ITEMS OF INTEREST December 3, 1910 Issue

ITEMS OF INTEREST

In a ruling handed down at Jackson, Miss., Judge John E. McCall in the United States circuit court nullified the efforts of the Government to have assessed against the Standard il Company of Indiana penalties aggregating in excess of thirty million dollars. The ruling of the court, instructing that a verdict of not guilty be returned, took place at the conclusion of the chief case of the prosecution. The Elkins law regarding interstate commerce was violated, it was a leged, by "scheme and device," the specifie offense charged being the receipt of freight rate concessions. Taking up the much discussed "blind billing," it was held by the court that it was done by the carrier and "that there is not one syllable of testimony tending to show that the defendant company knew that the carrier was so blind billing the shipments."

Asserting that their alma mater should confine itself exclusively to classical education, the class of 1885, in a memorial to the board of trustees, advocates changes in the curriculum of Amherst College. After expressing the belief that the institution can no longer compete successfully with either the state university or the technical school, it makes these recommendations: That the instruction given at Amherst College be a modified classical course; that the degree of bachelor of science be abolished; that the college adopt the deliberate policy to devote all its means to the indefinite increase of teachers' salaries; that the number of students attending the college be limited; that entrance be permitted only by competitive examination.

An interesting development of the campaign for more efficient banking superintendence in New York state is found in the activity of some of the trust companies themselves to have a more accurate check kept upon the enormous trusts handled by these institutions. A recent compilation of trust company statistics issued by the United States Mortgage and Trust Company gives the total wealth which the trust companies of the United States protect as trustees or administrators at twenty-five billion dollars, in addition to the five billion dollars banking capital representing their own resources.

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