Dr. Harvey Wiley, who has stood at the head of the United States Bureau of Chemistry for so long, and who has made so commendable a fight against the adulteration of foods, resigned his position on March 15. Altho the doctor has been upheld in his decisions, because the force of the facts was such that it could not well have been otherwise, yet he says the big combines that insist on adulterating foods have so tied his hands through Government officials that he is practically powerless to do anything. It is a sad commentary on the conditions of this time when men will deliberately destroy the health of their fellow men in order that they may make big profits from their wares. It is true that the claim is made, by those who are adulterating the foods, that they put up only wholesome products; but the facts show to the contrary. It is the part of wisdom for people to use as little of the prepared foods as possible, unless they are fully assured that the manufacturers are honest. There are food factories that are operated by honest men, and their wares can be relied on. But such factories have no occasion to drive out of office such men as Dr. Wiley.
Ferdinand August Bebel, the German Socialist leader who came within twenty votes of being elected president of the Reichstag
On March 14 there occurred an insurrection in the Nebraska penitentiary, among the prisoners, in which the warden and some four or five guards were killed. Three of the convicts finally escaped in their prison clothes in the midst of a very severe blizzard. The militia as well as the police force were immediately called out, and the prison bloodhounds were taken to try to catch the fugitives; but the snow covered their tracks so quickly that it was impossible to pursue them. Three days later a woman frantically telephoned to the officers that the men had robbed a near-by store, the night before, of citizens' clothing, guns, and ammunition, and had just stopped at her house and compelled her to get them breakfast, and her husband to hitch his team to his sled and drive them on their way. The fleeing men were soon surrounded by the pursuing officers and posse, and altho the brothers of the man that was unwillingly driving them in his sled implored them not to shoot, the pursuers opened fire, and the driver was the first to be killed. Two of the convicts were soon killed, and the other one surrendered. The saddest thing in connection with it is that the unwilling driver who was killed was a young man that had been married but two months, and he had to be taken home a corpse to his young wife.
Judge Otto Rosalsky, on March 16, received a bomb through the mail. There was nothing about the package that looked suspicious, for the judge casually opened it the same as he would any other mail that might come to him. But as soon as he commenced to unwrap the package, he discovered what it was, and immediately sent for an officer who was an expert with bombs. The officer proceeded with the work of taking the bomb from its package the same as he had done with many others before, but this one exploded, and he was seriously hurt, and considerable damage was done to the building in which they were at the time. It was supposed that some one was trying to terrify the judge because of the decision he rendered in the case of Foulke E. Brandt, the former valet of Banker Schiff. Modern high explosives are very useful in their proper place, but they also furnish a means for the lawless element of society to hasten on the reign of terror that lies just ahead of us. For the conditions that are rapidly growing up around us can result in nothing short of a reign of the lawless element. Courts that can not be bribed with money will be intimidated with the bomb if possible.
The first lord of the British admiralty has submitted his estimate for the navy for the next year, and it amounts to $220,427,000, a decrease of $1,535,000 from last year. He recommends that they abandon their "double standard" for the navy. The "double standard" means that they have tried in the past to keep their navy up to the point where it could successfully meet any two of the first-class powers of the world. He thinks that they should drop down to a sixty per cent efficiency. In the past they have reckoned the United States among the great powers that they should be ready to meet in connection with any one of the other great world powers in naval battle. But he says now that it is foolish for them to plan against the United States in this way, and all they need to plan for is to keep sixty per cent ahead of Germany. Lord Churchill said that he did not like to mention Germany in such connection, but thought it was necessary. He also said that if Germany would agree to cut down her naval program, the British would meet her on the same ground. It is plainly to be seen, from the report of the admiralty, that Great Britain does not like to go on with this awful burden of war preparation. But in the condition of the nations to-day, she feels that it would be suicide to do otherwise. What is the unseen power that is driving the nations into this madness of war against their will?
Ex-President Diaz has recently been in consultation with a celebrated palmist in France, and this person assures him that he has still fifteen years of life before him, and that he will be returned to the rulership of Mexico next September. Diaz may live much longer than that for aught we know, and he may be called back to Mexico to help quell the revolution that has been running riot there for so long. But why should intelligent people resort to such methods to try to read the future? It is an index, however, of numerous human minds. Men are so anxious to know their future that they can be drawn into consultation with almost any kind of soothsayers that come along. If ordinary human reason can not teach one the evils and fallacy of such a course, they should let God's Word speak to them in its clear warnings against all such work. The mind should be held above the superstitions and trickeries of palmists and all the other schools of soothsayers, if we would be free from self-deception.
President Taft has been notified by Commissioner of Corporations Herbert K. Smith, that the Government should be careful to preserve the title to the remaining sources of water-power in the country, for the reason that the big monopolies of wealth are gathering them up so fast that they will soon be held in one strong combine. The possibilities of electricity make the water-power of the country especially valuable.
A young Russian chemist has succeeded in making a good substitute for rubber from certain properties of benzol. His discovery is said to be attracting considerable attention among those interested in the rubber industries.
Thirty-two men were killed by an exploding boiler of a passenger engine in the Southern Pacific railroad shops at San Antonio, Texas, on March 18.
