Current Mention

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Aug 24, 1905

—An active volcano is reported to have been discovered in Humboldt County, Nevada.

—An overwhelming sentiment in favor of separation from Sweden was shown by the result of the referendum vote taken August 13, only 184 votes being cast against dissolution of the union, while 268,200 votes were recorded in its favor.

—Work on the construction of the Panama Canal has been stopped by order of the authorities in charge of the work, the conclusion having been arrived at that the care of the 20,000 laborers employed in the work, in the way of providing proper sanitary conditions under which the work may be done, is the problem of first importance. It is not stated when work on the canal will be resumed.

—The yellow fever situation in the South has assumed a more serious aspect on account of the discovery that unknown centers of the plague have existed for a month or more at Mississippi City, and Laplace, La., and other towns bordering New Orleans, the disease having been mistaken in these places for malarial fever, it is alleged. The number of fresh cases reported daily in New Orleans continues large. The mortality is about fifteen per cent.

—It is reported that the hope of a successful outcome of the peace negotiations at Portsmouth now rests on the influence of President Roosevelt, who is making every effort, since it became known that the conference was likely to prove abortive, to bring the contending parties to an agreement. In this effort the president is said to have the active support of Great Britain, France, and Germany. The principal Russian objection to the terms proposed by Japan is understood to be to the cession of the island of Sakhalin. Hostilities in Manchuria are practically suspended, waiting the outcome of the peace negotiations; but it is reported that field-marshal Oyama is ready to strike as soon as it is apparent that the war is to be continued.

—A great forward step in the struggle for representative government in Russia was taken August 19, on which date the czar issued his ukase relating to the calling of a representative assembly of the people to participate in the government of the empire, as outlined in his rescript of March 3 last. The date chosen for the convening of the assembly is the great Russian religious feast day of the transfiguration, in mid-January. As to the nature and powers of this national assembly, or “douma,” as it is called, a St. Petersburg dispatch says: “The national assembly will be a consultative organization in connection with the council of the empire, and not a legislative body. The powers of the emperor remain theoretically absolute. As the emperor is the supreme lawgiver and autocrat, the decisions of the douma have only a recommendatory, and not a binding force, though the rejection of any legislative measure by a two-thirds majority of both houses is sufficient to prevent that measure from becoming law. The representatives of the people will have not only the right to be heard on any legislation proposed by the government, but also can voice their desires on new laws, and will have the right to exert a certain supervision over budgetary expenditures. The suffrage, though wide, is not universal. It is based on property qualification, the peasantry having a vote through membership in communal organizations. A considerable portion of the residents of the cities, possessing no lands, together with women, soldiers, civil functionaries, etc., are without suffrage. The term of the douma is to be five years, but it can be dissolved by the czar. There is to be a general session, but the douma will also meet by sections, the length of the sessions being designated by the czar.”

—Dispatches from Spain tell of alarming conditions in some provinces due to famine. A Madrid dispatch dated August 14 says: “The newspapers declare that 100,000 laborers in Andalusia are without the necessities of life; that several districts are at the mercy of rioters, and that many landlords are seeking safety in flight.” Another dispatch of the same date, from Seville, says: “The authorities have dispatched re-enforcements to the Ossuna district to cope with the anarchistic conditions there arising from depredations committed by the famine-stricken peasants. Bands of laborers are pillaging the farms and slaughtering and carrying off cattle and sheep, and the proprietors of the farms are terrorized. The marauders are so numerous that the gendarmerie are quite powerless to prevent the sacking of villages and homesteads.”