National.

The Court of Errors and Appeals of New Jersey has just decided an interesting case in favor of the Vulcan Detinning Company, which was organized for the detinning of tin scrap,—the separation of the metallic tin from the steel. The formula and secret process, which were obtained from Holland, were entrusted to certain directors of the company, one of whom afterwards became interested in the American Can Company and sold his stock in the Vulcan Company for a round figure and then resigned. Rival plants were then built by the latter company and the same process used. As a result of the decision the American Can Company was enjoined from using the process, and will be required to account to the Vulcan Company for all the profits it has made from the time it began to use the secret process. The court held that the employes and the chairman of the executive committee were trustees of the secret process, and held it for the sole benefit of the Vulcan Company; that the American Company, by acquiring it from the delinquent servants and officers, must be held likewise as trustees for the Vulcan Company.

The new plan of the Department of Justice in its program of trust prosecution—to apply for Federal receivers in cases where trusts are convicted of violation of the antitrust law—will probably act along one or more of the following lines: That receivers be appointed where possible to sell the plants of the combinations found guilty of violating anti-trust law; that an injunction be issued for the dissolution of the illegal combination in restraint of trade; that contracts or agreements in restraint of trade be abrogated; that conspiracies in restraint of trade shall be punished in accordance with the conspiracy statute, as well as the antitrust law; that criminal sentence be imposed as provided by the anti-trust law. It is expected that one of these lines will be followed in the case of the powder trust and the tobacco trust.

"As chief of the Weather Bureau and president of the Geographical Society," said Willis L. Moore a few days ago, "I have instructed Major Henry E. Hersey, who is with Walter Wellman in his aeronautic attempt to reach the North Pole, and who in that expedition, represents both the bureau and the society, that he is expected to make the dash this summer. I have endeavored to make it clear that we do not intend to lend ourselves to any plan that smacks of sensational advertising without real accomplishment.

About four thousand invitations were issued for Ambassador Reid's Fourth of July reception in London. At The Hague the American Minister to the Netherlands gave a dinner to the American and Britisn delegates to the Peace Conference. The American Chamber of Commerce of Paris gave its usual Fourth of July banquet. The American colony at Berlin, to the number of about four hundred, picnicked at Grunau near by. At Rio Janeiro a reception was held aboard the cruiser St. Louis.

The International Bureau of the American Republics, maintained by the joint action and contributions of all the republics of the Western Hemisphere, has for its purpose not only the promotion of commerce and trade, but also the development among them of "better acquaintance, closer relation, and more intimate intercourse along material, educational, intellectual, and social lines." Twenty-one republics are represented and organization was effected in 1890.

The Fiala expedition in search of the North Pole sailed from New London, Conn., July 9 in the fifty-three-ton vessel A. T. Gifford. This vessel is to establish bases of supplies for the main expedition, which will set out later. To continue the exploratory work of the discovery expedition in the Antarctic a party has been organized by Lieutenant Shackleton, who was a member of Captain Scott's crew, and who will shortly start for the Far South.

The Department of Commerce and Labor has ruled that no more gambling boats shall be permitted on any of the Great Lakes. The decision was reached after an investigation of the controversy between Chicago officials and the owners of the "floating poolroom," City of Traverse.

The total cost to the United States Government for its intervention in Cuba and of the work of reorganizing the government of the island and putting it on a stable and permanent basis, as estimated by Secretary Taft, amount June 30, 1907, to $3,330,569.91.

An indictment charging the Atchison, To-peka, and Santa Fé Railroad with granting rebates amounting to $12,000 to the United States Sugar and Land Company of Garden City, Kan., has been returned by the grand jury at Chicago.

Forty-five Americans and eight Canadians are in the list of Rhodes scholarship appointees for the year. A large number have planned to cross the Atlantic together, leaving Philadelphia Sept. 21 by the American line steamer Merion.

The mayor of San Francisco, who has been on trial for some time for extortion, has been convicted and sentenced to five years in the penitentiary.

The assessment of the public utilities companies of West Virginia shows a total of $244,000,000, an increase of $34,726,000 over the previous year.

International.

The Spanish Minister of Public Works has presented a bill in the Senate under the terms of which foreign life insurance companies must deposit $100,000 in cash or acceptable securities, and fire and accident companies $50,000 in addition to and independent of the reserve fund, which consists of twenty-five per cent of the premiums. There will be established a special department under the Ministry of Public Works to carry out a rigorous inspection of the operations of these foreign companies. The companies must furnish full and complete information regarding their business and publish a yearly report and balance sheet in Spanish.

Reports received from Fez say the Moroccan authorities offer to do everything possible to secure the release of Kaid General Sir Harry MacLean, commander of the Sultan's bodyguard, who, while conducting negotiations, was recently captured by Raisuli, the bandit chief.

It is intimated that the Japanese Government will not consent to the renewal of the present treaty with United States if the latter Government reserves the right to insert a clause in the compact excluding Japanese coolie labor from continental United States.

The census and statistics department of Canada has figured out the population to be 6,509,900. This was on the first day of April of the present year. At the last census, six years ago, the population was 5,371,315.

Industrial and Commercial.

Another cotton-picking machine is being placed on the market in the Mississippi Valley. It is a pneumatic affair, the capacity claimed being one hundred pounds per hour for each operator, or an aggregate of from four to five thousand pounds per day of average cotton. This is equivalent to the labor of ten fast field hands. The machine picks five rows at a time. The device consists of a platform five by fourteen feet, mounted on wheels, which are fitted on arched axles to enable the machine to be driven astride the cotton rows without injury to the plant. On the platform is a twenty-five horse-power gasoline engine, which drives the machinery and operates a double exhaust or suction fan at a high rate of speed. This is applied to the open cotton by means of four flexible suction hose, two on each side of the machine. Each hose requires one man to operate the nozzle, which is held near the open cotton boll. The suction speedily removes the fibre, drawing it through the hose and into a large screened receptacle at the rear of the machine.

The Railroad Commission of Mississippi has by a unanimous vote flatly refused to grant permission to the Cumberland Telephone and Telegraph Company to advance its night rates to the same basis as its day rates for long distance service. The commission also stated that a sweeping reduction in rates would probably be ordered when it takes up the revision of tariffs charged at the various telephone exchanges in Mississippi.

The Jones and Laughlin Steel Company is preparing to erect a large bridge and structural steel plant at Pittsburg, Pa. About $1,000,000 will be spent on the new plant. Four open-hearth furnaces will also be added.

Judge Landis, in the United States District Court at Chicago, has announced that on Aug. 3 sentence will be passed on the Standard Oil Company of Indiana, which was convicted of using illegal railroad rates. A fine of $29,240,000 may be imposed.

The Massachusetts Highway Commission is conducting an exhaustive hearing on the petition for lower telephone rates from the New England Telephone and Telegraph Company.

The New York Central Railroad Company, recently convicted for failure to file rates on shipments of Standard Oil, has been fined $15,000 by Judge Hazel in the Federal Court.

A transaction involving timber lands in Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia, which will cut five billion, one hundred million feet, has just been completed.