ITEMS OF INTEREST May 31, 1913 Issue

ITEMS OF INTEREST

The waters of the Pacific ocean were let into the Panama canal on May 18, when a giant blast, composed of thirty-two thousand seven hundred and fifty pounds of dynamite, demolished the dike to the south of the Miraflores locks and allowed the water to flow into an extensive section in which excavations have practically been completed. The dike had dammed the waters of Ancon harbor in the Gulf of Panama on the Pacific until the United States engineers practically finished excavating a long stretch of the canal near Miraflores. The time set for its destruction was made public, and thousands of American swarmed Zone residents, and other sightseers swarmed the hillsides to see this important step toward the completion of the big waterway. All the charges had been set at sunset the night before, and throughout the night the immense quantity of dynamite was under heavy guard, no one except the engineers and their assistants being permitted to pass the sentry lines.

President Wilson has issued an executive order by which all fourth-class postmasters, except those receiving less than one hunddred and eighty dollars a year, are required to take a civil service examination to demonstrate their fitness for office. The effect of the order is to throw all appointments to fourth-class offices open to competition. During his administration, President Taft, by an executive order, put these offices in the classified service, keeping in office the incumbents who had never been required to take a civil service examination. The new order affects 49,682 postmasters. President Wilson takes the ground that his predecessor's order failed to apply the merit system to the service.

The Coaster Brake Company, with headquarters at Buffalo, will be dissolved without a contest in the courts, to meet the demands of Attorney-General McReynolds, and it is expected that the pending criminal case against the combination and its officers will be settled in the near future. This suit involves six corporations and eighteen individuals, all indicted at Buffalo Jan. 8, 1912, on charges of unlawful combination and conspiracy to monopolize the entire coaster brake business and to fix and maintain prices.

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THE LAW OF LIFE
May 31, 1913
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