Items of Interest
National.
The Commission on International Exchange has received the conclusions of the Monetary Commission of Japan regarding the proposals of the American commission for a uniform coinage system for China. The resolutions declare that the present chaotic condition of the Chinese currency is disadvantageous both to China and to those countries that have commercial relations with her, and that a definite and uniform currency system should be put into operation throughout the empire. Inasmuch as the currency reform cannot be started on a perfect system, it is regarded as advisable to adopt the suggestions of the American Commission as a matter of expediency.
The chess clubs of Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Columbia Universities have sent a formal joint challenge to the chess clubs of Oxford and Cambridge, proposing an international cable match to defend the Rice trophy. This match will be held next spring, and will be the sixth in the series of contests for the possession of the silver shield, valued at twelve hundred dollars, given by L.L. Rice of New York. This shield will become the permanent property of the country winning it three years in succession. Of the previous international intercollegiate matches Great Britain has won three, America one, and one was drawn.
Escorted by several thousand Ethiopian soliders, the American mission to Emperor Menelik, headed by Consul General Skinner of Marseilles, entered the Abyssinian capital last week. The reception of the Americans was brilliant and picturesque. Emperor Menelik personally received Mr. Skinner and delivered a cordial address of welcome, to which Mr. Skinner responded, presenting an invitation to his majesty to visit the exposition at St. Louis. A formal audience and a conference with the emperor to discuss the purposes of the mission will follow later.
According to the annual report of the Civil Service Commission for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1903, the total number of persons examined by educational tests and otherwise was 112,624, as compared with 60,588 for the preceding fiscal year. The commission gave 654 examinations at more than one thousand places throughout the country. The total number of persons appointed, promoted, transferred, or reinstated was 40,267.
Foreign.
The Porte has agreed to the demands of the United States Government and ordered the governor of Alexandretta to make ample apology to Consul Davis for the insults offered him and the assault committed upon him by the local police of Alexandretta. The Porte notified the United States legation of the instructions telegraphed to the Vali of Aleppo to order the Governor of Alexandretta to call on Consul Davis immediately upon his arrival at Alexandretta and offer to him a complete apology. This has been done. The Porte has also promised to punish the police officials who assaulted Consul Davis, and will allow Attarian to depart unhindered.
It is the general belief that the island of Cuba will produce almost if not quite 1,250,000 tons of sugar the coming season. The reciprocity treaty gives encouragement to the hundreds of American settlers scattered throughout Cuba, who have been planting tobacco, cocoanuts, cacao, oranges, pineapples, and early vegetables for the Northern markets. An impetus also will be given to the native and American planters of cotton on the island. The absence of the Texas boll weevil has encouraged the culture of Sea Island Cotton, and experiments have more than justified fondest expectations.
The agreement for the sale of friar lands in the Philippines has been signed, to take effect in six months, the time allowed for surveys and examination of titles. The bureau organized to administer the affairs of these lands will dispose of them when possible to the present tenants on long terms of payments. Three-fourths of this land is included within the populated districts. Governor Taft left Manila the 24th ult. He was given a very cordial farewell reception by the citizens and military. He will visit Tokyo by invitation of the Mikado and also call at Honolulu.
In the Land Judges' Court in Dublin Justice Ross has delivered judgment regarding the sale of certain estates, according to which the tenant for life is not entitled to appropriate the bonus under the new act for his own use, but must hold it subject to trusts of settlement. The judgment will probably have the effect of suspending all sales and negotiations to sell until Parliament has taken measures to remove the doubts and difficulties which have arisen in the interpretation of Irish Secretary Wyndham's Land Act.
The Dreyfus Commission has unanimously recommended a revision of the case by the criminal branch of the Court of Cassation. The court will assemble next month to hear the case. The commission report sets forth the reasons which caused it to make the recommendation. These include evidence not submitted to the court-martial at Rennes and changes of testimony on the part of some of the witnesses before the court-martial.
Trade in Newfoundland has virtually doubled during the past five years. This year it will approach twenty million dollars, while revenue will reach nearly $2,500,000, the largest on record. There is a cash reserve of $352,000 to the colony's credit, and the authorities hope to announce a substantial addition to this reserve at the end of the year.
Japan has handed to Russia her reply on the Manchurian and Korean question. It is not in any way in the nature of an ultimatum, but asks Russia to reconsider certain essential points of her reply to Japan. It is also reported that Great Britain and France have diplomatically conveyed to Russia their belief in the justness of Japan's contentions.
The representatives of several foreign Powers at Washington are reported to have advised General Reyes, minister plenipotentiary of Colombia, of the futility of Colombia's trying to retake Panama and of the desirability of avoiding a conflict with the United States.
Industrial and Commercial.
The year's commerce of the United States with Canada, as shown by the figures of the Department of Commerce and Labor through its Bureau of Statistics, will aggregate nearly $200,000,000 against less than $100,000,000 in 1893. Our imports from Canada, which in 1893 amounted to only $34,000,000, will in the present year reach about $55,000,000. Our exports to Canada, which in 1893 were $57,000,000, will in 1903 aggregate about $130,000,000. The total commerce of the United States in the calendar year 1893 was $1,652,000,000, and in 1903 will aggregate about $2,460,000,000.
According to the Railroad Age, the total railway mileage of the United States, On January 1,1904, will be 209,855 miles, the present year having added 5,723 miles. This mileage takes into account all the new track laid up to the last days of the year. Early in the year it was shown that there were eighty-five hundred miles of railroad under construction, but labor troubles and financial difficulties caused some of the work to be abandoned.
The cut of white pine lumber in the Duluth district, the largest in the United States, during the year closing December 1, amounted to 885,000,000 feet, representing a value of $17,500,000. Of this amount 500,000,000 feet was shipped East by water, the rest was distributed by rail to Chicago, the South, and West.
General.
Plants and specifications have been prepared for developing valuable water power properties on the Little Tennessee River in Swain County, N.C., to furnish forty thousand horse-power. It is proposed to transmit the power by electricity for operating cotton mills and other industries, and the first mill to be built will be a modern cotton factory. It is expected that the power will ultimately be brought to Atlanta, Ga. The enterprise as planned will cost about three million dollars.
The Southern Pacific has just completed at great expense the cut-off across Great Salt Lake. The next great engineering feat of the Southern Pacific, says E. H. Harriman, will be tunneling the Sierra Nevada mountains. Plans for this great undertaking are ready, he says, but the Southern Pacific is not yet ready to begin construction.
It is estimated that the people of the United States pay $150,000,000 a year for candy. In 1890 the output was $81,290,543, and in 1880 $25,637,033. In 1880 there were 1,450 establishments making candy, which had increased in 1900 to 4,297, while the capital invested increased from $8,486,874 in 1880 to $35,155,361 in 1900.
The second and greater bridge across the East River, connecting the boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn, was turned over to the city and formally opened on the 29th ult.
Russia has acquired new territory within the past fifty years which has an area larger than the United States, and there is a prospect of more in the near future.
Interested parties propose to construct in the delta section of the Mississippi Valley, near Tutwiler, Miss., an immense rose farm of three thousand acres.
Efforts are being made to secure for Yale by contributions from her alumni a stadium for her athletic events similar to the one at Harvard.
The $2,142,207 worth of platinum extracted in the Gorotiagodatski district of Russia last year is practically the world's supply of that metal.
