Items of Interest February 26, 1916 Issue

Items of Interest

Chambers of Commerce are to be organized in Cartagena, Cali, Cucuta, and Bucamaranga, in Colombia, South America, at the request of business men in each of those cities. The governor of each of the respective departments will call a meeting of not less than thirty of the principal business men of the community, representing various branches of commerce, importing, exporting, transportation, stocks and bonds, insurance, commission, manufacturing, and so on, and these men will elect 30 per cent of their number as members of the new Chamber of Commerce.

The Chamber of Commerce of Bogota is authorized to act as the official organ of all the commercial interests in Colombia, and as such to present to the national Government practical methods for increasing the prosperity of the country, to advocate improvements or reforms in commercial legislation, to make recommendations regarding taxes and tariff rates, and to promote the organization of any service which would be of value to commerce and industry in general. The Government is to make use of the chamber at Bogota as a consulting and administrative body, in the securing of estimates for public works and in supervising construction. The chamber will also provide a commercial court for the settlement of disputes arising between merchants where the parties concerned voluntarily submit their differences to this court rather than to the tribunals of law.

Improvements for the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers, as agreed upon by the rivers and harbors committee of the National House of Representatives, including completion of projects already under way and maintenance of those completed, aggregate a total cost of $10,000,000. This sum has been included in the $45,000,000 river and harbor bill about to be reported to the House. The bill proposes $6,720,000 for the Mississippi and $600,000 for the Southwest Pass at New Orleans in addition to the $100,000 regularly appropriated in the sundry civil bill for the South Pass. For the Missouri River $1,500,000 has been agreed upon for continuing improvements from Kansas City to the Mississippi, $50,000 from Kansas City to Sioux City, $125,000 from Sioux City to Fort Benton, and $75,000 for St. Joseph. The last item is dependent on a similar amount to be subscribed locally. For the Ohio River $5,000,000 is included for locks and dams, and upwards of $500,000 is proposed for open channel work. For the Hudson River generally an item of $640,000 has been included.

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