The Daily Trade Record says: "Competitors of the Japanese in foreign markets, who had hoped that the new factory law, which will become effective in Japan on Sept. 1, would more nearly equalize working conditions, will be disappointed to discover that practically no reforms will be instituted and that the old fourteen hour day will continue in vogue with scarcely any restrictions. It was expected that the hours for women and children would be shortened, but this has not been done. The majority of women children are employed in factories for yarns, fabrics, and knitted fabrics. In fact, 60 per cent of the labor in these industries is made up of women and children.

"The Japanese Government has seen fit to establish a ten year period during which the hands may be worked thirteen to fourteen hours a day. There are more than three thousand children under twelve years working in Japanese factories. Between the ages of twelve and fourteen there are more than forty thousand children employees, 31,000 of whom are girls, and all of them work thirteen to fourteen hours a day and may be compelled to continue doing so under the new factory law. Between the ages of fourteen and sixteen there are considerably more than one hundred thousand boys and girls working in Japanese factories, and of these 91,000 are girls."

Discoveries concerning the nature of sun-spots, proof of the old nebular theory of spiral motion, and the determination of the distance from the earth of more than two hundred additional stars, were said to be the most important events of the last year by members of the American Astronomical Society at the closing session of the nineteenth annual convention at Philadelphia, Pa. The work of American astronomers has become a matter of considerable detail. Certain definite programs have been laid out, and each observatory in the country has been assigned to a specific phase of the work. While this coordination has virtually ended discoveries of a sensational nature, in the opinion of the sixty-five delegates it has in the last three years resulted in great strides forward for the science. And in addition it has laid the foundations for proving or disproving practically every theory of astronomy.

At a luncheon at Providence, R. I., attended by the full membership of the state board of public roads, it was unanimously agreed to take immediate action leading to the removal of all advertising signs from the public roads, posts, telegraph poles, and abutting buildings. This action was decided upon after a lengthy discussion of "Better Highways," in which every member of the state board participated, all concurring in the approval of a plan to eliminate the signs.

The secretary of the National Highways Protective Society told the board that there are many reasons to offset the two or three good arguments for the existence of these advertising signs, and the board agreed with their host. It was decided during a discussion of ways and means that the existing laws of Rhode Island were adequate and would be enforced with all the vigor the board could put behind them. To remove the signs already existing it was decided unanimously to take up the matter with other New England states and determine upon a "clean-up" day.

More than three thousand feet above the center of the island state of Tasmania, the waters of the Great Lake are now harnessed in one of the greatest water-power schemes yet planned in Australia. This government hydro-electric plant was opened recently and will eventually develop about one hundred thousand horse-power. Contracts completed or in negotiation for the use of this power already amount to more than one hundred thousand horse-power.

Lake St. Clair, about half the size of the Great Lake, having an elevation of 2000 feet and lying about thirty miles to the west, may be tapped for further power. The Tasmanian Government has paid about four hundred and sixty thousand pounds for the hydro-electric scheme as it now stands.

Under the new ouster law which recently went into effect in Virginia, public officials of trust may be removed for failure to enforce and statute. Police officials are therefore trying to enforce some almost forgotten statutes. One of these forbids work at any trade or calling on the Sabbath and makes it unlawful to perform any labor not absolutely necessary on that day. As a result hundreds of surprising arrests are being made. Among the most striking arraignments are those of a church organist, a florist who delivered flowers for the decoration of a fashionable church, a man who washed his automobile, another who supplied a motorist with gasoline, and the manager of a Turkish bath.

The completion of a set of standards for admission to the bar was a noteworthy accomplishment of the recent meeting of the American Bar Association held in Chicago, Ill. It marks the end of ten years' labors of the association's section of legal education. Adoption of the rules remains for next year's meeting. When the American Bar Association gives its approval to this set of standards, they will be put out publicly and the association will ask the various state authorities all over the country for their adoption. A marked advance in legal education and practice is expected to follow.

Ensign Fitzhugh Green, U. S. N., who accompanied Donald B. MacMillan on the expedition which left New York in 1913 in search of "Crocker Land," reached New York on this return Sept. 5. He confirmed previous reports that "Crocker Land," which Rear Admiral Peary reported to have seen, does not exist. MacMillan and Green determined from observations and careful soundings that what Peary had seen was a mirage. This belief was further confirmed, Ensign Green said, by the fact that they themselves saw mirages.

An important conference, representative of about two hundred and fifty firms belonging to the engineering and ship-building industries of Scotland, was recently held in the City Chambers, Glasgow, when it was decided to form a strong central organization of these industries with a view to coping with the problems of trade after the war.

Delegates from thiry-three states, Canada, and Alaska enrolled at the evening session of the tenth annual national conference on taxation at Indianapolis, Ind. The conference is held under the auspices of the National Tax Association. More territory than ever before represented sent delegates this year.

For the first six months of the present year the value of goods shipped from the port of Hongkong to the United States was $5,363,000. The items of merchandise which have caused this large increase in Hongkong's trade with the United States are rice, tin, cassia vera, antimony, and shelled peanuts.

Spain stands second only to Italy in the production of cocoons in Europe, producing on a average 750 metric tons, of which some five hundred metric tons are raised in the province of Murcia, where climatic conditions favor the growth of the mulberry tree.

The Canadian Pacific steamer "Empress of Russia" on the last trip brought a cargo of silk consisting of 4700 bales, valued at $750 each. The total cargo amounted to about three million five hundred thousand dollars.

Grain-handling facilities in Buffalo, N. Y., are to be increased by the construction of a new 2,500,000 bushel elevator, with three legs for vessel unloading and fast shipping legs for railroad cars and canal boats.

More than four million dollars worth of silk, the largest shipment from Japan this year, left Seattle, Wash., recently in sixteen special cars over the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway for New York City.

A big merger of the principal Pacific coast fruit and salmon canning interests is anticipated. According to common report the merger will involve in excess of twenty-five million dollars.

The Colombian Congress has authorized the Government to contract one or more loans for a total sum not to exceed $400,000, to be used in the extension of the Tolima Railway to Ibague.

Running the forty-eight states in the United States cost $495,000,000 in the fiscal year ended June 30, 1915. The total disbursements of the Federal Government for the same period were $1,065,000,000.

The Swedish foreign office states that a Russo-Swedish convention for connecting the railway systems of both countries by a bridge across the river Tornea has been ratified.

The Cuban Government has set aside $175,000 for the purchase of a lot and the erection and furnishing of a Cuban Legation at Washington, D. C.

The nitrate of soda manufactured in Chile during the month of June, 1916, amounted to 5,153,701 Spanish quintals of 101.4 pounds.

Exports of cocoa from the Portuguese Islands of Sao Thome and Principe amounted to 61,825,331 pounds in 1915.