National.

First details of the four-million-dollar preliminary development of the Bronx river, which means a parkway fifteen and a half miles long, comprising an area of eleven hundred and thirty acres, extending from Bronx park in New York to the new reservation for the Kensico reservoir and connecting park lands with watershed properties that aggregate, exclusive of the Catskill project, nearly thirty thousand acres and represent an expenditure of over one hundred and thirty million dollars, have been given out by the Bronx Parkway Commission. The preliminary plans will accomplished by the most economical method the regulation and control of the large amount of water that flows down through the Bronx Valley at intervals, and the sanitary improvement of the river at nominal cost, but the provision of a final link to connect the great city parks and the network of macadamized country roads now being constructed in the borough of the Bronx, with the whole system of more than forty lakes and many miles of rivers, besides bridges and permanent engineering works which extend throughout the three hundred and sixty square miles of the Croton and Byram watersheds, is of the greatest significance.

The construction of a subway at a cost of between seven and ten million dollars is contemplated by the Capital City Railway Company of Washington, D. C., plans for the incorporation of which are being pushed. The subway will be thirteen feet wide and four miles long, similar to the Hudson tube from New York to Newark, N. J.

The government arranged to begin at Portland, Ore., last week, the examination of witnesses in support of its contention that the retail lumber dealers are maintaining a trust. Suit has been brought by the government in Minnesota for the dissolution of the retail associations, on the ground that they are illegal combinations in restraint of trade.

The government, it is learned, is considering the plan of taking the case of the United Shoe Machinery Company out of the court of Federal Judge Putnam at Boston, who recently ruled that the hearing on the alleged charge of violation of the Sherman antimonopoly law should be heard behind closed doors.

Forty-six war vessels, now in the builders' hands in various stages of completion, intended for the United States navy, include six battleships (all dreadnaughts); eleven torpedo boat destroyers, seventeen submarines, one submarine tender, two seagoing naval tugs, four naval colliers, and one gunboat.

Eighteen Philadelphia families, under the will of their late landlord, are now owners of the homes in which they live. The houses bequeathed by him had been rented by the beneficiaries for years. The houses are worth between two and three thousand dollars each.

The proposed amendment to the Maine constitution, providing for a two-million-dollar bond issue for the purpose of building and maintaining state highways, was carried by a vote of four to one at the recent election.

The American Bankers Association was in session at Detroit, Mich., last week. More than four thousand delegates attended.

International.

It is generally believed in Peking financial circles that the independent loan to China of fifty million dollars recently negotiated in London by the representative of Lloyds bank and the Chinese minister there, like several of its predecessors, will not be concluded. The Chinese officials, it is pointed out, realize that they cannot deal outside the six-power group of financiers and the government is expected to resume negotiations with the group composed of bankers in the United States, Great Britain, France, Germany, Russia, and Japan, immediately. The Chinese, however, still refuse to entertain the idea of permitting foreign supervision over the expenditure of loans, and are hoping to discover a more acceptable substitute for such demand.

A by-law has been adopted by the Kent county council of England, prohibiting the erection of unsightly boardings and boards in the county. A penalty of five pounds has been fixed, and a further fine of one pound for every day during which the offense is continued after conviction. It is provided that no person shall exhibit an advertisement which shall be visible from any highway, carriage way, bridle way, or footway, or from any railway or open land, or water open to the public, and so placed as to disfigure the natural beauty of the landscape.

The Chinese government has authorized Dr. Sun to establish a railway corporation to carry out a system of national railways covering territory seventy thousand miles in extent. His proposals are to open the whole of China proper to foreign residents' enterprise, but to make foreigners amenable to Chinese laws, for which special courts are to be established. President Yuan proposes to give Dr. Sun thirty thousand taels (twenty thousand dollars) monthly to promote his scheme of railways, and the provisional assembly is expected to agree to this.

Feeling is running high in Italy regarding the ultimate disposition of the Ægean islands, which have been occupied by Italian troops in the war with Turkey. The agitation was initiated by delegates from the islands and by Greek emissaries. It is demanded that the "islands shall not be returned to Turkish brutalities and revenge." The Italian government is urged to insure for the islands an autonomous government.

M. Fourny, the French aviator, last week, at Etampses, France, broke all records for both distance and duration of flight, while competing for the Criterium prize offered by the French Aero Club. M. Fourny started over the seven kilometres (43 miles) circuit at 5:53 a. m. At four o'clock the airman had covered eight hundred kilometres (406.8 miles).

The visit of Dr. Sun Yat Sen to Kalgan, one hundred and twenty-five miles northwest of Peking, is said to have been in the nature of a triumphal procession. Great enthusiasm was manifested by the populace all along the route. The reception accorded him was striking, as the northern populace supposedly were hostile to republican preachings.

The present isolated condition of the Falkland islands will soon be remedied, as the erection of a Marconi station has been decided upon, which will enable the islands to maintain communication with Buenos Aires, Montevideo, and other places.

At the funeral services last week of the late Mikado of Japan, the United States was represented by Secretary of State Knox, Germany by Prince Henry of Prussia, England by Prince Arthur of Connaught.

The twenty-fifth session of the Institute of International Law was held at the Nobel Institute in Christiania, Norway, last week.

The London Times, first published under that name in 1788, printed its forty-thousandth number Sept. 10.

Industrial and Commercial.

In the section of organic chemistry at the Congress of Applied Chemistry at New York recently, a new baking powder prepared from maple sugar "sand," a waste product in the production of maple syrup and hitherto thrown away as valueless, was described. This "sand" contains, it appears, about fifty per cent of malic acid in the form of calcium salt. Malic acid, according to the experimenters, is in some ways superior to tartaric acid for use in foodstuffs, and they therefore suggest that it be substituted for cream of tartar in the ordinary baking powder. They succeeded in making from maple sugar "sand" a baking powder "equal to those of the highest grade now on the Market." There was also described a process by which cotton cloth can be permanently rendered fireproof. The result is the outcome of a long series of experiments. The cotton material is run through a solution of sodium stannate, then squeezed and dried. It is then run through a solution of ammonium sulphate and again squeezed and dried. Stannic oxide is precipitated, and the sodium sulphate is removed by water. The cloth may then be finished by the usual processes.

Great progress has been made in recent years in the reclamation and cultivation of bogs and swamp tracts in various districts of the kingdom of Germany. A start was originally made a few years ago in the east of the country, but the work has since been carried out over the entire north of Prussia, and now the commission placed in charge of the work has started operations in the province of East Prussia, where the government has placed some fifty thousand acres at their disposal. No difficulty is experienced in obtaining settlers for the newly reclaimed land. The latter is for the most part suitable only for pasturage, but considerable tracts exist on which it has been possible to grow cereals.

In the field of industrial training and useful arts, the Filipinos, under American teachers, are making notable progress in certain lines, particularly lace-making and embroidery. The products of the Philippine schools compare favorably with the work of the famous French and Swiss experts. The whole system of education is based on the principle that the children should receive training that will prepare them directly for the life they are to live.

In consequence of the general clamor against the unprecedented high price of meat, the German government is considering the question of facilitating the importation of Argentine chilled meat. The important is now theoretically permitted, but is hampered by vexatious regulations.

It is estimated that one hundred and seventy-five thousand people from the United States will cross the border into Canada this (fiscal) year to occupy agricultural lands.