News and Miscellany

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park, Washington, D. C. · May 30, 1912

News and Miscellany

Notes and clippings from the daily and weekly press

— Ignited by a lightning bolt, twenty acres of storage sheds at the Atlantic Coast Line Railway wharves were swept by fire May 12, causing loss estimated at $460,000.

— The British government has made a serious move in the matter of airships for the navy and army, having authorized the purchase of 60 aeroplanes, which will be increased to 100 as soon as a sufficient number of army and navy air-men have been trained.

— In his report on the Equitable Building fire to the New York Board of Fire Underwriters, Superintendent Stewart states that many safes which went through that fire did not fully protect their contents, and he recommends that all office safes should be made of heavy iron shells filled with not less than five inches of cement.

— At a recent meeting of the Association of Life Insurance Presidents a resolution was adopted indorsing the proposal to purchase the birthplace of Grover Cleveland, at Caldwell, N. J., as a memorial. Under the law, the association is powerless to subscribe to the fund, but its members are recommended to do so individually. Mr. Cleveland was the association’s first chairman.

— The London papers publish a statement made by the Liverpool Journal of Commerce that J. Bruce Ismay intends to provide an endowment fund for pensions for disabled seamen of all classes connected with the White Star Line and for their widows, as a thank-offering and a memorial to the heroism of the “Titanic’s” crew. The fund, it is further said, will probably amount to $100,000.

— Canada has the greatest railway mileage in proportion to population of any country in the world, with possibly one or two minor exceptions, and, according to the Railway Age Gazette, she is probably about to enter upon an era of great additional expansion in railway-building. One of the projected railways is to provide an outlet for the great wheat crops to Hudson Bay, and thence by steamer to Europe.

— An exchange says that between forty and fifty thousand children daily visit the 326 vulgar nickel shows of Chicago; 936 pool-rooms, in which by law a minor is not allowed to enter, are wide open to boys night and day, seven days in the week; 366 dancing-halls provide similar training for girls. These industries last year were responsible for a large share in the production of Chicago’s 10,447 youthful criminals.

— In Philadelphia the other day, a man started to the place where he was to be married, having in his pocket $375, with which to buy furniture for his new home. He engaged in conversation with a stranger, took a drink with him, and woke up next morning in Atlantic City, his money gone. He borrowed car fare, and went back to Philadelphia to be married; but the wedding guests had dispersed the day before, and his fiancé says there will be no wedding. Sensible woman.

— A Turkish official in Paris thus sums up the war situation: “It is three months since war was declared. Italy is complete master of the sea, enjoys every modern equipment, and has an army of 100,000 men in Tripoli. Yet it does not dare to leave the coast, where its troops are protected by the guns of the war-ships. It has stumbled upon a wasps’ nest. With unstable finances at home and a costly campaign abroad, and no end in sight, Italian statesmen certainly have their hands full.”

— The Chinese laundryman at the beginning of each week makes out a batch of checks in duplicate, to be used as wash tickets. He selects the name of some god or goddess or of some object, as the sun or moon, and to this he affixes a number, as “Moon No. 1,” “Moon No. 2,” and so on. He writes this number on both ends of the check and between them puts his own name. When a customer calls with laundry, the Chinese tears the check in a ragged fashion through his name and gives one half to the customer.

— It is well known that paper money is a most prolific agent in carrying disease germs. Long before a bill is worn out, it is laden with germs. A machine has been invented that will renew and cleanse the germ-laden bit of precious paper. One of these machines will take a dirty, germ-laden bill and turn it out clean and crisp in two minutes. These machines are expected to save about $1,000,000 a year for the government, as sixty per cent of the paper money now sent to the treasury for redemption can be circulated again by washing it.

— “Syndicalism” is a new term which has lately come into use in connection with the labor strikes abroad. It is derived from syndicat, used by the French in describing an extreme phase of trade-unionism. Syndicalists are the revolutionary unionists of the Continent, who employ the general strike as their principal weapon, making it a positive and aggressive movement, and not merely a quiescent stoppage of labor. The Syndicalists teach the seizure of the means of production, and are antagonistic to the existing state authority. Their movement has had its rise and development chiefly in the Latin countries of Europe.

— Since the wreck of the “Titanic,” life-boat builders of New York have been swamped with orders from the steamships. Every available life-boat was quickly bought up at $360 each. Builders have doubled their working forces, and are placing large orders for material with which to build new boats.

— When and where is a man’s life secure? George Borup, of New York City, who was with Captain Peary in his successful trip to the north pole, was drowned in Long Island Sound last month by the overturning of a canoe. Many a man who has braved the perils of the sea for years has perished suddenly in a place where the most timid person would go without the slightest apprehension of danger.

— Not many congregations in the United States can count 225 birthday anniversaries. The Huguenot Church, Charleston, S. C., on April 14 celebrated such an anniversary. It was the first church organized in South Carolina. Its founders were French Protestant refugees from Pons, France, under the leadership of Jean Ribaut in the spring of 1562. Its present house of worship was built in 1845. Its pastor is Charles S. Vedder, D. D. He is eighty-six years old, and has served the congregation for forty-six years. The history of church and pastor is a notable record.

— By the time the Panama Canal is opened, the ships may sail through terraced green lawns instead of bare, yellow earth slopes now in evidence. The reason is not simply a desire for beauty. It is believed by the government officials that seeding the sloping sides of the canal with a strong grass may prevent the slides now so frequent, and be instrumental in reducing the wearing-down effects of the tropical rains. An expert botanist from the Smithsonian Institution in Washington has charge of the planting operations, and the Agricultural Department has sent to Panama several thousand pounds of grass seed.

— An attempt is being made to learn whether the women of England who have the right to vote in municipal and county elections wish to vote also for members of Parliament. Cards were sent out to 134,000 of them asking for an expression of their wishes. Answers have so far been received from 77,375 of these women voters. Of the whole number, 22,176 wish their franchise to be extended so that they may vote for members of Parliament, while 47,995 oppose the parliamentary franchise for women; 9,104 declared themselves to be neutral in the matter, and 57,025 have not answered the inquiry. Thus it is seen that about one half of the 134,000 women voters appealed to have not replied or have declared themselves neutral; while of those who have expressed any desire the majority against parliamentary suffrage is two to one. Not only do unmarried women and widows vote in municipal and county elections, but they may and do hold office as members of borough or city councils, county councils, and other positions. In 1908 Mrs. Garrett Anderson was elected mayor of Aldeburgh. This is said to be the first case in England of a woman’s holding that position.