Current Mention

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D.C. · May 4, 1905

—An epidemic of meningitis has become general throughout Germany. Three hundred and fifty-eight cases have been reported, of which two hundred and three ended fatally.

—The towns of Laredo and New Laredo, Tex., were devastated by a tornado, which swept through them late in the evening of April 28. Twenty-one persons were reported killed, and a larger number more or less seriously hurt.

—The Chilean port of Pisagua is reported to be in a dreadful condition from the ravages of the bubonic plague, deaths from which are so numerous that corpses are left unburied in the streets. The wretched inhabitants are forbidden to leave the city, and are shot down by the guard of soldiers if they make the attempt to do so.

—The legality of the lockout has been established in the State of New York by a decision of the Supreme Court, which holds that “if the workmen may decline to work, the master may decline to employ; therefore, if it be lawful for workmen to organize and conduct a peaceable strike to better their conditions, it seems a natural corollary that masters may organize and conduct a peaceable lockout for the same purpose.”

—European political and trade circles are reported to be greatly disturbed by the present attitude of the German kaiser, who, following his interference with the Franco-English program in Morocco, appears to be moving toward an alliance with Russia, and is said to have offered Russia a base in the Caroline Islands for Admiral Rozhdestvensky’s fleet, where it can be refitted and made ready for battle. Public feeling against Germany is reported to be very strong in England and France.

—The effort to cover up the scandal in which the president, vice-president, and other officials of the Equitable Life Assurance Company of New York are involved by disclosures connected with the management of its affairs, will not prove successful, Governor Higgins of New York having ordered that a searching investigation be conducted, which will disclose the facts leading up to the present state of affairs. Meanwhile the suit to force the appointment of a receiver for the company has been begun by a stockholder, on the ground that the assets of the company are endangered by the present controversy among its officials.

—A sensation in banking circles was caused by the announcement, April 24, that President Bigelow, of the First National Bank of Milwaukee, ex-president of the American Bankers’ Association, director in half a score of corporations, and custodian of a dozen estates, is a defaulter for $1,300,000 of the bank’s funds. That ruin did not overtake the bank is due chiefly to a statement issued as soon as the news of the defalcation came, announcing that men representing $20,000,000 of capital investment in Milwaukee had subscribed over $1,600,000 to meet the shortage.

—A strike of over 3,000 teamsters is in progress in Chicago, and the greatest industrial upheaval in the history of that center of labor troubles is said to be threatened. The point of controversy between the teamsters and their employers is the question of the “open shop,” and the employers declare that they will fight for this to the end. Rioting marks the progress of the strike, and a number of men have been badly injured. An injunction against interference by the strikers has been granted the employers by Judge Kohlsaat, of the federal court. The strikers are careful to avoid any interference with the business of the federal government. There is talk of asking President Roosevelt to effect a settlement of the controversy.

—Dispatches from the arena of conflict in eastern Asiatic waters received up to April 30 have brought no authentic news of the anticipated naval engagement between the fleets of Admirals Rozhdestvensky and Togo, though various rumors have been in circulation regarding the location and movements of parts of the opposing squadrons. One report states that Admiral Niebogatoff’s squadron has effected a junction with Rozhdestvensky’s force, which would give the Russians a great preponderance in battle-ships, though the Japanese commander would still be greatly superior in cruisers and torpedo-boats. Some minor engagements between the armies in Manchuria are reported, but no general engagement is expected until after the settlement of the question of supremacy at sea.

—Religious freedom for Russia is apparently no longer a dream of the future, but a reality, according to press telegrams from St. Petersburg, which state that such freedom is granted in the czar’s Easter ukase, issued April 30, to all nominally Christian sects and to Mohammedans and non-Christians, but not to the Jews. All Christian sects are permitted freedom of worship, among these being a body of 17,000,000 known as adherents of the “old faith,” who were deprived of their freedom twenty years ago by the procurator-general of the “holy synod.” The ukase provides that converts from the orthodox faith to other Christian beliefs shall not be punished, and makes lawful changes in faith, for which hundreds of thousands of families have been expropriated and exiled to Siberia. Thus one great benefit has already resulted from the war.