ITEMS OF INTEREST October 7, 1911 Issue

ITEMS OF INTEREST

The National Municipal League has established an annual prize of one hundred dollars, called the "William H. Baldwin prize," to be given to the author of the best essay on a subject connected with municipal government. For the year 1911-1912 the competition will be limited to undergraduate students registered in a regular course in any college or university of the United States offering distinct instruction in municipal government. The topic for next year's competition is "The Appointment of Higher Municipal Officers by the Merit System." This subject involves a discussion of (a) the reason for the employment of experts in city work, (b) the proper position and tenure of the expert in the service of a city, his relation to the executive on the one hand and the subordinate administrative force on the other, (c) the extent to which the merit system is applicable in the selection and retention of experts, (d) and a practical application of the conclusions reached by the competitor to some American city, showing the changes in organization and powers which would be required. The essays must not exceed ten thousand words.

"Statistical Record of the Progress of the United States, 1800-1911" is the title of a small document just issued by the bureau of statistics, department of commerce and labor. It pictures in statistical form conditions in the commercial, financial, industrial, and transportation systems of the United States at brief intervals since the year 1800, down to and in many instances including the year 1911. Among the interesting facts shown are that the area of continental United States was 843,255 square miles in 1800, advancing to 1,734,630 square miles in 1810, to 2,995,536 square miles in 1850, and 3,026,789 square miles in 1853, since which date no change in area is shown. The population, which was 5,333,000 in 1800, was 93,750,000 in 1911. Public debt, which was $83,000,000 in 1800, reached $2,675,000,000 less cash in the treasury in 1855, the figures of 1911 being $1,015,000,000. Exports of domestic merchandise which amounted to $32,000,000 in value in 1800, were over $2,000,000,000 in 1911, and imports, which amounted to $91,000,000 in 1800, were $1,500,000,000 in 1911.

Mr. Fisher, secretary of the interior, in addressing the closing session of the third national conservation convention of Kansas City, Mo., said that he urged the leasing of government owned coal lands, with particular reference to those in Alaska. "I have been in Alaska and British Columbia," he said. "I studied the leasing law in British Columbia. Why can't we have the same kind of law? It retains the land in the hands of the government; it affords a permanent return and prevents the exhaustion of the land in a few years, but most important of all, it prevents the hoarding of the land and the subsequent undevelopment by capitalists." As to the situation in government coal lands in the West, he said: "I have learned that there are lots of men who want to gain control of the coal lands and hold them. They don't want to give the public a chance, but want to hoard these lands so they will make money for their progeny a hundred years hence."

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