National.

The first session of the Fifty-seventh Congress began Monday, December 2.

Delaware's two seats in the Senate still remain vacant. The third party men have determined to go into one or the other of the old parties. Of the eighty-eight Senators fifty-six are Republicans and thirty-two Demoerats.

In the House there will be 197 Republicans, 152 Democrats, and eight independents, who it is thought will vote with the Democrats. Since Congress adjourned nearly two-hundred and fifty thousand dollars has been expended in refurnishing and redecorating the House and its committee rooms and offices.

The report of the third assistant postmaster-general states that for the year ending June 30, 1901, the postal receipts were $111,631,193.39 and the expenditures $115,554,920.87, making an excess of expenditures over receipts of $3,923,727.48. The most important question considered in the report is that of second class mail matter. The publishers' rate of one cent a pound for second-class matter constitutes about two-thirds of the weight of all the United States' mail, but it furnishes only about four per cent of the postal revenue. The net profit to the government from the special delivery business was $167,727.73.

A bill will be submitted to Congress providing for the revival of the grade of viceadmiral, with four numbers in it. The bill provides also that the number of rear-admirals shall be reduced from eighteen to fourteen and that these officers shall have the same rank and pay as major-generals in the army. At present nine of the rear-admirals have the rank and pay of brigadier-generals and others that of major-generals.

General Wood has bought for the Government the principal portion of the San Juan battle-field, including San Juan Hill, the site of the blockhouse. The tract comprises two hundred acres and cost fifteen thousand dollars. It will be considered a United States reservation, and it is stated that the Government intends to lay out a park on the old battle-field.

The examiner of interferences in the Patent Office at Washington has handed down an opinion awarding to Professor Carl Linde of Munich, Germany, the priority of invention for the self-intensifying process of making liquid air. Professor Linde's method was discovered in 1895.

President Roosevelt has issued an order placing the rural free delivery under the classified service. This order affects about sixty-five hundred agents, clerks, and carriers.

The increase in the postal revenues the past year shows that the free delivery service has become self-sustaining. Of the gross postal revenue $74,295,394 came from 866 free delivery cities. The total cost per annum for free delivery service is fifty cents per capita.

According to the annual report of the Secretary of the Interior, the total Indian population of the United States, exclusive of New York and the five civilized tribes, is 178,919. They are located on 156 reservations containing 55,127,000 acres.

Congress will be asked to appropriate ten million dollars for improvements in Hawaii.

Foreign.

It is said that the Australian commonwealth will pattern after the United States in that she will select no metropolitan capital. Her reason for so doing are much the same that in 1790 caused the Federal Government to locate the capital on the present site of Washington rather than in one of the prominent cities of the country. It is said that the jealousies of the States was the chief reason why the American officials decided upon such a course.

A German manufacturer has invented a new process for the production of steel which promises to produce a revolutionary effect on the world's metal industry. The new process imparts to all grades of iron a percentage of strength and hardness nearly double that imparted by the best processes in present use, while the cost of production is decreased about fifty per cent.

The experiments in wireless telegraphy which were conducted by the Swedish navy during the autumn manœuvres were so successful that the Swedish Government has decided to erect an extensive system of postal signal stations. Swedish engineers are credited with several inventions which have greatly increased the efficiency of wireless communication.

The American residents of Berlin, Germany, will erect a union church in the centre of the American colony in that city. The corner-stone was laid on Thanksgiving Day by United States Ambassador White. In his speech Mr. White emphasized the broad and liberal character of the undertaking, which ignored all denominational bounds.

The Phillippine commission in their report to the President state that the island contains seventy-three million acres of arable and timber lands. Less than five million acres of these are held by private ownership.

M. Jules Siegfried, in a recent lecture in Paris, predicted that during the present century the United States would become the greatest and most powerful commercial and industrial nation in the world.

It is stated on reliable authority that Germany and Russia are about to unite in assembling an international congress to devise plans for the suppression of anarchy.

The Ludwig Loewe Company, in Berlin, has the finest machine shop in Germany, and possibly in all Europe. It contains nothing but American machinery.

Industrial and Commercial.

It is reported that a system of exchange mileage between the larger railroads east and west of Chicago will be established to replace the passes that are to be abolished on January 1. The proposition is to supply mileage for representatives of the railroads traveling on other lines. If at the end of the year it is found that one road has used more mileage than the one with which it has an exchange, the excess will be paid for in money. It is estimated that the abolition of exchange passes will do away with not less than sixty thousand annual passes.

Cornelius Vanderbilt has just taken out a patent for an improved locomotive tender. The new tender has many points of excellence which have won the highest praise from competent mechanics and railroad men. Mr. Vanderbilt has practically reconstructed the locomotive, and is without doubt the leading inventor in that line to-day.

The Industrial Art League of Chicago proposes to erect a free workshop to be known as the Chicago Guild of Industrial Arts. It is designed to give the artist the chance of manufacturing his own wares without financial outlay, and selling them with no other expense than the cost of the material and the rent of the tools.

California's oil output for this year will be about eight million barrels. The railroads of California are using upwards of three million barrels of oil a year on their locomotives and in shops. There are eleven refineries in the State which use 1,500,000 barrels a year.

By the consolidation of two lumber companies Chicago now has the largest lumber yard in the world. It has a storage capacity of seventy-five million feet. The amount of capital invested is upwards of $2,000,000.

An agent of the American Federation of Labor has begun the work of uniting the various industrial organizations in Porto Rico, and will ultimately have them join the American Federation of Labor.

The State of Iowa has 14,819 manufacturing and mechanical industries having a capital of $102,733,103. The annual product amounts to $164,617,877.

General.

The Chicago House Wrecking Company has purchased every movable thing on the Buffalo Exposition grounds for $130,000. The same company bought the World's Fair buildings for $80,000; the Omaha group for $50,000, and the greater part of the Paris Exposition buildings for $70,000. It is possible that either the national or state memorial association will endeavor to secure the Music Hall and erect it in some public place, either as a museum, art gallery, or memorial building. It is stated that the material of which it is made will permit of its being taken apart in sections and erected permanently elsewhere.

In reply to numerous inquiries which have been directed to the members of the national commission for the Loulsiana Purchase Exposition, as to the probability of the postponement of the opening of the Exposition, the secretary has stated that the law requires that the exposition be formally opened to the public on April 30, 1903, and that no effort has been made nor is any contemplated, looking to the postponement of the opening.

Jacob A. Riis recently delivered a lecture in Carnegie Hall, taking for his subject "Theodore Roosevelt, an Example of Citizenship." The address was delivered under the auspices of the Young Men's Christian Association. Mr. Riis said that President Roosevelt's motto is, "Better faithful than famous."

A resident of Richmond, Ind., has discovered a substance which is abundant and easily produced, which will absorb heat rays and hold them until given out again. The method is similar to the making of ice only the process is reversed.

A satisfactory test of the Holland submarine boat, Fulton, was recently made in New York harbor. The boat, carrying six persons, remained submerged for more than fifteen hours without the slightest discomfort to the men.

Dr. William R. Harper, president of the Chicago University, will be the director of universal educational conferences at the World's Fair in St. Louis.