SECULAR NEWS by Editor

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Nov 28, 1878

SECULAR NEWS.

By Editor

—Labor riots are threatened in Glasgow.

—There was an earthquake shock at Little Rock, Arkansas, November 18.

—A valuable underground water channel has been discovered in Tulare county, which is thought to be of inestimable value.

—Very cold weather throughout Great Britain, with heavy snow, hail, and rain, has seriously delayed agricultural operations.

—A dispatch from Berlin says: Russia is making great efforts to obtain an extension of the term of occupation of Turkey, but all the powers oppose it.

—The annual losses by fire in the United States aggregate $100,000,000, and the opinion has been expressed that they add materially to the hard times.

—The committee on suffrage in the California constitutional convention have decided to report a section authorizing the legislature to pass a law allowing women to vote.

—The Post Master General has discontinued the post office in Spring Garden, Alabama, because the citizens made threats against a special agent for having the postmaster arrested for fraud.

—The San Francisco stock market has suffered one of the greatest collapses which was ever known. The rich bonanzas of Nevada have gone down to very low figures. Of course many fortunes have vanished in a day.

—Dr. Cuyler has been traveling, and now he says there are over 8,000 drinking saloons in full blast in San Francisco, with its population of 302,000. Two thousand more than New York has within its population of over 1,000,000.

—The field army of the Ameer of Afghanistan is believed to number 50,000 infantry, 12,000 cavalry, and 200 guns, including a battery of Armstrong guns.

—A telegram from Berlin reports a belief current there that a plot exists for the assassination of all sovereigns. The Prussian judges when examining Nobiling's case were led to believe in the existence of a central organization for this purpose, and investigations are still going on.

—Several letters from members of the International Society have been found at Passavante's abode. And more Internationalists have consequently been arrested. The king of Italy had, previous to the attempt on his life, received two letters intimating that it would be made.

—The great silver mines of Nevada are reported as being unproductive. It is not positively known whether they are failing in paying rock, or whether it is another run on the stock market. There has been more money made (and lost) by manipulators of the stocks than was ever made from the mines.

—Appalling distress and destitution exist among the mechanics and laborers of Sheffield, in consequence of business depression. Hundreds exist in tenements without clothing or furniture, all being sold or pawned to procure food. They are without fuel and dependent upon the charity of neighbors. The mayor has called a public meeting to devise measures of relief.

—It is reported from Los Angeles, November 19, that an immense tidal wave, six feet beyond the ordinary tide movement, has swept the whole coast of Southern California, badly damaging the wharves at Cayucos, Point Sal, and Avila, and destroying much property exposed for shipment. So far but one life is reported lost. A great earthquake has probably occurred in South America or in the South Pacific ocean.

—November 18, Norwich, England, was inundated by a freshet in the river Wensum, the consequence of a fortnight's steady rain. The two most densely populated districts were several feet under water. The basements of all factories, warehouses, granaries and dwellings along the river were flooded. One or two deaths by drowning are reported. Four or five miles of streets were submerged and from 3,000 to 4,000 dwellings made uninhabitable. The authorities are maintaining the homeless poor.

—One of the happiest effects of the refunding of the national debt at a lower rate of interest, is that the bonds are becoming widely distributed among the masses of the people. In 1862, in each $10,000,000 of bonds issued, there were only 7,930 bonds in $50s and $100s. In 1865 the number was 7,880. In 1878 the number is 24,930, or more than three times the former ratio. It is estimated that in a short time over 2,000,000 of persons or families will be owners of the United States bonds. This grows chiefly out of the insecurity of savings banks and other institutions. The small depositors of the former have become owners of "governments" of the smaller denominations. Official figures also show that the average holding of shares in the national banks is very small—in many cases being less than twenty shares, and running down to five and less. In some of them, one-third to one-half of the stock-holders are women, dependent for subsistence upon their earnings.

—The new Anti-Socialism Bill introduced into the German Reichstag will, if it becomes a law, convert Germany into a despotism pure and simple. Printers, booksellers, and hotel-keepers may be prevented from carrying on their respective trades; and the central authorities may, it also appears, with the sanction of the Federal Council, issue orders to the effect that, for the space of a year, meetings shall only be held with an authorization from the police. This is a mere sample of what the bill provides. It may already be predicted that Socialism, instead of being suppressed by these rigorous measures, will only take deeper root. The great source of socialism is the misery of the mass of the people; and in Germany that misery has been intensified by the huge incubus of a military government, which not only impoverishes the State but crushes the individual workman. Until Germany reduces its military establishment, she will never get rid of socialism. During the Franco-German war the sympathies of the country went out mainly toward Germany; but there is very little in such despotic measures to awaken the sympathy of this country, but everything to arouse pronounced antagonism and indignation.