Current Mention

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 3, 1902

— Tolstoi, the Russian novelist and reformer, is reported to be ill of typhoid fever.

— A tidal wave is reported to have swept over the harbor at Fort-de-France, Martinique, doing great damage to shipping. The St. Vincent volcano is becoming less active.

— The Rev. J. H. Barrows, president of Oberlin College and a leading figure at the Parliament of Religions held in connection with the Chicago World’s Fair, is ill of pneumonia, and not expected to survive.

— The teamsters’ union in Chicago effected a complete tie-up of meat delivery wagons in that city, May 27, because the meat packers refused to agree to the scale of wages demanded by the union. Several of the companies gave in, and agreed to the union terms.

— A resolution calling for an investigation by a committee of Congress into the matter of lynchings in the United States, has been introduced in Congress by Senator Gallinger, of New Hampshire. In presenting the resolution he cited the fact that 2,658 lynchings have been perpetrated in this country in the last ten years, and that these occurrences are not confined to any particular section or to one race among the inhabitants.

— Michigan is now a full-fledged registration State, as shown by the evidence presented in the last Michigan Report on Vital Statistics, a copy of which has been sent us. Any reader can secure a copy by addressing Fred M. Warner, Secretary of State, Lansing, Mich. The facts presented in regard to the movement of population, and the statistics of births and deaths, marriages and divorces, are of great importance.

— General Chaffee, commander of the American forces in the Philippines, has reviewed the verdict of the recent court-martial at Manila which exonerated Major Waller from blame for having perpetrated many atrocities on the island of Samar, contrary to the rules of “civilized warfare.” General Chaffee condemns the verdict of the court-martial as being unwarranted by the evidence presented, a miscarriage of justice, and a stain upon the honor of the American government. But the significant thing about it all is that the court-martial should have sanctioned Major Waller’s cruelties, and that he was likewise upheld by American statesmen on the floor of Congress.

— A noteworthy event among affairs at the national capital was the unveiling of a statue of the Count de Rochambeau, who commanded the French forces at Yorktown when Cornwallis surrendered that city with the British army under his command to Washington. The ceremony of the unveiling was a brilliant one, participated in by President Roosevelt, members of his cabinet, justices of the supreme court, and other eminent personages, including a French general, a French vice-admiral, the descendants of Count Rochambeau and Lafayette, and others of distinction in military, official, and literary life. The statue stands in Lafayette square, opposite the White House, and close to the statue of General Lafayette.

— The German Lutheran church at Dundee, Ill., has decided that its members must not be affiliated with labor organizations and secret societies.

— Reports from the peace conference of Boer leaders in South Africa are of an uncertain character, and afford no positive assurance that the war is ended, though it is believed that the majority of the Boer leaders are in favor of accepting England’s terms.

— Evidence pointing strongly to the existence of an electric trust, arbitrarily regulating prices and controlling trade in the business of electrical supplies, has been gathered by the Chicago Tribune. The headquarters of the trust is in Chicago. It employs a detective to travel from city to city to discover violations of the trust rules on the part of dealers who are in the combine, which violations are punished by the assessment of heavy fines.

— The following language, used by Rabbi Emil Hirsch, of Chicago, in a recent sermon, indicates the extent to which some Jewish leaders have departed from the fundamental ideals of Jewish belief: “The sabbath of the Jews is dead. Let us bury it. God never ordained the Sabbath day. It is an institution of man. Only millionaires and peddlers can observe the Jewish sabbath in these days of activity. Sunday to all intents and purposes already has become our day of rest. The inspiration of the sabbath can be restored only by participating in the flood of life about us, and recognizing as our day of rest the day set apart by the nations in which we live.”

— In England, as appears from the following news item, dated at London, May 24, the ancient custom of punishment by the use of the stocks still clings to the administration of government: “The strange sight was seen this week of the rector of a Lincolnshire parish sitting in the stocks. This reversion to the ancient form of punishment was not due to any offense committed by the clergyman, but to a local custom, dating centuries back, by which certain tolls can be obviated by undergoing this ordeal. Rather than pay, the rector of Corby, accompanied by the church warden and the chairman of the parish council, publicly put his feet into the stocks. Sir J. B. Stone, conservative member of Parliament for East Birmingham, and president of the National Records Association, afterward voluntarily underwent the same experience.”

— The following cablegram concerning this government’s relations with the papacy touching the Philippine question, comes from Rome, under date of May 27: “The latest news about the Taft mission to the pope concerning the friars of the Philippines has somewhat dampened the enthusiasm of the Vatican. It was hoped the mission would be the first step toward the establishment of some kind of diplomatic relations between Washington and the papacy, but it is now understood that the American government doesn’t wish to give the mission such significance, although Governor Taft is charged to congratulate the pope on his jubilee. The pope is trying to make the utmost of the occasion before the world. He has prepared a reception with all the pomp of medieval gorgeousness. Bishop O’Gorman has gone to Naples to meet the mission, which is expected to arrive in Rome next Friday.”