Current Mention

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 31, 1903

— Dean Farrar, the versatile and well-known English clergyman and author, died in London, March 22.

— President Castro, of Venezuela, has resigned, but has been requested by a unanimous vote of the Venezuelan congress to remain in office.

— Revolutionists have captured the capital of Santo Domingo, and have taken possession of the offices and departments of the former government. A part of the government forces surrendered to the revolutionists without fighting.

— Labor union leaders at Racine, Wis., where a strike of employees of the Schoen Manufacturing Company is in progress, failed in an effort to secure a modification of an injunction forbidding the “picketing” of the company’s plant.

— The much-mooted case of Mrs. Maybrick, the American woman imprisoned in London in 1889 for the murder of her husband, will be terminated in July, 1904, by her release, according to an official announcement from the English authorities.

— Some European scientists declare that there is evidence of a process of gradual wasting away in the Swiss glaciers, and that these great masses of ice, of so much interest and importance, may be destined to disappear. Considerable speculation is being evoked on this subject.

— In Chicago three hundred factories are now closed, and 5,000 men are idle, as a result of strikes for increased pay. In Lowell, Mass., the operators in seven cotton mills are ready to strike unless their wages are raised ten per cent. Thus the record of industrial strife and upheavals goes on.

— It is announced that President Roosevelt and Archbishop Ireland are negotiating over the question of the disposition to be made of the Philippine friars, and that a final settlement of this problem is near. It is reported that the places of the friars in the islands will be filled either by native or by American priests, and that no more priests will be sent to the islands from Europe.

— The “big tree” grove in Calaveras County, Cal., is said to be in imminent danger of extinction, lumbermen having purchased the land with the view of converting the trees into lumber. These giant Sequoias, numbering 7,000 in all, are said to be the only ones of their kind left, and it is hoped Congress may take some action which will save them from the hand of commercial greed.

— The British Parliament has under consideration a plan to solve the “Irish question,” by a government loan to tenants in Ireland of $500,000,000, with which to buy out the landlords. Each tenant will be loaned a sum not to exceed $5,000, at less than three per cent interest, which he is to pay back in yearly installments. The bill, if passed, will go into effect Nov. 12, 1903.

— At Port of Spain, Trinidad, on the refusal of the government to withdraw an ordinance relating to the city waterworks to which the people objected, March 23, a riot broke out, and a mob attempted to set fire to the government buildings. Thereupon, the police fired on the rioters, killing a number and wounding others. Foreign war-ships in the harbor landed men for the protection of property.

— Members of the Missouri Legislature which ended its session March 23 are liable to indictment by the grand jury, which has been convened in special session by Judge Hazell at Jefferson City to investigate charges of bribery touching legislation recently enacted. The grand jury was also instructed by the judge to investigate a charge of Sabbath-breaking against the legislature, it having been in session Sunday, March 22, to clear up unfinished business.

— La Soufriere, the St. Vincent volcano, has broken out again in violent eruption, and people throughout the island are reported to be in a panic. Throughout the whole of March 22 the northern half of the island was wrapped in impenetrable darkness, from the dense volumes of black “smoke” issuing from the crater, and great damage has been done to property. The eruption is described as being more violent than those which devastated the northern portion of the island last May.

— An international convention, to be attended by representatives of all the peoples of North America, is projected by some business men of New York, for the purpose of discussing plans for the construction of a continental system of waterways for deep sea vessels, and the canalization of the rivers of the continent from ocean to ocean. They estimate that the sum of $10,000,000,000 would be sufficient to do this, and also to create water-power equal to 50,000,000 horse-power. The plan is to have the national government finance the undertaking.

— A Washington telegram under date of March 25 announces the discovery of vast frauds in the government postal service, the greatest, in fact, in the history of the government since the celebrated “star route” fraud of former years. Investigations made by a special detail of post-office inspectors under the direction of Postmaster-General Payne and by order of President Roosevelt, show, the report says, “a condition of rottenness and fraud extending directly from the Post-office Department in Washington into every city, town, village, and hamlet in the country.”

— The award made by the Coal Strike Commission has been made public, and is in the nature of a victory for the miners, who are granted an increase in pay and a shorter working day, though recognition of the union by the mine owners—a principal point for which the miners have contended—is not specified, the commission disclaiming any authority to pass upon this question. The recommendations of the commission are, in brief, a general increase of wages, amounting in most instances to ten per cent; some decrease of time; the settlement of all disputes by arbitration; they fix a minimum wage and a sliding scale; provide against discrimination of persons by either the mine owners or the miners on account of membership or non-membership in a labor union, and provide that the awards made shall continue in force until March 31, 1906. The public, of course, not the mine owners, will pay the increase in wages.