Current Mention

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Dec 16, 1902

— Nebraska City, Neb., has been suddenly left without a water supply by a change in the course of the Missouri River, which a few days ago shifted its channel three miles to the eastward of the city waterworks. The change took place in twelve hours.

— The action of President Castro of Venezuela in reply to the ultimatums delivered by England and Germany with reference to the settlement of their claims against the former country, amounts to a virtual declaration of war by Venezuela against those powers. English and German citizens in the Venezuelan capital have been imprisoned, and strategic points in the country are being fortified to resist invasion. Meanwhile an effort is being made by the United States to effect a peaceful settlement of the difficulty.

— The Vermont Legislature has passed a high-license local option bill as a substitute for the prohibition law in that State, after having spent nine weeks in debate upon the question. The bill is to be submitted to a popular vote on the first Tuesday of February next; and should this vote be against it, the bill will not become operative before Dec. 1, 1906, thus giving two coming legislatures an opportunity to repeal it. The State anti-saloon league and the W. C. T. U. will make a determined effort to secure its rejection by the people.

— Following the suggestion in the president's message for anti-trust legislation on the part of Congress, a joint resolution was introduced in the Senate, December 8, by Senator Nelson, providing for an amendment to the national Constitution, and a bill amending the existing anti-trust law by the enactment of more stringent provisions. The proposed amendment to the Constitution is as follows: “Congress shall have power to define, regulate, prohibit, or dissolve trusts, monopolies, or combinations, whether existing in the form of a corporation or otherwise; Congress shall also have power to license, regulate, and control all corporations engaged in trade, commerce, or other business among the several States or with foreign nations.”

— The coal strike commission listened December 9 to a description of circumstances and events making up the dark side of the lives of workers in the anthracite mines, involving the dealings of mine owners with their employees. Among other statements given in the press report we note the following: “B. D. Gallagher, another Markle miner, testified that the company charges him thirty-five cents a gallon for oil that sells in Heberton, a few miles away, for eighteen cents, and thirty-two cents a quire for blasting paper that can be had for fifteen cents. . . . The witness presented several of his own wage statements, which showed that something had been deducted for a priest. When asked what this meant, he said that he did not know. It had been taken off his earnings ever since he went into the mines, and he simply dismissed it because he did not object to the assessments.”