The Thirteenth International Peace Congress
The Thirteenth International Peace Congress is to meet in Boston during the first week in October, the opening session to be on Monday evening, October 3, followed by morning and evening sessions during the succeeding four days. The promotion of popular education as to the duty of supplanting the war system by rational and legal methods; the speedy reduction of armaments, and the application of the vast sums spent upon them to constructive ends; and the better general organization of the nations in their mutual relations—these are the objects of these congresses. These objects are certainly worthy ones, and we wish there were warrant for the belief that it is possible to bring them about. There are numerous strikes at the present time in different parts of the country, and many more threats of strikes in case demands are not complied with. The most serious strike is that now in progress in the great meat-packing establishments of Chicago and other places. There is a prospect that the allied trades will strike in sympathy. Railroad freight handlers have already struck in sympathy with the packing employees, and have added to the gravity of the situation. In Massachusetts 26,000 cotton-mill operatives are on strike against a reduction in wages, and other mills are shutting down voluntarily. The Venezuelan Government has seized the asphalt properties of certain American citizens in that country, on the plea that the company assisted the revolutionists. The value of the property seized is more than three million dollars. The matter has been brought to the attention of the government at Washington, and the latter will demand the return of the properties. Cerebro spinal meningitis has been epidemic in New York this year, there having been 900 deaths from that disease thus far, or thirteen times as many as last year. The disease is due to a germ which affects the spinal cord, and is much more likely to be fatal in infants and children than in adults. Russia’s promise that vessels of the volunteer fleet shall not hereafter carry on operations of war has induced Turkey to continue to grant them free passage through the Dardanelles; but the British Government is determined that no Russian war-vessel shall pass the strait. A California syndicate has entered upon the work of establishing a telephone system across the continent. The syndicate has been purchasing various long-distant telephone properties along the route of the proposed line. The inventor of the Holland submarine torpedo boat is now completing a new type of submarine craft that will greatly excel in effectiveness the ones now in use in the navies of the world.