News and Miscellany

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Feb 13, 1913

News and Miscellany

Notes and clippings from the daily and weekly press

— Paris is much concerned over the rise of the river Seine. Most of the wharves are under water, and navigation is at a standstill.

— Sir Francis Bertie, the British ambassador to France, receives $75,000 a year, the largest salary paid a diplomat. American ambassadors to European countries each receive $17,500.

— On February 1 war was declared at Pittsburgh, Pa., on the United States Steel Corporation by the American Federation of Labor. Frank L. Morrison, secretary of the federation, issued a call for a general strike in all the steel-corporation mills in the Pittsburgh district. This will involve some 40,000 men.

— Gov. Woodrow Wilson has accepted the offer of the students of Princeton University to escort him from his home in New Jersey to the White House on the day of his inauguration. Just a century ago Princeton gave its last President—James Madison—to the nation. The centenary will be celebrated by a unique program.

— Damage estimated at $1,500,000 resulted from a fire, of unknown origin, that swept the river-front at Savannah, Ga., on February 2. The wharves of the Merchants and Miners Transportation Company, several warehouses and business structures, together with the Planters' Rice Mill, were destroyed. No lives were lost, but several firemen were injured.

— The Union Pacific Railroad has issued a general order commanding the discharge of any employee who is seen entering or leaving a saloon, even if he did not drink.

— The recent census reveals the fact that there are 156,176 men and 185,101 women divorced in the United States, totaling 341,277. This falls far short of the entire number, since many have remarried.

— Prominent and wealthy women of Boston have organized the Millennium Guild, the object of which is to develop “perfect” lives. Its members are vegetarian in diet, eschew feathers and furs, and agree not to profit in any wise by the killing of any creature.

— The official returns show 1912 to have been the most disastrous year for shipping since marine insurance began two hundred fifty years ago. It is estimated that the property loss on the high seas will reach a total of $40,000,000, and this estimate does not include casualties to vessels of less than 500 tons.

— A $50,000,000 corporation controlled by seventy-five leading sugar-planters in Louisiana was launched on January 31 to fight the Sugar Trust. It is proposed to take over all the sugar-houses in the State, for the purpose of controlling the manufacture and sale of sugar, and thus drive out the American Sugar Refining Company.

— Financial obligations may well keep Japan from going to war, even if the new Katsura ministry had not already announced a policy of economy and non-military conduct of affairs. A statement lately published places the public debt of the nation on January 1 at $1,250,000,000, of which nearly $750,000,000 was in foreign loans.

— Owing to a gigantic landslide in the western section of the Panama Canal, it is probable that the official opening of the waterway will have to be postponed at least a month, and perhaps longer. The slide carried with it about 1,000,000 cubic yards of earth, gravel, and rock, which buried an entire train of cars and two steam-shovels so that no portion was visible above the surface. In addition to this damage, the slide so loosened the supporting wall of Purple Hill, a miniature mountain overhanging the Culebra Cut, that it is momentarily feared that this entire mass, comprising another 1,000,000 cubic yards of clay, will come tumbling down upon the workmen.

— Provision for the tactical organization of the United States Army into three infantry divisions and one cavalry division, is made in an order issued by direction of President Taft and recently made public by Secretary of War Stimson. This plan of reorganization, which becomes effective February 15, includes the entire mobile army within the continental limits of the United States. Hitherto there has been no tactical army organization higher than a regiment. There have been no brigades nor divisions existing in time of peace. Upon the outbreak of war, when an army was needed, it was necessary to create such an army under all the stress and hurry and excitement of such an occasion.

— M. Dussaud, a French scientist, has discovered a means for the production of what he terms a “cold light,” the light being concentrated on a single point, and then projected through a lens magnifying a thousandfold. The illumination is said to be absolutely free from danger, and requires but one hundredth part of the current of an ordinary electric lamp. A tiny battery is all that is necessary to produce a 2,000-candlepower light.

— The inauguration of a cooperation plan for all employees of the New York subway and elevated lines, and the surface lines of the New York Railways Company, which will enable them to purchase at cost the necessities of life, has been announced by Theodore P. Shontz, president of the Interborough Rapid Transit Company and affiliated lines. An increase of wages amounting to approximately $150,000 a year also was announced. After the approval of the employees is received, a store will be established, stocked as a general grocery and meat-market.