News and Miscellany

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jan 18, 1912

News and Miscellany

Notes and clippings from the daily and weekly press

—The attempt to restore the sale of beer to soldiers of the United States army, through the canteen, or army post store, is to be renewed in the present session of Congress.

—Rear-Admiral Robley D. Evans, familiarly known as “Fighting Bob” Evans, died suddenly at his home in Washington, D. C., on the afternoon of Jan. 3, 1912. Acute indigestion ended the career of one of the most popular officers in the navy. He was ill less than two hours.

—The biggest foreign mail that ever came into New York on one steamship arrived Dec. 14, 1911, on the “Oceanic.” She brought 5,850 sacks, containing 1,500,000 letters and parcels. The next highest record is held by the steamship “St. Louis,” which brought to New York on Dec. 23, 1910, 5,500 sacks.

—In New York the police arrest, on an average, forty-eight men every day who declare they have no occupation.

—Thirty-five lynchings, known to be such beyond doubt, occurred in the United States in 1911. In previous years the number has been much larger, 47 having been recorded in 1910 and 57 in 1909.

—One burglary, highway robbery, or case of pocket-picking for each hour of the 24, is Chicago’s current record. Probably as many more never are reported. The loot ranges from 50 cents to $600.

—A writer in the Southern Workman reports that the total number of reindeer in Arctic Alaska is now nearly 23,000, a remarkable showing when one remembers how short a time has elapsed since the government established the first herds in that territory.

—President Taft has adopted the plan of sending to Congress a series of messages, each dealing with but one topic, instead of one long message dealing with many subjects. The first of the series discussed the trust problem, the second was devoted to foreign affairs.

—The gold production of the United States during 1911 was $96,233,528, and the silver production 57,796,117 ounces, according to a preliminary estimate issued Dec. 30, 1911, by George E. Roberts, director of the mint. This is a reduction in gold of about $45,000, and in silver of about 660,000 ounces as compared with the returns for 1910.

—The naval council of Japan has estimated an expenditure of $200,000,000 as necessary to supply that country with the proper equipment of war-ships and guns between now and 1917. Seven battle-ships of the dreadnaught class are to be constructed, and in five years Japan expects to have practically a new navy which will be of a thoroughly modern type.

—There was an increase between the years 1904 and 1910 of 37,303, or 24.8 per cent, in the number of insane persons confined in the 372 institutions in the United States canvassed by the Census Bureau. This fact was disclosed in a bulletin made public by the bureau recently. The number of insane persons in these institutions on Jan. 1, 1910, was 187,454.

—In ten years the orange crop of California has increased 145 per cent, while the lemon crop has made a gain of 210 per cent. During the same period the orange crop of Florida increased sixteenfold and the lemon crop fourfold. California produced 14,436,000 boxes of oranges, and 2,156,000 boxes of lemons in the last year of the decade; Florida, 4,853,000 boxes of oranges, and 12,367 boxes of lemons in the same year.

—Smith and Myrtle islands, comprising an ocean-swept domain of 4,038 acres, opposite Cape Charles, have, after a lapse of 150 years or more, passed out of the ownership of the famous Lee family, of Virginia, into the hands of Oliver S. Campbell, of New York. The transfer of this estate marks the passing of another of the large properties formerly included in the estate of Gen. Robert E. Lee, commander of the Confederate forces.

—Mongolia, which almost equals China proper in size, was proclaimed independent Dec. 28, 1911, simultaneously with the cutting off from China of the vast dependency of Turkestan. Both will pass under Russian influence, and will practically become Russian protectorates. Russia at any time will be able to annex them. A grand khan will be named as monarch of Mongolia. The construction of the trans-Mongolian railway, for which Russia has long sought permission from China, will now be only a matter of time.

—“A total of forty battle-ships, with a proportionate number of other fighting and auxiliary vessels, is the least that will place our country on a safe basis in its relations with other world powers.” This is a sentence from the annual report of the Secretary of the Navy. He adds that while at least two of the other powers have more ambitious building plans, it is believed that if we maintain an efficient fleet of the size mentioned, we shall be safe from attack, and that our country will be free to work out its destiny in peace and without hindrance.

—So wide-spread has become forgery in the United States, and so great have been the losses within the last twelve months, that companies issuing forgery insurance have adopted the most stringent restrictions in issuing policies. Albert S. Osborn, an expert on handwriting, estimates that the losses totaled $15,000,000 through checks and drafts alone during 1911. The chief new restriction is that the bank insured shall not open an account with any one not known personally to an officer or director, or whose integrity is not vouched for by a depositor.

—A report issued by the Interstate Commerce Commission on the number of persons killed and injured by the railroads of the United States in the year which ended June 30 last, shows that the total number of casualties for the year was 160,555—10,396 killed and 150,159 injured. The killed number thirty a day, or more than one an hour. Of this total, 439 were killed and 79,237 injured in accidents classed as industrial, which do not involve the movement of cars or engines on rails. During the year 5,287 persons were killed and 5,614 injured while walking on the tracks or stealing rides on trains.

—In these days of but temporarily relieved tension between Germany and England, there is no more zealously guarded or more curiously regarded spot in the empire than Spandau citadel on the Havel. For in the dark red, looming, medieval-crenelated Julius Tower of that citadel, there lies the famous “Reichskriegsschatz,” or “imperial war treasure,” which is the only hoard of its kind in the world. The treasure originated in the reign of Frederick William I of Prussia. It was not so much then; but when, after the Franco-Prussian war, Germany became an empire, a law was passed that $30,000,000 should be taken out of the French milliards and forever locked away as a war treasure. The law of the imperial war treasure is that “it can only be used for the purpose of mobilization,” and then only under imperial decree with the consent, preliminary or subsequent, of the Bundesrath and Reichsrath.

—A firm of lawyers engaged by a daily paper to assist victims of salary loan companies in New York City, during three months settled three hundred cases for persons who had been in the clutches of the loan-sharks for from six months to five years. The comparison of the total principal borrowed by these persons with the interest they agreed to pay, showed that they were being charged one hundred eighty per cent for their money. In nearly all the cases the original loans were obtained for burial expenses or doctors’ fees.

—The prospective union of the five republics of Central America, with President Estrada Cabrera of Guatemala as president of the confederation, has been coldly received by Salvador, and violently opposed by Costa Rica. However, a special envoy from Costa Rica arrived in Guatemala early in November with the object of smoothing away the difficulties by diplomatic maneuvers. The five republics became a part of Mexico in 1822, as the supposed result of a general election. Three years later they broke away and formed the United Provinces of Central America. The confederacy lasted eighteen years. Since its dissolution frequent attempts have been made to revive it.