Items of Interest June 19, 1915 Issue

Items of Interest

A recent statement by the secretary of the National Popular Government League, with headquarters in Washington, shows that while state and federal politicians are resisting the further extension of government ownership and control of public utilities, the cities show a strong tendency toward straight municipal ownership. He states that from April, 1914, to April, 1915, one hundred and eighty cities voted a total of $18,370,000 in bonds for municipal water plants; one hundred and thirteen cities voted $11,978,000 in bonds for municipal electric light plants; twelve cities granted franchises to private water companies; twenty-seven cities granted franchises to private electric light companies; two hundred and seven cities were reported as "considering" or "about to adopt" municipal ownership of electric light or water plants, and hundreds of other cities were reported as "contemplating," "agitating," or as having voted for public ownership of streetcars, gas plants, telephones, garbage plants, jitney busses, and other utilities.

According to the report of Dr. Donald B. MacMillan, Crocker Land, which Rear Admiral Peary believed he saw in 1906, does not exist. Confirmation of Peary's supposed discovery was the chief object of the MacMillan expedition, which left New York on July 2, 1913, under the auspices of the American Museum of Natural History. Peary had seen what he believed to be a distant range of mountain peaks. He was so positive that it was a vast expanse of land that he named it, and the land was indicated on the latest maps. Doctor MacMillan reported that he had the same experience, but as he traveled toward the supposed land, it changed its location with the revolution of the sun. Observations were taken at the same latituda and longitude where Peary believed the land to begin. Doctor MacMillan reported no land there. It is fair to assume that what Admiral Peary saw was a mirage.

That the United States Steel Corporation should not be dissolved, was the decision of the United States district court, filed at Trenton, N. J., last week. The principal points in the decision are: It refuses to issue any injunction; it holds that foreign trade of the steel corporation is not a violation of the Sherman law; it holds certain price fixing agreements which followed the Gary dinner but which stopped before the bill was filed, to have been unlawful; it allows the government to move to retain jurisdiction of the bill, if such price fixing practices are renewed, but suggests that matters may now be controlled by the new trade commission. The opinions, two in number, are largely a discussion of whether the steel corporation monopolized the steel trade or dealt unfairly with competitors or purchasers.

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