Current Mention

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Feb 2, 1905

—A recent dispatch from Rome states that “uneasiness is felt here at the concentration of Austrian troops on the Italian frontier.”

—The government of Santo Domingo is unable to preserve order in the island, and United States marines have been sent there to take control of affairs and preserve the peace.

—President Roosevelt, in a speech to a committee of the Interchurch Conference on Marriage and Divorce, promised to give all possible aid to help curb the divorce evil, which he is quoted as saying outweighed all other questions in this country.

—There is excitement in South Africa over the reported discovery near Pretoria of the world’s biggest diamond, a white stone weighing over 3,000 karats, and far exceeding in size the famous Kohinoor. The new diamond has an estimated value of over $3,000,000.

—The lives of patrons of a cafe in Detroit, Mich., were discovered to be in great danger from the presence of arsenic in a can of baking-powder which was being used in the cooking. An analysis of the contents of the can by the city chemist disclosed enough arsenic in the can to kill a hundred people.

—The automobile speed record has now been increased to five miles in three minutes and seventeen seconds, this record having been recently made by an English automobilist in a ninety-horsepower machine at Ormond, Fla. Incidentally, it may be mentioned that the death record is also on the increase, one of the latest victims being Frank Croker, son of the late “boss” Croker of New York City.

—News that thousands of people in Turkey are threatened with death from starvation and lack of clothing comes from reports of missionaries in that country to the American Board of Foreign Missions. From Moush the statement is made that 7,500 persons are so destitute that it is hard to see how they can survive the winter; and from Van word is sent that many will soon die of hunger unless aid is sent. Business is at a standstill. At Moush typhoid fever is rampant.

—A new French ministry has been formed under the leadership of Premier Rouvier, which commands the confidence of the French Chamber, as was shown by a majority of three hundred when the question was put to a vote. The policy of the new ministry will be essentially the same as that of the Combes administration, the main features being an income tax, the separation of church and state, workingmen’s pensions, and a reduction of the term of military service. The first public declaration of the new ministry severely condemns the system of secret reports of the lives of army officers which brought about the downfall of the Combes cabinet.

—Premier Tisza, of Austria, has sustained a sweeping defeat at the recent elections in that country, and the Liberal party, of which he was the head, has met its first reverse since it came into power in 1867. The election returns show surprising gains for the Kossuthists, and it is believed that the result will probably exercise a far-reaching influence in European politics. The defeat of the Tisza element is construed as giving a serious impetus to the movement for the separation of Hungary from Austria.

—The inactivity of the two armies facing each other in winter quarters near Mukden has been broken by renewed fighting, which, according to reports received January 29, indicated the opening of another great battle. The Russian general was the aggressor, his attack at this time having probably been ordered by the government with the hope of bettering the situation at home by the news of a Russian victory. Each army is believed to number about 300,000 men, and each has over a thousand cannon.

—A press telegram from Portland, Ore., states that the Lewis and Clark exposition to be held in that city will be open Sundays, this decision having been reached by the fair directors. It is stated that “after an extended conference between the clergymen of the city and the exposition managers, it has been decided to allow visitors to attend the exposition on Sundays, and to keep the exhibits in full operation for the benefit of those who can not attend on weekdays. Out of consideration for those who favor a quiet Sunday, the ‘Trail’ amusements will be suppressed on Sunday.”

—The revolutionary movement in Russia appears to have spent its force, so far as outward demonstrations are concerned, quiet having been restored in St. Petersburg, Moscow, and other leading centers of the agitation. There was a clash at Riga between strikers and troops, January 26, and thirty of the former were killed or wounded. The revolutionary spirit has broken out in Russian Poland and in Finland, and in the former country hundreds of persons were cut down in the streets by Cossacks at Radom, at which place about two hundred strikers, and about fifty soldiers, were reported killed. Serious fighting has also occurred at Lodz, and many have been killed or wounded there. The strike is spreading at Moscow, and it is believed in many quarters that while there is quiet on the surface of the situation, there is an undercurrent of preparation for a more serious outbreak in the near future. The Russian novelist, Maxim Gorky, whose writings have greatly strengthened the revolutionary movement, has been placed under arrest, and an agitation for his release has begun in German literary circles, where apprehension is felt over his possible fate.