Items of Interest March 11, 1916 Issue

Items of Interest

Organization of the Great Lakes Transit Company, to control 85 per cent of the passenger, packet, freight, and grain steamships navigating the Great Lakes, is announced. The company's fleet will comprise thirty-five vessels with a freight capacity of 150,000 tons. They are steamers that six railroad companies were compelled to relinquish, under the section of the Panama Canal act forbidding rail lines to own competing water routes. The capitalization of the company, it is announced, will be $20,000,000. The ships purchased by the company include all except six of those which have been operated on the lakes by the Pennsylvania, New York Central, Erie, Delaware & Lackawanna, Lehigh Valley, and Rutland Railroads. The history of lake navigation in connection with trunk railroads dates back to 1852, when the Erie started a line of steamships from Cleveland to Toledo, Ohio, Detroit, Mich., and Dunkirk, N. Y.

The census bureau of the department of finance and municipal statistics of the United States Government is soon to issue a set of tables giving special financial statistics for twenty-four cities,—eight having the council form of government during the fiscal years 1913 and 1915, eight having the commission form during those years, and eight having the council form in 1913 and the commission form in 1915. In the first group are Indianapolis, Ind.; Hartford, Conn.; Youngstown, Ohio; Troy, N.Y.; Peoria, Ill.; Little Rock, Ark.; Davenport, Iowa; and Charlotte, N. C. In the second, Birmingham, Ala.; Lowell, Mass.; Salt Lake City, Utah; Des Moines, Iowa; Pueblo, Col.; Topeka, Kan.; Montgomery, Ala., and Austin, Texas. In the third, Dayton, Ohio; Reading, Wilkes-Barre, and Allentown, Pa.; Covington, Ky.; Saginaw, Mich.; Springfield, Ohio; and Joplin, Mo.

The decision of the United States Supreme Court in the tide-lands case, giving the state the title to tide-lands in the harbor of San Pedro, Cal., affects the status of all the tidelands of the state, about two billion dollars worth of which, in different parts of the state, are claimed by private or corporate interests. This is regarded as one of the most important decisions ever rendered affecting California. The decision upholds the contention of Attorney-General U. S. Webb that tide-lands are the inalienable property of the people, and that any grants that may have been made are invalid. The suit contended that the state cannot convey for private purposes lands lying between navigable rivers and between lines of high and low water marks.

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