News and Miscellany

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 24, 1912

News and Miscellany

Notes and clippings from the daily and weekly press

— A severe wind-storm swept the Great Lakes on October 12, causing three steamers to run aground.

— Reports from official circles announce the determination of Whitelaw Reid, ambassador to Great Britain since 1905, to retire from the position next March. Mr. Reid is now seventy-five years old, and it is stated that he wishes to return to America to live.

— The Chinese National Assembly has passed the first reading of a bill to do away with all foreigners in the postal department. About 150 foreigners are now employed.

— Anthracite coal reached the highest price in history on October 14, when stove and chestnut sizes sold for $5.35 per ton free on board at the mines in Wilkes-Barre, Pa.

— President Taft inspected the mobilized fleet of American battle-ships at New York, October 14. There were 127 vessels, and the line reached fifteen miles up the Hudson River.

— The Interstate Levee Association has asked the federal government for an appropriation of $35,000,000 for the completion of a levee system along the Mississippi River, the appropriation to be paid in five equal instalments. The government is also asked to exercise certain supervision over the entire system of levees.

— A verdict awarding D. E. Loewe and Company, hat manufacturers of Danbury, Conn., $80,000 damages against the Hatters’ Union of the American Federation of Labor was returned by the jury in the famous hatters’ boycott case at Hartford, Conn., October 11. The suit has been in the courts for the past ten years, and of the original 240 defendants about fifty are dead. The homes and bank accounts of the remainder are under attachment.

— War was formally declared between Turkey and Montenegro on October 8. Thus far the Montenegrin forces have been very successful in their invasion of Turkish territory. Whether for the purpose of furnishing provocation for war or to show the Balkan allies that Turkey can not be intimidated, that government is acting with an aggressiveness calculated to bring on hostilities. The embargo on Greek ships, the detention of Servian ammunition, and the seizure of Bulgarian railway cars, all constitute belligerent acts. Turkish troops crossed the Servian border on October 14. It is reported they were repulsed by the Servian garrison. This encounter will doubtless bring about a formal declaration of war by Servia. Despatches from Sofia are to the effect that an ultimatum will be sent to the Porte on October 15, calling for a reply to the Bulgarian demands within forty-eight hours. Greece has already sent an ultimatum demanding the immediate release of the Grecian ships seized by Turkey. In the face of all these threatening developments, the Turkish government has refused to withdraw from its stand in opposition to the granting of the demands for reforms in the Balkan provinces. Despite the signing of a peace agreement by representatives of Italy and Turkey, trouble has arisen because of the sultan’s insistence on the immediate carrying-out by Italy of her part of the agreement, which includes the abandonment of the Turkish islands seized during the war, while he seeks to delay the withdrawal of the Turkish troops from Tripoli and Cyrenaica, which have been ceded to Italy. The Turkish ruler also wishes to delay the proclamation to his Arabian subjects announcing the transfer of this territory, fearing the announcement might cause an uprising which would seriously hamper Turkey in the trouble with the Balkan States.

— The statistics of infant mortality submitted to the Hygiene Congress have a truly appalling aspect. Though 55,000,000 babies are born into the world annually, 15,000,000 of them die before they are a year old, a number three times as great as the population of New York City, and all of them the victims of congenital disease, neglect, or parental ignorance and sin.

— Within the last twenty years Oriental rugs have become recognized in America as the most desirable floor coverings, and their use has immensely increased; and yet this change of fashion has apparently not lessened the prosperity of our carpet mills. The great factories at Yonkers, N. Y., employing 3,100 persons, recently distributed to those employees a bonus of $70,000. The country seems to be big enough to absorb the products of both Orient and Occident.

— A plain American barbed-wire fence is to separate the two great empires of Germany and Russia. It is a desperate step of the Russian government to prevent smuggling across the frontier. The fence is expected to do better than the combined forces of border detectives and gendarmes. The work of erecting the fence will be finished in five years. The particular use for which the fence is intended is to stop the smuggling of human beings out of the czar’s domain. Those men and women who wish to leave Russia usually receive passes, but many who are denied the privilege of a passport try to sneak across at the risk of being caught and severely dealt with.