Passing Events

Passing Events

One-third of the city of Salem, Massachusetts, was destroyed by

fire on June 25, with a loss estimated at $10,000,000. Most of the his-

torical land-marks of the city, however, were saved. A thousand

buildings were laid waste, and ten thousand people rendered homeless.

A direct telephcne line from New York to San Francisco was

completed on Saturday, June 20, by the laborers setting the last pole

in Nevada. Direct communication may now be had between New

York and San Francisco without delay, by telephone. The fees are

$18 per minute.

The Niagara Falls Mediation Conference adjourned lime 30,

awaiting the hoped-for meetings between representatives of Huerta

and Carranza. Their labors, though apparently in vain, have had a

wonderful influence in hastening the solution of the Mexican problem

and the promised occupation of Mexico City by the Constitutionalists.

Prohibition has been adopted by all the political parties in Idaho.

Republicans, Progressives, and Democrats, all have gone on record

in declaring for state wide prohibition in some form or other. Our

neighboring state is to be commmended for this action. Each of the

parties adopted a resolution in its platform favoring an amendment

to the constitution which shall "forever prohibit the manufacture and

sale of liquor in Idaho."

Murray, Utah, went "dry" again at the recent special election held

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June 30. Elections were also held in Midvale, Copperfield, and Sandy.

Copperfield went "dry" by a majority of four; Murray, by 14; and

Midvale went "wet" by 163; Sandv, by 50. The retaining of Murray

as a "dry" town was a distinct victory for the prohibitionists. The

Law and Order League of Murray, have determined that the "blind

pi^s" and other illicit places for the distribution of liquor shall be

wiped out completely, since the league have now the sentiment of the

city with them and aganst the law breakers. The laws will doubtless

now be enforced without fear or favor.

The Moffat Tunnel, for the building of which the city of Denver

recently voted a bond of $3,000,000, has received another setback.

The supreme court of Colorado recently declared the bond to be

unconstitutional and invalid because it would be lending public money

to foster private enterprise. It took many years to induce the peo-

ple to make this provision for making the tunnel, and it is feared

it will take many more years now to raise the money to continue

the^ work of building a road to Salt Lake through the Uintah reser-

vation, from Denver, though some still have hopes that the project

will succeed and that in the near future.

Baseball w«as sixty-eight years old, on June 19. Sixty-eight years

ago, on that date, the first match game of ball on record was plaved

between the Knickerbocker and New York baseball clubs in the Ely-

sian fields, at Hoboken, New Jersey. Today baseball holds the nation

in its grip. Over thirty million fans pay more than ten million dol-

lars every season to watch the five thousand professional ball players

mnkinor up the more than fifty major and minor leagues. It is not

only the national game today but is rapidly becoming inter-national.

PASSING EVENTS 999

The leading nations are beginning to adopt baseball as a national

sport. It may well be said that the sun never sets on the kingdom of

baseball. However, some complaint is made this summer that the

enthusiasm for the game in this country is not as pronounced as

usual.

West Virginia and prohibition. State-wide prohibition became

effective June 29, in West Virginia. There are now nine prohibition

states in the union: Georgia, Kansas, Maine, Mississippi, North Caro-

lina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and West Virginia. The

total prohibition territory and the local no-license area make up

2,132,726 square miles in which 46,029,750, or nearly 50% of the coun-

try's copulation live, according to the latest figures of the prohibition

leaders. West Virginia accepted the "dry" proposition with a ma-

jority vote of 92,000, relatively the largest ever given by any state.

The state has a population of 1,221,119, according to the census of

1910. A
      

commissioner of prohibition for the state was appointed to

close twelve hundred liquor selling places in the state, which was

promptly done.

A mimic war in the air was held at Vienna, June 20. The Austrian

army dirigible baloon "Kertling" and an aeroplane and other craft

were engaged in the sham battle. The mosquito craft soon overtook

her big sister and immediately began a sham attack in encircling the

airship several times at a height of fifteen hundred feet maneuvering

to take a position directly above the airship. In coming down, the

ncse of the biplane crashed through the envelope of the airship and

npptd it wide open. A terriffic explosion followed, the airship took

fire engulfing both the biplane and the airship, and in a few moments

the remnants of both craft, with nine aviators, crashed on to the

slopes of a mountain. The heat was so great that the watches of

nen were melted in coming down, and the bodies were so charred

and mangled that they were scarcely recognizable. This is one of

me greatest accidents in the history of aerial flight

Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne of Austro-Hungary,

and his morganatic wife, the Duchess of Hohenburg, were assassinated

in Sarajavo, the capital of Bosnia, on June 28, by a young Herze-

govinian student named Prinzip, who discharged an automatic pistol

at them, killing them almost instantly as they were returning from

the town hall after a reception. A bomb was first thrown at the royal

automobile but it exploded in the street without doing any serious

damage. The assassination is believed to express the resentment of

many Serbes at the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina by Aus

tria in 1908, for which Franz Ferdinand was held largely responsible.

