Current Mention

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D.C. · Oct 5, 1905

—France and Germany have arrived at an understanding regarding Morocco.

—The great majority of the people of Japan, says a leading Tokyo journal, are dissatisfied with the peace treaty.

—Greenland is to be explored by an expedition which is fitting up for the undertaking at Copenhagen, Denmark.

—The recent cotton report scandals, coupled with the life insurance disclosures, are said to have seriously injured American credit in Europe.

—A statement comes from Tokyo that Japan's real reason for making peace at this time was fear of a financial breakdown, the war having proved more costly than was anticipated, and the rice and cereal crops in Japan not promising well this year.

—Dispatches from the Philippines report immense damage to shipping and other property in a number of the islands, with considerable loss of life, from a typhoon which swept over a portion of the group, September 26. The damage to the hemp plantations is estimated at $1,000,000.

—The new Anglo-Japanese treaty is being hailed as an agreement which insures peace in Europe for at least ten years to come. By it England is made secure in Asia, and Japan is guaranteed the full fruits of her victory over Russia. The open door in China is also said to be assured.

—Commanding officers of the Catholic Knights of America and of the Knights of St. John took steps recently toward amalgamating all Catholic military orders in the country under the general name of Catholic Military Federation of America. The federation was organized by a committee from each order at a secret meeting held in Chicago.

—A collective note from the six powers has been handed to the sultan, declaring that their decision to assume international control of the finances of Macedonia is unalterable. The note informed the Ottoman government that the foreign delegates appointed as controllers would arrive at Saloniki October 1, and requests that the necessary instructions be sent to the provincial authorities so that the delegates may enter on their functions without delay.

—A severe earthquake was experienced at Lundby, Hisingen Island, Sweden, September 26. It cracked the walls of houses, and fissured the surface of the ground. Subterranean rumblings were quickly followed by the violent rocking of houses and the splitting of inner and outer walls, driving the inmates to seek safety in the open air. In many places fissures a foot wide were opened up, while the level of the ground in the eastern part of the island sank appreciably. The disturbance lasted a minute.

—A volume recently issued by the Bureau of Labor on the subject of regulation and restriction of labor in this country, makes the sensational statement that for two years past the unions have been restricting the daily amount of labor performed by skilled workmen in the slaughtering and meat-packing industry by regulations imposed on the men amounting to over thirty per cent reduction in the day's labor. In a study of thirty different trades or industries, summarized in this volume, it was found that such restrictions are enforced in a large proportion, generally by the rules of unions, and in at least one case—that of the glass industry—by agreement of the manufacturers and unions.

—After all that has been done of late years by the European powers to put an end to massacres in Macedonia, these barbarities still continue, and the situation is no better apparently than it was before the “Christian” powers intervened between the ruler of the Mohammedan kingdom and his Christian subjects in Asia Minor. According to recent reports, there is even less safety now for life and property in that district than was the case two years ago, when the powers authorized Russia and Austria to reform the country. A London dispatch states that “James Bryce, M. P., president of the Balkan committee, is now touring Macedonia and observing conditions there, preparatory to laying the results of his tour before the British Parliament.”

—The representatives of the zemstvos assembled in Moscow the last week in September, and decided on a political program, as follows: Complete responsibility in the eyes of the law for all private individuals and officials alike; recognition of complete equality in the personal rights of all citizens of the empire; equality of the rights of peasants with those of other classes of society; liberation of the village populations from administrative guardianship; abolition of the Zemski Natchalnik; immediate recognition of the inviolability of person and domiciles; guarantees of the freedom of conscience, faith, speech, meeting and association, and of the press; abolition of the passport system; formation of a national assembly which shall participate in legislation, institute a regular budgetary system, and have control over the legality of the acts of the higher and the lower administration. If this program is not opposed by the czar, a great reform will certainly have been accomplished.