p. 20 | Current Mention

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jan 20, 1910

Current Mention

—All records for high flying were broken by the performance of Hubert Latham, the French aviator, who reached a height on January 7 of 3,500 feet. This record was later broken at Los Angeles, Cal.

—Representatives of trainmen on all the Eastern railroads of this country, comprising 300,000 employees, have issued a statement declaring that they will shortly present a demand to the railroads for a ten-per-cent increase in wages.

—On January 12 the iron steamer “Czarina,” bound from Oregon ports for San Francisco, drove on the rocks at Coos Bay bar, and became a total wreck. She carried a crew of thirty officers and men. All these were drowned, except one, and her single passenger is also among the drowned.

—On December 7 4,000 delegates to the National Rivers and Harbors Congress arrived in Washington, D. C. The purpose of this congress was to advocate a waterway policy which would provide annual appropriations of not less than $50,000,000 for the improvement of waterways throughout the country.

—The resolution providing for an investigation of the Ballenger-Pinchot controversy was passed by the Senate on January 10 with practical unanimity, and slight changes in the original measure as it came from the House. It is proposed to go exhaustively into the question of the conservation of natural resources, over which Mr. Pinchot has so severely criticized Secretary Ballenger.

—The new Liberal government of Great Britain proposes a scheme of insurance for workmen against unemployment. The scheme, it is said, is already worked out, and will be put in operation as soon as the government authorizes an appropriation of $15,000,000. The author of the plan declares that this will give labor a scientific market and the advantages which modern civilization has conferred on all the classes.

—A report from the aviation camp at Los Angeles, Cal., dated January 12, states that Louis Paulhan, the French aviator, broke all official and unofficial records for high flying in a Farman biplane, by flying to a height of more than 4,000 feet, and descending safely after fifty minutes and forty-six seconds in the air. On a previous day, Glenn H. Curtiss established a speed record, with a passenger, of over fifty-five miles an hour in his air-ship.

—A resolution has been introduced in the House of Representatives providing for a change in the date of the presidential inaugurations. The day mentioned in the bill is the last Thursday in April.

—During the last year there was an increase of 96% in the amount of mail handled on rural free delivery routes, as compared with the previous fiscal year. The total expenditure for this department of the postal service amounted to $35,661,034.

—On January 12 the House of Representatives passed what is known as the “White Slave” bill, which is intended to prohibit the immigration of white slaves, and make it a penal offense to assist one of these women in going from one State to another in this country. By the provisions of this bill, immoral alien women are to be deported whenever discovered, and their procurers are to be excluded, deported, and punished.

—A report from Lisbon, Portugal, dated January 11, states that through the arrests of a number of men discovered prowling about the king’s palace on the night of January 9, a plot for the assassination of the king has been unearthed. Through the arrest of the persons implicated, the police have discovered large quantities of explosives, arms, masks, and complete disguises, showing that the conspirators were well provided with apparatus to carry out their design.

—Because of the antagonistic attitude of the Catholic Church in France toward the schools provided by the government, it has been decided to modify the bill recently introduced, so as to enable the government to clothe the public authorities with full power to meet the situation at every point. It also proposes state control over Catholic or so-called private schools, and will substitute the state as the defendant for teachers in suits brought against them by Catholic parents’ associations.

—A report from London, dated January 9, states that General Booth, head of the Salvation Army, preaching at Clapton on that day, deplored the fact that notwithstanding all appeals and warnings for centuries past, men and women are still steeped in wickedness. He said: “To-day all nations of the earth seem to be banded together in rebellion and transgression, until some think—and I believe with a considerable degree of probability—that we may be approaching rapidly the end of all things, and the world and its inhabitants will be destroyed by fire.”

—The proposition of Secretary-of-State Knox, that the railways of Manchuria be neutralized and be under the financial control of China, is receiving a great deal of attention by all the principal governments of the Old World. Japan is very much opposed to the proposition, and it is stated that Russia is in agreement with her in her opposition to the proposal of Secretary Knox. Germany and England, however, seem to favor the neutralization of Manchurian railroads, because of the probability that this would give all nations equal opportunities there. This attitude of Secretary Knox is in harmony with the policy of former Secretary of State, John Hay, in working for what is known as “the open door in China.”