Items of Interest
NATIONAL
The United States circuit court of appeals has decided that the Waltham Watch Company of Waltham, Mass., cannot force Charles A. Keene, a New York jeweler, to stop selling their watches at cut prices. The court affirmed the decision of the federal district court without opinion. Keene bought the company's watches abroad at a price lower than that charged by jobbers here, and sold them for less than the price set by the manufacturer for the domestic retail trade. The decision is in line with recent judgments of the United States Supreme Court that the manufacturer of a patented or copyrighted article cannot fix the retail price.
It is announced by Attorney-General McReynolds that an agreement between the United States government, represented by the department of justice, and the American Telephone & Telegraph Company makes unnecessary a federal suit to compel the corporation to dissolve into its integral parts. Competition is possible under the terms of dissolution voluntarily proposed by the telephone company, for it agrees to dispose of its holdings in the Western Union Telegraph Company. Department officials say that the plan gives the government everything, and more than it could have hoped to obtain in court.
After a three and a half years' cruise about the world, during which she traveled ninety-three thousand miles, the non-magnetic yacht Carnegie, of the Carnegie Institution at Washington, dropped anchor a few days ago in Erie basin, South Brooklyn. During every day of her trip scientists aboard the yacht took magnetic observations, and they brought back with them records of important errors, particularly in the charts showing the compass variations over the Indian ocean.
President Wilson on Dec. 19 signed the Hetch-Hetchy bill granting a public watersupply to San Francisco. He accompanied his signature with a statement declaring that he believed the public needs of the region concerned were served by the bill without impairing the usefulness of the public domain. Asserting that the Hetch-Hetchy water grant was passed "by the most insidious lobby ever assembled in Washington," Senator Works of California has introduced a bill to repeal it.
President Wilson signed the measure known as the federal reserve act, at 6.01 P.m., Dec. 23. In an extemporaneous speech he expressed his gratification at the legislation which he said would furnish "the machinery for free and elastic and uncontrolled credits, put at the disposal of the merchants and manufacturers of this country for the first time in fifty years."
Approximately seven hundred thousand passengers were carried for every life lost on steam vessels in the United States during the past year, according to the annual report of George Uhler, supervising inspector-general of the federal steamboat inspection service. More than three hundred million persons were carried on vessels required to report.
Plans have been completed and the directors of the port of Boston have called for bids for constructing a good-sized railroad yard near the Commonwealth and fish piers at South Boston, a project which it is expected will cost about one hundred thousand dollars.
According to a compilation just completed, the gifts for charity in the United States during the last twelve months amount to $80,135,476.30.
INTERNATIONAL.
The newly formed British Imperial Council of Commerce consists of representatives of chambers of commerce and boards of trade belonging to the empire as well as of some belonging to other countries. Among the countries represented on the council, which already comprises one hundred and fifty members, although its constitution was only recently decided upon, are Scotland, England, Wales, Ireland, India, Burma, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa, the West Indies, and the Federated Malay States. Paris, Brusses, Constantinople, Genoa, and other foreign towns are also represented. The main purpose of the council is to act as a central and permanent link between the commercial bodies of the empire and to collect and organize information with reference to the development of the different parts.
The minister of public works of Cape Colony, South Africa, in the course of a recent speech, said that within the last three years nine hundred miles of new railways, two hundred and sixty-two new post-offices, and one hundred and eighty new telephone exchanges had been opened in the Union, and there were forty-two thousand additional depositors in the post-office savings banks. During the same period five and a half million pounds had been spent on public works; fifteen hundred and twenty-eight people had been settled on the land, covering an area of four million acres. By means of irrigation, large areas of land would be available for settlement.
The British colonial office recently stated that during its tour in Australia the dominions royal commission made extensive inquiries with regard to the possibilities of the commonwealth as a cotton-producing country, and the members were much impressed with the natural advantages of the northern part of the continent for cotton growing. Before it left Australia the royal commission received from the then prime minister a promise that the commonwealth government would assist in any attempt to establish the industry.
An agreement for the construction of two railroads in China by German engineers, who are to utilize purely German materials, and capital for which is to be provided by German financiers, has been signed by the Chinese foreign minister and the German minister to China at Peking. The cost of the two undertakings is estimated at twenty million dollars, or somewhat less.
After years of bickering it seems at last an assured fact that Guayaquil, Ecuador, is to be put into a wholesome condition. Shipping has increased rapidly, and the city is now much frequented by merchantmen from all parts of the world. Ten million dollars is to be expended for the purpose.
The international commission for the delimitation of the Albanian frontier has unanimously decided to accept the decision reached by the London conference.
The Peruvian government has presented to its Congress the budget for 1914, showing receipts amounting to $17,739,180 against expenditures of $15,549,180.
The Italian ministry of finance has announced in the Chamber that the war in Tripoli cost Italy one hundred and ninety-one million dollars.
INDUSTRIAL AND COMMERCIAL.
The tunnel through Mt. Royal at Montreal has been cut. It is three and one third miles long, and was built for the Canadian Northern Railway Company. Within a year, it is expected, trains will enter the city through the tunnel instead of making a detour around the mountain. The cost of the Mt. Royal tunnel is conservatively estimated at twenty-five million dollars, and in addition the Canadian Northern railway is likely to spend a large sum of money on improvements about Montreal.
After nearly three years of experimentation a manufacturing company has perfected, it is claimed, an apparatus which practically eliminates the smoke and cinder nuisance. The smoke, laden with cinders, coming from the fires which heat huge boilers, is driven at high speed through a sheet of water. By this process practically all of the material which constituted a nuisance is deposited in a big water-tank.
Construction of the huge Bassano dam across the Bow river, in the vicinity of Calgary, Alberta, by the Canadian Pacific Railway Company, has been completed, and as a result of its opening, one million acres of prairie land previously looked upon as of little or no use for agricultural purposes is placed under irrigation.
A railroad company has set aside one hundred and twenty-five acres near Des Moines, Iowa, as an experimental tract for the propagation of catalpa trees, the purpose being to ascertain the commercial value of the timber used for railroad ties and other purposes.
Financial arrangements have been completed in England to build the Alberta, Peace River & Eastern railway, from Hudson's Hope to the Pacific ocean, twenty-three hundred miles, by way of Edmonton and Peace River Crossing, with a branch line to Ft. McMurray.
Sugar-cane in Argentina this season is expected to yield two hundred thousand tons of sugar, the largest crop the country has had.
Much of the cork used throughout the world comes from Portugal, which harvests about fifty thousand tons a year.
Paraguay has valuable forest resources, the most important of which is quebracho, particularly rich in tannin.
