p. 21 | Current Mention

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Aug 30, 1906

Current Mention

— Eight men were drowned off Anglesea, N. J., on July 29 by the capsizing of two fishing sloops.

— The Kansas State Agricultural Department has issued a crop report showing the State's yield of winter wheat to be more than 91,000,000 bushels. The yield of spring wheat will swell the total to 100,000,000 bushels, the greatest crop in the history of Kansas.

— The French minister of the interior has published the government's official reply to the pope's recent encyclical on the separation of church and state. The reply takes the form of a circular to all prefects to seek rigorously all educational religious establishments which have remained open or have reopened despite the laws of July 1, 1901, and July 7, 1904. This means that the authorities will put into full force these laws, definitely closing such institutions as have hitherto escaped.

— The freight bores of the Illinois Tunnel Company under the streets of the city of Chicago began to carry merchandise of all kinds in car-load lots about the middle of this month. This movement marks the practical completion of the Illinois Tunnel Company's system of underground freight roads, the construction of which was begun five years ago, and has cost its owners about $30,000,000. The company now has forty-five miles of tunnel equipped with rails and overhead trolley.

— Advises from Peking state that the dowager empress of China plans to summon a conference of high officials, including several viceroys, to discuss the adoption of a constitution. The Chinese commissioners who recently returned from the United States and Europe recommend a gradual change to a constitutional government, taking ten to fifteen years to educate the people thereto. A report from Persia indicates the agitation of the same question there, and that a constitution will soon be formed, “based upon the Koran.”

— The condition of unrest in Russia shows little change. The terrorists continue their work of threats and murders, companies and regiments continue to mutiny, and the peasantry continue to be in a state of chronic disorder. In the Caucasus there is real war between Russian troops and strong forces of well-armed Tartars, and the Armenians are suffering at the hands of both parties. The same ugly rumors of threatened Jewish massacres are afloat in different parts of the realm. The government, seeking to forestall the acts of the next Parliament, is planning the distribution of immense tracts of crown lands, for which the peasants are to pay in small instalments in scrip. It is thought that this will appease the land hunger of the peasantry, and place them on the side of the government and against the agitators.

— At a reception given by the new Russian premier on August 25, Russian terrorists threw a bomb into the midst of the assembled guests, which exploded with terrible force, demolishing a large portion of the building, killing twenty-eight persons and injuring twenty-four. Two of the four conspirators were killed, and the other two badly injured. The bomb was meant for the premier, but he was only slightly wounded. His daughter was killed, and his son badly injured. Some of those present were literally torn to pieces. M. Stolypin has been waging war upon the “fighting party” of the Russian Socialists, and over one thousand of their members have been arrested. They have declared their intention of fighting a duel with the government on these lines.

— The Marquise de Fontenoy declares over a signed statement in the public press that the reason why the governments of the Old World are so loath to take up the matter of King Leopold's enslavement of the Kongo natives is because Portugal's treatment of the natives in Portuguese Africa is as flagrant as that of Belgium in the Kongo. The Marquise declares that the slave-trade goes on openly in Portuguese East Africa, convoys of newly captured natives being brought down from the interior under guard of native captors and Portuguese troops, to be publicly sold in the open market. They are then shipped to the islands of San Thomé and Principe to labor on the plantations under the lash of an overseer, without pay, till they die. With Catholic Belgium on the west and Catholic Portugal on the east practising unmentionable barbarities upon the natives, certainly Africa has her afflictions as well as do the civilized countries.

— The text of the pope's long-expected encyclical to the archbishops and bishops of France concerning their future conduct in view of the enactment of the law providing for the separation of church and state appeared last week. The document urges the bishops to adopt all means within the law to organize their forces, assuring them of the papal co-operation and support. The pope counsels against seditious or violent action, and says firmness will give better results than violence. United action, he says, can be learned from those who have imposed the stigma of this criminal law upon the nation. In conclusion, the encyclical says: “In the hour of hard trial for France, if all united in defending the supreme interests of the country, the salvation of the church is far from desperate. On the contrary, it is to be hoped that her dignity will be raised to its former prosperous height.” As the pope refers to the law providing for the separation of church and state as “this criminal law,” the attitude of the papacy on this question may be easily understood.

— Considerable interest and discussion have been stirred up in Catholic circles recently over an open letter to the pope, published in the Freeman's Journal, of New York, in which the pope is importuned to open the tomb of St. Peter in Rome. The writer of the open letter, who is an Italian archeologist of note, claims that there is no tomb under the Michael Angelo statue, and no body of St. Peter there. This is the statue before which successive popes have bowed before taking up the task of governing the Catholic Church. Several noted men are joining the archeologist in asking that the excavation be made. The pope has made no reply to this request.

— The republic of Cuba is now in the throes of a revolution. It is difficult to give an accurate statement of the extent of the revolt, as some of the reports are more or less contradictory. The movement seems to be spreading, and there does not appear to be any great rally of the loyal people to the support of the government. Rebel forces are occupying San Luis, San Juan de Martinez, and are threatening Pinar del Rio. The government is planning to send 5,000 troops to Pinar del Rio; but reports indicate that the revolutionists have about 7,000 men already in that vicinity. The killing of the revolutionary leader, General Bandera, has given the insurrection a heavy blow. If the rebels succeed in taking Pinar del Rio, their next objective is the city of Havana itself. Rebel forces are now operating in Santa Clara, Pinar del Rio, San Luis, and other places. The mayors of Havana and Cienfuegos are raising forces to guard those cities from the insurgent bands. The Cuban government has ordered an equipment of field artillery from the United States. The manager of the Western Railroad, an English corporation, has received from the leader of the insurgents a threat that in case government troops are transported over the road, the bridges and stations would be destroyed.

— The full results of the terrible earthquake which visited Chile on August 16 have not yet been ascertained. While great damage was done at Santiago, the loss of life there was comparatively small, and is placed at between twenty and thirty. Every house in Valparaiso is damaged, and in large sections fully four fifths are completely destroyed. Every church in the city of Valparaiso but one, and all the theaters and hospitals, were completely ruined. Estimates of the damage in that city alone place it at from $25,000,000 to $50,000,000, while the property loss through the whole earthquake-affected district is placed at more than $100,000,000. Refugees declare that already one thousand bodies have been recovered and buried. Some estimates place the loss of life at 3,000. In the collapse of the Valparaiso prison 140 prisoners were crushed to death. The authorities are taking stern measures to preserve order, and looters have been summarily shot. The government of Chile has appropriated $4,000,000 for the relief of the sufferers, and Brazil has appropriated $666,000. Contributions are being sent in from other lands as well. There has been considerable suffering on account of lack of food, and the people are still camping in the open on account of the continued severe shocks.