Opium Reform and Other News
By Editor
Referring to the present campaign for a speedy abolition of the opium trade, a leading official of the Chinese government says: "Unless we can now stop all the opium trade, not only will we be unable to continue the prohibition of the planting, but in places where the cultivation has stopped, it will begin again. We must stop the trade and the importation at once if we wish to succeed in this opium reform. It is impossible," he emphasizes, "to fully stop the opium planting until the trade is made illegal." The poor Chinese farmers can not understand the "gradual yearly reduction." They are told not to plant, but they see the foreign opium still coming into China. The secretary of a prominent horticultural society who has evidently imbibed some of the "Higher Criticism" spirit, scouts the idea of the incident which brought sin into the world through disobedience. He says that "apples could not have grown in Eden," and is inclined to believe that the tempting fruit was the pear. It is ludicrous sometimes to see how far some persons, intelligent in other lines than a fair understanding of the Bible, will go to oppose the Bible record. Where does the Bible say that Eve tempted Adam with an apple? The sale of the Robert Hoe Library at auction in New York City from April 24 to May 4, will include about 16,000 items. It is thought that at least one of its literary treasures will bring a higher price than was ever before realized for a single work in the public market. This is a copy on vellum of the Gutenberg Bible, printed in 1450. It is expected to sell for more than $25,000. By order of the State Board of Education of New York, sanitary drinking-fountains to replace the common drinking-cups, are soon to be placed in thirty-nine public schools in New York. The Vermont State Board of Health has adopted a regulation prohibiting the use of the common drinking-cup in schools, workshops, or other public buildings, or on trains after May 12. In one of the churches in Utica, New York, a telephone system has been installed for the benefit of members of the congregation who may be afflicted with deafness. The transmitter is located directly in front of the pulpit, so that the speaker's words are easily caught. The wires leading to various parts of the auditorium are so arranged as to be inconspicuous. A despatch from Berlin states that the Reichstag by a large majority rejected the Socialist motion calling on the government to take "immediate steps leading to an international agreement concerning universal limitation of armaments and the abolition of the right of capture at sea." One of the features of the meeting of the executive council of the California Teachers' Association, held in Los Angeles, April 1, was the decision to ask the governor of the State to veto a bill passed by the last legislature providing for military training in the State high schools. Interested parties in the proposed arbitration treaty between the United States and Great Britain, are endeavoring to have the compact ready for presentation to the Senate before the adjournment of the approaching session of Congress. The Russian foreign office has telegraphed the Russian minister at Peking that China's reply to Russia's ultimatum is satisfactory. China declares that she fully acquiesced in Russia's demands in her replies to previous Russian notes. Upon his arrival in India for coronation, King George V will be weighed, and his weight in gold will be distributed to the poor. The custom is one of great antiquity in India. Sweden has a population of 5,000,000. America, it is estimated, has more than 2,500,000 Swedes. It is said that an average of 20,000 Swedes come to the United States every year. The phonograph is now used in some public schools for teaching music. The tone and expression are learned from listening to the machine.12(Continued on page 13, column 2) (Notes and News, continued from page 11) "In China, in order to create the desire for an opiate," says the California Christian Advocate, "thousands and tens of thousands of cigarettes are scattered over that empire. Boys and girls are gaily dressed and given baskets filled with cigarettes to be freely distributed; sowing the seed for the harvest. That such a vicious thing could be tolerated is dreadful; that such a traffic should be promoted by such a country as ours is appalling." Speaking of a flood of cigarettes sent out in Kansas City, "the authorities have made a brave fight to stamp out this deadly vice. The cigarette habit has invaded the public schools of that city with terrific effect. The boys are going down by the score and by the hundred." According to a "census of church attendance," taken by the New York Church Association on a certain Sunday on Manhattan Island, "there were 530,000 members of Christian churches who did not attend worship. Of these, 235,000 were men. Of the absentees, 450,000 were Roman Catholics and 77,000 Protestants. The Catholic churches claim 650,000 members, and the Protestant churches 151,000." This proportion is quite contrary to Catholic claims, who contend that a larger proportion of Catholics attend church than Protestants. Practically nine thirteenths of Catholics attend, and one half of Protestants. What seems almost incredible is the following newspaper report of a house sliding twelve miles: "People living along the shore of Lake Champlain were astonished to see a house running away across the ice. The owner wished to move a house about half a mile over the ice. While the workmen were arranging the skids a great gust of wind struck the house and it started at a lively gait up the lake. The sight of the forty-foot, two-story building as it twisted, tumbled, twirled, and turned, terrified the fish hut colony. The house finally banged diagonally on a