News and Miscellany

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Nov 27, 1913

News and Miscellany

Notes and clippings from the daily and weekly press

— When the Pacific and Atlantic terminals of the Panama Canal are finally completed, the waterway will have cost a total of $375,000,000.

— Fifteen persons were killed and more than twenty injured on November 13, when an excursion train, traveling at a high rate of speed, was wrecked near Clayton, Ala.

— The cigarette vice threatens to become almost as serious as the opium curse in China. One factory at Hankow has an output of 200,000,000 cigarettes a month, and new factories are being built in different parts of the republic.

— Two of the most disastrous storms in the history of the Great Lakes visited that region November 9 and 11. They exacted a toll of more than 300 lives, sent to the bottom of the lakes or totally wrecked nineteen mammoth freight-steamers, and caused property loss in boats alone of $10,000,000.

— A severe, wintry storm, which swept into the Middle West November 9, had the greater part of nine States in its grip for several days. A number of lives were lost, and property damage amounted to millions of dollars. Trains were snow-bound for twenty-four hours or more, and telephone and telegraphic communication within the storm area was cut off.

— More than 22,000 German physicians from small town and country districts have decided to follow the example of their professional brethren in Great Britain and declare a “doctors’ strike” against sickness and accident insurance associations established under the imperial insurance laws. These associations, they claim, militate against them in that a patient who is a member of an organization has no choice as to what physician shall attend him in case of illness.

— John Burke, United States Treasurer, began the distribution recently of about $8,000,000 in “Santa Claus money” among the banks of the country. The distribution is in response to the demands of the public for new gold and silver coins to be used as Christmas gifts.

— Waters in the Monongahela, Allegheny, and Ohio Rivers passed the flood-mark November 15, and the third flood of the present year is predicted for the Ohio Valley. Unprecedented warm weather has caused the melting of thousands of tons of snow, which fell during the blizzard of November 9.

— The long controversy between Eastern railroads and their conductors and trainmen, over the demands of the latter for increased pay, ended November 10. The employers granted an increase in wages averaging seven per cent and totaling $6,000,000 annually—about one half of what the employed demanded—from October 1, last, effective for one year. About 100,000 men will benefit by the increase in wages.

— The first week of this month three serious railroad wrecks occurred in Europe. At Pensa, Russia, an express-train was derailed and fourteen persons killed, while fifteen were fatally injured. Two trains collided at Chenee, Belgium, causing three deaths and fatal injuries to five. A mail-train and an express-train on the Paris-Lyons-Mediterranean Railway collided at Melun. About fifty persons were killed and seventy-five injured.

— The first combined international military maneuvers ever held have just been completed at Tientsin, China. The troops representing the various nations were distributed as follows: United States, 1,200; French, 1,500; British, 1,700; Japanese, 1,200; Germans, 300; and Russians, 900. The main body of the troops composed the army of defense, while detachments from each nation formed a skeleton invading force. General Sato, of the Japanese army, acted as director and chief umpire.

— Approximately 2,500 trainmen and engineers on the Atlantic division of the Southern Pacific Railroad, known as the Sunset lines, went on a strike at seven o’clock on the night of November 13. The walkout comes after more than six months of futile negotiations. Southern planters are beseeching President Wilson to take hold of the matter, as it will mean a great loss of sugar if cane is not shipped to the mills almost immediately. It is intimated by labor leaders that unless the strike is settled soon, it will spread to the Western roads.

— King Ferdinand of Bulgaria is visiting his brother in Vienna, and will probably not return to his country. For some years he was very highly thought of by his subjects. However, during the Balkan war the people turned against him, and later he was blamed for the disastrous war with Greece and Servia. Of late he has received many notices threatening his life, and it is believed he will abdicate the throne in favor of Crown Prince Boris, who is more popular with the Bulgarians. The direct cause of his downfall is said to be due to his having offended Russia by seeking Austrian assistance against Servia.

— Under the new defense law the German war chest is to be increased to $90,000,000 in coin. This fund has been formerly limited to $30,000,000 in silver. Additional gold is to be stored in the vaults of the Imperial Bank, while the amount of silver added to the fund will be stored in the Julius Tower at Spandau.

— A Russo-Chinese agreement, by which China recognizes the autonomy of Outer Mongolia, was signed at Peking, the first week in November. Russia continues to acknowledge Chinese suzerainty, and undertakes to refrain from colonization or military occupation of the country, aside from consular guards.

— The Mexican situation is still critical, diplomatic relations being almost at the breaking-point. Special Envoy Lind has again left Mexico City for Vera Cruz. Intense pressure is being brought to bear upon provisional-President Huerta to induce him to resign, but he continues in office and has assembled congress. President Wilson’s Cabinet and Congress stand firmly behind President Wilson in his efforts to force the retirement of Huerta as a necessary step to holding a fair election and bringing about the pacification of Mexico.