National.

United States Consul-General Gummere at Tangier has been cabled instructions from Secretary Hay for dealing with the brigand, Raisuli, the point of which is a positive injunction to refrain from committing the United States Government to any guarantee of immunity for the brigands or in any way to take any action that would amount to the recognition of the right of brigandage and blackmail in Morocco. This attitude will be adhered to regardless of consequences. The reports that the Sultan is ready to concede the brigand's terms are confirmed.

The necessity for the better policing of Tangier is recognized, and officials say one of the results of the incident will be the establishment of a police administration under foreign authority with foreign officers. It is the expectation that France's influence will probably lead her, with the coöperation of the Powers, to undertake the organization of a permanent police system at Tangier.

During the recent trials near Newport, R. I., the submarine torpedo boat Fulton was submerged and remained under water for twelve hours. There were nine men in the vessel during the time of submergence. Among the trials was a run under water for a distance of ten miles, covered in an hour and twenty minutes; and on the supposition that her periscope had been injured she was submerged and kept her bearings by rising and using her conning tower. The trials were under the supervision of Naval Constructor Woodward, and were pronounced in every way satisfactory.

The population of the Phillippine Islands, according to the census just completed, is 7,635,426, of which 647,740 are classified as wild and uncivilized, although possessing some knowledge of the domestic arts. This is the first, accurate and complete enumeration of the Filipinos ever made. It was taken by the Philippine Census Bureau, which was organized by General Sanger. The enumerators employed were mostly natives. The schedules were translated, transcribed, and tabulated by the United States Census Office in Washington.

Foreign.

A question of interest came before the British House of Commons last week when the administration of the Congo Free State was raised for consideration by Sir Charles Dilke, who advocated an appeal to the United States to act with Great Britain in investigating reports of alleged cruelty and atrocities, inasmuch as the United States was instrumental in the creation of the State. By the acquiescence of the Powers. Leopold II. of Belgium was recognized as sovereign and sole administrator of the new State, which contains a territory four times as great as France. The enterprise found favor because it was supposed to represent a generous philanthropy and freedom of commerce for all world.

The letter of Colonel Younghusband, in command of the British expedition to Lhassa, demanding that Amban come to Gyangtse with accredited Tibetan representatives to settle outstanding differences before June 25, has been returned from Jong unopened and without comment. The Tibetans have therefore deliberately refused to negotiate. They are now concentrating in Jong monastery and the town of Gyangtse. Two regiments of Punjabis, a mountain battery, and a detachment of engineers have been ordered to re-enforce the expedition.

The Frankfurter Zeitung of Berlin announces that a syndicate of German and Dutch capitalists has been organized for the financing of a cable from the Dutch Island of Menadotua (off the coast of Celebes) to the Island of Guam and thence to Shanghai.

The Government of Brazil is reported to have annulled the exequatur of the Peruvian consul at Para and has denounced the treaty of 1891 with Peru. This is the result of friction concerning the contested zone between Brazil and Peru at Acre.

Industrial and Commercial.

Imports of india-rubber into the United States in the fiscal year about to end will exceed by far those of any earlier year, and will amount to over forty million dollars in value. The demand for this article has increased rapidly in recent years, and the imports in the present fiscal year will amount to about sixty million pounds. In 1880 the quantity of rubber imported into the United States amounted to seventeen million pounds, valued at $9,500,000.

Importations of "gutta-joolatong," a product of India, which is used in certain industries as a substitute for india-rubber, now average more than a million pounds a month, while importations of old and scrap indiarubber. to be manufactured, amounted to over fifteen million pounds in the ten months of the present fiscal year.

More than one half of the india-rubber imported into the United States comes direct from Brazil. the total from that country alone being, for the ten months, 30,000,000 pounds, valued at $20,300,000. The United Kingdom supplied in the same period over seven million pounds, valued at $5,400,000; Germany, two million pounds, valued at $1,250,000, and other countries of Europe, nearly ten million pounds, valued at over $7,500,000. These supplies of india-rubber which come from the European countries are in practically all cases the product of their various colonies.

The imports of steel and iron In the fiscal year 1903 were the largest since 1891. In the fiscal year 1904 they will be but about one half those of 1903. During the ten months ended with April last the total imports amounted to but $23,075,084, as compared with $43,332,714 in the same period of last year. In practically all articles of iron and steel imported there has been a marked reduction both in quantity and value as compared with 1903, but this is most strongly marked in pig iron, which alone shows a reduction of more than ten million dollars, while steel ingots, blooms, and bars show a reduction of five million dollars.

Exports of iron and steel, however, show a material decrease, In the ten months ended with April, 1904, the total exports of iron and steel amounted to $89,094,415 against $79,839,462 in the corresponding months of the preceding year. The principal increases in iron and steel exports occur in billets, ingots, and blooms, steel rails, locomotives, typewriters, and firearms.

Mexico City advices state that arrangements are being completed by a number of capitalists and grain dealers for the formation of a company with a capital of $2,500,000, with which to establish a large grain elevator there, with a system of line elevators along the various railways in the wheat raising districts of Mexico. It is expected that the Mexico City storage elevator will have a capacity of about 750,000 bushels per day. and the line elevators about 35,000 bushels. It is the intention to have the elevators completed before next year's grain crop is ready for the market. Americans will be in charge. At the present time Mexico is without any modern grain elevators.

Since the introduction of American methods for the promotion of agriculture in the Philippines seven experiment stations and farms have been established for special branches of agriculture or in typical sections of the Islands. These include a rice farm, a live stock farm, a sugar station, a farm for cocoanut and hemp culture, a testing station near Manila, and two other stations for general work in typical localities. A coffee plantation has been started with imported hybrids, and it is hoped to revive that former important industry.

The total area planted in cotton in the United States this season is estimated at 31,730,371 acres, an increase of 2,823,016 acres, or 9.8 per cent, upon the acreage planted last year.

The yield of peaches from the Georgia field this year is expected to be four thousand carloads, or fifteen hundred more than during the season of 1898. This will establish a new record.

There are between fifty and sixty petroleum wells in the northeast part of the island of Borneo, with a total daily production of six hundred tons of oil.

General.

To avoid the possibility of any repetition of the great estastrophe of 1900, when the sea swept over the low island on which the city of Galveston, Texas, is built, a great wall of solid concrete three and one-half miles long and seventeen feet high is being constructed all along the water front. The plans of protection include—besides the construction of the concrete sea-wall proper—the filling or raising of the grade of the city to a level with the top of the wall. In this way it will be necessary. it the wall is to be destroyed and the water to reach the city, to wash away the entire island, thirty miles long and three miles wide.

In Germany the use of potato alcohol to furnish light, heat, and motive power has been rapidly spreading, says an exchange. At present there is converted into alcohol twenty million tons of the fifty-five million tons of potatoes raised in Germany. It is burned like gas in chandeliers and in street lamps, and for cooking, neat, and lighting, and is used for both land and water motors as a power generator.

Acting in accordance with the authority of the Legislature the Law School of the Boston Y. M. C. A. conferred the degree of Bachelor of Law upon forty-nine young men last week. It is said that this is the first time that an institution of this character has enjoyed such a privilege from a State.

Colorado produced 1,800,000 pounds of honey last year.