ITEMS OF INTEREST February 29, 1908 Issue

ITEMS OF INTEREST

Sensational disclosures are contained in a report furnished to the New York Fire Commissioner by the National Board of Fire Underwriters, showing the result of an examination of the city's fire hose by experts of the National Board. As a result of this report the Merchants' Association has filed with the Mayor a demand that the Commissioners of Accounts investigate the purchase of hose, both as to specifications and as to the character and standing of the concerns to whom contracts have recently been granted. At the recent five-million-dollar fire in the Parker Building, out of five hundred and eighty-five lengths of hose used by the twenty-five engines, forty-one lengths, or nearly seven per cent of the total, burst, and this has naturally caused comment.

During the past year the Reclamation Service has been separated from the Geological Survey and organized as an independent service responsible directly to the Secretary of the Interior. Rapid progress has been made in the construction of the works already authorized. The accumulated fund has practically been expended, and future outlays will probably be governed by the returns to the fund and the income from the annual sale of public lands. Many problems of construction have been solved and large areas of land already placed under irrigation. The construction work is done by contract wherever this is practicable, though results show it to be more economical and effective oftentimes to execute this work by day labor or small detail contracts.

The State Department expects to send soon to the Senate seven new arbitration treaties, as substitutes for those previously negotiated with Great Britain, Portugal, France, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, and Spain, pursuant to The Hague Convention and ratified by the Senate on Feb. 11, 1905. As the Senate did not ratify these treaties until they had been amended, the President and Secretary of State decided not to exchange ratifications with the other Powers, so that the seven treaties have remained pigeonholed at the Department of State for the last three years.

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