Current Mention

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jul 8, 1902

— The Great Northern Railway is crippled by a strike of 2,000 employees from among all departments of its business.

— The remains of Lord Pauncefote, the late British ambassador, will be conveyed to England by the United States cruiser “Brooklyn.”

— The Martinique volcano, Mont Pelée, continues to display activity at intervals, an eruption of ashes and mud being noted on July 1.

— A dispatch to the London Chronicle from Rome says it is probable that Mgr. Merry del Val will be appointed by the pope as “apostolic delegate” at Washington.

— Statistics of fires in this country for the last twenty-six years show that December is the month of the heaviest losses, with July a close second. The loss for 1901 was $174,160,000, an increase of $13,000,000 over the record for 1900.

— One of the most imposing Roman Catholic edifices in the world is Westminster Cathedral, near Westminster Abbey, in London, which has just been completed after several years’ work, and was opened by the English cardinal Vaughan, June 29.

— Some American men of wealth, prominent among whom is Marshall Field, of Chicago, are reported to have set on foot an enterprise to colonize New England with mechanics and farmers from among the immigrants coming to this country from Europe.

— Affairs in the new Cuban republic are reported to be in a serious condition, and going from bad to worse. Little is being done toward agricultural development, and President Palma is engaged in a wholesale reduction of expenses, abolishing offices and decreasing salaries.

— King Edward of England has steadily improved since undergoing the surgical operation which was found to be necessary a short time ago, and English people everywhere, as well as many sympathizers among other nations, are much rejoiced at the favorable outlook. There is talk of a coronation with modified ceremonies in October. Russia is the only government which has been backward in expressions of sympathy.

— More than 490,000 immigrants arrived at New York during the last fiscal year, which is an increase of 150,000 over 1901.

— The anthracite coal strike still continues, but there are signs of a disposition to return to work among the body of the miners. It is believed that the contest will be ended by July 12.

— Beginning July 1 a permanent census bureau will be maintained in Washington, with a force of 750 clerks, this being considered necessary for a more expeditious and economical compilation of the census figures which are taken in this country every ten years.

— The controversy between the freight handlers and railways in Chicago, which was expected to result in a strike July 1, has been referred by the teamsters to the executive board of the Chicago Federation of Labor, the men saying that they will abide by the decision of that body. It is believed that the anticipated trouble will be avoided.

— There appears to be a growing sentiment among educational men against coeducation in the colleges. President Wheeler, of California University, says he is opposed to it because it leads to a great preponderance of girls in these educational institutions, as he observed during a recent trip through Colorado, Nevada, and Southern California.

— The senate chamber at Washington was the scene on Monday of a personal encounter between two well-known senators, one taking offense at the other because the latter had said that the former had used unwarranted language. It was not long ago that the two senators from South Carolina sought to do personal violence to each other in the same place.

— The interoceanic canal bill, fixing upon the Panama route as the one best suited for the waterway joining the Atlantic and the Pacific, has been passed by Congress and signed by the president. A portion of this canal is already constructed, and the French company owning it offers it to the United States for $40,000,000. It remains to be determined whether the French company can convey a good title to all of its property, and whether President Roosevelt can obtain by treaty with Colombia control of the necessary territory on the isthmus for the completion of the canal.

— The following passage from a speech made by Emperor William at the city hall in Aix-la-Chapelle, June 19, has attracted considerable attention throughout Germany, the Catholic press giving it much favorable comment: “I look to all, priests and laymen, to help me uphold religion among the people, in order that the German name may preserve its health and strength. This applies equally to the two creeds, Catholic and Protestant. It is with pride and joy that I am able to tell you that the pope said to my special ambassador who went to Rome on the occasion of the holy father’s jubilee, that he had always held a high opinion of the piety of the Germans, and especially of that of the German army. The pope asked my ambassador to tell his sovereign that the country in Europe where control, order, and discipline still prevailed, with respect for authority and regard for the church, and where the church could live, was the German empire, and for that the papal see was indebted to the German emperor.”

