p. 30 | Current Mention

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jan 10, 1907

Current Mention

— Three men are dead as a result of a clash between striking miners and guards employed to protect non-union men who are working the mines at Sturgis, Ky.

— The pope has put under the ban a new Polish sect known as Mariavits, and excommunicated the woman leader, who claims to be a reincarnation of the Virgin Mary.

— The heavy snows interfered with the working of danger signals on the North British Railroad, thereby causing a collision near Dundee, Scotland, December 28. Sixteen persons lost their lives, and thirty others were injured.

— At a mass-meeting held in San Francisco December 23, resolutions were adopted severely criticizing President Roosevelt’s message to Congress on the Japanese situation growing out of the exclusion of Japanese from the public schools of San Francisco.

— A dozen persons were injured, forty families were made homeless, 2,000 persons were driven temporarily from their homes, fifty horses were roasted to death, and property valued at $200,000 was destroyed by the fire on West Fifty-third Street, New York, the morning of January 2.

— Raisouli, the Moroccan bandit who has given so much trouble to foreigners, has been dismissed from his governorship by the sultan. He has removed his harem to the mountains, where he is preaching a holy war “against the foreign invaders.” The forces of the minister of war are proceeding against him.

— Rivalry between two labor organizations, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen, caused the latter to order a strike of their members in the employ of the Southern Pacific Railway, and freight traffic between Texas and California was seriously threatened.

— Acting on information furnished by a traitor, the Russian police within ten days captured over a hundred leaders and members of the St. Petersburg military organization of the Social Democrats, who were conducting a propaganda in the army and navy, and at Kief, on December 31, the local committee of Social Democrats, consisting of forty men, was arrested.

— John D. Rockefeller’s New-year’s gift to Chicago University consisted of securities with a market value of $2,700,000 for the permanent endowment fund, and $217,000 for deficit of the past year, and various other appropriations, among them $40,000 for increase of the salaries of instructors. This contribution brings his total gifts to the university up to the sum of $19,416,926.

— By a Chinese imperial edict promulgated December 31, Confucius is now deified, and ranked the same as heaven and earth, which are worshiped only by the emperor. It is believed that this action is in deference to the religious scruples of the Christian students in the government colleges, who object to “kotow,” an act required by immemorial custom before the tablet of Confucius. With this elevation of Confucius it will be necessary for none but the emperor to worship him.

— The most severe weather in many years prevailed in Europe during Christmas week. From Great Britain, France, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, and Austria-Hungary the same tale is repeated of heavy snow-storms, the interruption of railroad and telegraphic communication, the loss of life, and general discomfort and inconvenience in the towns, as well as in the country districts.

— It is not expected that any joint action by the powers in reference to the Kongo will be taken before the Belgian Parliament finally decides the issue now pending before it as to whether Belgium shall annex the Kongo or not. Great Britain, with whom this government is earnestly co-operating in the matter, will be satisfied if the Belgian government takes over control of the Kongo, and it seems likely that this will be done.

— Senor Cintron, the speaker of the house of delegates, Porto Rico, and leader of the Unionist party, has published an article in the party organ in which he criticizes the message of President Roosevelt to Congress relative to Porto Rican affairs. He declares that citizenship without self-government is debasing, and should it become a fact, it would be time to say to the people, “Prepare yourselves to win liberty with sword and gun.”

— In the fog that hung over this vicinity the night of December 30, a special train passed the block signal at Takoma Park, at 6:30, and crashed into the rear of a local passenger two miles below. Forty-five persons lost their lives, and many more are suffering from the injuries sustained. On January 2 a very similar accident occurred near Volland, Kan., in which thirty-five were killed and fifty-five injured. In addition to the usual investigation by coroners and railroad authorities, the Interstate Commerce Commission has left other important work for a thorough investigation of the block system of signaling.