ITEMS OF INTEREST March 9, 1912 Issue

ITEMS OF INTEREST

The National Civic Federation, holding its annual convention in Washington on March 5, 6, and 7, considered, for the most part, industrial peace and progress, with special reference to the relation of the employed to the employee, not only in private corporations, but in public utility, government, state, and municipal service. Governors of more than twenty states attended. One of the officers of the federation said that it would have been quite out of the question ten years ago to have interested so many governors in questions intimately concerning human rights, and he gave it as his opinion that the presence of so many of them at the convention could be taken as a sign of the awakening of the public mind to matters which vitally affect the general welfare.

The House steel trust investigating committee has made public the result of the inquiry into the books and minutes of the United States Steel Corporation. The expert accountant reaches the conclusion that the steel corporation operates in restraint of trade and prevents competition through a manipulation of prices, through the influence of the so-called "Gary dinners," by control of raw materials, and through a system of interlocking directors in various companies. It is shown that J. P. Morgan & Co. received approximately seventy million dollars in cash profits for organizing the big steel combine, and that the net profits of the concern for the first nine years of its existence were more than a billion dollars.

President Taft has sent to Congress with his approval the report of the commission on second-class mail matter prepared by Associate Justice Hughes of the supreme court, A. Lawrence Lowell, president of Harvard, and Harry A. Wheeler. The report in general sustains the position of the post office department that there should be an increase in the rate for newspapers and magazines. It advocates doubling the present rate of one cent a pound, making the rate two cents a pound on the bulk of second-class matter. As regards the present cost of the service the commission finds that the expense, exclusive of general charges, is about five and one half cents a pound on paid-at-the-pound-rate matter.

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