National

Mr. Bowen, envoy of Venezuela, has had a number of conferences at Washington with the representatives of the blockading Powers. The Powers having claims against Venezuela but taking no part in the blockade have asked for equal footing in the matter of the payment of their claims. This request the blockading Powers are disposed to deny, claiming for themselves preferential consideration. On this attitude France makes the point that such action would put a premium upon war methods rather than peace methods in the collection of indemnities.

The title and rank of envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary have been conferred on Baron Speck von Sternberg, who assumes control of the German embassy in the absence of Dr. von Holleben, German ambassador to this country. The Baron presented his credentials to the President Saturday.

The Supreme Court of Lincoln, Neb., in an opinion by Chief Justice Sullivan, declared the reading of the Bible in the public schools of Nebraska to be permissible so long as it does not take the form of sectarian instruction. This is a practical reversal of a previous decision by the same court.

Investigation into the coal situation by the United States Government was begun in Boston last week by the subcommittee appointed by the Committee on the Judiciary. A committee appointed by the Massachusetts Legislature is also making an investigation.

According to despatches, the President has submitted to Congress a note from the Mexican Government and one from China asking the United States to lend its moral support to a plan to give stability to the currency of the silver standard countries of the world.

Hon. John T. McDonough, ex-secretary of New York State, will accept the appointment as justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines tendered him by the President.

Judge W. R. Day has accepted a tender of appointment as assistant justice of the United States Supreme Court.

Foreign.

During July, August, and September, 1902, thirty-nine per cent of the imports into Cuba came from the United States, seventeen per cent from Spain, thirteen per cent from England, five per cent from France, and five per cent from Germany. From countries in the Western Hemisphere other than the United States the imports were eighteen per cent; other countries in Europe two per cent, and from elsewhere one per cent. Eighty-two per cent of the exports went to the United States, seven per cent to England, four per cent to Germany, three per cent to Spain, and one per cent to France. During the same period the duties collected in Cuba amounted to $3,401,360, of which $1,208,380 was paid on goods from the United States. The value of the exports to the United States was $17,485,024. The total value of the imports was $14,316,272. The imports from the United States amounted to $5,361,795, and from countries other than the United States in the Western Hemisphere $2,556,783.

Interest in the proposition to build a railway line connecting the systems of the United States and Mexico on the north with those of Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay, and the Argentine Republic on the south, traversing all the Central American republics and all those in South America which touch the Pacific Ocean, with branch lines into Venezuela and Brazil, is being kept alive and it is not improbable that efforts will be made to have the road completed at least as far as the line of the Panama Canal in time to be of some service in connection with the completion of that work. The International American Conference, which met in the City of Mexico last winter, adopted resolutions favoring the construction of the intercontinental railway.

The Magdalen Islands have been sold to a syndicate of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia capitalists. The price paid for the islands was seventy thousand dollars, and for the mining rights thirty-two thousand dollars. This group of islands, composed of the Coffin, Albright, Entry, Amherst, Grindstone, and Byron, lies in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, sixty miles northwest of Prince Edward Island. The group is fifty miles long, but quite narrow. The fisheries and mineral deposits are of considerable value.

Secretary Hay and Ambassador Herbert have signed a document to refer the long-pending Alaskan boundary dispute to a commission of six jurists,—three American, three British. They will consider the boundary line as delineated in the treaty of 1825. The press opinion seems to be that the decision will be in favor of the United States.

The Spanish Minister of Finance announces that the final budget of 1902 shows a surplus of $9,600,000.

Industrial and Commercial.

The Cedric, the latest addition to the White Star fleet and the largest steamer in the world, is practically completed, and will prepare for her maiden voyage from Liverpool to New York early this month. This huge vessel, seven hundred feet long, is the second steamer to exceed twenty thousand tons, her sister ship, the Celtic, being the first. The Cedric will have accommodations for three thousand, passengers. She has not been built for speed and will not attempt to lower the Atlantic record.

German shipyards in 1902 built two hundred and twenty-seven steamers of 212,283 tons register, a decrease of three steamers and 49,000 tons in comparison with 1901. The steamers under construction at the year's end numbered one hundred and twenty-one, of 255,977 tons, against one hundred and forty-two of 317,080 tons, in 1901. Two hundred and eighty sailing vessels, of 58,715 tons, were built in 1902, being an increase of sixty-nine vessels and 28,000 tons.

American shipyards launched last year almost as many vessels as all Europe combined. During 1902 there were built in this country four hundred and eight steamers of all sizes and seventy-six sailing vessels of over two hundred and fifty tons.

The Baldwin Locomotive Works is turning out daily six completed engines, and though working night and day is unable to meet the demand from the great railroad systems for motive power. Thirteen thousand men are employed in the shops.

A cotton mill to cost $450,000 and have one thousand looms is to be built at Charlotte, N. C.

General.

Peter Cooper Hewitt, grandson of the famous Peter Cooper, has invented a lamp known as the mercury vapor lamp, which was exhibited April, 1901, at the American Institute of Electrical Engineers. The light is produced by rendering luminous, by means of an ordinary direct current of electricity of low power, a vapor or gas confined in a glass tube. When the lamp is started, the heat generated by the electric current turns into vapor enough of the mercury to fill the glass tube, in which, before starting, there is almost a perfect vacuum. The vapor serves as a conductor of the current, and glows under its influence. The light produced is of great intensity, is very economical, and suited for both indoor and outdoor service. Besides the lamp, he exhibited his static converter. This is described as the most original and important discovery affecting the general distribution of electric current for light and power purposes, that has been brought to public attention since electricity became a commercial product.

The ancient Temple of Juno in the Island of Samos, which Herodotus described as one of the glories of the pre-Christian world, has just been discovered by the Archeological Society of Greece, after being quite lost for many centuries. It is stated that the portions of the temple so far brought to light include the altar, the bases of the twenty-nine columns, many inscriptions, and lesser objects. Work is being actively prosecuted, and it is hoped that the whole of the ruin will be laid bare for the study of the learned in architecture.

Professor Hilprecht of the University of Pennsylvania, recently delivered a lecture before the Anthropological Society at Berlin, on the progress of American operations at Nippur, in Babylonia. In the course of his description of the excavations on the site of the Temple of Baal, he said he expected to unearth a large library of stone books, which he believed were buried in a neighboring hill.

Andrew Carnegie has purchased for $225,000 part of the Pittencrief estate near Dumfermline, including the glen which runs through Dumfermline, and the Dumfermline Tower, where Malcolm Canmore, the Malcolm of Shakespeare's Macbeth married Princess Margaret.

At the Marquand sale of antiquities in New York recently, a Chinese vase, or "peachblow amphora," six inches in height, was sold for $3,200. A Limoges enamel brought $26,000. The proceeds of the six-day sale amounted to over a half million dollars.

The experiments on the military railroad between Berlin and Zossen, Germany, in connection with keeping a moving train in continuous wireless communication with the signal station, have been completely successful.

A movement is under way in New York City looking not only toward the extension of the subway system there, but also to a transfer of the management of the new lines to the municipality.

The orange crop of Florida this season is estimated at seven hundred and fifty thousand boxes.