— The opposing political parties in Hayti have substituted arms for political arguments, and have begun fighting near Port au Prince.

— A treaty providing for the continuation of the triple alliance between Germany, Austria, and Italy, has been signed at Berlin.

— The price of corn now exceeds that of wheat, and predictions are made that the former cereal will soon be quoted at one dollar a bushel.

— Speeches advocating the annexation of Cuba are beginning to be heard in Congress, the first having been made June 30, by Senator Elkins.

— The supreme court of Wisconsin has given a decision defining the rights of employment, holding that to employ or to be employed is a primary individual right with which no legislature can properly interfere. Hence no employer can be rightfully punished for refusing to employ a union workman, nor can a workman be prosecuted for quitting work in obedience to the command of his union.

— The continued rains have done immense damage to growing crops in the Middle Western States, particularly in Illinois and along the Mississippi River, many districts being completely inundated. Four persons were killed in Posey County, Ind., by a cyclone which visited that region, June 28. On the 27th destructive storms raged along the lower Texas coast and in the northeastern corner of the State, about a score of lives being reported lost. While an abnormal rainfall continues in North America, Australia is suffering from an unprecedented drought.

— Stirred up, doubtless by clergymen in this country who desire to see the government fully committed to an indorsement of Sunday as the Christian sabbath, Secretary-of-the-Treasury Shaw recently communicated with the president of the St. Louis exposition company regarding the provisions made by the company for fulfilling the agreement to keep the exposition closed on Sundays, which was made by Congress conditional to the gift of $5,000,000 from the government treasury. Secretary Shaw wrote that he would not favor paying any further vouchers presented by the company until the Sunday-closing contract was executed and placed on file in the Treasury Department, and forwarded to the president the form of a contract which would be acceptable, to be filled out and signed by each member of the exposition company. In reply President Francis of the company said the matter would receive prompt attention, and that meanwhile, as evidence of the intention of the company to keep their agreement in the matter, he would invite the attention of the secretary of the treasury to an explicit declaration contained in the rules and regulations adopted by the company last November, that “the exposition will be closed on Sundays.” To this Secretary Shaw replied that in the opinion of the Treasury Department this declaration did “not fully comply” with the act of Congress providing for Sunday closing, and it was “therefore requested that the exposition company, at its earliest convenience, comply with the requirements set forth” in his former letter. The officials of the exposition took action accordingly.

— The color line was drawn at the recent International Sunday-school convention at Denver, Colo., and young people of the colored race have decided to form a national society modeled after the Society of Christian Endeavor.

— Elder Hiram Munger, of Chicopee Falls, Mass., who took part in the proclamation of the advent message in 1844, and has been prominent as a First-day Adventist preacher since that time, died at his home, June 8, at the age of ninety-five years.

— A Massachusetts woman who is prominent in women’s clubs in that State, affirms that she has often been greatly shocked at seeing and hearing of the common use of intoxicants by Boston society women, and, on the part of the younger women, the frequent indulgence in profanity.

— It is estimated that Lloyds and other English insurance companies lost $5,000,000 by the postponement of King Edward’s coronation, a vast number of tradesmen and shopkeepers having insured heavily against loss from the death of the king or any accident that might postpone the ceremonies.

— Revelations implicating the mayor and a large number of the public officials of Minneapolis, Minn., in one of the greatest scandals of corruption in office ever brought to light in this country, have been made by a detective sharing in the guilt, who was arrested after attempting to escape out of the State. There is no reason to suppose that Minneapolis is a special exception in the list of large cities in this respect.

— A congress of all religions has been planned by Bishop Samuel Fallows to be held in connection with the Olympian games to take place at Chicago in 1904. “It is held,” the report says, “that the temperance and self-denial exacted of candidates for modern sports of all kinds is closely allied to the principles of self-control which are taught as part of every creed in civilized lands, and that athletics and religion work together toward forming a race of perfect human beings.”