Current Mention

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Dec 20, 1906

— A flood caused by the giving away of a dam, destroyed half the town of Clifton, Ariz., and fifty persons are reported drowned.

— The report of the Census Bureau on insane inmates of hospitals shows that insanity is on the increase in the United States. The number had nearly doubled from 1890 to 1903.

— A fire at Cornell University, December 7, caused the death of four students and three volunteer firemen, as well as the destruction of the finest fraternity building in the world, valued at $200,000.

— The Interstate Commerce Commission is planning a thorough investigation into practically every railroad of the country known to be working in combination with competing roads. The interstate-commerce act passed last winter gives the commission authority to examine all books and records of railroad companies.

— The United States Circuit Court, December 12, imposed fines of $150,000 upon the American Sugar Refining Company and the Brooklyn Cooperage Company for accepting rebates from railroads.

— The receipts of the Post-office Department of the government the past year amounted to $167,932,782.95, with expenditures of $178,449,778.89. But this deficit was $4,055,588 less than that of the previous year.

— A severe rain- and wind-storm swept over San Francisco December 10, killing one person and injuring several. Many of the tents occupied by refugees were blown away and temporary structures demolished. Property loss is estimated at $500,000.

— December 12 the Senate confirmed the appointment by the President of Attorney-General Moody to take his seat as a member of the Supreme Court of the United States on December 24. Similar action was taken on the nominations of Charles J. Bonaparte, to be Attorney General; Victor H. Metcalf, to be Secretary of the Navy; and Oscar S. Strauss, to be Secretary of Commerce and Labor. They will assume their new duties immediately upon the retirement from the cabinet of Mr. Moody.

— The report of Commissioner of Corporations Garfield says that investigation of the oil industry reveals that a very wide-spread system of railway discriminations has for years existed in favor of the Standard Oil Company. One result of the investigation is that during the fiscal year indictments containing 8,193 counts have been returned by various grand juries. Another is that other shippers of oil report that for the first time in many years they are rapidly obtaining equality of treatment from the transportation companies. Investigations are well advanced in other industries, such as sugar, coal, steel, and tobacco.

— For years reports have been circulated of terrible cruelties to the natives in the Kongo Free State, permitted by King Leopold of Belgium, to advance his own financial interests. Protestant missionaries and travelers have sought to arouse the nations to a sense of their duty in the matter, that these terrible atrocities might be brought to an end. Even the Belgian government recently investigated the matter, and Belgians themselves admitted the truth of many of these excesses. The British government has indicated its willingness to join in an effort to bring about the cessation of these cruelties. A resolution was introduced in the United States Senate on December 10 by Senator Lodge, declaring that in the opinion of the Senate the time has come when the affairs of the Kongo Free State should be made the subject of international inquiry. The resolution also advises the President that he will be supported by the Senate in any steps he may deem it advisable to take in co-operation with the other powers.