ITEMS OF INTEREST August 21, 1909 Issue

ITEMS OF INTEREST

Seven of the members of the national waterways commission, a commission authorized by Congress to investigate the waterways of Europe and Canada as well as those of the United States, for the purpose of making recommendations for the improvement of the rivers, harbors, and canals of our own country, have sailed from New York on a ten-week investigation and examination of the waterways of Europe. The first month in Europe will consist of visits of a few days each to Berlin, Dresden, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Munich, and Strassburg. From the latter point the party will go on a four-day trip up the Rhine. Holland, its dykes and canals, will be visited from Sept. 15 to 17. The balance of the trip embraces visits to Belgium, Paris, and London.

The president of the Chicago Great Western Railroad, one of the few prominent railroad men who favored the passage of the Hepburn rate bill, now charges that the railroads are constantly evading the law by ingenious classifications, which are placing the smaller shipper at just as great disadvantage as he was before the giving of rebates became a crime punished by heavy penalties. "Wherever a commodity rate is published," he says, "a classified rate on the same article is also published, and in the majority of cases only those shippers for whom the commodity rate was made understand such a rate exists, while the other shippers pay the higher rate by classification to which such commodity belongs."

Suggestions for the elimination of delays in civil suits are contained in a report signed by five justices of the New York supreme court just made public. The committee was appointed some time ago to investigate the situation, and after conferring with their associates and prominent members of the bar, made eight specific recommendations to simplify the maze of material before the courts.

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