p. 21 | Current Mention

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 23, 1903

Current Mention

— Six persons were fatally hurt and thirty others seriously by the collapsing of a bridge approach at Eau Claire, Wis., June 16.

— It is estimated that fifty lives were lost in the recent storm at Clifton, near Morenci, Ariz., by the sudden flooding of Chase Creek.

— Seven thousand flood victims in Alexander County, Ill., are homeless and short of food; relief supplies were ordered by Acting Governor McKinzie.

— The Italian legation at Peking, China, has begun the installation there of the Marconi system of wireless telegraphy, to communicate directly with ships in the Gulf of Pechili.

— A railway from Shanghai to Nanking, China, has been authorized by royal decree at Peking, to be built by an English company, and to be under British control. Five years will be the time required for its construction.

— A Geneva, Switzerland, dispatch of June 11 announced the re-election of Lady Henry Somerset to the presidency of the World's W. C. T. U., Mrs. Lillian M. N. Stevens being chosen vice-president at large. Mrs. Clara Parrish Wright was elected superintendent of the young woman's branch.

— As the fourth of July draws near, reports which are coming from various places indicate that the sale of toy pistols needs to be discouraged by legislation, if not altogether suppressed. In Pittsburg recently, for example, there were seven deaths from lockjaw caused by toy-pistol wounds within the space of ten days.

— A Paris dispatch dated June 12 says: “The separation of church and state in France is predicted as a result of the report made to-day by a special committee of the chamber of deputies appointed recently to investigate the relations between the two. The committee adopted, by a vote of seventeen to sixteen, a motion in favor of the denunciation of the concordat, and the separation of church and state.”

— At the session of the English Lutheran synod of the Northwest, at La Crosse, Wis., June 17, a sensation was created by the remarks of the Rev. G. H. Irabert, of Minneapolis, who called attention to the fact that a spirit of worldliness is growing in the churches of this country, and predicted the gradual downfall of Christianity unless ministers got out in the fields and worked with more vigor.

— King Peter of Servia has been formally recognized by Russia, Italy, and Austria, but the message from the Austrian sovereign practically commands punishment of the conspirators who killed King Alexander. An outbreak among the Servians is regarded as certain if the command is obeyed. It is further reported that the army is not united on the choice of a king, and a civil war may be precipitated as a result.

— The ruins of a large city have been discovered in a remote part of the State of Pueblo, Mexico, by Francisco Rodriguez, an archeologist, who has just made a report of his find to the government authorities at Mexico City. The city contains large pyramids and extensive fortifications. It is situated in the midst of a dense forest, and a large amount of excavation will be necessary to learn its true extent and importance. A commission will be appointed by the government to explore the ruins.

— Sunday evening, June 14, the town of Heppner, which is the county seat of Morrow County, Oregon, was inundated by a cloudburst which filled the gulch in which the town is situated, a great volume of water rushing down upon the town with scarcely a moment’s warning, with a force which swept away houses, trees, and even huge rocks lying in its path. So sudden was the visitation that the inhabitants had no time to escape the flood, and most of those in its pathway were drowned, or killed by contact with moving débris. It is estimated that about five hundred of the residents of the place lost their lives. The population of the town was 1,250.

— Information regarded as of great importance concerning political affairs in Colombia and their effect on the Panama Canal treaty was received at Washington from confidential agents of this government in that country, June 11. The reports of these agents indicate that if the treaty is defeated, the States of Panama and Cauca, which occupy the Isthmus of Panama, will secede, and organize an independent republic. In these two States sentiment in favor of the canal is almost unanimous, but it is feared that the opposition elsewhere in the country is so strong that the treaty will be defeated. President Marroquin is heartily in sympathy with those who desire the treaty to be ratified. He is hampered, however, by the strong sentiment that prevails outside of the Isthmus, and even among his own ministry.

— The latest trust of importance to be heard from is the farmers’ trust. Such a trust was organized at Indianapolis, Ind., not long ago, under the title of the Society of American Equity. The claimed membership of the trust is now 100,000, and the organizers express the hope that the “million mark” will be reached in two or three months. The object of the trust is of course to advance the price of farm products. The plan is to determine from the reports of crop specialists in every part of the country what is an equitable minimum price for each commodity. Once fixed, this price will be sent to all members of the society at the same time, and no member will sell for less. The directors, it is said, believe that by September the members will hold so much grain and keep it from the market that prices will have to go up. They are trying to “engineer a corner.” They mean by concerted withholding of products from trade to make an artificial scarcity, just as if there had been a drought or a failure of the crops for any other cause. One of their chief aims at this time is “dollar wheat.”

— That negro slavery has not disappeared from the continent of North America, may be believed on evidence which now comes from Mexico, where negroes are sometimes imported from the States, ostensibly for “colonization” purposes. According to a statement made in court at El Paso, Texas, by a returned negro “colonist” from Mexico, “Father” Ellis, a negro agent, induced him to go to Mexico under the impression that he was going to join a community in which all the members lived on the co-operative plan, and the proceeds of their joint work were devoted to the upbuilding of the colony. When he arrived at his destination, he was at once ordered to work on a cotton plantation, the owner being a white man. There he learned that slavery in its worst form existed in the vicinity, and members of the so-called co-operative community were human chattels, bought and sold, and compelled to do the hardest kind of labor without remuneration. Finally he made preparations, together with about fifty others, to leave the place and make his way back to the United States, but over nine years passed before the plan could be carried out.

— At the meeting of the Michigan State Board of Health, June 10, 1903, the following resolution was unanimously adopted: “Resolved, That the State Board of Health shall each year publish and transmit to boards of supervisors and local boards of health throughout the State, the scientific and common names of diseases dangerous to the public health. Such list shall contain the names of dangerous communicable diseases already existing in the State, or which in the opinion of the State Board of Health are liable to be present during the year following each publication. Diseases communicable from animals to man shall also be included in these lists. Accompanying the lists shall be brief statements of how each of the dangerous diseases is spread, and the proper steps to be taken for its restriction by local health boards and health officers at every outbreak of such a disease.”