National.

The report of the Isthmian Canal Commission, recording its decision in favor of an eighty-five foot level lock canal, was submitted to Secretary Taft last week. It is accompanied by the report of the Board of Advisory Engineers, the majority of whom declare for a sea-level canal. Secretary Taft will transmit the papers to the President with his recommendations. It appears that Rear Admiral Endicott, the naval member of the Commission, was the only one who differed with the others and favored a sea-level canal, as recommended by the majority of the Board of Consulting Engineers.

Members of the Rivers and Harbors Committee of the House of Representatives have agreed to report favorably on the Burton resolution, providing for a report to Congress by the United States member on the International Commission, on the necessary means of preventing a further reduction of the water supply at Niagara Falls. The resolution also directs the American members to co-operate with the Canadian members in preserving the Niagara Falls in their natural condition.

The House of Representatives, South Carolina, has passed the Morgan dispensary bill by a vote of sixty-three to forty-seven. This is considered significant legislation. It is believed that the Senate also will pass the measure. The bill abolishes the State dispensary and provides for State prohibition, with local option to counties to establish their own dispensaries under county management.

Foreign.

Fredericek VIII. was proclaimed King of Denmark at noon on the 30th ult. in Amalienborg Square in front of the palace at Copenhagen. The Premier, M. Christensen, appeared on the balcony and announced to the fifty thousand persons assembled below, the death of King Christian IX. and the accession of his eldest son. The new ruler of Denmark joined the Premier on the balcony and in a short speech declared that he would rule in accordance with the example set him by his father and trusted that the same accord between the King and the nation would continue as heretofore. His majesty concluded with calling for cheers for the fatherland.

The Daily Telegraph, London, says: "Twenty hitherto unexhibited masterpieces in oil by Turner will be exposed to public view in the National Gallery next (this) week. They are the so-called 'unfinished' pictures among the collection which Turner left to the nation, and which have been condemned ever since to obscurity. Owing to the energy of Sir Charles Holroyd (the keeper of the National Gallery of British Art), they will now see the light. It will be found that instead of being unfinished pictures they were Turner's last works in the gospel of atmospheric beauty. They are astonishingly well preserved, and are valued at $1,250,000."

Twenty five members of the diplomatic corps last week delivered to the Venezuelan Government a formal joint note stating that they cannot accept Venezuela's position that M. Taigny, the former French Charge d' Affaires there, had been deprived of his official character, and that he ranked only as a French citizen at the time of his forced departure from the country. The diplomats have communicated the text of this note to their respective Governments.

The Russian ministerial proposition for the solution of the agrarian question involves the appropriation of $150,000,000 for the compensation of private owners of lands expropriated for distribution to the peasants. The operation will be accomplished through the peasant's bank, which will purchase lands and sell them to the peasantry on the instalment system.

The Moroccan conference has adopted, without modification, its committee's draft of the international taxation project. The Moorish delegates raised a number of objections and will refer the proposals to the Sultan at Fez. The question of reforming the customs duties was not considered.

Italy has proposed to France the establishment of a permanent court of arbitration for the settlement of all questions between Venezuela and Europe. It is stated that the Powers are in favor of the project and are ready to act jointly with the United States in its realization.

The State attorney of Vicenza has entered an action in connection with the clandestine sale of Giorgione's painting, "Christ Bearing the Cross," said to be in the Fenway Museum, Boston. The Boston painting is declared, however, to be only a copy.

It is announced that Admiral Togo will visit America in April with two armored cruisers.

Industrial and Commercial.

For the purpose of "lumbering" the Menominee and Brule Rivers and their tributaries, the Menominee River Improvement Company, Michigan, has been incorporated by Marquette and Menominee lumbermen. Its business will be the recovery of "deadhead" or sunken logs from the beds of the streams. For a distance of nearly two hundred miles the Manistee River is paved with sunken pine, elm, cherry, oak, maple, and other kinds of timber. Some of the logs have been under water for forty years. The Manistee Company took over three hundred thousand feet of mixed timber from one deep hole at a bend in the stream last summer. The area worked over was less than four hundred feet in extent. Nearly every timber recovered was in perfect condition except for a few inches at the ends, where "checking" is observed.

The operations of the Menominee River Company will cover the Paint, Michigamme, Sturgeon, Fence, Deer, Brule, Nett, and Little Cedar Rivers, all tributary to the larger stream, which with the Brule forms a considerable portion of the boundary line between Northern Michigan and Northern Wisconsin. For logs recovered the owners of the timber will be charged at a specified rate per one thousand feet. Where logs are found bearing the marks of lumber companies not now engaged in operations on the river, the Improvement Company will come into possession of them after a certain length of time unless the owners pay the lifting charges. The profits from this source will amount to a large item, as many millions of feet of timber are in the rivers, bearing the stamp of concerns formerly operating on the streams, while the companies themselves have long ceased to do business.

There is at Muskegon a company whose operations are conducted on similar lines. At one time there were over one hundred sawmills located on Muskegon Lake at Muskegon. Slab wood then was of no commercial value and was loaded into carts and dumped into the lake, millions of cords being disposed of in this way. until the entire lake bottom was covered with slabs to a depth of twenty-five to thirty feet in places. These slabs are now being recovered from the bottom of the lake and used in the manufacture of laths.

Bradstreet's says: "Nineteen hundred and five was a record breaker in the building trades, as in nearly all other forms of industrial endeavor. It is worth recalling that while a year or less ago a record amount of construction was predicted, the aggregate of the estimates then made proved to be under rather than over the mark. In April, 1905, Bradstreet's gave reports from 155 cities and towns in the United States, all or nearly all of them going to show that immense operations were contemplated, and that an aggregate of probably $600,000,000 would be expended in this country in that year. Now that the work has been done and something like a grand total is obtainable, it is found that the amount actually expended or provided for in that year in 165 cities from which reports have so far been received, was actually $711,123,741, as against $505,703,921 expended in the year 1904. There is here indicated a gain of 40.6 per cent in 1905 over 1904. The largest gains of all are shown in the Middle States group, largely because of the enormous aggregate and heavy gains shown in New York City, which seems to have furnished a little over one-third of the entire country's building output, and to have expended 64.3 per cent more in 1905 than in 1904. Here, as in the rest of the country, the actual figures of building seem to have far surpassed the estimates or expectations of last April. The smallest gain shown, that in the Far West, was 15.2 per cent; two groups — New England and the Northwest — show gains of 27.4 and 28.7 per cent; one — the South — shows a gain of 31 per cent, and the Western and Middle groups showed gains of 42.9 and 47.9 per cent respectively."

Trade of the United States with Russia, including the Asiatic part, during the fiscal year 1905, amounted to $28,800,000, of which $11,800,000 represents the imports into the United States and $17,000,000 the exports of the United States to Russia. These figures are somewhat lower than the figures for the preceding year, when the total trade figures were in excess of $31,300,000.

The United Fruit Company the past year, through its southern department at New Orleans, handled about ten million stems, or bunches, of bananas, besides eighty million cocoanuts. Three independent fruit lines, the Oteri, Cefalu, and Vaccaro concerns, brought in between them four million bunches, about equally divided.

In the last twenty years imports of cocoa to the United States have increased from a little over nine million pounds to ninety-three million pounds. The British West Indies furnish more cocoa to America that any other source. Brazil comes second in this respect, Dutch Guiana third, and Ecuador fourth.

In the immensely fertile district between San Pedro and Gomez Palacio, Mexico, and throughout that entire region, thousands of acres of cotton in full boll are said to be rotting and wasting in the field, because of the great scarcity of labor.