Current Mention

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 17, 1902

—A railway wreck at Black River, Mich., June 8, resulted in death or fatal injuries to five, and serious injury to about forty others.

—Five persons who were sleeping in the Arcade building at Saratoga, N. Y., in the early morning of June 9, perished in a fire which destroyed the building.

—In the June issue of the Sentinel of Christian Liberty report is made of sixty-seven towns and cities in this country where an agitation exists for the enforcement of the Sunday laws. And this report doubtless comes far short of covering every instance of this kind.

—King Edward of England recently showed an unprecedented mark of favor to the United States by dining, accompanied by the queen and Princess Victoria, at the residence of the American ambassador, Mr. Choate. This is the first time that a British sovereign has ever dined with the ambassador of a foreign power.

—It is believed the volcanoes in Martinique and St. Vincent have passed their period of violent activity, and the islands will now be left to recover as far as they can from the effects of the recent eruptions. It is estimated that 32,000 lives were lost by these eruptions, and that the value of property destroyed was between $10,000,000 and $15,000,000.

—The lower house of Congress has prepared and passed an anti-anarchist bill, the principal features of which are that any person in this country advocating or justifying the killing of the president or other officers of the government or the ruler of any other civilized land, because of his or her official capacity, shall be fined not more than $5,000 or imprisoned not more than twenty years, or both; and that all persons who disbelieve in, or are opposed to, organized government are prohibited from entering this country.

—The exact present status of Cuba as regards independence, the theory and forms of which are now set up in the Cuban government, is well defined in this paragraph from a recent speech by Senator Beveridge, dealing with the Cuban situation: “Congress has decreed perpetual American guardianship to Cuba’s foreign relations, finance, sanitation, naval stations, and, over all, the right of the United States to send its soldiers there at any time to preserve order, property, life, and law; and this American suzerainty has been adopted in the constitution of Cuba itself.”

—A tornado swept a path through the richest agricultural section of Illinois, June 11, destroying property of every kind, and causing an unknown number of fatalities, eleven deaths being reported up to the following morning. The path of the storm extended from Macoupin County on the south to Livingston County on the north, taking in the towns of Merna, Morton, Champaign, Urbana, Lincoln, and the cities of Bloomington and Peoria. The full force of the storm was felt at Bloomington, and the damage there was very heavy. From $1,000,000 to $2,000,000 is the estimated property loss.

—Six persons were drowned by the capsizing of rowboats on Long Island Sound, during a fierce gale, June 8. Nine persons were drowned June 7 by the sinking of a steamer outside of Duluth harbor, Minn., due to a collision.

—President Palma, of the Cuban republic, has signed an amnesty bill, which extends a pardon to all Americans convicted of crime in Cuba during the period of American occupation, among these being Neely and Rathbone, who figured in the Cuban post-office scandal. This amnesty bill is intended, according to President Palma, as an “evidence of our gratitude and good will toward the United States and the American people,” though it certainly does not appear how the freeing of convicted American criminals can be regarded as a favor to the American people.

—Professor Heilprin, president of the Philadelphia Geographical Society, at great risk of his life, recently ascended to the top of Mount Pelée, and took observations of the conditions existing within the crater, so far as they were visible from the summit. It is positively known, he says, that there has been no overflow of molten matter from the crater. He further affirms that there has been no subsidence of the mountain, and that the height of Mount Pelée is unchanged; that the crater does not contain a cinder cone; and that there has been no cataclysm and no topographical alteration of the country. Professor Heilprin believes the period of violent eruption has now passed.

—Satisfactory progress, from the Roman Catholic point of view, is being made in promoting the establishment of political relations between this government and the papacy, through the Taft mission to Rome, devised by Archbishop Ireland. Soon after his arrival in Rome, Governor Taft was invited to a reception given by the pope, at which he was accorded “special honors,” and according to report was greatly impressed by the occasion; and particularly with the personal qualities displayed by the pontiff, with whom he conversed through a French interpreter. The latest news tells of Governor Taft’s presence at a papal “consistory,” which is described as having been “a brilliant diplomatic event.” We are struck with this paragraph in the cable report from Rome: “The master of ceremonies asked the secretaries of the several foreign embassies present to make room for Governor Taft. They at first objected, not knowing who the governor was. They moved readily enough when informed that Governor Taft was the special envoy of the United States, and entitled to a place among the ambassadors of the European powers.” (Italics ours.) And now that the United States government has sent to the Vatican a “special envoy,” who is “entitled to a place among the ambassadors of the European powers,” is it not fitting that a papal “special envoy,” who likewise shall be “entitled to a place among the ambassadors of the European powers,” should be received at Washington? The United States government is being brought into a position where the acceptance of such an envoy can be strongly urged on the grounds of consistency and courtesy, and ere long, from present indications it will be hopelessly entangled in the web of papal diplomacy. For this Rome is studiously working.

—The Naval Appropriation bill, calling for an outlay of $78,000,000, has been passed by the Senate.

—Nine girls were killed and fifteen others injured by a fire in the central part of London, England, June 9.

—A cyclone near Ulen, Minn., June 10, destroyed property for a distance of twenty miles, and killed a number of people, no definite report on the latter point being at hand.

—The contest over the question of allowing a tariff concession to Cuba has ended in Congress in a victory for the concession. A bill providing for this will be framed shortly.

—The St. Luke’s Society Sanitarium in Chicago was destroyed by fire, June 9, ten of the inmates being burned to death. The president of the society is held on a charge of manslaughter.