Items of Interest May 6, 1916 Issue

Items of Interest

The Supreme Court of the United States, in a decision just handed down, holds in effect that mail advertisers, even though they give purchasers value received for their money, are guilty of fraud if by exaggerated advertising propaganda they have led clients to expect more. The opinion was announced by Justice McKenna, reversing the decision of the district court in southern Florida, which held that if a purchaser received his money's worth exaggerated propaganda was not fraud. Justice McKenna took the position that it was an offense if the article sold did not serve the purpose represented no matter what the value might be. He said: "When the pretenses, or representations, or promises which execute the deception and fraud are false, they become the scheme or artifice which the statute denounces. Especially is this true in the purchase of small tracts for homes."

Creosoted wood blocks, already extensively used as paving material for city streets, have been coming into use as flooring for the last four or five years in factories, warehouses, machine-shops, foundries, various types of platforms, wharves, and docks, and for such miscellaneous purposes as hotel kitchens, hospitals, laundries, and slaughter-houses. Most of the blocks for these floors are now made of southern yellow pine, but hemlock, larch, Douglas fir, black gum, beech, and maple are also used. The blocks are sawed from long sticks of timber and are treated with creosote to prevent decay of the wood and also to prevent shrinking and swelling of the floor after it is laid. The blocks are laid with the grain vertical, so that the most wear-resistant surface is exposed, and usually on a concrete foundation.

The purpose of the establishment of a higher elementary school in Cairo, Egypt, has been explained by a recent note submitted to the superior council of the ministry of education in connection with the educational budget for 1916-17. The primary certificate attracted to the primary schools many pupils who had no prospect of continuing their education to the secondary stage, but who were actuated by ambitions which were often disappointed. In order to cater to the needs of this particular class the ministry is desirous of establishing schools for the provision of more advanced and also more practical instruction than is given in the primary schools. Manual work would be an essential part of the course, especially in the rural schools, in connection with country occupations.

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