Items of Interest September 30, 1905 Issue

Items of Interest

A new system of credit has been devised for the canal employes on the Isthmus, to be put into effect about October 1. The system comprises coupon credit slips, which will be issued to canal employes on demand, in books containing credit respectively for $2.50, $5, $25 gold, redeemable within two months only. Employes will be allowed to get these credit books on demand at any time, up to a certain percentage of the total amount of wages due them. No liquor or tobacco is sold at the five Government commissaries along the line of the road, and it has been decided to carry in these commissaries only such articles as shall be decided to constitute the necessaries of life.

Investigation by the Keep Commission into the matter of making purchases for the departments at Washington shows that all sorts of prices are paid for identical goods. One kind of ink costs per dozen quarts in one department $5.80, in another $5.90, and in another $7.10. A better ink is made for the Treasury at $3.15. One brand of mucilage is sold at prices running from $1.65 to $3 per dozen. Red ink costs one department thirty-five cents and costs another department $1.30. The commission will report in favor of one purchasing department.

Rear Admiral Chester of the special squadron sent by the Navy Department to Spain and the northern coast of Africa to view the recent eclipse, has made his final report to the Department, in which he says the observation by all parties under his supervision was entirely successful, and the most gratifying feature of the expedition was the marked interest displayed in the work by the crews of the ships, whose intelligence and resourcefulness overcame many a difficulty in installing the delicate instruments employed in the observation.

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