Items of Interest November 1, 1913 Issue

Items of Interest

More than one fifth of the men who served in the army and navy of the United States during the civil war were on the government's pension roll at the beginning of the present fiscal year. The annual report of Commissioner of Pensions Saltzgaber shows that on July 1 last there were 462,379 civil war pensioners. During the past year there was a decrease of 34,884 civil war pensioners, while the net loss in the entire pension roll was 40,094, leaving 820,200 pensioners of all classes. There remain 1,142 Mexican war pensioners and 1,066 from Indian wars. The last surviving pensioner of the war of 1812 passed away eight years ago, although 199 widows of that war's fighters still receive pensions, a decrease of thirty-nine since last year.

It is stated that next month the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe road will initiate in the Arkansas valley of Colorado an experiment for the better marketing of fruit and vegetables, and if successful this method will be extended throughout the road's lines. Refrigerator cars will be sent out to pick up small quantities of this class of freight, move them to central points, and attach them in carload lots to its big refrigerator trains. The road has been successful in its dairy and poultry traffic by that method, and there is thought to be no reason why the fruit and vegetable traffic should not be handled in the same way. Millions of dollars' worth of this class of merchandise is wasted every year for lack of such a service.

Secretary Daniels has formally announced that the historic battleship Oregon, which made the famous trip around Cape Horn in the early days of the Spanish war, will lead the great international fleet through the Panama canal when the waterway is formally opened in 1915. It has been suggested that all surviving officers who served on her during the 1898 cruise be again at their posts of duty. In this event the Oregon will be commanded by Rear-Admiral Charles E. Clark, retired, now living in Washington. The acceptance by the British foreign office of the invitation from the United States to send a squadron of British warships to go through the canal was also announced.

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