Current Mention

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jun 27, 1907

— During the first five months of this year 189 persons committed suicide in the city of Chicago alone.

— Five deaths and several prostrations from heat were reported in New York City, the seventeenth. The change was very sudden, as snow fell there the second.

— Tornadoes, accompanied by cloudburst, devastated regions of southern Illinois, Indiana, and central Kentucky June 7, 8. Twenty-nine persons were killed, and forty injured.

— On June 22 three aeronauts, two French officers, and one Austrian officer, were killed by falling from a balloon near Debreczin, Hungary. Peasants, in trying to capture the balloon, approached it with a light, and the balloon exploded, killing ten of them.

— East Liverpool, Ohio, a city of 24,000, on June 22 voted for local option, by which fifty-three saloons will be put out of business.

— The entire Black Sea squadron is temporarily out of commission, owing to the disaffection of the crews, 700 of whom have been arrested. The position is declared to be very critical.

— The long-expected suit of the government against the railways and subsidiary mining companies, which form what is commonly known as the anthracite coal trust, has been begun by the circuit court at Philadelphia.

— Emperor Nicholas of Russia has approved a recommendation of the council of ministers in favor of granting a concession for the construction of a railroad from the station of Kamsk, in Siberia, to Behring Straits, and a tunnel under the straits.

— Dr. Lenane, health officer of Battersea, says that Londoners annually pay $150,000 for water in milk. He adds that notwithstanding prosecution, adulterations continue to be a profitable business. The same offenders are repeatedly fined. They cheerfully pay and promptly resume their fraudulent business.

— The Norwegian Storthing, after rejecting a proposal for universal woman suffrage, passed a bill enfranchising women over twenty-five years of age, and paying taxes on an income of at least $110, or married to a man paying taxes on such an income. The Norwegian electorate is thereby increased 300,000.

— Not only did the telegraph operators appeal to President Roosevelt to interfere in their grievances, but the Chicago Board of Trade also requested him to take such steps as he deemed necessary to prevent the telegraph operators’ strike. Immediately after some conferences with Commissioner of Labor Nill, in which it was thought the differences were settled, President Small of the telegraphers’ union called for a strike of the 250 operators in San Francisco and Oakland, which took effect on the twenty-first. It is now the declared purpose not to call for a general strike, but local strikes until the union is officially recognized.

— On June 16 by imperial ukase the czar of Russia dissolved the Douma. The immediate cause of dissolution was the refusal by the Douma of the czar’s demand made through Premier Stolypin that the Douma consent to the arrest and trial of fifty-five of their number on a charge of treason. The manifesto accompanying the order of dissolution provides for the election of a succeeding Douma to assemble in November of this year. In the forthcoming election the basis of representation is to be changed by limiting the number of voters according to their wealth, and reducing the number chosen from the disaffected districts. The peasants lose their separate representation in each of the provinces. This act overrides the specific provisions of the fundamental laws of the realm, solemnly proclaimed by his majesty on the eve of the convocation of the first Douma, which declare that the electoral law could never be changed without the consent of Parliament itself.

— Sir Chentung Liang-Cheng, the retiring Chinese minister to the United States, has made public the contents of an official note he received, in which President Roosevelt announces that in his next message to Congress he will recommend that China be relieved of all indemnity in excess of the actual expenses and damages resulting to Americans from the Boxer uprising.

— At the opening session of The Hague conference M. Nelidoff was chosen president; and in his opening speech discouraged the hope of universal peace. He said, “Nations, like individuals, are human, and not the most perfect judicial system ever invented could put an end to strife and violence. When honor and vital interests are at stake, regardless of consequences, neither the former nor the latter will recognize any authority except personal judgment and personal feelings.”

— Although the censorship of the press is strict, reports come by way of Madrid, Spain, that there is a widespread spirit of revolt in Portugal. Since the dismissal of Parliament the first of May, Premier Franco has governed by decree, which has aroused popular hatred. A recent journey of the premier from Lisbon to Oporto in hope of gaining popular indorsement for his policy, aroused instead great indignation, and he was hissed at every station. When the dictator returned to Lisbon, there was a serious riot outside the station. Women, with their aprons filled with stones, furnished weapons to the men, who fought for hours against the soldiers who fired upon them in return. Many casualties are reported.

— More than half a million vine-growing peasants of southern France are in practical revolt against the government. Having for generations followed this one occupation, which seems to have become unprofitable, they are unwilling to turn to other occupations. For some months one Marcelin Albert has been agitating the subject, and has convinced the peasants that the cheapness of wine is due to adulteration. They have demanded that the government give them redress, and have refused to pay taxes. Mayors of scores of towns have resigned, after discharging their subordinate officers. Being responsible to the central government, the premier has forbidden these resignations until they are accepted at Paris. A law has been passed forbidding adulteration of wine, and an investigation ordered; but the people are making monster demonstrations, and when the government decided to arrest the ringleaders in the agitation, the peasants showed resistance, placing dynamite on the railroad, cutting wires, tearing up tracks, and raising barricades for resistance. At Narbonne, on June 20, conflicts occurred between the rioters and the troops. One hundred soldiers were wounded. How many of the rioters were killed or injured is not known, as those who fell when the troops fired were carried away by friends. At Agde a battalion of troops mutinied and joined the rioters, but later returned, and are now under arrest. The premier offered to resign, but a vote of confidence was given him, and he will retain the office. The Chamber of Deputies has passed the law demanded by the wine growers, and it is hoped that this will quiet the disturbances.