News and Miscellany

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D.C. · Jan 6, 1916

News and Miscellany

Notes and clippings from the daily and weekly press

— Colonel Heussler, a Swiss military statistician, calculates the total losses in killed in the present war at 5,000,000.

— The marriage of President Wilson and Mrs. Norman Galt took place at the bride's home, in Washington, D. C., December 18. Only the immediate relatives of the contracting parties were present.

— Ernest Thompson Seton, writer of widely read animal stories and one of the organizers of the Boy Scouts of America, has announced his permanent withdrawal from the scout organization because of the military spirit which has seemingly taken possession of it.

— The trade between the United States and Japan is larger than we generally realize; the past year it amounted to about $160,000,000. Japan sells more goods to us than any other country, and buys more from us than any other country except British India.

— The hunting toll in eighteen States for the season which ended November 30, is 59 dead and 66 injured, as compared with 111 dead and 162 wounded a year ago. Last year's statistics were gathered from seventeen States in the Union and one province in Canada.

— Sir Robert Laidlaw, president of the World's Sunday School Association, died last month at his home, in London, England. Sir Robert was sixty years of age, and had been president of the World's Sunday School Association for several years. He was knighted in 1910.

— Stamps on bank checks are being considered by administration officials as a means of raising revenue to help finance the increases proposed in the army and navy. The belief is that approximately $10,000,000 could be realized annually from this source, with a tax of two cents on every check.

— The discovery of a new comet by Astronomer Taylor, who is stationed at the Cape of Good Hope, was announced in a cablegram from Copenhagen, and received at the Harvard observatory December 5. The comet was sighted first near Delta Orionis, the left-hand star in the belt of Orion.

— A movement to secure an endowment of $100,000,000 for the American Red Cross, as a part of the plan of national preparedness, was recently started in New York City. Three hundred representatives of the wealth and social rank of the metropolis attended the meeting at which the movement was launched.

— Railways throughout Mexico passed from military to civil control December 6, under a decree of General Carranza, head of the de facto government. Dispatches say that General Carranza believes discontinuance of military control now is imperative in the public interest and in consonance with his program for reconstruction.

— The next Democratic National Convention will meet at St. Louis, at twelve o'clock, on Wednesday, June 14, 1916. Decision to this effect was reached by the Democratic National Committee after considering the claims of the three cities, — Chicago, Dallas, and St. Louis,—each backed by the proffer of $100,000 to defray the expenses of the political gathering.

— The United States government has grown weary of its heavy loss from the robbery of country post offices of from three to twelve months' supply of one- and two-cent stamps. As a remedy, Uncle Sam proposes to guard himself against such losses by forbidding postmasters below the first class to requisition more than a two months' supply of one- and two-cent stamps.

— A constitutional amendment granting religious liberty to the people of Peru was adopted recently in spite of determined opposition from Roman Catholic sources. The president, influenced by threats and clamor of the opponents of the measure, refused to sign it. The congress in joint session assembled, passed the measure over his attempt at frustrating it. The action was accompanied with exciting and dramatic features.

— Hundreds of thousands of the civil population in the Warsaw district of Poland are suffering for want of food. A considerable percentage of this number are still homeless, living in huts, caves, and abandoned trenches. The situation is more serious because of the immense number thrown out of work by the almost complete paralysis of Polish industries. Some workers have emigrated to Germany, where employment is plentiful, but the great majority prefer to remain near their homes, in the hope of better days. Prominent Poles in all walks of life contend that vigorous relief measures are necessary if wholesale deaths from starvation are to be prevented.