Current Mention

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 24, 1903

— Severe earthquake shocks are alarming residents of the island of Dominica, in the British West Indies.

— March 18 was one of unusual heat for that date in Iowa, Wisconsin, and Kentucky, while in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming, the day was marked by a blizzard of unusual severity.

— A very heavy snow-storm prevailing over parts of England, with rain and hail elsewhere in the United Kingdom, causing floods and great damage to property, was reported March 18.

— A war on ritualism has been begun in the British Parliament, by the introduction of a bill which will enable the civil courts to punish Church of England priests on complaints by laymen.

— A mob of two hundred whitecaps has undertaken to regenerate society in northwestern Ohio, their attention being directed chiefly to wife beaters, who are disciplined by flogging, or by the use of tar and feathers.

— The pope’s benediction pronounced in St. Peter’s church, March 3, was taken upon a phonograph, and cylinders for reproducing the pope’s voice are to be made and furnished to those willing to pay for them.

— Prof. Hans Molisch, of Prague, Bohemia, claims to have invented a lamp which derives its light from bacteria, these being placed in a lining of saltpeter and gelatine on the inside of a glass jar. The light fades after some days of exposure, and the bacteria must be renewed

The light is cold, and such a lamp would be an improvement on any safety lamp now in use.

— Several explosions in the Cardiff mines near Pontiac, Ill., March 12, 15, 16, caused the death of nine workmen, and the suspension of work in the mine, which will be flooded. The cause of the explosions is a mystery.

— News has been received of a hurricane and tidal wave which devastated Tuamotu island and some others in the Pearl group, January 14-16. About 600 persons are said to have been drowned, and the property loss amounts to $500,000.

— The wealth of the trusts in the United States, says the Chicago Tribune, is shown by the issue of $9,000,000,000 in securities since 1896; the total of their wealth, including railway issues, being $25,400,000,000. The country’s entire wealth is estimated at $94,300,000,000.

— An anti-trust bill which is now before the Texas Legislature is strongly opposed by the union labor element of that State, because the bill contains sections which will prohibit labor unions from interfering with non-union men who are seeking to obtain employment on terms suitable to themselves.

— A culture tube containing 18,000,000 virulent diphtheria germs, inclosed in a small box, was lost in the streets of Medford, Mass., recently, and citizens of that place are now fearful of an epidemic through the finding and opening of the box by some child or person unacquainted with the nature of its contents.

— The Indiana State anti-saloon league, assisted by the National W. C. T. U., has begun a systematic and comprehensive warfare on the saloons in that State. At Kokomo thirteen of the principal saloons have been closed, and in the whole State about two hundred, under legal measures instituted by the league.

— The Panama canal treaty with Colombia was ratified by the United States Senate, March 17, and the construction of the interoceanic waterway across the isthmus now seems assured. A payment of $40,000,000 on the canal to the Colombian government and the French company who began the great enterprise, is due in sixty days.

— A crisis is predicted to occur in the capitals of Bulgaria and Servia at the end of the present month, as it is believed the impatience of the Bulgarians over the delay of the promised reforms can not be much longer restrained. Were the restraining pressure exerted by Russia and Austria removed for a single week, an outbreak of war would be the result.

— The coal strike commission has at last completed its report, and has submitted the same to President Roosevelt, by whom it will be made public, March 21. It is a voluminous report, covering all phases of the controversy to which it relates, and is indorsed by all members of the commission. Both miners and mine owners have agreed to abide by the decisions of the commission.

— Russian commercial and political activity in northern Persia is causing grave concern in England, and the government is considering the problem of increasing the fighting strength of the army. Lord Kitchener has telegraphed

the English war secretary that no reduction in the heavy army estimates must be permitted in view of the gravity of the situation on the Indian frontier.

— Protestants and Catholics at Freehold, N. J., were opposed to each other at the polls, March 17, over the question of the appropriation of money for the benefit of the high school in that place. The Catholics have a parochial school, and opposed the giving of money to the public school. The Protestants were at first taken by surprise, but rallied their forces and won the election.

— A revolution is reported to have broken out in Portugal. The city of Coimbra is the seat of the disturbance. The Portuguese government has forbidden the sending out of news regarding the rioting, but it is known that the tax collectors have fled, and that the authority of the government is not recognized. The trouble began with an order to stall holders in the market at Coimbra to renew their licenses, which they refused to do.

