Items of Interest October 7, 1916 Issue

Items of Interest

David Lubin, delegate from the United States to the International Institute of Agriculture in Rome, has presented to a group of local economists who met at Philadelphia, Pa., recently, a plan for reducing the cost of living by means of the parcel post. His proposition included the elimination of the middlemen, so that profits may be shared by the farmer and consumer alike. It is similar in many respects to the system that is used so extensively in Germany. According to his plan the seller, who has a registry number, indicates on proper cards what he has to sell and the price. These cards are collected by the postman and distributed in racks at the post-office, where the buyer can see them and indicate on other suitable forms his demands and pay to the postmaster the price. These buyers' cards are delivered to the respective sellers, who fill the orders and receive credit slips from the postman. The postman collects the articles and delivers them to the buyers. The seller completes the transaction by presenting his credit slips at the post-office and getting his money.

Among the papers in the latest annual report of the Smithsonian Institution is an article on the excavations at Tel-el-Amarna, Egypt, written by the director of the German Institute of Egyptian Archaeology, and illustrated with photographic reproductions of the localities excavated and some of the finds. Tel-el-Amarna is the name given to a number of ruins in upper Egypt on the east bank of the Nile, about one hundred and ninety miles above Cairo. It comprises the ruins of Ekhaton, a city built about 1360 B.C. by the young Pharaoh Amenophis IV as a new capital of his empire, in place of Thebes. He endeavored to establish a new monotheistic religion, which, however, existed only during his reign. After he passed away his court returned to Thebes and the city built by him was abandoned after an existence of only twenty to fifty years.

Is it illegal for the lumber manufacturers of the United States to enter into an agreement not to sell lumber below the cost of production? This is said to be the crucial point in the final brief of the National Lumber Manufacturers Association, in the appeal for some method of operation which will prevent the destruction of the nation's forests to meet immediate business needs. The brief out-lines the lumbermen's ideals for the settlement of the vexing problems of the industry. In a former brief the lumbermen declared that the forests of the nation were being sacrificed at prices below cost of production, and that there was enormous waste in the industry, because of an inability of the lumbermen to cooperate for the elimination of abuses. For instance, it was shown that 65 per cent of every tree cut is waste and never reaches the consumer.

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