National.

The Utah Fuel Company has pleaded guilty in the United States court to the fraudulent acquisition of 1,440 acres of coal land, paid a fine of $8,000, also $192,000 for the coal extracted, and relinquished the land. The land was acquired through "dummy" entrymen as agricultural land. The company was a subsidiary corporation of the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad. The land reverts to the public domain and the company loses the $14,400 fee originally paid as well as the further sums paid to the entrymen.

The first election for the recall of a mayor of an American city was held in Los Angeles last week, and resulted in the choice of the reform candidate. The election was robbed of a great deal of its interest through the resignation three weeks ago of the man against whom the recall was aimed. The recall election was the result of charges that the mayor had given approval to various forms of vice in the city.

During the 60th Congress 6,597 special pension acts were passed. Since 1865 there has been paid in pensions the sum of $3,654,653,365 and the cost of maintaining pension agencies and administration of the pension bureau has been $112,852,477. It is estimated that within ten years the pension roll will not carry over $75,000,000 or $80,000,000 unless additional legislation should be enacted.

A special train, which was given the right of way over all other trains, recently made the distance between New York and Englewood station, Chicago, in 15 hours 58 minutes. The run to Buffalo, 440 miles, was covered in 399 minutes; from Buffalo to Cleveland, 183 miles, in 168 minutes; from Toledo to Elkhart, Ind., 133 miles, in 120 minutes; the last 95 miles in 92 minutes.

President Taft has stated that he does not consider the appointment of judges to be a part of the patronage of United States senators, and that judicial appointments should be free from political influences. He considers himself competent to pass upon their fitness for the bench, and will do so.

A plan for reserving for the exclusive use of women the rear car of all rush-hour trains in the Hudson tunnel system connecting New York city, Hoboken, and Jersey City, was put into effect last week, and has been pronounced a success. The plan was tried at the request of the Women's Municipal League.

The first year of the Des Moines commission plan of municipal government was completed March 24, and the treasury showed a surplus of $20,000 on hand over and above expenditures. In the year previous under the old system there was a deficit of $180,000.

The official opening of the Virginian Railway, H. H. Rogers' new coal road, took place on April 3, when the first train-load of coal to be brought from Deepwater, W. Va., arrived at the terminal at Sewall's Point, near Norfolk.

Two million fifteen-cent postage stamps, to be held subject to requisitions of the Post Office Department for issue to postmasters, have been ordered printed.

International.

The French budget has reached the four billion francs mark with only a beginning made upon the extensive program of reforms, involving the expenditure of hundreds of millions, which is being urged upon Parliament by the advanced socialists. The income tax bill, the rates of which can be progressively increased, is the measure by which the socialists expect ultimately to take from the well-to-do classes the funds necessary to realize their reforms. The struggle of the opposing forces has called attention to an interesting controversy now being threshed out in the French and English papers as to the relative material well-being of the working classes in the two countries.

Servia has surrendered completely to the demand of Europe and the tension of six months over the Balkan situation has come to an end. The ministers at Belgrade of Great Britain, France, Russia, and Italy have verbally informed the Servian government of their recognition of the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina by Austria-Hungary. They will advise Servia to consider this question closed and issue a circular note to all the Powers acknowledging this annexation, and at the same time to assure Austria-Hungary of her peaceful intentions, revoking all claims to indemnifying concessions.

The Spanish Minister of the Interior has introduced a bill in the Chamber of Deputies postal for a complete modernization of the postal services of the kingdom, which have proved highly defective. The bill provides for new telegraph and telephone systems, which will take in four thousand towns; and reduced rates for their use and the creation of a savings bank and a parcels post. The total cost of the improvements will be $6,000,000.

The Chinese ministers of railways, war, finance, and colonies have decided that it is necessary to construct, without delay, a trans-Mongolian railroad from Kalgan to Urga.

This decision is in response to a petition from the Monogolian princes, who offered to meet the cost of the road, which will form the principal link in the proposed line northwesterly from Pekin to join the Russian trans-Siberian line.

Chief Secretary for Ireland Birrell has reintroduced the Irish land bill in the House of Commons. The bill is in exactly the same form as when it was crowded out at the end of last session. In the course of his remarks the chief secretary said again that it would require an expenditure of $915,000,000 at least to satisfy the land hunger of the Irish, and of this total Parliament had still to provide $775,000,000.

The Council of Ministers of the Argentine Confederation has decided to devote $25,000,000 of the recent $50,000,000 loan to the purchase of materials for the national railways and additional construction purposes; $7,500,000 in public works and the colonization of territories, and $17,500,000 for the augmentation of the capital of the national bank.

The Cape-to-Cairo railway project is rapidly becoming realized. At the present moment it is possible to travel from Alexandria to Cape Town by rail or steamer except for a distance of about six hundred miles. The various African states now recognize that the only method of dealing with their development is by means of railway construction.

The agreement which has been in existence for five years among the nitrate producers in Chile came to an end last week, and it was decided not to renew it. It is expected that this action will result in an increased production and a decrease in the price of this product.

President Gomez has signed a contract giving the Cuba Railway Company a subsidy of $6,000 per kilometre for the construction of a branch line from the main line at Marti to Manzanillo by way of Bayamo. This will open up a great section of fertile country.

The volcanic district affected a few years ago by the eruption of Soufriere in the island of St. Vincent in the West Indies, has been rendered habitable once more by the construction of a water canal at a cost of $50,000.

The Prussian government has published a bill providing for $56,750,000 to be used in the construction of a secondary railway, double-tracking the present lines, and other railway improvements.

The former American minister to Venezuela has presented his credentials to President Gomez, and diplomatic relations are thus renewed.

The last of the American troops of the army of pacification left Cuba on March 31 without incident or demonstration from the Cubans.

Industrial and Commercial.

Germany faced the same great timber supply problem early in the nineteenth century that the United States faces today, and in solving it developed heavy producing and well administered forests which are models for the rest of the world. A study of the systems of forest management and wood utilization in the two countries offers many interesting comparisons. The United States takes two hundred and sixty cubic feet per capita annually from the forests; Germany uses but thirty-seven. American forests are now producing not more than twelve cubic feet per acre; German forests are producing forty-eight cubic feet per acre annually. Germany has reduced waste and consumption and increased production.

Since the first of the year thirty-four railroad enterprises have been organized or incorporated in the South and Southwest, ten in Texas, four in North Carolina, four in Missouri, three in Arkansas, three in Tennessee, two in Oklahoma, two in Louisiana, and one each in Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia.

The protest against salacious and unclean dramatic performances of every type has assumed formidable and practical shape in the proposition brought before a recent meeting of the Theatrical Manager's Association at New York to help establish in this country an official dramatic censorship under state control.

The United States Cast Iron Pipe and Foundry Company of New York has been awarded the San Francisco contract for 45,000 tons of sewer and water pipe. This contract involves approximately $1,000,000.