Current Mention

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D.C. · Jan 21, 1904

— A state of anarchy prevails in Santo Domingo, owing to recent revolutions, and business affairs are at a standstill.

— An insurrection has broken out in Uruguay, and severe fighting has followed the attempt of the government to suppress it.

— A dispatch from Salonika reports the blowing up of a Turkish powder magazine near Uskub, recently, thirty Turks being killed by the explosion.

— According to a report from Port Arthur, Ontario, Indians near Lake Nepigon have been recently driven to cannibalism by starvation.

— The Chicago livery drivers' strike has ended with a victory for the strikers on the “open shop” issue, the demand for increased wages being submitted to arbitration.

— Several large fires which have recently occurred in Lowell, Mass., are believed to have been incendiary. The last of these fires occurred January 12, and occasioned a loss of $300,000.

— The steamship “Clallam” foundered in the straits of Juan de Fuca, British Columbia, January 9, about sixty of the passengers and crew being lost.

— Havre, Montana, was visited by a conflagration which began January 13, and broke out again the next day after it had apparently been subdued, destroying property to the amount of $400,000.

— Pneumonia is very prevalent in New York City, 364 deaths from that disease having been reported there for the week ending January 9, this being 143 more than for the corresponding week in 1903.

— It is reported that the British authorities in South Africa are contemplating the prohibition of marriages between negroes and white people, and have sent for a copy of the Virginia law which prohibits such unions.

— Eight persons were injured in a wreck on the Erie Railway at Sand's Switch, N. Y., January 11. The entire train left the track, but no apparent cause for its derailment could be discovered.

— Dr. W. J. Morton, a professor in the New York Postgraduate Medical School and Hospital, claims to have cured three authenticated cases of cancer by the use of radium, and says that two other cases are now in process of cure by the same means.

— A British expedition to Somaliland, the territory of the “Mad Mullah” who has been leading the Arabs to oppose British rule, fought a battle recently with the Mullah's forces, in which one thousand of the latter were slain. The British loss was slight.

— The investigation following the Chicago theater disaster has resulted in a closing up of many public buildings of all kinds in that city by order of Mayor Harrison for non-compliance with the building ordinances, among these being a number of churches and several lodging houses. It is predicted that some of the theaters will remain permanently closed.

— Eight employees of a shoe manufacturing company in St. Louis, Mo., lost their lives by being pushed down an elevator shaft, falling six stories. The accident was due to carelessness on the part of twenty or more employees who crowded around the gate, eager to get on the elevator, the day's work having just been finished. The gate either gave way or was raised by some one, and ten of those nearest the opening were crowded into it. Those not killed were seriously hurt.

— It is believed at Washington that the threatened Russo-Japanese war will become a reality shortly. Japan is making extensive preparations for the expected conflict, among these being the requisition of several lines of steamships connecting Japanese ports with other centers of trade, these companies being under contract with the Japanese government to turn over their vessels to the latter's use in case of war. Russia still refuses to accede to the Japanese demands, and it is expected hostilities will begin when preparations for the same are a little more complete. Several Russian transports carrying troops have passed through the Bosporus, and are anchored in the Sea of Marmora, waiting permission from Turkey to pass through the Dardanelles. Russia is bringing pressure upon Turkey to secure permission to send her Black Sea fleet through the Dardanelles, although this is directly forbidden by treaty obligations between Turkey and other European powers.

— It is reported that Colombia is moving troops to the borders of Panama, and it seems to be bent on an attempt to overthrow the new isthmian republic, and restore her own former sovereignty in that country. The propositions submitted by the Colombian agent, General Reyes, to the Department of State at Washington have been rejected by Secretary Hay, and General Reyes' mission has ended in failure. The only question involved in the controversy which the United States is willing to consider is that of the portion of the Colombian debt which Panama should be willing to assume, if any, and it is said the United States will favor such action on Panama's part, and will even go to the extent of guaranteeing that the new republic shall carry out any obligation of that character. It is possible that this question may be brought before The Hague tribunal. Meanwhile should Colombia attack Panama, the United States would be bound, it is said, by the new treaty with Panama, to defend the isthmus against Colombian aggression.

— The United States Senate Committee on Privileges and Elections has begun its investigation of the charges against Senator-Elect Reed Smoot, among these charges being the following: “The Mormon priesthood, according to the doctrine of the church and the belief and practise of its membership, is vested with, and assumes to exercise, supreme authority in all things temporal and spiritual, civil and political. The head of the church claims to receive divine revelations, and these Reed Smoot, by his convenants and obligations, is bound to accept and obey.” “The president of the Mormon Church and a majority of the twelve apostles now practise polygamy and polygamous cohabitation, and some of them have taken polygamous wives since the manifesto of 1890; these things have been done with the knowledge and countenance of Reed Smoot; plural marriage ceremonies have been performed by apostles since the manifesto of 1890, and many bishops and other high officials of the church have taken plural wives since that time. All of the first presidency and the twelve apostles encourage, countenance, conceal, and connive at polygamy and polygamous cohabitation, and honor and reward by high office and distinguished preferment those who most persistently and defiantly violate the law of the land.” Mr. Smoot denies that he was ever a polygamist, or that he ever upheld polygamy.