Items of Interest May 24, 1900 Issue

Items of Interest

Speaking of the future of the American navy, Rear Admiral Hitchborn, chief of the construction bureau, recently said: "The American navy will rank six years from now the fourth of the world. By that time the navy will at least be composed of eighteen firstclass battleships, eight first-class armored cruisers, fourteen first-class protected cruisers, eleven second-class protected cruisers, nearly one hundred cruisers of the unprotected class and gunboats, over fifty torpedo boat destroyers and torpedo boats, about twenty monitors of the first and second class, and several hundred ships of minor importance.

The charters of more than one thousand domestic and foreign corporations doing business in Texas were declared forfeited by the Secretary of State because they had failed to comply with the law in the matter of paying their respective franchise taxes to the State. Each of the defaulting companies was notified of the forfeiture, and many of them, it is expected, will have the charter restored by paying the prescribed penalty assessed.

In the case of the Germania Trust Company against the city and county of San Francisco, the Supreme Court of California has decided that the bonds of railways and other quasi-public corporations cannot be assessed for the purpose of taxation. By this decision San Francisco is deprived of taxes on bonds amounting to over $20,000,000, and the State to taxes on securities amounting to several hundred millions of dollars.

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