SUNDAY ENFORCEMENT NOTES AND COMMENT.
By Editor
A CRUSADE against all classes of stores that keep open on Sundays was recently inaugurated at McKeesport, Pa., and all storekeepers who have been in the habit of keeping open on Sunday fear prosecution. The first case tried resulted in conviction. PUBLIC notice was given by Mayor Nye of Moorhead, Minn., on June 17, that in deference to the wishes of the people in that neighborhood baseball games must hereafter cease in the vicinity of the normal school. THE Young People's Union, comprising twenty-five societies representing as many local Protestant churches, has voted to protest to Governor Utter against baseball games on Sunday at Rocky Point and elsewhere, and to request him to close all the shore resorts in Rhode Island on Sundays. The local union numbers about 1,500 persons, and will endeavor to have other young people's unions in the State take similar action. AN order forbidding druggists to sell on Sunday any of the articles the sales of which on Sunday are prohibited by law was recently issued by the authorities of Concord, N. H. Among the articles enumerated were newspapers, confectionery, cigars, etc. IN complete compliance with a resolution passed by the council at the request of the local churches of Moultrie, Ga., the municipal officers have served notice that in future the Sunday-closing laws will be most rigidly enforced. Prescription clerks who have to fill prescriptions on Sunday will be required to enter the drug stores alone and close the door behind them. The Japanese peace envoy is now in the United States, and the Russian envoy is now on his way across the Atlantic. They will meet at the home of President Roosevelt, where a formal reception will be tendered them. The negotiations will be conducted at Portsmouth, N. H. There is a feeling on the part of the Japanese envoy and staff that the close of peace negotiations will close the war. Japan will demand that the province of Manchuria be given back to China; that Japan be given a free hand in Korea; that an indemnity to cover Japan's war expenses be paid by Russia. At least, these are the demands going the rounds of the press, and interviews with the spokesman of the Japanese peace commission would lend color to this report. The commissioner of insurance for the state of Massachusetts in his annual report on insurance conditions in the United States, makes a most scathing arraignment of some of the greatest insurance companies in this country, principally the Equitable Life Insurance Company, the Mutual Life Insurance Company, and the New York Life Insurance Company. He recommends that the legislatures take up the matter of compelling these great concerns to deal honestly with their patrons. To boycott Chinese commerce is the plan proposed by the Bureau of Commerce and Labor in retaliation for the Chinese boycott of American goods. Americans purchase in China annually about thirty million dollars' worth of goods, and sell to China in the same period about sixty-three million dollars' worth. It is stated that the Chinese Government will never again agree to sign a treaty with America which shall exclude any Chinese citizens from this country. The dispensary system of controlling the liquor traffic, which has been in vogue for some time in South Carolina, has been declared a failure; and because of its failure the prohibition forces are being strengthened in that state. It is expected by those who are instrumental in establishing the dispensary system that it will soon be voted out. The Swedish cabinet, on July 25, resigned in a body as a protest against the dissolution of the union with Norway. The cabinet holds that the secession of Norway was unlawful, and should not be recognized by Sweden, except under conditions which many feel that Norway would not agree to accept. Policy-holders of the Equitable Life Insurance Company are asking that a receiver be appointed for the concern, and that its $417,000,000 of assets be divided among those holding policies. This has come as a result of the exposures of graft and fraud recently made. Commander R. E. Peary has sailed again for the North Polar regions in search of the pole. His steamer, The Roosevelt, was built especially for Arctic work of this kind, and the explorer declares his complete confidence in the success of the undertaking. The flaxseed market has been cornered by the Standard Oil Company's manager. Consequently the price of linseed oil is to be advanced 40 cents per gallon. The body of John Paul Jones—or what purports to be his body—arrived at the naval academy grounds, Annapolis, Md., on July 24, and will find its last resting-place there. The British fleet will patrol the Baltic Sea in the near future as an offset to the naval demonstration of Germany in Scandinavian waters recently.