by Congress on March 3, 1911, to become effective Jan. 1, 1912. The code provided that after the latter date there should be only the district courts, the nine circuit courts of appeal, and the Supreme Court. The existence of the circuit courts since 1891, when the circuit courts of appeal were created, has been regarded as expensive and superfluous.