p. 20 | News and Miscellany

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jan 14, 1915

News and Miscellany

Notes and clippings from the daily and weekly press

— By repeating 1,086 Bible verses from memory, Helen Lynn, ten years old, won first prize in the annual church contest at Galesburg, Ill., on New Year's Day. Laura Moorehead was second, with 738 verses. The previous record was 635 verses.

— Since the passing of the Mann "white slave" act, 901 persons have been convicted, 136 acquitted, and 133 nol-prossed. About 3,000 more indictments are pending. The fines have amounted to $138,000. The sentences have aggregated 1,557 years.

— The bill to restrict the use of habit-forming drugs has been passed in the national House of Representatives and goes to the President. It compels registry with the Internal Revenue Bureau of all physicians, manufacturers, and dealers who handle opium or its derivatives and similar drugs, and prescribes forms for written orders for certain drugs.

— The United States' gain in exports in the last three months totals $60,000,000. Sixty-five vessels have been added to the merchant marine since the war started. Twenty-four of these are steamers, and the remainder are barks, schooners, and brigs. Their total tonnage is 216,725 tons. The gold exports for November, 1914, were almost double the exports for November, 1913.

— A new type of projectile which would scatter a white-hot mixture of molten steel over the object of attack, and at the same time permeate the atmosphere with a deadly gas which would make it impossible for fire fighters to approach, has been invented by John Hays Hammond, Jr. The United States government is conducting experiments with the new projectile at Sandy Hook.

— At the end of the old year, foreign statisticians computed that five months of the greatest war of history had cost the nations involved 6,000,000 men (killed, wounded, and captured) and $7,000,000,000. In addition, all the warring nations are said to have lost as much as they have spent, by the paralization of commerce and industry. Owing to this tremendous cost, financial authorities say that the war must end within the next five months.

— The announcement of a protectorate over Egypt by Great Britain has been made. British influence has been predominant since 1882, but the country has nominally been under the sovereignty of Turkey. The ruler of Egypt, the khedive, was a vassal of the sultan of Turkey, to whom an annual tribute amounting to $3,461,750 was due. The British proclamation announcing the assumption of protectorate severed all bonds between Egypt and Turkey.

— The money-making profit in truck gardening in and around Chicago is arousing much interest these days. The report shows a common revenue of about $600 an acre. Onions, beans, and celery took the lead in the products last year. The onion industry has doubled from year to year. The cabbage crop is said to be a money maker. It is given out that 18,934 carloads of onions were shipped from the shipping points around Chicago, and that 18,694 carloads of cabbage were shipped. A new bean called the antiblight bean has been developed, and its growth has averaged thirty-five bushels to the acre.

— The effect of the European war on postal savings deposits in the United States is noticeable to a marked degree. Many post-office patrons who were formerly in the habit of sending their savings abroad through the medium of the international money order service are now patronizing Uncle Sam's savings system, as is shown by unusual gains in deposits throughout the country. Chicago set a unique record by reporting a larger gain in deposits for July, August, and September, 1914, than for the entire preceding year. During the three months the net gain was $521,339, bringing the total amount on deposit up to $2,827,271. Seven thousand one hundred and sixteen new accounts were opened during that period, increasing the number of depositors to 21,659, each of whom has an average balance to his credit of $131.

— At a recent congress of the surgeons of North America the subject of restricting the practice of surgery to only those undeniably qualified was considered. The point was made that inexperienced surgeons wielded the knife on patients without knowledge of instruments or complaint. To prevent what leading surgeons called "criminal malpractice" they appointed a committee to visit the legislature in every State of the Union and the provinces of Canada to bring about the enactment of the following legislation: Require physicians to have five years' experience in general medical practice before allowing them to practice surgery. Demand that two years of their experience be passed in active hospital work or under the direction of a recognized surgeon of the highest standing. Demand that colleges give full clinical advantages as part of their courses in medicine.

— The Young Men's Christian Association's war secretary announces that the association follows the British army, and that wherever the British troops are, a branch association is opened. It is said there are 600 association centers in the British army. The association erects training "huts," which may now be seen at all the English bases in northern France. These huts are mainly for recreation, and are about 160 feet in length.

— The Colorado coal miners' strike which came to an end recently, has cost the parties directly involved, according to careful estimates, no less than $18,000,000, the miners losing more than $6,000,000 in wages. No labor troubles in our industrial history have attracted more attention or caused more anxiety than did these, which have existed for fourteen months and have been accompanied by a state of virtual civil war. The strike has come to an end as a result of the action of President Wilson in appointing a commission, of which Hon. Seth Low is chairman, to which shall be referred all future grievances between the miners and the operators.

— Col. William L. Sibert of the United States Army department of engineering, designer and builder of Gatun dam at Panama, and for ten years in charge of flood prevention on the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, has been put in charge of a project in China which, when done, will lift millions out of poverty and annual peril. The project is under the direction of the American Red Cross, and aims at stopping the constantly recurring floods and famines in the basin of Hwai River. The Chinese government and the American minister at Peking already have signed a contract for this work, for which the American Red Cross has undertaken to float a five-per-cent loan of $20,000,000. With Colonel Sibert is associated Arthur P. Davis, chief engineer of the United States reclamation service, and Prof. D. W. Mead of the University of Wisconsin, an eminent consulting hydraulic engineer.

— One of the recent outstanding incidents in financial circles was the lending by a big New York bank of $10,000,000 to the French government, the large sum to be spent in America in the purchase of army supplies. This expenditure would appear to be but a small part of the sum total which will be paid to our manufacturers, sellers of food supplies, and other classes of merchants. New England shoe dealers have orders for over 2,000,000 pairs of army shoes. Tanneries and factories will be hard pressed to meet the requirements of the purchasers. In Illinois and Missouri, it is stated, there will be bought 20,000 head of horses for use of the allies. The uniform price is said to be $270 each animal. From Chicago comes report of the placing of orders running to above $7,000,000 for clothing, trucks, tinned meats, etc. The meat packers are represented as having more business than can be promptly cared for. The manufacturers of machine lathes have had stocks on hand exhausted by demands from abroad. The shipments of wheat continue very large. There is also increasing demand for cotton.