News and Miscellany

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · May 4, 1911

News and Miscellany

Notes and clippings from the daily and weekly press

— April 22 a German freight and passenger steamer, “San Nicholas,” was driven ashore off the coast of Mexico during a gale. The passengers and crew were saved after heroic effort, but the vessel was a total loss.

— Major-General Adolphus W. Greely, retired, has been chosen as representative of the United States army, on the American special embassy to the coronation of King George. Major-General Frederick Dent Grant was first appointed, but he declined the honor.

— Conditions in Morocco remain greatly disturbed. An uprising of a number of the tribes against the sultan has resulted in a reign of terror in some of the provinces. The French are using every endeavor to restore peace, and are pushing troops into the country in order to quell the revolt.

— April 22, a passenger-train on the Kowiera Railroad, South Africa, plunged down a rocky gorge 250 feet deep, as the result of a collapsed bridge. Twenty-one passengers were carried down with the coaches and killed. Others were torn to pieces, and inextricably mixed with the débris of the cars, which were ground to splinters.

— The House of Representatives, by a vote of 296 to 16, passed the joint resolution to amend the Constitution so as to provide for the election of United States senators by direct vote of the people. Before the Constitution can be amended, however, the measure must be passed by the Senate, and then go back to the State legislatures for final action.

— The Canadian Reciprocity bill passed the House, April 21, by a vote of 265 to 89. The Republicans were quite evenly for and against the bill, sixty-seven voting in its favor and seventy-eight voting against its passage. Ten Democrats voted in the negative; all the others favored the measure. The Senate has not yet reached a decision.

— The latest reports from plague-stricken China declare that the plague is now diminishing in Northern China, and has been almost entirely stamped out in Manchuria. Official reports place the deaths from pneumonic plague in Manchuria in excess of twelve thousand, but it is believed that the total is much greater than this. The disease has been unusually subtle and virulent.

— An armistice of five days, beginning at noon, April 24, was arranged between the contending armies in Mexico. The truce provides that there shall be no movements on either side during that period. The leaders of the revolutionary movement and representatives of the federal government are in consultation, discussing the general situation, and seeking to arrange the basis for future peace. It is expected that the peace negotiations will be successful, and that such concessions will be made by the Mexican government as will satisfy the insurrectos, and lead them to return peaceably to their homes.