p. 21 | News of the World

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Feb 19, 1914

News of the World

— It is reported that a Russian expedition has left St. Petersburg for the north pole, via the route taken by Sedow's expedition. Among its members are three women scientists, and two missionaries, who hope to convert the Eskimos to the faith of the Orthodox Russian Church.

— The number of individuals executed in China last year is not known with any exactness, but official figures for some of the provinces have been published, and show that in one of them alone not less than 24,000 persons were put to death, many of whom were political offenders.

— The labor unions of Germany have decided to withdraw their deposits, amounting to $5,000,000, from a leading bank in Berlin which discharged one of its employees who had been engaged in agitating for the formation of a bank clerks' union. Several other banks were brought to terms in short order by the labor unions, but this one refused to give the desired guaranties.

— Two steps virtually have been decided on by the House Committee on Naval Affairs in deference to the wishes of the administration with regard to the naval program. These steps are, (1) the authorization of two first-class battleships and probably several destroyers and submarines, and (2) a favorable report on a bill authorizing the creation of six vice admirals.

— The death of Dr. S. Weir Mitchell, recently, in Philadelphia, at the age of eighty-five years, took from the stage of public life one of its eminent actors. He was primarily a learned physician and neurologist, but he was preeminently an author of first rank. His published works, dealing with a great variety of subjects, number upward of fifty volumes, and cover a period of half a century.

— Glenn Martin, an aviator, recently demonstrated the practicability of his new aerial life preserver. At Los Angeles, Cal., he ascended with two women passengers. When the aeroplane was 850 feet in the air, one of the passengers stepped out of the machine, and after falling about seventy-five feet, a parachute attachment on her shoulders unfolded, and she descended gradually, and with no apparent effort at balance.