News and Miscellany

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Sep 21, 1911

News and Miscellany

Notes and clippings from the daily and weekly press

— Fourteen men met death off the Nicaragua coast, September 10, in a fire which consumed the schooner “Whisper.” The explosion of a gasoline tank on board the vessel caused the disaster.

— A large molasses tank holding nearly 1,000,000 gallons, burst in New Orleans, September 11. The sticky fluid rolled out in all directions. Its depth just after leaving the reservoir was fifteen feet. It flowed for a mile.

— Martial law has been declared in Honduras. Recently a gigantic revolutionary plot against the administration was unearthed. Two men have been arrested. Letters were found revealing the hiding-place of a large quantity of arms and ammunition.

— The world’s biggest gun, the sixteen-inch monster now at Sandy Hook, N. J., will be mounted at one end or the other of the Panama Canal. Its great range gives it the advantage over the fourteen-inch guns in general use on fortifications and battle-ships, but it must be loaded by special machinery, which is a somewhat serious disadvantage.

— Poor China is again having its troubles. Added to the flooded condition of a large section of the country, with the consequent destruction of crops and the prospect of a famine, serious riots have broken out in the province of Szechuen. The Chinese government, fearful of a general uprising, is seeking to repress the rioters with a strong hand. It is hoped that settled conditions will soon be secured.

— Negotiations between France and Germany over the rights and privileges of the two nations with respect to trade and commerce in Morocco, are still going forward. It has seemed at times during the last few days that an open rupture was unavoidable, but wise diplomacy has averted any serious misunderstanding, and it is now confidently hoped that an early settlement of the misunderstanding will be reached.

— The fiftieth anniversary of the coronation of the emperor of Japan is to be commemorated by an expenditure of $25,000,000 for a sewer system in the capital city of Tokio. Nothing could better symbolize a ruler’s care for his people. It has been seriously proposed to apply the $2,000,000 voted by Congress for a Lincoln memorial to the construction of “a beautiful, perfect highway from the national capital to Gettysburg, the nation’s greatest battlefield.” That would be both fitting and useful, and vastly better than the conventional mortuary sculpture with its numberless chances of being a public eyesore.

— In 1901 there were in China only 176 post-offices; last year there were 5,352 in efficient operation. The number of pieces mailed in 1901 was 10,500,000; in 1910 it was 355,000,000. In 1901 there were handled 126,800 parcels; in 1910 the number of pieces had increased to 3,766,000.

— An American congressman gets $7,500 a year. English members of Parliament have not been paid at all hitherto; a bill just passed gives them $2,000 a year. It was made necessary by the presence in the House of Commons of some sixty “labor” members, since the courts decided recently that a labor organization may not pay parliamentary salaries to its representatives.

— England’s great railway strike seemed to start a wave of industrial unrest which is affecting all Europe. Labor troubles are reported from many points in Germany; Danish steamship companies are facing a serious strike of engineers and officers; and the industrial world of France is stirred by a persistent discontent which may break out into active disturbance at any moment.

— Postal savings-banks are to be established in eleven large cities, following the general success of the banks in smaller places. The cities are: Brooklyn, Cleveland, Chicago, Jersey City, Louisville, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, New York, Philadelphia, St. Paul, and Wilmington. The New York and Chicago banks were opened on August 1, and the others are to be opened next month.

— The Treasury Department is ready to end the farce of maintaining custom-houses which collect a dollar in duties at the cost of ten dollars in expense. If Congress will approve, the number of custom-houses is to be reduced from 124 to seventy-three. The fact that fifty collectors and several hundred deputies and clerks will be reduced in rank or relieved from duty by the change may influence Congress to be a little less radical than the department asks.

— Grave fears are expressed over the threatened uprising of the royalists in Portugal. A new republic among the monarchies of the Old World is not the most welcome form of government, hence the new republic of Portugal received a somewhat tardy welcome from its sisterhood of nations. Serious doubts were entertained as to whether the new government would be able to stem the opposition which it was meeting from so many quarters, and give to the country a settled and stable administration. Thus far it has succeeded nobly. There appears to be, however, an undercurrent of discontent on the part of certain classes, and it is feared that this spirit may take definite form, and result in the organizing of an aggressive effort for the overthrow of the government. Last week it was reported that a royalist army of some 5,000 men had formed, having received supplies and large sums of money from outside friends. The recent election in Portugal passed off quietly, and one of Portugal’s strongest men was elected to the presidency, and it is to be earnestly hoped that those who are wishing for the downfall of this youngest republic may be sadly disappointed.

— The receipts at the Oberammergau passion-play last year were £85,250. After all salaries and expenses were paid, and £520 deducted for the poor of the parish, the sum of £21,795 remained. This can be expended on new buildings, improvements, or other public works in the village.

— Emigration is so beneficial to Italy that the government has decided to establish schools in the southern part of the kingdom for teaching Spanish to those wishing to emigrate to Latin America, and English to those wishing to go to North America. Italians in the Americas send home so much of their earnings that the government schools should prove a profitable investment.

— The British government has consented to the building of a Mohammedan mosque in London. The king-emperor has no fewer than 100,000,000 Mohammedan subjects—far more, in fact, than his Christian subjects. Several thousands of Mohammedans are in London constantly, and hitherto they have had no place of worship. There is a mosque in St. Petersburg, but none in western Europe. The mosque in London is to cost £100,000.

— The “sane Fourth” movement is justified by its fruits. The Journal of the American Medical Association published recently the figures for 1911 as compared with the years before it was thought possible to reform our “barbarous Fourth.” The deaths of this year number fifty-seven; in 1903, before the agitation began, there were 466 deaths. Injuries show a great decrease also, though not so remarkable as the decrease in the death roll. In 1903 there were 4,449 injuries serious enough to be reported; in 1911 the total fell to 1,603. The best showing was made by cities which wholly prohibited fireworks and at the same time provided sane and safe means of celebrating Independence day.