ITEMS OF INTEREST November 5, 1910 Issue

ITEMS OF INTEREST

Plans for an outer harbor in Chicago, that will take care of freight and passenger business both, are being prepared. The plans, which will call for the expenditure of about three million five hundred thousand dollars, are being worked out along the following fundamental lines: Freight arriving for Chicago distribution, as well as that received for transshipment from water to rail, or vice versa, must be provided for in an outer harbor north of the Chicago river; dockage for passenger steamers with street-car connections to the center of the city, must be afforded; apparatus completely changing the present methods of handling package freight must be designed; traveling belts must be used to replace the hand trucks; the facilities should be leased to shippers rather than to supply service; and the compensation should be as small as is consistent with the amount of the investment of public funds, so that Chicago may be practically a free port.

The state tax commission of Minnesota has announced that it has fixed the assessment of iron ore lands at $225,304,469. This is an increase of more than forty-five million dollars over the assessment of these lands in 1908 and an increase of one hundred and thirty per cent over the 1907 assessment, which was $64,486,409. The increase is the result of a three-years campaign to determine the actual value of the ore lands and adjust the assessments according to a unit basis. Members of the commission say the raise is conceded by the owners of ore lands and has been welcomed by the owners of working mines as the best substitute for the proposed tonnage tax, the bill authorizing which was vetoed by the late Governor Johnson.

The ten balloons which started recently from St. Louis, traveled distances varying from 315 to 1,355 miles. Seven of them crossed into Canada. America II. was in the air 45 hours and 58 minutes and covered 1,355 miles, landing north of Lake St. John, Quebec, so far beyond civilization that four or five days were required by the pilots to reach a point where a message could be sent to friends who had meanwhile become anxious concerning their safety. Dusseldorf II., a German balloon, covered a distance of 1,230 miles; Germania, also a German balloon, 1,190 miles; Helvetia from Switzerland, a distance of 850 miles, and Harburg III. of Germany, 795.

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