Current Mention

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · May 24, 1906

— It is stated that Chief Justice Fuller and Associate Justice Harlan are to retire from the United States Supreme Court.

— Military activity on the part of both Russia and Turkey is reported along the frontier between the two countries, which has caused much excitement in Transcaucasia, and has revived talk of another Russo-Turkish war.

— A recent dispatch from London reports a monster parade of unemployed in the English metropolis, with mass-meetings in Hyde Park, the purpose being to impress the authorities with the fact that there are thousands of worthy unemployed people there.

— The much-discussed and much-amended railway rate bill passed the upper house of Congress May 18, the vote being seventy-one to three. This measure has occupied the attention of the Senate almost exclusively for seventy days. The bill as passed does not confer on the Interstate Commerce Commission the power to fix railway rates.

— The Senate Committee on Inter-Oceanic Canals is said to favor the construction of a sea-level canal across the Isthmus of Panama, having been converted to this view by the California earthquake. It will cost considerably more to build a sea-level canal, but the cost of maintenance of such a canal will be less than would be required for a lock canal. It is argued that canal locks would be easily damaged by an earthquake, and might also be blown up by an enemy in time of war.

— Bubonic plague is raging in Persia. A St. Petersburg dispatch says: “Since the recent disorders stirred up the native fanatics against ‘foreign witch devils,’ when mobs of natives destroyed hospitals, expelled European medical staffs, and drove off quarantine cordons, the plague situation in Seistan, on the Persian-Afghan border, has assumed appalling dimensions, spreading rapidly in northeastern Persia, and numbering its victims by hundreds. The excited populace refuse medical assistance, and the only hope is that the summer heat may restrict the plague, but it is sure to rage with greater severity in the autumn.”

— Forest fires have devastated portions of Wisconsin, the upper peninsula of Michigan, and of the northern part of the lower peninsula, destroying property to the amount of several millions of dollars, with considerable loss of life, and leaving thousands of persons homeless In Michigan, Marquette, Menominee, Delta, Alger, and Dickinson Counties suffered most, the towns of Talbot, Quinnesec, and Saunders being almost totally destroyed. These towns have a combined population of about 900. Niagara, Wis., population about 300, was also destroyed. The towns of Cornell, Northland, Antoine, Spring Valley, Kingsley, Woodlawn, Foster City, Salva, and Metropolitan were partially burned. About 100 square miles of territory has been swept by the flames.

— Commissioner-of-Corporations. Garfield has made a report of his investigations into the business methods of the Standard Oil trust, of which the following is a condensed summary: 1. Investigation discloses “numerous and flagrant discriminations by railroads in behalf of Standard Oil Company.” 2. Standard Oil Company has been given unassailable monopolistic control of the oil market. 3. Discriminations in transportation of oil embrace variety of forms classed under following heads: Secret and semi-secret rates; discrimination in the open arrangement of rates; discriminations in classification and rules of shipment; discriminations in treatment of private tank cars. 4. Unfairness is obviously not necessary, when the independent ships at the higher rate, while the Standard enjoys the lower. 5. Secret rates represent direct saving to the Standard of hundreds of thousands of dollars annually. 6. To effectively conceal the secret rates given to the Standard Oil Company, railroads have used peculiar methods of billing and accounting. 7. Shipments have been falsely way-billed at a published tariff rate, and freight charges actually collected at a lower secret rate. 8. Rates have been made low by railroads to let the Standard into markets, and have been made high to keep competitors out.

— The lower house of the new Russian Parliament, or Douma, has presented an address to the czar embodying the following demands: (1) General amnesty; (2) the abolition of the death penalty; (3) the suspension of martial law and all exceptional laws; (4) full civil liberty; (5) the abolition of the council of the empire; (6) the revision of the fundamental laws; (7) the establishment of the responsibility of ministers; (8) the right of interpellation; (9) forced expropriation of land; (10) guarantees of the rights of trades unions. A St. Petersburg dispatch states: “Public opinion is greatly excited as to how the emperor and the government will meet the defiant attitude of the lower house. Many Constitutional Democrats are not yet convinced that the government will seek a compromise. They see indications that the bureaucracy is preparing for a desperate fight. The scheme most favored by the bureaucracy is to allow Parliament to formulate its demands and ventilate its grievances for two months, and then dissolve Parliament. Notwithstanding this reactionary talk, the far-sighted realize that such a step, in view of the great agitation in the country, would be fatal, and that the government’s only chance is to compromise with Parliament. This certainly is the emperor’s present intention.” The upper house of the Douma has also presented a demand for amnesty, but of a much more conservative character.