Current Mention

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Nov 1, 1906

— Rifle shooting is hereafter to be included in the curriculum of the British public schools.

— The legislature of Western Australia has voted to secede from the rest of the Australasian Commonwealth.

— An explosion occurred in the Wingate Colliery near Durham, England, on October 14, which resulted in the death of twenty-five miners and the temporary entombment of 200.

— On October 20 a Russian vessel leaving Vladivostok, ran upon a floating mine and sank immediately. The steamer carried 200 passengers, all of whom, with one exception, were drowned.

— The report of the officials of the Washington public libraries for the past year shows that sixty-eight per cent of the books taken from the library for home reading were books of fiction.

— The amount of breadstuffs exported from the United States during the last nine months aggregated $130,607,719, an increase of $43,607,654 over the corresponding period of last year.

— The British steamer “Hankow,” from Canton, was burned at Hongkong, China, October 14. It is reported that several hundred Chinese passengers were burned. A valuable cargo was also destroyed.

— The Circuit Court at Bellefontaine, Ohio, on October 22 handed down a decision ousting from the State of Ohio the four bridge companies which failed to surrender at the bridge-trust hearing two weeks previous.

— The New York Central Railroad and its traffic manager have been found guilty of granting illegal rebates to the sugar trust on shipments of sugar. The road and its manager have each been fined in the sum of $120,000.

— A dispatch from Albany, N. Y., states that dime-novel reading is responsible for eleven attempts at train wrecking on the lines of the New York Central in the last two weeks. In every case the would-be wreckers were boys from ten to fifteen years of age.

— A riot occurred in Philadelphia, Pa., on the evening of October 22, at the entrance of a theater where a play entitled “The Clansman” was being given. Prominent negroes are protesting against the presentation of this play, charging that it incites to lynching. The mayor of Philadelphia ordered that the play be given no more in Philadelphia.

— The chairman of the legislative committee of the National Wholesale Druggists’ Association makes the statement that the use of habit-producing drugs, such as morphin and cocain, is rapidly increasing in this country.

— Articles of incorporation of the Trans-Alaska-Siberian Railway were filed at Trenton, N. J., on October 24. The company is authorized to issue stock to the amount of $6,000,000. The road is to reach Siberia from Alaska by means of a tunnel under the Behring Sea.

— King Leopold of Belgium is using his influence to prevent the proposed international conference regarding the existing conditions in the Kongo. He has even asked the assistance of the pope to that end, but it is said that this request has not yet been granted. Italy is in favor of such a conference, but has not yet officially agreed to the proposal.

— On October 22 nearly the entire country between the Rocky Mountains and the Missouri River was visited by a severe storm. During the storm about twenty inches of snow fell in Denver, Colo. There has been a heavy loss of live stock and of late fruit. The railroads were able to move few trains on account of the disorganization of the telegraph service.

— The composition of the new French cabinet is reported to be very distasteful to the pope of Rome. He is quoted as saying that the affairs of France cause him greater pain than any physical suffering. This would indicate that he does not expect any alteration in the stand taken by the French government over the question of the associations for the holding of church property.

— Some time since the United States Express Company refused to receive, transport, or deliver any packages containing liquor. Suit was brought by a representative of the liquor men to compel the company to accept such business, and the federal court, at Clarksburg, W. Va., on October 24 handed down a decision in harmony with the demands of the liquor men.

— President Roosevelt has announced several changes in the cabinet. The present postmaster-general, Geo. B. Cortelyou, is to be secretary of the treasury; Oscar S. Straus, former minister to Turkey, is to be secretary of commerce and labor. Geo. Von. L. Meyer will be postmaster-general; Chas. J. Bonaparte, the present secretary of the navy, will be attorney-general; and Victor H. Metcalf will be secretary of the navy.

— There is much agitation going on in Japan over alleged discrimination against Japanese in the United States. The two governments are endeavoring to quiet the agitated feelings of the Japanese, but newspaper articles in Japan are keeping the feeling alive. The two chief causes of this feeling are the attitude of organized labor in this country toward Japanese laborers and the placing of Japanese children in schools by themselves in California. The matter has gone to such an extent that other countries are taking note of the unfriendly feelings now existing in Japan against the United States.