Items of General Interest

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jan 22, 1914

Items of General Interest

— Charitable gifts in the United States during the last twelve months amounted to $80,135,476. This amount was given at the rate of $2.61 for every tick of the clock, according to a recent compilation.

— To regulate street traffic in Chicago, experimental tests have recently been made with a semaphore signal at street crossings. This device resembles that used in railway service. It is operated by the policeman on duty at the dangerous point, and can be seen fully a block away.

— The library of John Rogers, a Boston merchant, has been sold at auction, and some of the American books brought high prices. The highest price was $3,000, which was given for a first edition of William C. Bryant's "Embargo." The next highest price was $1,100, which was given for William Bradford's copy of the Quaker Item. William Bradford was the first printer in New York City.

— Figures of the world's wheat production were issued by the International Institute of Agriculture at Rome, Italy, on December 20. The report covers the principal countries of the Northern Hemisphere, and is as follows: All wheat produced, 3,569,000,000 bushels, being 8.9 per cent more than last year; all rye, 1,828,000,000 bushels, 1 per cent less than last year; barley, 1,524,000,000 bushels, 7.7 per cent more than last year. The total production of sugar beets was 54,992,000 short tons, 2.5 per cent more than last year.

— After all his tribulations in America, due to efforts to have him extradited, Zelaya, ex-president of Nicaragua, has embarked for Europe. He expects to find a permanent home on his estate in Spain. Zelaya's departure is in accordance with an agreement between his counsel and the Nicaraguan government, which caused his arrest.

— "Mother" Mary Jones, widely known as a prominent labor leader, was recently deported from Trinidad, Colo., by the State militia. She has been very active in creating the present coal strike situation in Colorado, and recently marched at the head of several thousand strikers, through the streets of Denver, to the State Capitol in protest against mine conditions.

— Harry K. Thaw shot and killed Stanford White in New York City, June 25, 1906. He was adjudged insane by the courts, and consigned to Matteawan asylum. Late in the summer of 1913 he succeeded in escaping, and was arrested in Canada. He has since been fighting for his freedom, and on January 11 was declared sane by the court at Concord, N. H. He will probably be released on bail.

— When the nonmagnetic yacht "Carnegie" dropped anchor at Brooklyn, N. Y., recently, concluding a voyage which lasted more than three years, the gigantic task undertaken by the Carnegie Institution of Washington eight years ago to make a complete magnetic survey of the globe was two thirds accomplished. Virtually all the data gathered in nearly 150,000 miles of voyaging is in the hands of hydrographers, and much of it now is in use by shipmasters of the seven seas.

— The Hamburg-American Line, one of the richest steamship companies in the world, is willing to establish a coastwise service between Boston, New York, and other Atlantic ports through the Panama Canal to South American points, if the American public is friendly to the project. It will invest a capital of $15,000,000 for this purpose, providing half or the whole as needed; man the ships with American officers; register under the American flag; and become a part of the American merchant marine.

— Statistics that have just been completed at Washington reveal the fact that the national debts of the world aggregate $42,000,000,000. Ten years ago the amount was about $32,000,000,000, and forty years ago it was but a little more than $20,000,000,000 — having doubled in four decades. The largest national debt is that of the republic of France, a total of $6,284,000,000. The next largest is that of the United Kingdom, including British India, a total of $4,961,000,000. Germany lacks less than $50,000,000 of this total, the debt of the empire and of the German states totaling $4,914,000,000. Russia owes $4,553,000,000; Austria-Hungary, $3,753,000,000; Italy, $2,707,000,000; Spain, $1,815,000,000; Japan, $1,242,000,000; and down at the foot of the list of great powers is the United States, with $1,028,000,000. But if the nations of the world owe much, they also own much; for their annual revenues total $12,179,000,000, and their annual expenditures, $12,308,000,000.