p. 2 | Important Happenings of 1915

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jan 13, 1916

Important Happenings of 1915

THE year 1915 will go down in history as one of the most eventful of all time. Marked changes have occurred, particularly in the political world. The conflict in Europe, which began eighteen months ago, raged with great intensity throughout the entire twelve months of 1915, and seems quite as far from settlement as it did one year ago.

The last year has marked several important changes in the battle fronts and in the participants engaged. The western line of battle has remained practically intact.. The central powers have pushed their conquest in the east, encompassing quite a wide range of territory. In the south, Serbia, with the aid which Bulgaria furnished the central powers, has been overrun, thus opening the way for supplies to be furnished Turkey in her defense of Constantinople against the combined land and naval attacks of England and France. Italy maintained her neutrality for a long time, but finally decided on the side of the Entente. At the present time eleven nations are engaged in the great conflict; namely, Great Britain, France, Russia, Italy, Serbia, Montenegro, and Japan against Germany, Austria, Turkey, and Bulgaria. At the present writing a great battle is raging on the western front between Russia and Germany, and a strong Teutonic drive is threatened against Egypt and the Suez.

The principal event in the Far East was the return of China to a monarchy. A republic was declared Feb. 12, 1912. On Dec. 11, 1915, Yuan Shi-kai who had been elected president of the republic, accepted the imperial crown offered him in accordance with the result of an election which was held to determine the form of government.

In Mexico, 1915 witnessed the practical victory of Carranza, head of the provisional government, over the Villa forces. The United States government gave recognition to Carranza. This example was followed by the South American republics and by a number of European powers. It is believed that this recognition will greatly facilitate the settlement of conditions in the Mexican Republic.

The holding of the Panama Pacific Exposition was an event of international interest, participated in by nearly all the countries of the world. The exposition was carried on for 288 days, with an aggregate attendance of 18,871,000. Over two million dollars' profit was realized by the managers.

Great progress was made during the year in the development of the long-distance telephone and the wireless telephone. President Wilson talked with President Moore of the Panama Pacific Exposition in San Francisco, the longest distance that the human voice has ever been carried by a metallic wire. A still more wonderful feat was achieved in the sending of a wireless telephone message from the Navy Department at Arlington, Va., to Eiffel Tower, Paris, France. The wireless operator at Honolulu picked up the message 4,800 miles from Arlington.

Notable gains were made during 1915 in the cause of prohibition. Nearly every country in the world was compelled to deal with the liquor traffic in a vigorous way. Excellent results followed the efforts of the Russian government in prohibiting the free use of intoxicants. France prohibited the sale of absinth, and there was a marked deepening of temperance sentiment in England. In this country seven new States entered the prohibition list with the beginning of 1916, making nineteen now committed to the cause of prohibition.

Last year was marked by many disasters. A great earthquake in Italy brought loss of life to 36,000 persons. More than 800 persons were drowned in the overturning of the “Eastland,” a river boat in Chicago. Three hundred were killed as a result of a storm in the Gulf States. The sinking of the “Lusitania” was only one of numerous horrors incident to the war.

The year 1915 marked the seven hundredth anniversary of the Magna Charta, the end of a century of peace between England and the United States, the development of the submarine and aeroplane in the use of war, and many other important events that might be cited, but the mention of which space forbids.

Altogether, 1915 was a year whose rosiest hues were overshadowed by the terrible cloud of war, more tragic, more pathetic, more terrible in its intensity and more awful in its bloody butchery, than any of the world's great conflicts.

ON January 1, Colorado closed all her saloons. The State supreme court decided that the prohibitory law lately enacted was sound, notwithstanding the contention of Denver and other cities that their special charters would exempt them from the law’s operation.