p. 20 | Current Mention

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jul 26, 1906

Current Mention

— In the wreck of an electric train near Rome, Italy, on June 16, thirty-five persons were killed and sixty-five injured.

— Cholera is reported to be assuming a very virulent type in the Philippines. Eleven persons dropped dead in the city of Manila in one day, and many new cases are reported.

— Secretary Metcalf, of the department of Commerce and Labor, has ordered an investigation to determine the extent of horizontal displacement of the earth’s crust by the recent earthquake.

— The Northfield (Mass.) Summer School for Christian Workers announces the twenty-fourth annual session of its General Conference, beginning August 3 and continuing until August 19. Each afternoon during the week August 6-11 inclusive will be devoted to instruction to ministers in the matter of conducting evangelistic services. Well-known evangelists from this country and England will be in attendance.

— The Department of Justice is energetically pushing the work of securing evidence against the Standard Oil Company in the matter of its dealings with the railroads in the State of Ohio. The attorney-general is at work with the grand jury at Cleveland, Ohio, and the Standard Oil employees who testified before that body will be recalled by the attorney-general to give evidence in regard to rebate-arrangements between the oil company and the railroad.

— London, July 5.— The Japanese in Korea, according to the correspondent of the London Daily Mail at Seoul, have virtually made the emperor of Korea a prisoner in his own palace by surrounding the palace with police. They plead that the step was necessitated by the emperor’s constant intrigues to invoke foreign aid and foment provincial troubles. The emperor of Korea recently asked permission to take refuge in the American legation, but was refused.

— In various States suits have been instituted against ice companies because of combinations among them to raise the price of ice. In some cases the price has been doubled. This has brought great hardship among the poor in the tenement districts of the large cities, and has greatly increased the death-rate among young children. This is due largely to the use of milk rendered unwholesome by fermentation where ice is unobtainable to keep the milk cool.

— Almost continuous earthquake shocks have been occurring at Socorro, N. M., since July 16. While the center of the disturbance seems to be in the vicinity of that place, the shocks have been felt as far as El Paso, Tex., and Albuquerque, N. M. At the former place a street-car is reported to have been thrown from the track by the shock. Considerable damage was done to buildings in Socorro, San Marcial, and nearby towns. Refugees from Socorro and other towns in the Rio Grande Valley are fleeing to Albuquerque and Santa Fe.

— Several battles had occurred between the forces of Guatemala and Salvador before the armistice went into effect, and there was considerable loss of life in these engagements. Peace commissioners chosen by the Central American states embarked on the United States cruiser “Marblehead” on July 19, and were at once taken out upon the high seas to enter into peace negotiations, assisted by the ministers of the United States to the two countries principally involved. Articles of peace were signed July 21, and the further agreement was entered into to submit all future disagreements between Central American states to settlement by arbitration, the presidents of the United States and Mexico to act as arbitrators.

— The Russian Douma [Parliament] was dissolved by the czar on the night of July 21. Thus ends Russia’s first experiment in parliamentary government. The ukase dissolving Parliament appointed March 5, 1907, as the date for the convocation of the next Parliament. This is looked upon as the czar’s appeal to the entire people of the empire against the character and purposes of the Parliament which has been in session at St. Petersburg. The proclamation of the czar’s ukase was accompanied by the bringing to St. Petersburg of several regiments of troops. A condition of practical martial law was also proclaimed in order to forestall the outbreaks which it was feared would occur. Press reports indicate a fear throughout Russia that terrible scenes will follow this act of the czar, bloodshed on a large scale and a dictatorship in the background. It is reported that a demand has been made upon the admiral of the Black Sea fleet by the men of his command, which, if refused, will result in a strike of the men of the entire fleet. An organization known as the “Red Squadron” has become active recently in the Baku district, and is industriously spreading its anti-government propaganda. As a result practical martial law is in force in that district. Russian peasant disorders are increasing in number and violence. They are applying the torch to many estates belonging to the landlords and the government. One entire village was destroyed by a fire thus started. A soldiers’ union is now being organized by some of the officers of the army, “to prepare the army to come over to the people, when they are ready and armed for resistance.” The commission appointed to investigate the surrender of Port Arthur has recommended that General Stoessel be dismissed from the army and shot, and that General Reiss, his chief of staff, be dismissed from the army and banished.