— A recent dispatch from Stockholm, the Swedish capital, speaks of the probability of war between the Scandinavian countries and Russia. “With their fingers on the trigger of war, Sweden and Norway stand to-day,” it says, “ready at any moment to give combat to Russia—their joint foe.” It is stated that if war is to come, it will probably be this spring, but it remains for Russia to make the first move. Russia fears that Sweden may come to the aid of Finland, which was at one time under Swedish control.

— The kaiser, according to an impression which prevails in some European countries, has a covetous eye on Holland, and is only waiting a favorable opportunity to annex that country to Germany. France, it is said, would in that event be placated by the privilege of annexing Belgium, and it is not believed that England would interfere. A London dispatch says: “Confidence in the treaty obligations which guarantee the independence of Holland and Belgium has fallen to a low ebb, a fact which in itself is highly significant of the condition of international honor in Europe at the present moment.”

— Much discussion has been caused throughout this country and Europe by a decree issued by the czar, March 12, providing that there shall be religious freedom throughout the Russian dominions, establishing a degree of local self-government, and making concessions to village communities. The general opinion expressed is that the decree promises more on its face than will be realized in practice, owing to the opposition which the measure will undoubtedly have from the Russian orthodox church. It is pointed out that the czar has personal reasons for being interested in securing such reforms, since he “is in the position of a man strapped upon the safety valve of popular discontent.” It is not believed, however, that the resources of a single will, even that of the czar, can suffice to carry into effect such reforms against the opposition of the Russian official class, which by inertia alone might block the whole plan. Without political emancipation, attempted reforms are declared to be in vain. No one, however, seems to question the sincerity of the czar.

— The old Pennsylvania “blue laws,” enacted in 1794, prohibiting worldly employment on Sundays, have been recently invoked in Philadelphia against several newspapers and ice-cream companies, the object being, it is said, to secure the repeal of the law by making a test case involving the question of its constitutionality. Pennsylvania has several times tried to shake off this blue-law incubus, but the advocates of Sunday laws have each time succeeded in blocking the way and forcing the State to retain this trade-mark of church and state union.

— A very serious situation in and around Memphis, Tenn., has been caused by the Mississippi floods of this month, which at that place have exceeded all previous records. The town of Marion, Ark., was entirely cut off and surrounded by water for several days, and several hundred persons were left without means of communication with the country around them. The St. Francis valley was turned into a sea of water, and the loss of live stock was very great. A break in the Bougere levee, in Concordia parish, Mississippi, subjected the country behind it to the flood. Several bodies of drowned persons were picked up near Memphis.

— Meat-eating residents of North Hudson, N. Y., have no doubt read with interest a press item going the rounds in that vicinity, stating how the meat dealers there have of late been enabled to make their business more profitable. It seems that the Erie Railway employees have been in the habit of throwing from their cars at Weehawken the carcasses of sheep which had died in transit, and these have been picked up by the butchers, and hung up for sale in their markets. The Hudson County board of health has now begun an action against the railway company for violation of the health laws in throwing the sheep from their trains.

— The Chicago Methodist Social Union, representing the Methodist churches in Cook County, Ill., gave a banquet at the Auditorium hotel, March 12. Five “Methodist governors” were invited to the banquet, says the Chicago Tribune, and in connection with this it is stated that President Gilbert, of the union, boasts that “the Methodists can claim more governors of States than can any other denomination.” He believes that “we have a majority of the governors of the Middle West.” Governor Yates, of Illinois, spoke at the banquet on “Illinois Methodism;” and Bishop Fitzgerald discussed the topic, “Methodism and the St. Louis Fair.” All this plainly ignores the fact that American principles of government recognize no connection whatever between the church and the state, thus wholly separating the title “governor” from any religious creed or church connection. The tendency to set aside these priceless principles of government shows itself in many places and in many ways.

— The following words from a Buffalo clergyman, Rev. George Whitman, referring to the Burdick murder case in that city, which resulted from conditions prevalent in high society, show how the minds of men are being impressed with these signs of the end: “Recent events in our city have revealed the gay, irreligious life which many of our more prosperous people live. There is a growing

godlessness among many well-to-do persons. The type of depravity among persons in the higher circles is often worse than in the slums of the city. This gay, godless way of living often manifests itself in what is spoken of as club life. I admit that clubs differ in their aims, but I believe that that which is mechanically called club life is opposed to the interests of the individual, the church, and the nation. A murder is committed in our city, and two divorce cases are revealed. These have some relation to the club life. America is fast following in the steps of the old Roman empire. The home is despised, children are an encumbrance, a poodle dog is of more value than a baby. Wealth and pride consume the life blood of the nation, and aristocratic weaknesses sap our democratic vigor.”