News and Miscellany by Editor

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 3, 1912

News and Miscellany

By Editor

Notes and clippings from the daily and weekly press

— Sixteen persons were killed and fifty injured on the night of September 17, by the derailment of the express from Chester to Liverpool, near Ditton Junction, England.

— Dr. Lyman F. Kebler, of the drug division of the Federal Bureau of Chemistry, charges that the morphin habit has increased 100 per cent during the last forty years in the United States.

— Miss Helen Keller, the famous blind and deaf girl, has been selected by George R. Lunn, the socialist mayor of Schenectady, N. Y., to head the welfare board in that city. Miss Keller will assume her duties some time in November.

— Work was begun September 16 on a forty-foot tower to surmount the observatory of the Smithsonian Institution on Mt. Wilson, near Pasadena, Cal., whereby attempts will be made to ascertain whether or not the sun is growing cold.

— The Pennsylvania Railroad Company announced recently that orders had been issued restricting the maximum speed of all passenger-trains under any circumstances at any point on the system east and west of Pittsburgh, to seventy miles an hour.

— The design of the seal of the Treasury of the United States, in all its essential features, is older than the national government. From the days of the confederation of the colonies down through the history of the republic, the inscription on the seal has been, "The seal of the Treasury of North America."

— William D. Haywood, of Denver, general organizer of the Industrial Workers of the World, was arrested in Boston, September 15, on a capias warrant, issued as the result of an indictment charging him with conspiracy in connection with the strike of textile workers in Lawrence, Mass., last winter.

— The cotton spinning and weaving industry in Japan is expanding by leaps and bounds. During the last fiscal year, eight new corporations were formed, with a capital of $6,280,000 and operating 133,000 new spindles. Many of the old companies have increased their capital, and have added new machinery to their plants.

— On the night of September 19, a mob of 5,000 strikers and sympathizers attacked the principal street-car line in Superior, Wis., wrecking six cars and beating the crews and guards. There was furious fighting, and more than thirty persons were injured, none, it is thought, fatally. The police fought desperately and rescued the car crews. The trouble followed a parade of union men, arranged by the Superior Trades and Labor Assembly as a testimonial of sympathy for the striking carmen.

— On September 19, 4,500 miners employed in the great copper-mines at Bingham, Utah, declared a strike, and stopped work pending a settlement of their demands.

— The chairman of the Association of Western Railways, Mr. W. A. Garret, sends out a warning bulletin to shippers that all freight should be despatched as promptly as possible this autumn, for by October 25 there will be a shortage of 179,838 freight-cars.

— The beginning of autumn was marked by extreme variations of temperature in different parts of the country that usually appear on the weather maps with the same isothermal lines. Chicago had the hottest weather of the year, while furs were being worn at Newport, and a swimming contest at Coney Island had to be abandoned when the swimmers succumbed to the cold.

— The Mexican rebels recently held up a Southern Pacific train when about thirty miles south of Nogales, Ariz. The passengers were not molested, but all arms and ammunition were taken from the train, and the engineer was compelled to run the train to Agua Zarca, where the mail, baggage, and second-class cars were placed on a bridge and set on fire. Emilio Campa, the rebel leader, has notified the Southern Pacific he will burn its bridges and stations unless it quits transporting federal troops.

— The craze for gambling among the wealthy and aristocratic classes of Germany and Prussia has reached such a pitch that the authorities are at their wits' end how to combat it. The raiding of private gambling-dens they find is of no use, as the players caught therein are of such prominence that prosecutions are considered inadvisable. Every effort is made to keep the real state of affairs from the kaiser, but a recent case came to his ears, with the result that he summoned the court-marshals of the empire to his presence and asked them to use their influence to suppress gambling.

— Instructions were issued by Postmaster-General Hitchcock recently for carrying into effect the new newspaper and periodical law, first returns under which must be made by October 1. Under this law, publishers are required to file on the first days of April and October of each year, both with the Postmaster-General and the local postmaster, under penalty of denial of the use of the mails, a sworn statement of the names and addresses of the owner, publisher, editor, managing editor, and business manager of their publications. Religious, fraternal, temperance, and scientific publications are excepted.