The children of the archduke, owing to his morganatic marriage,

cannot succeed to the throne, hence the next heir is archduke Karl

Franz Josef. The murder caused the aged emperor of Austria great

sorrow, and the people throughout Austria much apprehension. It is

feared that there are Servian plots to detach Bosnia and Herzegovina

from Austria. This adds one more difficulty to the great troubles of

the Balkan district.

Duchesne will be the name of a new county in Utah, authorized

by vote of the people of the old Wasatch county, on Monday, July

13. For some time agitation has been going on to divide Wasatch

county, the east half to be called Duchesne, and the west half to re-

tain the old name. By a substantial majority vote, the people both

on the east side and on the west side agreed to the division of the

county. The Wasatch "Wave" informs its readers that the assessed

valuation of Wasatch county, in 1914, west of the proposed new line

1000 IMPROVEMENT ERA

was $1,932,587, while the assessed valuation east of the proposed

new line, which will now be called Duchesne, is $1,209,347, a figure

larger than the valuation, in 1912, in each of the following counties:

Kane, Garfield, Piute, San Juan, Wayne, and Washington. The fol-

lowing cities and towns are located in the west, of Wasatcl county:

Heber, Midway, Charleston, Wallsburg, Elkhorn, Center, Daniels,

Riverdale, Bench Creek. The following settlements are located in the

proposed new Duchesne county; Havden, Packer, Cedarview, Alexan-

der, Roosevelt, Myton, Lake Fork, Boneta, Midview, Antelope, Theo-

dore, Stockmore, Frnitland. The east side will have the largest share

of territory much of which is undeveloped.

Mexico. Zacatecas, a city in Central Mexico, was captured by

General Villa, June 23, after four days of preliminary fighting. The

battle with the Federals was the most hotly contested during the

present revolution. Fourteen thousand Federals were entrenched

in almost impregnable positions. Villa's loss in dead is put at 2,200,

and the Federal loss at about 4,500, rive thousand prisoners besides

were captured. Many officers fell, among them, it is said, was

Colonel Fierro, who it is generally believed was the murderer of W.

S. Benton, an English ranch owner whose death was a matter of

diplomatic inquiry last winter. The difficulty between Villa and Car-

ranza continued, and it was stated at one time that ammunition had

been denied to Villa which caused his delay on the march to Mexico

City. On the 8th of July Guadalajara on the west coast, fell before

the Constitutionalists' forces, twelve thousand Federals being utterly

routed by General Alvaro Obregon, leader of the Constitutionalists.

For three days the fight continued, only a few Constitutionalists

being killed. Five thousand out of twelve thousand Federals were

taken prisoners with much ammunition and large supplies. On July

13 General Huerta sent his family, via Vera Cruz, on the way to

Europe, and on the 15th he presented his resignation as Provisional

President, to the Senate and Chamber of Deputies, who accepted it

by a vote of 121 to 17. General Victoriano Huerta who has oc-

cupied the Provisional Presidency for about 17 months then turned

his office over to Francisco Carbajal, The new Provisional President.

The resignation and the change was received calmly by the populace.

General Huerta in the text of his resignation assigns his failure to

the "outrage committed at Vera Cruz by the American Fleet." To

show that he was not seeking his personal interests, but that of the

republic, General Huerta closed his resignation by saying, "Some say I,

come what may, seek my personal interest and not that of the re-

public, and as I need to refute this allegation with facts, I tender

my formal resignation of the presidency of the republic." General

Huerta took the oath as Provisional President of Mexico, February

19, 1913, the day after Francisco I. Madero had been arrested at the

national palace. Three days later Madero and vice-president Suarez

were shot to death under guard while being taken from the palace

to the penitentiary, and their deaths have never been explained satis-

factorily. Huerta telegraphed President T-aft: "I have the honor

t} inform you that I have overthrown this government. The forces

are with me, and from now on peace and prosperity will reign." But

the Constitutionalists under Carranza and Villa continued the war-

fare, which has now ended in the flight of Huerta and the downfall

of his administration, which has been one of the bloodiest in the his-

tory of Mexico. Negotiations for a peaceful entrance into the City of

Mexico by the Consttutionalist forces were going on, but on the 21 si

of July it was said Carbajal would not surrender unconditionally to

Carranza.