Witnesses Before the Pure Food Commission
Witnesses before the United States Commission to Establish Standards for Pure Foods, which is sitting at New York, declare that jellies and jams are generally adulterated. One witness, speaking for the manufacturers, declared that sixty per cent of the jellies manufactured in the United States are imitations, composed of glucose and coloring matter. Another witness declared that if the manufacture of everything but unadulterated fruit jellies and jams were prohibited, seventy-five per cent of the establishments now manufacturing jellies and jams would have to close. This is a striking commentary on our times. Wireless telegraphy has been again brought to the attention of the world by the arrival at New York of Marconi, who conducted experiments in long-distance wireless telegraphing while crossing the ocean. Mr. Marconi claims that he was in constant connection with the wireless station at Poldhu, England, until the vessel had covered 1,700 miles, and that had the station at Cape Breton been in working order, he would have been in wireless touch with the shore all the way across. He expects to begin wireless communication across the ocean again as soon as the station at Cape Breton, N. S., has been repaired. The committee that is inquiring into the cause of physical degeneracy of the British people has examined 100,000 English children. One of the signs of degeneracy reported by the committee is that the heads of the children are smaller than they should be. This, says the committee, is particularly noticeable in children who live in, or in the vicinity of, tall buildings, and is attributed to the want of light and air. As it is the tendency all over the world to increase the height of buildings, we may expect to see this condition increasing all over the world. Turkey is renewing her raids on the Armenians while Russia is preoccupied in the Far East. The Armenians have evidently been expecting something of the kind, for they were prepared to resist the slaughter of their families. The report of the Turkish attack upon their villages states that the Armenians lost about 900 and the Turks about 700. The foreign representatives of several other nations have proceeded to the scene of operations to ascertain the true state of affairs and protest against Turkish excesses. The uncompromising attitude of the Filipino Moros was shown at the St. Louis Fair on May 12, when the Moros held a feast and war-dance because of the slaughter of American soldiers in the island of Mindanao on May 8. The Americans were surrounded by several hundred Moros, and of the thirty-nine men in the detachment seventeen were killed. The Moros at the fair were overjoyed at the news, and demanded a roast slave to celebrate the occasion. The British expedition to Tibet has halted at Gyangtse, and is there besieged by a large force of the Tibetans. An attempt was made by the latter to surprise the British and massacre the expedition; but the attempt failed, and the attacking Tibetans lost a large number. British authorities now declare that the mission must push on to Lhasa. The expedition is awaiting the arrival of re-enforcements. Probably the most valuable ship and cargo that ever sailed from an American port sailed from New York on May 12. The ship was the French liner La Loraine, valued at $4,000,000, carrying a general cargo valued at $1,000,000, and in addition $9,300,000 in gold bars and specie. The latter was one of the payments to the Panama Canal Company. Natives of British Borneo recently surprised the foreign colony at the railway station of Kawang, and murdered 130 persons. After the massacre they set fire to the village. Only a half dozen from the little colony escaped. It is reported that between 5,000 and 7,000 American soldiers, who saw service in the Spanish-American War, are going to China within a few weeks as officers in the Chinese army.