Items of Interest February 4, 1905 Issue

Items of Interest

A protocol between the Dominican Government and the American Minister, Mr. Dawson, and Commodore A. C. Dillingham United States Navy, in behalf of the united States Government, was signed January 21, at San Domingo. The Principal conditions were that the United States Government guaranteed the complete integrity of Dominican territory, agreed to undertake the adjustment of all obligations of the Dominiean Government, foreign and domestic, and thousands of payments, to adjust unreasonable claims and to determine the validity and amount of pending claims. The United States Government would take charge of the existing custom houses and those to be created. Out of the revenues collected at the custom houses of the Republic, the United States Government would deliver to the Dominican Government forty-five per cent for the necessities of the budget. Secretary Hay will send to the Senate a treaty to take the place of this protocol. Dominican exiles, headed by a former vice-president of San Domingo, have entered a national protest against the protocal. It is estimated that the first year $900,000 would be receivable monthly. San Domingo's foreign trade amounts to about $8,000,000 a year.

The Hepburn Railroad-Rate Bill, just introduced in the House, amending the Interstate Commerce Act, provides that upon complaint the Interstate Commerce Commission shall declare and order what shall be a just and reasonable rate, the same to take effect in sixty days, the carrier having an appeal to a Court of Commerce. Carriers refusing to obey an order of the Commission are subject to a penalty of $5,000 a day. An appeal from the Court of Commerce can only be taken to the Supreme Court of the United States. The present Interstate Commerce Commission is abolished. and a new commission created, composed of seven commissioners at $7,000 a year, the terms of the commissioners to be ten years. A Court of Commerce is to be composed of five circuit Judges of the United States, to be appointed by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.

It is reported that a combination of the forty-three leading telephone companies of the United States and Canada has already been effected and will be formally announced this month. The American Telephone and Telegraph Company is said to have engineered the deal and secured interests of forty-two other companies, which will be combined in a new concern, capitalized at $250,000,000, to establish a transcontinental system.

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