Current Mention

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Mar 31, 1910

— The House of Representatives on March 23 passed a bill authorizing the raising of the remains of the battle-ship “Maine” in Havana harbor.

— An agreement was reached at Chicago on March 24 between the managers of the Western railroads and the Brotherhood of Locomotive firemen and engineers by which the great threatened strike has been averted.

— At a banquet held in Albany, N. Y., on March 19, attended by President Taft and Earl Grey, governor-general of Canada, both speakers made earnest pleas for unity among the nations of the Anglo-Saxon race to bring about world peace.

— During the year 1909 the United States government paid out in pensions to its soldiers $161,973,703. This is the largest amount paid in pensions since the close of the Civil War.

— Through the confessions of former Councilman J. F. Klein, of Pittsburg, Pa., sixty councilmen are now under accusation of receiving bribes for the passage of certain bills. About half of these have confessed on promise of suspended sentence, while the remainder are preparing to defend themselves.

— Strikers or strike sympathizers exploded dynamite under two cars of the Philadelphia Rapid Transit Street-car Company on March 18. The strike seems still far from peaceable settlement. Arrangements are being entered into by the officials of the carmen’s union to start a new political party.

— The Pennsylvania State Federation of Labor has decided that it will be inopportune to call a State-wide strike to aid the Philadelphia street-car strikers.

— King Menelik on March 24 turned the government of Abyssinia over to the regent, with the approval of his principal chiefs. For some time the death of the aged ruler has been daily expected.

— The meeting between President Taft and Earl Grey, governor-general of Canada, in New York last week, is expected to result in such an arrangement of the tariff schedules of the two countries that the threatened tariff war will be averted.

— A rapidly moving train left the track in a narrow cut near Marshalltown, Iowa, on March 21, resulting in one of the most terrible wrecks on record. Forty-seven persons were either killed at once or died soon after of their injuries, while a score or more are more or less seriously injured.

— The volcano of Mount Etna, in Sicily, broke out in a fresh eruption on March 24, destroying one village, and causing great panic among the people. Help is being organized for the people of the devastated region. The spectacle caused by the eruption and the ruin resulting therefrom is said to be second only to the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 1906.

— Expulsion of Jews from various cities in Russia has reached a magnitude never before attained. Previously those threatened with expulsion by local governors were able to get protection through the minister of the interior; but now orders for their expulsion from these cities come through the ministry of the interior, and there is no redress. Hundreds of families living in these cities are being forced out of the country.

— Acting upon the urgent request of the government of Liberia, the United States cruiser “Birmingham” has been ordered to proceed to Monrovia, Liberia. The Liberian government has represented to the State Department that it is powerless to hold in check a powerful people inhabiting the region of the Cabally River. These people are besieging certain towns in Liberia where there are considerable American missionary interests.

— The Chinese minister to Germany, who is about to relinquish his post, has just notified the world that China intends to follow the course of other great nations by introducing universal military service. He said: “If we make all the available men join the military, we have such an enormous population — some 400,000,000 — that we shall overshadow all other armed nations. The details of the plan have not been worked out, but we propose to make our young men soldiers, not only through drill, but by education. They must learn what a shame it is for the most ancient, and in population the greatest, nation on earth to be so weak.” China is awake; she is only looking around now for her military accouterments. That she did not begin to do so long ago is the wonder of the world. A hand seems to have been held upon her that she should not be ready too soon for the last act in this world’s history.

— The United States government is still instituting proceedings against the Great American Sugar Trust. It is understood that an effort is being made on the part of the government representatives to put the sugar trust out of corporate existence, because of the fact that it is controlling about ninety per cent of the sugar industry of the United States.

— Former Vice-president Charles W. Fairbanks arrived at New York on March 17, finishing his tour of the world. In speaking of the relations existing between the United States and Japan, Mr. Fairbanks strongly deprecated the idea of a coming conflict between the two nations, declaring that the good relations between the two countries were constantly being strengthened.

— The beef trust of the United States, embracing six great packing companies and twenty-one packers, was indicted by the grand jury of Hudson County, New Jersey, on February 25, charged with conspiracy in limiting the supply of meat and poultry. This offense is extraditable, which means that practically all the meat barons of this country must either successfully resist extradition or go to Jersey City for trial.

— A correspondent of the New York World declares that he is able to state on the highest authority that Japan has sent to its embassy at Washington definite proposals to be submitted to the State Department looking to an understanding between Japan and the United States, so that the two countries may together dominate the far East, maintaining the “open door” as well as guaranteeing commercial equality to all nations.

— Reports from Paris dated March 12 state that the same conditions exist there which have been discovered in cities of the United States, and recently in Montreal, in the matter of public graft. Those in the French parliament who are opposed to the government, are preparing to make a great deal of the recent disclosures in this regard, and there is no question but that it will have a depressing effect upon the friends of the new government.