p. 22 | Current Mention

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Nov 19, 1903

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 80, No. 46.

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Current Mention

— A new German cable to the Azores was completed November 2.

— A new Italian cabinet has been formed, with Signor Giolitti as premier.

— A cholera epidemic is reported to be raging at Vigan, in the Philippine Island of Luzon.

— The War Department has decided to maintain the garrisons in the Philippines at their full strength.

— The sultan of Turkey is reported to be seriously ill. The report says he is a victim of hallucinations.

— It is stated that prohibition is to become effective throughout Texas from the first day of January next.

— The country's corn crop this year is estimated at 2,313,000,000 bushels, an average of 25.8 bushels an acre.

— November 2 a revolt broke out in Damaraland, Southwest Africa, and a German garrison was annihilated by the Hottentots.

— Armenia is reported to be on the verge of revolt against Turkish rule, and one district of that country is now under martial law.

— Sir Henry Mortimer Durand has been appointed British Ambassador at Washington, to fill the place of the late Sir Michael Herbert.

— Employers in Pittsburg threaten a general trades lockout unless sympathetic strikes are called off by union managers before November 14.

— The United States and various powers of Europe hold claims against Venezuela amounting in the aggregate to more than $44,000,000.

— Bubonic plague is reported to prevail at Rio Janeiro, Brazil. In one week recently there were reported sixty-six new cases and twenty-seven deaths.

— In reply to China's appeal to the United States for help against Russia, Secretary Hay stated that this government sees no way in which it could interfere at present.

— Following the secession of Panama and its recognition by the United States as an independent republic, there have been popular demonstrations in Colombia against United States citizens resident there, and some fears are entertained for their safety.

— A plan to break up existing political coalitions in Europe and rearrange the national alliances, is attributed to Emperor William. The emperor is said to favor an alliance with Russia for their mutual advantage in affairs in the far East.

— Emperor William recently submitted to an operation for the removal of a polypus from his throat, the operation being successful, though interfering for some days with the emperor's speech. Some anxiety was felt in Germany, owing to the fact that both the emperor's parents died from cancer.

— In the yellow-fever district of Texas and Mexico there have been this year, according to an estimate by a yellow-fever expert, Dr. B. D. Murray, a total of 25,000 cases, with a mortality of at least five per cent. Five hundred cases are believed to exist at the present time.

— The outcome of affairs on the Isthmus of Panama is regarded as a setback to the canal project, as it necessitates entering into a new treaty with Panama for the construction of the canal, and Democrats in the United States Senate, it is said, are determined to oppose any canal treaty with the new republic.

— The war cloud hovering over Japan and Russia has not yet been dissipated, notwithstanding pacific utterances on the part of statesmen in those countries. The Japanese are impatient at the delay in the negotiations with Russia, and much war sentiment exists among the people.

— A tale of juvenile depravity characteristic of the times comes from Tunkhannock, Pa., near Wilkesbarre, where the grand jury has under consideration the cases of two boys, aged six and seven years, who recently attempted to wreck an express train on the Lehigh Valley Railway.

— At a Central Labor union meeting in Philadelphia, November 8, the question was raised, “Does a union man violate the mandates of trades unionism when he allows his wife to mend a rent in his overcoat?” The question caused a heated discussion, and finally was decided by vote in the affirmative.

— Continuing his opposition to the religious orders in France, Prime Minister Combes has announced that he will shortly introduce a bill prohibiting the members of religious congregations from engaging in primary, secondary, and higher education. A pronouncement by the Chamber of Deputies on the question of separating church and state by the abolition of the Concordat is pending.

— The most successful trial with an air-ship yet made was reported from Paris, France, November 12. The machine owned by Pierre Lebandy made a voyage from Moisson to Paris, thirty-four miles in a straight line, in an hour and forty minutes. The air-ship was obliged to tack a number of times in a strong cross wind, so that the entire distance covered in this time was about sixty miles.

— The decisions of the Anthracite Coal Strike Commission appointed by President Roosevelt are not binding in the eyes of the law. Neither miners nor operators can be legally held to do what the commission decides they should do. So says Judge Auten, of Sunbury, Pa., in a decision justifying the Llewellyn Mining Company in refusing to pay back wages awarded by the commission. This is the first legal decision on the question of the commission's authority.

— The Protestant Ministerial Association in Salt Lake City has begun a campaign against polygamy in Utah, which they assert is still a feature of Mormon life in that State. Rev. W. S. Paden has been sent to Washington as the representative of the association to urge Congress to make an investigation of the situation in Utah. He claims to have evidence that polygamy is still being openly practised or abetted in Utah by leading Mormons, including United States Senator Reed Smoot.

— Union labor in Utah is at war with the Mormon Church. The local branch of the International Typographical Union at a recent meeting passed a resolution condemning the Mormon organ, the Deseret News, and forbidding any local union official and all newspapers to exchange matrices or type with the News. The Mormon Church will not allow its members to join the unions. The unions are determined to compel the church to accept trades unionism.

— The Russian seaport town of Dalny, on the Pacific coast, must be abandoned by Russia as unsuitable, although a breakwater costing $8,500,000 has been constructed there. The breakwater was necessary for the protection of ships from the waves, and now that the water has been stilled, it freezes so that the harbor is ice-bound in the winter. The opinion is held by many that Russia's gain by her occupation of territory in the far East is not worth the price she has been obliged to pay for it.