Current Mention

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Nov 15, 1906

— President Roosevelt left Washington, November 8, for a trip to Panama. Never before in the history of the country has its chief executive been beyond the boundary line of the United States.

— An unusually large number of the members of the House of Representatives will fail to be returned to the sixtieth Congress. Six have died during their terms of office. Failure of re-election will cause fifty-six other changes.

— John A. Penton, a Cleveland publisher, has armed his non-union employees because they have been repeatedly insulted and assaulted by the pickets of the typographical union. He previously notified the mayor of his intended action.

— The provisional government of Cuba is planning for the American troops there to make extensive marches through the island, evidently for the sake of its moral effect upon those who might be inclined to take up arms in this time of disquiet.

— Missionaries report that 10,000,000 people face starvation from famine in Kiangsu Province, Central China. Local magistrates are preventing people from leaving the region, but are taking no steps to provide them with food. Serious disorders are feared.

— Two large meteors and three smaller ones were seen from passing ships to plunge into the sea about sixty miles northeast of Cape Race, Newfoundland, on the afternoon and evening of October 30. They were visible for about thirty seconds, and made the sea boil up to the height of twenty feet at the places where they entered the water.

— November 2 brought word from Commander Robert E. Peary, who is returning from his ninth arctic expedition. He has been absent from New York since July 16, 1905. While some severe hardships were endured, he reports no death nor illness. The farthest point north reached by this expedition was 87° 6'. This is about thirty-four miles nearer the pole than the point reached by any previous explorer, but the goal was still 203 miles away.

— The delegates to the Wireless Telegraph Congress at Berlin reached an agreement on November 1 in reference to the interchange of communications between different systems of what they term “radio-telegraphy.” According to the agreement there is to be free interchange of communication between all systems, and unrestricted exchange between ship and ship and between ship and shore. Italy and England sign the agreement with reservations to protect existing arrangements with the Marconi Company.

— For refusing to disclose the names of their comrades guilty of riot and murder at Brownsville, Tex., the President has dismissed without honor every man of companies B, C, and D (colored) of the Twenty-fifth Infantry. They will be forever debarred from re-enlisting in the army or the navy, as well as from any employment by the government in any civil capacity. To show that he was not taking this action because of any antipathy toward the colored troops as such, the President has ordered an investigation into the conduct of a colonel who had made disparaging remarks about colored soldiers.

— The election of at least six Prohibitionist representatives to the legislature of the State of Illinois, as well as substantial gains in the other States, shows that not all are insensible to the evils of intemperance.

— Statistics of the police department show that at least 3,000 people in the city of Richmond, Va., are daily users of cocaine. This record of one city is indicative of the growing use of harmful drugs by the people of this generation.

— A conference between the United States troops and the warring Utes has been held in the camps of the red men. Chiefs Red Cap and Black Whiskers will accompany Captain Johnson to Washington to confer with President Roosevelt, and if possible effect a satisfactory settlement of the difficulty between the Indians and the government.

— Two inventors have each perfected wireless telephones. S. V. Granger, at Newark, N. J., has demonstrated that conversation can be held with the parties eighteen miles apart as readily as by the ordinary telephone. There will be a public demonstration in December of the invention of a lieutenant in the Swedish army.

— A woman of Newark, N. J., has been sentenced to three months' imprisonment in the county jail for practising sorcery, or witchcraft. She pretended to tell fortunes by reading palms, cards, etc. The judge found her guilty of violating an ancient “blue-law” which makes guilty of misdemeanor “any person who shall pretend to exercise or use any kind of conjuration, witchcraft, sorcery, or enchantment.”

— As a natural outcome of the disturbance of the balance of power in Europe through Japan's victory over Russia, there has been a regrouping of the powers. Great Britain, France, and Italy are now united in what is practically a defensive alliance. This is to come into effect when the present triple alliance between Germany, Austria, and Italy shall expire “either by expiration of time or by any other cause.”

— In a recent farewell audience granted to Bishop Burke, of St. Joseph, Mo., at the Vatican, the pope expressed his gratitude to Americans irrespective of creed. They gave, he said, every evidence that they respected the church and venerated him. The daily press in allusion to the matter speaks as follows: “Amid the troubles experienced by the church in other parts of the world, he remembered that America was the only country in which it was always free from persecution, thanks to the government, which was most praiseworthy. The pontiff concluded by expressing special affection for the Americans and blessing them heartily.” It is worthy of note that the pope recognizes the church to be enjoying greater liberties in America, where church and state are professedly separate, than in countries so long dominated by a united church and state.