ITEMS OF INTEREST September 4, 1909 Issue

ITEMS OF INTEREST

A plan is under consideration for the reorganization of the New York Metropolitan Street Railway system, on a basis somewhat similar to that under which the street railways of Chicago were reorganized, which would involve taking in the city as a partner to a certain extent. Under the Chicago plan the city gave a twenty-year franchise, but with the privilege of buying the roads at any time, and in return the city received fifty-five percent of the net receipts, after deducting five per cent of the appraised value of the physical structure of the property. New York city, however, cannot offer as an inducement the extension of franchise rights, inasmuch as most of the franchises held by the companies under the metropolitan system are perpetual.

Food experts from every section of the country, including Secretary of Agriculture Wilson, Chief Chemist Wiley, and representatives of the United States dairy commission and the bureau of animal industry, were present at the thirteenth annual convention of the Association of State and National Food and dairy Departments, which convened in Denver last week. Much interest centered around the discussion of the report of the special committee, which maintained that the use of benzoate of soda as a food preservative is not harmful.

Under the enlarged homestead act, allowing three hundred and twenty instead of one hundred and sixty acres, Acting Secretary of the Interior Pierce has designated for settlement 524,480 additional acres in Montana, making a total so designated in that state of 26,030,080. Under the provisions of the same act 113,330 acres of land in San Juan county, Utah, have been similarly designated.

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