Items of Interest December 2, 1916 Issue

Items of Interest

President Wilson has signed the national park service bill, and the sixteen national parks of the United States will in the future be administered under one management. The chairman of the conservation department of the General Federation of Women's Clubs Clubs says: "Our national parks are of little use to us unless they are developed with roads and trails, and provided with hotel accommodations so that the people may visit them. This will be the work of the national park service. Provision is to be made for people of all degrees of income. Those who require luxurious quarters will find them; and those who enjoy simple camp life and want to keep their vacation expenses down to a small figure will find the opportunity to do so, and still see just as much of the parks as the more luxurious traveler."

The Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway has just added 110 miles to its electrically operated lines in Montana. This section extends from Deer Lodge to Alberton, Mont., and is the third unit to be changed from steam to electricity, bringing the electrified mileage up to 336. The 226 miles of railroad between Harlowton and Deer Lodge were put under electric operation some months ago. Work on the fourth and last unit between Alberton, Mont., and Avery, Idaho, is being completed, and when that is ready, about the first of the year, the St. Paul will have 440 miles of electric line in operation, reaching an elevation in the Rocky Mountains of 6350 feet above sea level, in the Bitter Root Mountains of 4200 feet, and in the Belt Mountains of 5768 feet.

The Rhone Canal, which will be open to navigation within a few years, will connect Marseilles, France, with the Rhone River. The first section of the canal places Marseilles in direct communication with the Etang de Berre, a small lake. The second section connects the Etang de Berre with Port de Bouc, a small seaport town. From this point the canal proceeds in a northerly direction and joins the Rhone River at Arles. When the canal is completed, barges of 600 tons will be able to penetrate for a distance of 335.5 miles into the interior of France. Barges of lesser tonnage may continue northward to Paris, Havre, and the British Channel.

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