National.

The Isthmian Canal Commission, after considering all the information obtained with regard to the Nicaragua and Panama Canal routes, have decided to report in favor of the former. While the Panama Canal would be shorter and would have fewer locks and less curvature, thus saving twenty-one hours in the passage of a ship from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, this advantage is offset by the fact that the Nicaragua route is nearer to the United States, and a ship sailing between New York and San Francisco could save time by using this canal. The report provides for a canal which shall have a depth of thirty-three feet and a width at the bottom of at least one hundred and fifty feet. The estimated cost of this canal is about two hundred million dollars.

In his annual report the Second Assistant Postmaster General urges regular and direct fast mail service between the Pacific coast and the Orient. Also the reëstablishment of pneumatic tube service generally. The report shows that on June 30, last, there were 267,357 miles of star route service, 183,358 of railroad routes, 45,779 of railway post-office car routes, and almost three housand miles of electric and cable car routes.

The Government has concluded a treaty with the Fort Totten reservation Indians in North Dakota, by which the Indians agree to sell 104,000 acres of land. One hundred and forty-five thousand dollars will be paid after ratification of the treaty, and twenty thousand dollars a year for twenty years.

According to a statement recently made by President Benjamin Ide Wheeler of the California State University. President Roosevelt will make the reclamation of arid lands in California a part of the national policy.

Secretary Gage is of the opinion that, for internal revenue purposes, the Philippines should be regarded as domestic territory, pending the decision of the Supreme Court which will fix the status of the islands.

President Roosevelt has stated that he will exclude political influence of every sort, direct or indirect, in making appointments in the army, the navy, and the colonies.

Foreign.

A number of The Hague bankers and other wealthy men of Holland are making arrangements to establish a colony of Boers and Holland Dutch in Wyoming. A tract of three hundred thousand acres of land has been secured and surveys have been made for a gigantic canal and irrigation system. The soil is especially adapted for sugar-beet cultivation and a large beet-sugar factory will be established in the colony.

One hundred and seventy-five ancient bronze guns which formerly stood on the walls of Pekin have recently been taken to Germany. The inscriptions on the guns show that they were cast more man two hundred years ago in Chinese arsenals under the superintendence of Jesuits. The most ornamental of the guns will be placed in the naval museum of Berlin.

King Edward has refused to distinguish between the title of president, king, and emperor, and holds that the honors to be paid to presidents and crowned heads at the time of his majesty's coronation shall be identical. No distinction will be made except possibly in the case of near relations of the royal family.

Doctor A. Kovalevski, professor of zoology in the Imperial Academy of Science at St. Petersburg, who recently returned from a lecture tour in the United States, has published in one of the local papers a most favorable account of our educational system, especially that of the universities.

A majority of the delegates at the Pan-American Congress in the City of Mexico are in favor of bringing the labors of the conference to an end before Christmas. Steps have been taken for the establishment of a Pan-American bank in New York City.

The Glasgow, Scotland, exhibition closed November 11. The exhibition was open 163 days and was attended by over eleven million visitors. The surplus is expected to reach four hundred thousand dollars.

Queen Alexandra will follow the example of the late Queen Victoria and send Christmas gifts to the troops in South Africa.

Industrial and Commercial.

Twenty-three employees of the Carnegie Company at Braddock, Pa., have been rewarded for their faithful service by substantial gifts of bonds which make them junior partners in the concern. The bonds received by these men are five per cent bonds of the Carnegie Steel Company and the annual interest of the same is equal to the salaries received. The total amount of bonds distributed in this manner is about one million dollars.

A plan has been formulated whereby seven of the western railroads, having 47,372 miles of track and capital stock amounting to $1,042,837,186, will be consolidated. The roads to be brought together in this manner are the Union Pacific; Southern Pacific; Northern Pacific; Great Northern; Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul; Chicago, Burlington and Quincy, and Chicago and Northwestern.

The transportation committee of the city council of Chicago has decided to insist upon the installation of the underground trolley system in the business district as one of the chief conditions of the extension of the street railway franchises which expire in 1903.

The United States has ten thousand more miles of railroad track than all European nations combined.

The Florida orange crop for the current season is estimated at 1,100,000 boxes.

General.

Alabama has adopted a new constitution which practically disfranchises the negro. All applicants for registration, who are not old soldiers or descendants of soldiers, must be able to read and write any article of the Constitution of the United States in the English language, and must show that they have been engaged at a lawful occupation for the greater part of the preceding twelve months. However, if he does not possess this qualification he can, nevertheless, register if he or his wife is the owner of either real estate or personal property taxed at three hundred dollars. The constitution also provides for the voluntary payment of a poll tax by February 1 preceding the election in November. At present there are about seventy-five thousand negro voters in Alabama who can read and write. It is estimated that the disqualifications for crime, failure to pay poll tax, and neglect to register so far in advance of the election will reduce the whole body of negro voters to less than thirty thousand.

There are now seven hundred and fifty school teachers in the Philippines. These are being assisted by about two hundred soldiers. Seventy-five thousand Filipino children are receiving instruction in English. There are upwards of four thousand Filipino teachers in the islands, and the majority of these are receiving English instruction. A normal school has been opened with an attendance of about two hundred and fifty. A trade and agricultural school has also been opened.

The thirty-fifth annual session of the National Grange met at Lewiston, Me., November 13. Delegates and visitors from almost every State and Territory in the country were present. The Dominion of Canada was also well represented. In his address National Master Jones referred to the need of education in agriculture. He spoke of what has been done in this line in Europe and said, "Immediate steps should be taken to secure the teaching of scientific agriculture in every public school in our country."

Andrew Carnegie will establish a polytechnical school in connection with the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburg. Pa. He will thoroughly equip this school and provide an endowment fund of two million dollars. Mr. Carnegie has given about six million dollars to this institution.

The National convention of the Women's Christian Temperance Union met at Fort Worth. Tex., November 14. Representatives from forty-five States were in attendance. Editors of sixteen State publications of the W. C. T. U. participated in the editorial association meetings.

Rev. F. W. O'Brien, pastor of the New People's Church, near the Bath Iron Works, will instal a restaurant in the church where workingmen can get plain, wholesome food at cost. Mr. O'Brien has received liberal donations for his work from many prominent men.

The directors of the St. Louis Exposition Company have decided to rent the one hundred and ten acres, comprising the grounds of the Washington University, and the four magnificent buildings of that institution, now nearing completion, for World's Fair purposes.

The one hundred and twenty-eighth volume compiled from the official records of the War of the Rebellion is soon to be issued. This work has been in preparation for more than thirty years and has cost about three million dollars.

The total amount appropriated for the Louisiana Purchase Exposition to be held in St. Louis in 1903 is $16,540,000. Of this amount the United States Government appropriated five million and the city of St. Louis an equal sum.

The first McKinley monument was unveiled and dedicated at Tower, Minn., November 11. The monument is a simple shaft eighteen feet high, standing on a pedestal of concrete and iron ore, and cost twelve thousand dollars.

The total cost of the Pan-American Exposition was $8,860,757.20. The total receipts from admissions after May 1 were $2,467,066.50 and the receipts from concessions were $3,011,522.79.

It is reported that a speed of one hundred and five miles an hour has been attained on an electric railway in Germany.

By means of artesian wells more than twelve million acres of the Sahara desert have been made productive.