National.

The detailed statistics of immigration during the month of April show a large increase over April of last year and over all previous months of the present fiscal year. The total of 126,286 was so large that if the figures for May and June are no larger than for those months last year the aggregate for the fiscal year will be 803,272, thus surpassing the highest previous total for a single fiscal year, which was made in 1882, when the number of immigrants was 788,992. As May usually shows the highest figures of any month in the year and the arrivals of immigrants in June are usually above the average of other months, there is reason to believe that the total for this year will reach 860,000.

The Geological Survey has had prepared a model of the extensive dam to be constructed on Salt River, sixty-five miles above Phoenix, Ariz. This dam will be among the first and also among the largest irrigation enterprises to be undertaken by the Government under the new law. The dam is to be 188 feet thick at the base, 830 feet long at the top, 250 feet high. It will contain 11,600,000 cubic feet of masonry. The reservoir to be constructed will drain over six thousand miles of territory and add three hundred thousand acres to the tillable area in the vicinity of Phoenix.

United States Minister Bowen arrived at La Guayra last week on board the Red D line steamer Philadelphia. He was received enthusiastically by the population and the local authorities. Learning that a popular demonstration would take place on his arrival at Caracas, he signified to the authorities his desire to be received quietly. On his arrival there, however, he was met at the station by President Castro, the members of the cabinet, and all the leading foreign residents.

Judge Grosscup in the Federal Court, May 26, entered the final order in the so-called "Beef Trust" case, restraining the packers from combining to regulate the trade. The order covers all the points in the previous decision and is regarded as a complete vic tory for the Government. An appeal will be taken.

Professor Alexander Graham Bell has resigned the presidency of the National Geographic Society, in order to devote his entire time to perfecting his kite flying-machine. The resignation will take effect next winter.

Investigations in the Post Office Department continue to uncover irregularities and malfeasance in office.

Foreign.

In the House of Commons last week Viscount Cranborne, Under Secretary for Foreign Affairs, said that the British government was in communication with other signatories to the Berlin treaty in order to arrive at an agreement as to the effect of the clause prohibiting monopoly or favor in relation to the system of trade now prevailing in the Congo Free State, including the positions occupied by the companies holding concessions, and by the state in respect to the private property of a sovereign.

Recent complaints have been lodged with the Department of State at Washington and with the British government concerning cruelties practised by the Belgian officers in the Congo Free State, which will doubtless lead to investigations and reforms.

Owning to the awful fatalities and injuries that accompanied the automobile speed contest from Paris to Madrid in its first stage from Paris to Bordeaux, the continuance of the race on French soil was forbidden by Premier Combes and on Spanish soil by the Spanish Government. The course from Paris to Madrid was 712 miles. The distance from Paris to Bordeaux, 243 miles, was covered in 8 hours 7 minutes. On the road outside the city the first two cars to finish averaged sixty-two miles an hour, and at points a speed of nearly ninety miles was reached. It is believed that the results of the race will lead to governmental action in passing a stringent law fixing a maximum speed and forbidding racers to circulate in the streets or on the public roads.

Sir Thomas Lipton's fleet, consisting of Shamrock III., Shamrock I., the steam yacht Erin, and the ocean tug Cruiser, with a total crew of 170 men, sailed for Sandy Hook from Gourock, Scotland, on the 28th ult. Crowds of people had gathered to bid them farewell and their cheering was supported by bands, whistles, and sirens. There was a large gathering of yachts and excursion steamers in the bay. It is expected that sixteen or seventeen days will be required to make the passage.

Emperor William has presented the New York Yacht Club with a cup, to be known as the Emperor's cup, to be competed for the first time next fall. It is of gold, two feet high, and has on one side the coat-of-arms of the United States and those of Germany, and on the other the heads of an ancient Teuton and an Indian, and a sketch of the Meteor. The cup is being made by Tiffany & Co. of New York.

