p. 20 | Current Mention

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Feb 7, 1907

Current Mention.

— Scarlet fever and diphtheria are epidemic in Chicago, 145 new cases of the former and forty of the latter being recently reported in a single day.

— Henri des Houx has organized in France the “Apostolic Catholic Church,” which has been accepted by the French government as a cultural association, but is denounced by Vatican authorities as non-Catholic.

— In these columns, under date of January 24, it was reported that forty persons perished by tidal wave on the island of Simalu, East Indies. Later advices report that this island, lying off the northwest coast of Sumatra, has almost disappeared, and that fully 1,500 persons lost their lives in the tidal wave. Violent earthquake shocks continued to be felt for several days.

— The Senate has passed a resolution requiring the Secretary of Commerce to investigate the lumber trade of the country, and report the causes of the high prices of lumber. Particular inquiry is to be made as to whether there is any corporation intended to operate in restraint of trade.

— Dr. Hal W. Foster, of Kansas City, Mo., has discovered a new local anesthetic. He recently successfully operated on four patients who were perfectly conscious while under the knife. The dangers of administering chloroform and ether will be done away with if the new anesthetic is a success.

— At the annual meeting of the Washington humane society the president reported that during the year 1,997 persons had been prosecuted for cruelty to animals, chiefly horses and cattle. From these prosecutions 1,942 convictions had resulted. They had remedied the troubles of 26,801 other animals without prosecuting the owners.

— Recent conferences between the President, his cabinet, and certain members of Congress seem to indicate that the strained relations with Japan are more serious than generally supposed. The mayor and school board of San Francisco have been summoned to Washington for a conference over the separation of the Japanese pupils from the public schools of San Francisco.

— Professor de Martens, of St. Petersburg University, has recently started on a tour of the capitals of various countries, on a confidential mission to ascertain the views of the powers in reference to the program and date of the next peace conference at The Hague. He says the czar is willing again to discuss the subject of disarmament if it is agreeable to the powers that rejected it in 1899.

— Disastrous mine explosions have lately been numerous. January 23 an explosion occurred at Primero, Colo., entombing twenty men; similarly about 300 of the 600 men were caught 2,300 feet below the surface in a mine at St. Johann, Rhenish Prussia, on the twenty-ninth; on the same day an explosion occurred near Thurmond, W. Va., by which seventy men are known to have lost their lives.

— The Interstate Commerce Commission recently submitted to Congress a report relative to the Standard Oil Company. This corporation is accused of receiving secret rates, of corruption of the press, bribery, extortion, and the deliberate ruin of its competitors. It is charged with having sold oil of different grades at different prices, from the same barrel; with having bought the trade secrets of the independents, and having tampered with oil inspectors in different States. The commission states that if it is true, the competitive methods of this corporation in the past have been not only unfair, but disreputable. Its motto has been the destruction of competition at any cost, and this policy has been pursued without much reference to decency or conscience.