National.

The Supreme Court of the United States last week refused to take cognizance in a case involving responsibility for a note given to pay a debt assumed in connection with a speculation on the stock exchange. The debt was contracted in Tennessee and a note was given with Mississippi real estate as security. The laws of both these states prohibit gambling, and it was contended that under such laws the note could not be collected. The United States Circuit Court of Appeals sustained this view, and the ruling of the Supreme Court upholds the finding of that court.

Governor Blackburn of the Canal Zone says: "The canal will certainly be completed by the latter part of 1913. They have thirty-six thousand men employed and are taking out four million yards of dirt every month. This is an increase of two hundred per cent over last year's record. The engineer corps says the canal will not be completed before 1915. I believe it will be finished two years earlier, because I have watched the work many months."

When the honorary commercial commissioners of Japan arrive in Washington on Nov. I they will be taken on an automobile ride which will include the Potomac drive, along which two thousand cherry-trees, presented to this country by the Emperor of Japan, will be planted. The Emperor is sending to New York also a large number of cherry-trees to be planted along Riverside drive in the neighborhood of Grant's tomb.

The United States received last year, in fees from inventors, enough to pay $1,887,443 in expenses for running the United States patent office, and leave a surplus of $88,476. Applications for patents on mechanical inventions reached a total of 62,800; 35,215 patents were granted. The total number of applications of all kinds, including inventions, designs, patents, trademarks, labels, prints, etc., reached 73,026.

The last stone of the Pilgrim monument at Provincetown, Mass., which towers two hundred and fifty feet above ground level, has been laid. Among the stones placed in the monument were rocks contributed by one hundred and twenty-five towns in Massachusetts and by a number of towns in England.

Resolutions fiercely denouncing the "murder" of Francesco Ferrer, the Spanish revolutionist who was recently condemned by court martial and shot in Barcelona, were adopted at Washington last week at a session of the executive council of the American Federation of Labor.

So great has been the demand for the new Lincoln cents that nothing else has been coined at the Philadelphia mint since the end of June. The coinage has reached the total of seventy million cents, which is equivalent to the average annual output for the last decade.

More than two billion dollars worth of mineral oil has been exported from the United States since that product began to be an article of exportation, less than a half-century ago.

International.

The occupation of Mt. Guruga, near Melilla, by the Spanish troops, which was confidently expected to end the war with the Riff tribesmen, did not fulfil expectations, for the tribesmen were employing the Fabian policy of delay and afterward regained the position at a considerable cost to the Spanish forces. Since that event the Maura Cabinet has been summarily dismissed by King-Alfonso, and what will be the attitude of the new Cabinet toward the war is not yet known. The war has been unpopular from the first, since, as it is alleged, it is being waged in behalf of a few capitalists who have investments in that section. The resignation of the Cabinet was precipitated by the unpopularity of the war and by the outspoken disapproval, in Spain and outside, of the execution of Francesco Ferrer, a highly educated revolutionist.

The Chinese government has announced that four treaty ports in Chien-tao will be opened Nov. 2. These treaty ports were provided for in the agreement reached between Japan and China and signed at Peking on Sept. 4 last, and which was designed to settle the Chien-tao boundary dispute between the two countries. Japan recognized the Tiumen river as the boundary between Korea and Manchuria and promised to withdraw all her officials from the Chien-tao district, while China agreed to open to foreign trade the towns of Lunchinchun, Chutzucha, Tactoku, and Peitsokou.

The Turkish government has officially repudiated liability for the foreign claims in connection with the Adana massacres. It is believed that the embassies will propose that the claims be submitted to The Hague tribunal. However, as the particulars of the forthcoming Turkish loan indicate that the Turkish government intended to set aside six hundred thousand dollars for the payment of the Adana claims, it is believed that the disclaimer by the Sublime Porte of liability is only technical.

The Canadian Pacific Railroad has found the telephone so serviceable for train despatching that the present system of about five hundred miles of telephone lines will be extended to one thousand miles within a year. The company states that about fifty per cent more traffic can be handled now than was possible under the old telegraph system of despatching.

It is understood that Japan will advance some four million dollars to Korea during the current year, and that this amount will largely be devoted to the building of roads in the agricultural districts, where at present, practically speaking, there are no roads.

The Japanese budget has been approved by the Privy Council. It totals $264,500,000. The development of resources and the avoidance of unproductive expenditure is the policy outlined by Premier Katsura.

The Chilean Government has decided upon naval expenditures to the amount of twenty million dollars. The program includes the building of one Dreadnought.

Industrial and Commercial.

Four million pounds of beans for which the growers will receive from three to three and one half cents a pound, were produced on four thousand acres of land on the Kendrick ridges in Latah county, Idaho, this season, and, as a result of the success of the industry, buyers say that the coming year should see a yield worth not less than two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, or double this year's crop.

Statistics compiled by the state grain commission show that 2,995,000 acres of non-irrigated land in Washington, devoted to cereals, produced in 1909 a crop of 49,565,000 bushels, of which 35,095,000 was wheat, 9,290,000 oats, and 5,180,000 barley. Practically all the wheat was produced in thirteen counties in eastern Washington, in the districts designated as the Big Bend, the Palouse, and Walla Walla.

Close upon the announcement that the Lynn plant of the General Electric Company is to be extended by the erection of two great new buildings at the River Works, comes another to the effect that the concern plans to make additions that will give it the largest single factory building in Massachusetts, if not in New England. It is understood that the employees at the Lynn plant will be increased from 9,200 to 15,000 men.

The total production of the fisheries of Massachusetts for the year ending Dec. 31, 1908, was 229,248,000, with a value of $7,095,230. The number of independent fishermen engaged in the industry in that state was 3,141, while the wage-earning fishermen number 8,436. Vessels engaged in the industry number 671, valued at $2,927,766. Of the entire output, cod led with 72,217,900, while haddock came next with 48,492,400.

The Pennsylvania Railroad announces plans for the erection of a new Chicago union passenger and terminal station, to cost not less than twenty-five million dollars. With the Pennsylvania in the project are to be joined the Chicago and Alton, the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy, and the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul railroads, all users of the present Union Station.

The onion crop of 1909 is placed at 4,175,000 bushels from an area of 14,300 acres. The cranberry crop is placed at 1,325,000 bushels against 1,060,000 bushels in 1908, and 1,280,000 bushels in 1907. Eight hundred and fifty thousand bushels is credited to New England and New York, mostly in Massachusetts. The New Jersey crop approximates 425,000 bushels.

The Lehigh Valley Railroad has placed additional orders for 2,250 cars. The Standard Steel Car Company will furnish 1,000 drop end gondola, 1,000 box, 150 refrigerator, and one hundred automobile cars.

It is estimated that Germany made twenty-five million dollars' worth of toys in 1907 and all but six million dollars' worth of the toys were exported, most of them going to England and America.

The Pennsylvania Railroad has placed orders for 200,360 tons of steel rails for its 1910 requirements. The price is said to be twenty-eight dollars a ton and the total value of the order $5,600,000.

The rice crop in Japan is said to be the largest ever known, and is expected to amount to over two hundred and seventy-three million bushels.

General.

Halley's great comet will be visible in the spring of next year to the naked eye. History records the return of this comet twenty-eight times during the past two thousand years.