News and Miscellany

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jun 8, 1916

News and Miscellany

Notes and clippings from the daily and weekly press

— There are more than 250,000 miles of steam railroads in the United States, employing a total of about 1,750,000 men. According to a recent statement of William Sproule, president of the Southern Pacific road, about 600,000 shareholders own these railroads.

— The best graphite known for lead pencils comes from Siberia. Considerable quantities of the material are found in America, but it is somewhat inferior in quality. A material for an indelible pencil is obtained in both Siberia and Australia.

— The richest man in the world is not Rockefeller, Morgan, Rothschild, nor Krupp—no mere multimillionaire whose wealth can be estimated by income-tax experts. He is the czar of Russia, and no man living knows his wealth. His income is said to be a million or more dollars a day.

— Two hundred and sixteen members of the National Assembly met in Shanghai on April 24, and unanimously adopted a resolution denouncing Pres. Yuan Shi-kai’s mandate creating a constitutional cabinet, and refusing to accept any resolution of the political situation that included Yuan Shi-kai as president.

— A New York watch-repairing concern which has about 700 watches to wind every day, formerly employed several men to do the work. A small electric motor has now been installed, which does the business quite satisfactorily. The motor drives a felt-lined socket, against which the stem of the watch is held.

— Because of the advance in the cost of paper, ink, leather, and glue, due to the war, the price of Bibles has nearly doubled the last year. A Bible publishing concern announces that it expects to pay out an extra $130,000 this year for white paper, while the cost of other necessary materials will be $20,000 greater than usual.

— As the result of a strike of tugboat engineers in New York City, on May 2 about 450 tugs were tied up in the harbor, 500 engineers were idle, and 40 steamships were anchored in the bay, unable to get to their piers to discharge cargoes. On May 3 it was estimated that there were 100,000 workers on strike in the city.

— It is proposed by the Post Office Department to make a beginning of establishing aerial mail service routes, the experiments—for so they must be called—to be made in the eastern and western extremities of our country, namely, Alaska and Massachusetts. The route to be established in Massachusetts is from New Bedford to Nantucket, with a stop at Marthas Vineyard, a distance of fifty-six miles and return. The mails between these points are now of course conveyed by the regular steamers plying on that route. The advantage to the people of the Massachusetts islands, and especially of Nantucket, will be that a frozen harbor in winter will not prevent the delivery of the mails.

— The great whirlpool in the Niagara Gorge, some distance below the falls, has recently been spanned by a passenger cableway, at the cost of $60,000. Six parallel cables, whose length from one point of support to the other is longer than any similar structure in the world, are kept at constant tension, with the varying load, by automatically adjusted weights at one end, and the weight of the car as it travels is distributed among the six, three on each side.

— The canal under the mountain between Marseilles and the river Rhone, described as one of the most notable engineering achievements of modern times, was officially opened on May 7, in the presence of the French Cabinet and other officials. The waterway runs for five miles in a tunnel under the mountain, and links Marseilles with the inland cities of Lyons, Avignon, and Valence. It also gives Marseilles a direct water connection with Havre and the North Sea.

— Four world’s records for altitude, speed, and passenger carrying were broken by American aviators at Newport News, Va., last month. One flyer took six passengers in the flying boat H-7, of the super-American type, to an altitude of 1,000 feet. He remained in the air with them an hour and ten minutes, and maintained a speed of eighty-eight miles an hour. Speed, passenger carrying, and altitude with six passengers were all records. Another aviator in a twin-motor military biplane rose 16,500 feet with a passenger, which sets a record for altitude with a passenger. The last-named remained aloft one hour and thirty minutes.

— Two notable anniversaries have claimed the interest of literary circles during the past few days—those of Shakespeare and of Cervantes. Both of these literary geniuses died April 23, 1616, although Shakespeare’s death was reckoned by the so-called “Old Style,” or Julian calendar, which throws his death to May 3 by the “New Style,” or Gregorian calendar. In the nature of the case, Shakespeare’s anniversary has claimed the major attention. Shakespearean celebrations of various types have been held throughout the United States, and had it not been for the war, all the European nations would have vied with one another to do honor to the Bard of Avon.

— The Tri-District Committee, representing the United Mine Workers of America in the Pennsylvania anthracite mining districts, recently unanimously ratified the agreement of wages and working hours made by a subcommittee of miners and mine operators at the Union League Club. This means that a strike of 170,000 coal miners that a few weeks ago seemed unavoidable has been prevented; and as the agreement is to be signed as binding on all parties for four years, it will be a guaranty of peace in the anthracite mining district for that length of time. The agreement calls for a wage increase to miners which will increase the operators’ pay rolls by from $9,000,000 to $12,000,000 annually. This increase, it is said, will fall, in part at least, upon the consumers. Various mine operators estimate that the price of coal will rise in consequence as much as 40 cents a ton, and perhaps more.

— Archie Roosevelt, son of Colonel Roosevelt, has accepted a job for the coming summer as woolsorter, at six dollars a week. He expects to be graduated from Harvard University in June, and intends to learn the carpet-making business from the ground up.

— Experiments show that a single gallon of gasoline, intelligently used, will furnish power to milk 300 cows, mix 35 cubic yards of concrete, and bale four tons of hay. It will also plow three fifths of an acre of land, move a ton truck fourteen miles, and generate enough electricity to light a farmhouse for thirty hours.

— Kansas is opening up a State-wide campaign against the use of cigarettes by boys; and the child welfare department of the State university is back of the movement. Prof. William A. McKeever, of Lawrence, head of this department, is in direct charge, and has just issued an anticigarette bulletin, giving full details as to methods for the campaign.

— The Panama conference on Christian work is being followed by regional conferences at different strategic points in Latin America. At the conference just held in Lima, Peru, it was shown that the real difficulty in that country is not in the opposition of the Roman Catholic Church, but in the dense ignorance of the Indians, who make up seventy-five per cent of the population, and who live in the great mountain region back from the coast. The inhabitants of these almost inaccessible mountain valleys, constituting more than half the population of Peru, have scarcely been touched by Roman Catholicism. Beyond these are wild and unexplored regions inhabited by savages.