National.

The recent piratical acts of Japanese sailors in poaching upon the Pribilof Islands has brought the question of pelagic sealing forward again prominently. Among the plans suggested for its regulation two receive chief favor. One suggests the reduction of the present herds so that pelagic sealing will be unprofitable. There could then be adopted an international agreement against the industry. The herds could then be allowed to increase to their original sizes. Another plan which has been considered is the purchase by the United States of all vessels engaged in pelagic sealing, such purchase to be made pursuant to an international agreement which would thereafter prohibit this form of sealing, it being maintained that the chief obstacles to a general international agreement on the subject are the owners of vessels engaged in sealing.

"Bad roads, no mail." is the rule the Government has adopted for the guidance of the rural free delivery service of the Post Office Department. During the past nine years, however, the Government has been too busy installing postal routes to give much emphasis to the good roads question. It is now in position to take up this question and it proposes to do it. The 35.973 rural carriers employed by the Government travel a total of 863,363 miles of country roads daily. Eventually there will undoubtedly be adopted an iron-clad rule that unless the roads over which a rural carrier travels are maintained in first-class condition the mail service will be withdrawn. The Government feels that it has an opportunity to compel local authorities to take up the question of good roads, and it proposes to exercise the authority freely.

Acting under authority of the Secretary of the Interior, the director of the Geological Survey has ordered the confiscation of the whole of the contractor's outfit for work on the Corbett Tunnel, on the irrigation project in northern Wyoming. It was ascertained by the Secretary that the contractor, not being able to secure labor and finding the cost of materials high, had not only abandoned the work, but was about to remove all his appliances from the premises. The Government officers have also taken possession of the work and outfit of the contractors on the Shoshone Dam, one of the largest structures in the West, on the ground that the firm had not been able to secure the necessary men and financial backing to carry them through the work.

The programme for the big naval review which is to occur on Labor Day off Oyster Bay has been sent by the Secretary of the Navy to the President. It is now calculated that upwards of fifty ships will participate in the pageant, which will be reviewed by the President. The total complement of the ships will be nearly fifteen thousand men. There will be probably sixteen battleships in the review, besides the armored cruisers and a large number of the smaller craft.

The Equitable Life Assurance Society has decided to apply for registration under the new insurance laws of France, make the necessary deposits with the Government, and continue doing business there. The society already owns valuable realty in Paris, so it will be no hardship for it to comply with the requirement to invest in French securities.

The American Seed Trade Association, including growers, wholesalers, and retailers of seeds, is making a vigorous effort to check the free distribution of seed by the Government. The total packet-seed trade of the country, it is stated, amounts to 120,000,000 packets, of which the Government gives away 40,000,000 and the dealers sell 80,000,000.

By the conviction of three men connected with the Little Missouri Horse Company in North Dakota, one of the most elusive and persistent cases of unlawful fencing of public lands has been ended. The fence enclosed eighty thousand acres of land, twenty-one thousand of which was unlawfully enclosed.

The proposition of Admiral Bradford, United States, for a gunnery competition between picked teams of British and American battleships, is said to find favor among the British.

Federal agents are in Chicago investigating the business methods of grain elevator corporations and their relations with certain grain companies and railroads.

Foreign.

The elections for the new Russian Douma will be held in November. It is to be specifically provided in advance, so it is reported, that all legislation dealing with the power of the throne and the liberties of the people shall originate only from the czar and his ministers. The new body will be allowed to consider many minor matters, but they will have no power to put forward constitutional measures, nor without the consent of the cabinet to consider any of the questions which have been agitating the empire. Moreover, the czar, it is understood, will retain a veto power which no majority of the Douma will be able to overcome.

The scheme of reforms adopted by the Powers for Crete does not satisfy either Greece or Crete. This is due, it is alleged, to the lack of full agreement among the Powers themselves. It provides for the reform of the gendarmerie under Greek officers not in active service and for the creation of a Cretan militia and the eventual withdrawal of the international troops when circumstances permit it. The surtax of 3 per cent is kept in force in order to render possible the conclusion of a loan of £360,000, of which one-third is to be allotted to the payment of indemnities due to the victims of past insurrections, and the remainder to the execution of public works. The financial control existing in Greece will be extended to Crete, where a system of foreign inspection will be instituted.

King Menelik of Abyssinia has signed the Franco-Italian-British convention relative to railways to be constructed there, and the convention will be communicated to the Parliaments of the interested States as soon as they meet. The main features of the treaty constitute a guarantee of the integrity of the Abyssinian empire, the open door and commercial equality for all countries, and the continuation by the French of the construction of the railway connecting Addis Adeba, the capital of Abyssinia, with the coast, Great Britain and Italy naming representatives on the railway directorate.

The sub-committee report on the Drago doctrine, in the Pan American Congress at Rio de Janeiro, recommending merely that the Hague Conference be requested to decide if the use of force for the collection of public debts is admissible, has been accepted by four of the five committemen.

Griefswald, the oldest Prussian university, celebrated its 450th anniversary last week. One of the features of the occasion was the conferring of a number of honorary degrees upon prominent men in other universities, there and abroad.

The German railway from Konia to Bagdad is nearing completion. Eventually, no doubt, an attempt will be made to extend the line to the Persian Gulf. The choice of a terminus is a problem of grave concern to Great Britain.

It is announced that Japan is planning to double-track the railroad from Dalny to Moukden, a counter-demonstration, it is said, against Russia's Siberian projects.

The Spanish Minister of Finance announces that there will shortly be established a line of steamships running direct from Vigo to New York.

King Edward and Emperor William met at Friedrichskron Castle, near Homburg, Germany, Aug. 15.

Industrial and Commercial.

The future passenger car equipment of the Pennsylvania Railroad is to be of steel and non-combustible material in every particular. The new car, No. 1651, the first one so built, weighs 103,550 pounds, against 84,900 for the standard wooden coach, but it is found that the added weight very greatly reduces the vibration and adds to the comfort of the passengers. Safety against telescoping is secured by the use of enormous steel girders, the principal feature in the body of the car being a central box girder, twenty-four inches wide by nineteen inches deep, extending throughout the length of the coach. The flooring throughout the car and platform consists of an imitation of stone spread while in a plastic state over the steel plates of the car. The framing above the windows is composed of steel plates. The doors are of steel plates pressed into a shape imitating the wooden doors used in other cars, and filled with cork to deaden the sound. The roof is constructed of composite boards covered with copper sheathing. The inside lining consists of composite boards covered with fireproof paint. The seats are of steel frame, covered with fireproof plush. The footrests are also of steel. Tests to ascertain the effect of the temperature of the atmosphere on the steel, as compared with the old wooden car, showed that in hot weather the difference is very slight, and that the steel car shows a decided inclination to cool off more rapidly than the wooden coach.

What is thought to be the largest bearing pecan orchard in the world is located in Charleston County, S. C. It has six hundred acres in bearing trees.

Trade of the United States with its noncontiguous Territories amounted in the fiscal year just ended to $119,504,511.

The Cape Cod cranberry crop for this year is estimated at 160,000 bushels.