The minister of commerce is sending to the United States experts and officials of the Austrian post office to investigate the American telegraph and telephone systems. They will arrive in New York early in June, and will visit all the commercial centres.

Guglielmo Marconi has received from the Municipal Council of Rome the high honorary title of "civis Romanus."

Industrial and Commercial.

The plan for the reorganization of the United States Shipbuilding Company has been made public. The plan provides for the organization of a company with the title of Bethlehem Steel and Shipbuilding Company. The properties to be taken over are: Union Iron Works, San Francisco; Bath Iron Works, Limited, Bath, Me.; Hyde Windlass Company, Bath, Me.; Crescent Shipyard Company, Elizabethport, N. J.; Canada Manufacturing Company, Carteret, N. J,; Samuel L. Moore & Sons Company, Elizabethport, N. J,; Eastern Shipbuilding Company, New London, Conn,; Harlan & Hollingsworth Company, Wilmington, Del,; also all of the capital stock (except directors' qualification shares) of the Bethlehem Steel Company, owning the Bethlehem Steel Works and property in the boroughs of South Bethlehem and Northampton Heights. The capitalization will be $43,000,000.

Plans are being considered by the Brinkley Company to construct at Memphis cotton compresses and storehouses to rival anything in the South, and with facilities equal to those of Liverpool, the greatest cotton market of the world. The compresses will be in connection with the warehouses which will have a storage capacity of over one hundred thousand bales. Overhead trackage for handling the cotton will be installed, and every precaution against fire will be used, resulting in much lower storage and insurance rates.

General.

Arrangements are being made for a Sargent exhibition to be held at the Museum of Fine Arts as a special feature for the delegates who are coming to attend the convention of the National Educational Association at Boston, July 6-10. It is expected that the exhibition will be opened to the public this week. John S. Sargent painted eighteen portraits on his recent visit to this country, and plans have been made whereby fourteen of them will be shown at the Museum. It is probable that three more will be secured before the opening day. The portrait of President Roosevelt, which is one of the eighteen, cannot be included in the exhibition as it is hanging in the White House at Washington, and according to rules must not be removed. In addition to the pictures there will be shown a number of drawings executed by Mr. Sargent. Delegates to the educational convention will be provided with special tickets admitting them at any time to the Museum, Two mural paintings by Sargent already adorn the walls of the Boston Public Library.

A remarkable run was made by the Twentieth Century Limited over the Lake Shore Railroad between Cleveland and Dune Park, thirty-five miles east of Chicago, recently. The distance, 307 miles, was made in 292 minutes. The entire distance was covered at a speed averaging sixty-six miles an hour. The train reached Cleveland from the East an hour and thirty-two minutes late. Between Toledo and Cleveland, 108 miles, the run was made in one hour and forty-five minutes. The train covered the distance of 133 miles over the Air Line in 114 minutes, two minutes faster than any previous record. At intervals the speed between Toledo and Elkhart was ninety miles an hour. Other bursts of unusual speed were sixteen miles between Kendalville and Ligonier, Ind., at the rate of seventy-eight miles an hour, thirty-two miles from Kendalville to Goshen, Ind., at the rate of eighty miles an hour; six miles between Archbold and Stryker, at ninety miles an hour. The train got into Chicago at 9.45 A.M. on time.

"Nearly thirteen hundred tons of gold,' according to a writer in Success, "lie in the vaults of the Treasury of the United States, the greatest hoard of the yellow metal ever gathered in the history of the world. Four hundred tons of this gold are piled, like bags of salt, within the four walls of the subtreasury in Wall Street, New York. Outside the Treasury hoard, there is in circulation through the country a nearly equal amount of gold coin, making more than two thousand five hundred tons of gold in the United States, bearing the imprint of the eagle. The value of this coin is more than $1,260,000,000."

Contractor McDonald has announced to the board of rapid transit commissioners of New York that there remain less than sixty days of excavation work on the subway. The board hopes to have the work ready for operation by the Christmas holidays.