News and Miscellany by Editor

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park, Washington, D. C. · Jun 13, 1912

News and Miscellany

By Editor

Notes and clippings from the daily and weekly press

— Four women will occupy seats as delegates at the Republican national convention on June 18. Two will come from California, and two from other Western States.

— Wilbur Wright, who, with his brother Orville, was the first man to navigate the air in a machine heavier than air, died of typhoid fever at his home in Dayton, Ohio, May 30, 1912.

— A despatch from Fez, the Moroccan capital, sent by courier to Tangier, says that the French lost 40 men killed and 75 wounded in the fighting on May 25 and 26, when the hostile Moors, who practically surround the capital, stormed the city. A holy war has been proclaimed, and several tribes have risen and joined forces with those surrounding Fez.

— On June 3, President Taft welcomed to America the visiting division of German war-ships under command of Rear-Admiral von Rebeur-Paschwitz, which was sent by Emperor William. This is the most marked honor that Germany has paid to the United States since the visit of Prince Henry, of Prussia, in 1902. The squadron anchored at Hampton Roads.

— Elections have been held in thirty-six towns in California for local option. The women exercised their new right of voting, with the result that twenty-one of the towns voted for whisky.

— Since the establishment of the United States, the federal government has spent more than $125,000,000 in improvement of the Mississippi River, and States and municipalities in the lower Mississippi Valley have spent nearly $50,000,000, while other federal expenditures upon the Ohio and Missouri Rivers, bearing directly upon the Mississippi problem, bring the total to more than $200,000,000.

— The destruction occasioned by the Mississippi River floods is frightful to contemplate. Property losses are said to amount to $100,000,000, and the loss of life can not be accurately estimated. The federal government is now feeding more than 30,000 people who have been driven from their homes by the water, and as many others will eventually have to be cared for.

— A railway accident of an unusual kind occurred at San Antonio, Tex., recently. An oil-burning locomotive standing on a track ready to take out a train, suddenly exploded with terrible violence, wrecking an engine-house and smith shop near by, and killing twenty-eight persons. Boiler Inspector Ensign, of the Interstate Commerce Commission, says that the explosion was the most terrific in its results of any that he had ever known.

— A more drastic law for the protection of animals has been enacted in England. It is an offense cruelly to beat, kick, override, overdrive, overload, torture, or terrify any animal. The penalty is raised from $25 to $125 and from three to six months' imprisonment. The judge can impose both fine and imprisonment. In the pounds, the animals to be killed must be killed in two days. None must be killed in the sight of other animals, and no one under sixteen years old must be allowed in the slaughter-pen.

— The extension of the Turco-Italian war is awakening the powers to the necessity of making renewed attempts to bring the conflict to an end. Italy's steady occupation of Turkish islands in the Ægean Sea, which Turkey answered by expelling Italians from the Ottoman empire, is regarded with considerable inquietude. Italy is now in control of eleven Turkish Islands in the archipelago, and this, it is pointed out, totally modifies the equilibrium of force in one section of the water route round the world, which, with the completion of the Panama Canal, means a continuous global marine movement.

— Now that the "meteor flag of England" is so often intertwined with the stars and stripes, it is interesting to know just what the design on Great Britain's flag really means. The Union Jack of to-day contains the three crosses of the three nations of the United Kingdom—the red cross of St. George occupying one fifth of the width of the flag; the white border of St. George, the red cross of St. Patrick and its white border, and the broad white of St. Andrew's cross, occupying one half of the red of St. George. The cross of St. George represents England, the cross of St. Andrew Scotland, and the cross of St. Patrick Ireland.

— In far-off Persia there grows a shrub which is called the sorrowful tree, the night-jasmine, or the sad tree. It blooms only at night. When the first star appears in the sky, the first bud opens on this wonderful tree. As the evening advances, the buds open more rapidly until the tree is covered with the delicate blooms, and it appears like one vast flower. The bloom is quite fragrant, and the odor is like the perfume of the evening primrose. As the stars begin to grow dim and the dawn approaches, the flowers begin to fade, and by the time the sun has risen, not a flower can be found on the tree. During the hours of daylight, the tree appears to be withering as if it had been injured in some manner.

— The Philippine government has sent a commissioner to the United States whose duty is to be, he announces, the correction of the "wide-spread misinformation in this country about the Philippine Islands." He particularly objects to the impression that the islands are a continual expense to the federal government, when the fact is they are self-sustaining. As to commerce, they exported 200,000 tons of sugar last year, and will soon, the commissioner says, be exporting enough to supply the whole of the United States. The copper export has increased since 1898 from $100,000 to $10,000,000; rubber culture is turning out a profitable experiment. In the last four years 2,500 miles of good roads have been made, and 520 miles of railroad have been built. There are now 620,000 children in the public schools of the islands, and English has become the language of communication for the people that speak the thirty-four languages that are native to the islands.