ITEMS OF INTEREST August 31, 1912 Issue

ITEMS OF INTEREST

Postmaster-General Hitchcock has submitted to the House and Senate conferees on the post-office appropriation bill a recommendation that the House parcels post proposition be substituted for that of the Senate. "I believe," Mr. Hitchcock wrote, "that the broader powers given the department by the House measure will enable it to establish a parcels post system more effective and business-like than would be possible under the Senate bill. It provides for lower postage rates and increases the limit of parcels from eleven to fifteen pounds. It carries also an exceedingly important provision relative to railway compensation that will assure to the government as advantageous charges for transportation as the railways grant to express companies. The department is also authorized to grant fair indemnity in case of loss or damage of parcels.'

A dozen bills on the House calendar to permit water-power development by private concerns have been defeated. Opponents of the "water-power trust," led by Representatives Rainey and Foster of Illinois, had the bills stricken from the calendar. Among the measures defeated, temporarily at least, was the omnibus bill reported by the House interstate commerce committee, which included wholesale grants of power and dam sites.

San Francisco has made legal seizure of the San Miguel valley south of the Twin Peaks, and thus obtained the site for a magnificent storage reservoir for the new city water system—a reservoir great enough to contain five hundred million gallons of water. It was the lack of a great storage basin within or near the limits of San Franciso that has hampered the city in carrying out its plan for the Hetch-Hetchy system.

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