News and Miscellany

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · May 2, 1912

News and Miscellany

— Drastic administrative and legislative measures are being considered by the United States to prevent any repetition of the “Titanic” disaster.

— A cyclone swept through the States of Alabama and Georgia on April 22, taking many lives, and causing the loss of thousands of dollars’ worth of property.

— The new revolutionary government in Crete has sent a message to King George of Greece informing him of the formation of the new government, and assuring him of its loyalty to the Greek crown.

— A statue of Paul Jones, the first great commander of the American navy, was recently unveiled by Admiral George Dewey, in Potomac Park, Washington, D. C. President Taft was present at the ceremony.

— In the floods now sweeping the Mississippi Valley, 500 persons have been drowned, and 300 towns and hamlets inundated and partly destroyed. According to reports 83,000 persons are homeless, and without food or clothing.

— Great distress is, according to the Paris Journal, prevailing in Italy, by reason of the economic crisis caused by the war, and a wholesale emigration is taking place. Italy seems to be paying dearly for her ambitions in north Africa, and as yet is far from realizing them.

— A strike of railroad engineers employed east of Chicago and north of the Potomac River, a section of the United States in which it is estimated that fifty-two per cent of the railway traffic of the entire country is handled, has been averted, at least temporarily, by the officers of the federal government.

— Despatches from Gyangts, Tibet, say that the Chinese have established a representative council at Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, and proclaimed a republic. The officials have cut off their queues, and some of them are wearing silk hats and frock coats. The Tibetans oppose the change, and are threatening to exterminate the Chinese. Fighting has occurred near Shigatse, 130 miles from Lhasa.

— Dr. Isaac K. Funk, head of the great publishing house of Funk and Wagnalls, died on April 4, at the age of seventy-three years. He was well known as the editor of the publications of his firm, the Homiletic Review, the Literary Digest, and the Missionary Review of the World. His greatest effort was the editing of the Standard Dictionary. He had just completed his work on the manuscript copy for a revised edition.

— Fruitless efforts have just been made by some Americans living in Germany to recover possession by purchase of one of the most important American historic treasures, the old oaken table on which the Declaration of Independence was signed. This table, or desk, has, it appears, been for many years in the hands of the Bismarck family, having been presented to Prince Bismarck by a group of German-American admirers. It is now in the Bismarck Museum at Schoenhausen, near Berlin.

— Fez, the capital of Morocco, which had practically fallen into the hands of rioters and mutinous Moorish soldiers, has been recaptured by the French troops stationed there, after a desperate battle, in which a large number were killed and wounded.

— Many bodies of those who went down with the ill-fated White Star liner “Titanic” have been recovered by the cable steamer “Mackay-Bennett.” The unidentified were buried at sea, but the other bodies are being brought to New York.

— The New York Times says: “It may be stated on high authority that an ‘understanding in principle,’ which insures the prolongation of the triple alliance for another term of years, has now been reached between the German, Austro-Hungarian, and Italian governments.”

— Rifles and ammunition have been sent by the United States government to American citizens in Mexico City, in order that they may be armed for self-protection. The State Department in Washington has demanded that the life and property of Americans in Mexico be protected, and Mexican leaders have been informed through Ambassador Wilson that their people will be held responsible for any outrages committed. Grave international complications are threatened in the event of American intervention.