News and Miscellany

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Aug 19, 1915

News and Miscellany

Notes and clippings from the daily and weekly press

— A recent cablegram to the State Department at Washington from Peking stated that from 80,000 to 100,000 lives had been lost in the recent floods in the provinces of Kwang-tung and Kwang-si.

— Advocates of a reduction in letter postage from two cents to one cent are resolved to carry their fight into the next Congress, regardless of Postmaster-General Burleson’s statement that the deficit in postal revenues for the fiscal year will total approximately $10,000,000.

— The most serious slide ever known on the Panama Canal, which has been under way for several weeks, partly moved into the Culebra Cut recently, closing the cut to large vessels. The break extends back 2,000 feet from the canal, and will continue to move for some time.

— Very interesting, from a Scriptural standpoint, is the news that comes from Egypt, where the British forces are facing the Turks. The Sea of Galilee, sacred through its many associations with the earthly ministry of the Prince of Peace, is in the war zone. The hills around Nazareth, where the boy Jesus spent his early years, have been fortified by the Turks, and have become arsenals of destruction. The ruins of Capernaum are among the relics of the past endangered by mines and air bombs. Among the other sites of Bible history now become a battle ground of modern times, is the mount where we are told Moses received the ten commandments, as well as the territory over which the Israelites wandered, and Hebron, where Abraham was buried. Added to these is the place where archeologists claim was located the garden of Eden, between Annah and Hitt, on the upper Euphrates.

— Secretary of the Navy Daniels has obtained the consent of Thomas A. Edison, the celebrated inventor, to become chairman of a new naval board of invention and development. The object of the board is the encouragement of inventors and investigation of their inventions by some of the greatest living experts. The board is expected to initiate schemes for the perfection of the defenses of the United States, particularly at sea. Inasmuch as the board was conceived since the last Congress adjourned, its members will have to serve for a time at least without pay, but all those whose names were suggested were eager to do so out of patriotism. Edison already has started work on a battery to give wider steaming radius to submarines.

— One of the most outstanding events to occur in San Francisco this year in connection with the exposition was the World’s Bible Congress held August 1-4, under the auspices of the American Bible Society, with Pres. Woodrow Wilson as the honorary president. Other organizations represented were the British and Foreign Bible Society, of England; the National Bible Society, of Scotland; the Société Biblique, de France; the Netherlands Bible Society; and the Prussian Principal Bible Society, of Berlin. The program consisted of a prologue designed to exhibit the historical character of the Book itself. After this there followed a succession of papers and addresses from scholars, missionaries, translators, men of recognized preëminence in various churches, dealing with the Bible in as many countries as it was possible to reach. The troublous condition of the world made it impossible to carry out the idea fully, but it is hoped that enough was said to stimulate thought and awaken interest in the Bible as a world-conquering book.

— The Yaqui Indians are the most brave, hardy, and industrious element in Mexico, and intermittently for thirty years they have rebelled against the oppression of the Mexican government. In western Sonora a tribe of 30,000 practiced for centuries a system of common land tenure whereby the pasture is open to all members of the tribe, with certain restrictions as to number of heads of cattle permitted to one individual. The agricultural land is subdivided and distributed in allotments to each family. Every three years these lands are redistributed, thus giving a due proportion of rich and poor soil to all. Surrounded by mountains which gave them excellent facilities for defense, they have defeated every effort to subjugate them, and their independence and the integrity of their land system remain only slightly impaired. Since 1880 they have adopted in some places a sort of private ownership in farm land, owing to changes in methods of agriculture, in which they are the most forward people in the republic. The Yaqui Valley is of unusual fertility, and cunning land speculators began to have designs on their territory with the ascent of Diaz to the dictatorship. Offers of rich land, together with the labor of hard-working peons, who are most unusual to Mexico, attracted the American settlers into the portions of the territory where the land speculators were able to gain a foothold. Now the Yaquis are unable to distinguish between innocent purchasers and usurpers of their soil.

— An army of 25,000 industrially employed perished last year in the United States by fatal accidents. Strange to relate, farm employment furnished the next to the largest number.

— The first American submarine to meet tests designed to prove that it could cross the Atlantic Ocean and return without stopping, completed its trial in Long Island Sound about two weeks ago. The propelling fuel is heavy oil, and the Swiss engine with which the vessel is equipped drives it both on the surface and under the water, replacing the double gasoline and electric engines formerly used. The boat is only 160 feet long.

— President Wilson has called for reports on the subject of national defense. These will be made to him personally by the heads of the War and Navy Departments. Without regard to present-day controversies, the President, in association with various heads of departments, has been giving consideration for some time to the preparation of a reasonable and adequate naval program which he will propose to Congress at the proper time, probably in his opening message at the coming session.

— St. Louis has undertaken the task of clearing the city of flies, all the citizens uniting in the effort. The bureau of health is back of the movement. The plan involves the erection of municipal flytraps in the principal streets, and in four weeks more than fifty-seven gallons, or on computation 3,000,000 flies, have been captured. The contrivance is a huge cylinder trap placed on the top of a barrel painted green. Common brown sugar is used in the trap to catch the flies. The city has now established twenty-four such flytraps. There is a noticeable decrease of flies in the city, and the health department will keep pushing the antifly campaign.

— The University of Pennsylvania announces the discovery of the great temple at Memphis, for ages concealed from human sight by the sand of the desert and the mud of the Nile. The temple is said to belong to the period of Ramases II. Its discovery is hoped to be but the beginning of a series of discoveries in and about the site of Memphis, which was one of the great cities of the world 3,000 years ago. The temple was unearthed as a result of the explorations carried on during the spring and summer by the Eckley B. Coxe, Jr., expedition, under the leadership of Dr. Fisher, curator of the Egyptian section of the university museum.

— According to Postmaster-General Burleson, the postal deficit for the year will be about $10,000,000. This shortage is attributed largely to the war conditions. It is said that if there had not been a most rigid application of economical methods in the management of the offices throughout the land, the deficiency would have been very much larger. The Postmaster-General rejoices that, notwithstanding an economical reduction in the expenses of administration, there has not been a single just complaint of inefficiency sent in from any section of the country. There has been a falling off in mail of every class, but the business of the parcel post has increased. The prospects are said to be much brighter for the new fiscal year.