ridge and came to a standstill after a twelve-mile run." The following is an item from the "Herald of Gospel Liberty:" "At the convention of workmen recently held in St. Petersburg, it was decided to allow Jewish workmen and apprentices to observe their Sabbath rest, in spite of the efforts of the Black Hundred, who wished the convention to go on record as supporting the government measure against the permission for Jews to rest on Saturday." The First Congregational Church of Winnetka, Illinois, has decided to build a $40,000 theater as an annex under the personal supervision of the pastor, expecting to make the theater "spiritual and elevating." One of our exchanges says regarding it: "If there is any spirituality in that church, it will not be on hand very long. The world and the church can not unite." The former battle-ship Texas, which has been used as a target for 12-inch and 8-inch guns, has been sunk in a naval experiment. Steaming at ten knots and at a distance of from six to seven miles, the United States battle-ships New Hampshire and Missouri poured shell into the war-ship in the distance. More than one third of the shots were said to have gone true. The work of taking the Canadian census will begin about June 1. According to the census commissioner the appropriation of $1,000,000 for the work will not be enough. As the result of a successful experiment in equipping a French submarine with wireless, the apparatus may in the future be fitted to other submarines. Two hundred and eighty manufacturing firms in the United States turned out last year 185,000 automobiles valued at $240,000,000. In the last six years Congress has appropriated almost $6,000,000,000 for the expenses of the Federal Government. Austria is planning to spend $62,400,000 for new battle-ships.13(Continued on page 14) (Notes and News, continued from page 13) A reorganization of the railway mail service has been effected by Postmaster-General Hitchcock. Several changes of the most important offices in the service were made. Some of the routes had received no inspection for several years, and he says, "The investigation which we conducted so long and so carefully clearly indicates that the action that I have taken was absolutely necessary." It has been arranged to transport magazines and other bulky periodicals by fast freight. From July 1 next periodicals that can be transported in carload lots by fast freight without disadvantage in delivery will be carried in this manner and paid for at freight rates. Sixteen coal mines in the great Crow's Nest Pass district in British Columbia which were hitherto taking out 12,000 tons of coal daily are now inoperative, and 7,500 miners unemployed. Not a miner will admit that a strike has been called. With them it is merely a "cessation of work" on the ground that their agreements with operators have expired and have not been renewed. Wages are involved principally in the controversy. Unless work is soon resumed the Great Northern Railway in the local district and nearby territory may be affected, as they are the principal consumers of the coal. The Bank of Shasta County, California, closed its doors March 25 at the request of its directors, but it is said that liabilities will be paid in full if time is given to adjust the bank's affairs. Following this, a collateral institution, the First Savings Bank of Shasta County, stopped payment because of a heavy run of depositors. The State Bank Examiner announced the institution was perfectly solvent. A safety appliance to stop derailed trains automatically is being tested on a leased track in Washington, D. C. The principle on which it works is that when one regular wheel or several regular wheels leave the rails, rollers on one side of the rail and extra wheels on the other side take the rails and stop the train by automatically applying the brakes. A religious discussion over the question, "Is there a hell?" has brought turmoil in the public school at Deer Creek, Illinois. Thirteen children have been kept at home by indignant parents who opposed the discussion of religious topics in school. The school board has advised the teacher to avoid the discussion of doctrinal theories. In the production of oats Iowa wins first place from Illinois in the crop-growing race of 1910. According to an announcement made by the department of agriculture, California took first honors from Minnesota for the production of barley, and New York secured the hay-growing title from Iowa. A youth at Evansville, Indiana, recently made a wager that he could eat thirty-two bananas without stopping. He gagged on the last one and was taken to his home. Physicians say he has a slight chance of recovery. The stomach evidently is not made for a storage station. The postmaster of San Francisco has announced that permission has been received from the post-office department to make Sunday deliveries from the main office only. This will give one hundred carriers one day of rest, and only a small number of clerks will be required to work. The New York State Legislature has recently introduced a measure making all bakeries throughout the State subject to the provisions of the factory law, and gives the State Commissioner of Labor power to close bakeries found to be insanitary. During the year 1910 there were 604 cases of infantile paralysis in Iowa, with 160 deaths. This number was exceeded only in Pennsylvania, which had a total of 1,028 cases. Eighteen men, one white and seventeen colored, were killed in Nashville, Tennessee, recently by the falling walls of a previously burnt building. Mr. Albert W. Atwood, in the "American Magazine" for February, March, and April, does not present a pleasing picture regarding "The Great Express Monopoly." It is a sordid story of perverted principles, of the mighty and unprincipled power of money.