ITEMS OF INTEREST July 17, 1909 Issue

ITEMS OF INTEREST

The headings in the great Gunnison tunnel, in south western Colorado, which is to carry the waters of the Gunnison river through the Vernal Mesa into the Uncompahgre valley on the other side, where they will be used for irrigation purposes, have met. This tunnel is the largest underground waterway in the world. It is six miles long, has a finished cross section of 10½X11½ feet, and will carry thirteen hundred cubic feet of water a second. It will be cement lined throughout and will cost more than $2,500,000. The Uncompahgre project is the first of the great irrigation systems started by the Reclamation Service to near completion, ranking third among the twenty-seven enterprises started by the Government, according to the amount of acreage to be reclaimed. This project will reclaim approximately one hundred and fifty thousand acres of fruit land. After the water leaves the west portal of the bore it will be conducted to the Uncompahgre river through twelve miles of canal. There is a drop of two hundred and fourteen feet from the tunnel portal to the river which will be used as the main distributing canal for irrigation purposes. This drop will be utilized in generating ten thousand horsepower and light the entire Uncompahgre valley, besides furnishing a basis for many manufacturing plants.

The returns from internal revenue in Massachusetts, derived largely from the tax on alcoholic liquors, declined during the last fiscal year by $680,821.74. This is due in part to less taxes collected on malt liquors and spirits, a smaller quantity of them being consumed owing to the wide prevalence of the no-license cities and towns throughout the state. The enormous shrinkage of business to brewers and distillers in Minnesota through the "dry wave" is shown by the reduction in the internal revenues for the same period amounting to $322,000. Practically the entire loss is due to the falling off in the output of beer. This year's receipts were $3,852,848 for beer alone, as against $4,174,103 for the preceding year. The same influence, say delegrates to the National Glass Bottle Blowers' convention at Milwaukee, has resulted in so great a decrease in demand for bottles that more than three thousand members of the association have been out of work during the past year.

Congress should control organization of corporations doing an interstate business, according to George W. Wickersham, attorney general of the United States, in an address delivered recently before the Kentucky State Bar Association. "Of course, many will object to the centralizing tendency of a national law authorizing the formation of corporations to carry on interstate business," said Mr. Wickersham, "but such a law seems to be the inevitable result of economic conditions."

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