National.

The United States, before giving its consent to the transfer of the sovereignty of the Congo Free State to Belgium, asks information on the following principal demands : A specific assurance from Belgium that she will respect the Brussels act of 1890, of which the United States is a full signatory, and especially Article 2, providing for the humane treatment of the natives ; the abolition of the labor tax; the restoration to the natives formerly held by them according to native communal customs ; the institution of the freedom of trade guaranteed by the treaty of 1891 between the United States and the Congo; an agreement to submit to arbitration economic and commercial questions which shall prove especially difficult of settlement otherwise.

The Senate committee on the judiciary has reported adversely the bill of the National Civic Federation to amend the Sherman antitrust law. This action makes it plain that there shall not be interjected into the antitrust law provisions which would authorize leniency to be granted by the Interstate Commerce Commission and the Commissioner of the Bureau of Corporations in certain cases, including railroads and organized bodies such as farmers' associations and labor organizations.

A bill has been introduced in the Senate which provides for the construction, at a cost of $1,750,000, of a large structural material testing machine, similar to but more than forty times as large as that at the Watervliet arsenal, to be capable of giving and weighing loads of tension up to 11,000,000 pounds and loads of compression up to 22,000,000 pounds on specimens to one hundred feet or more in length. The bill carries an appropriation of $200,000 for a building for the machine.

The unification of the transit system in Boston and vicinity was the subject-matter of a preliminary hearing recently before the legislative committee on metropolitan affairs. It was propsed to establish a permanent metropolitan public service commission, which should succeed the Boston transit commission, and that the cities and towns comprised in the metroplitan parks, wafer, and sewerage districts shall be known as the metropolitan public service district.

The Supreme Court of the United States has denied the application of the Consolidated Gas Company of New York for a rehearing. The case involved of the 80-cent gas law and was recently decided against the company will be obliged to refund to its patrons patrons rebates amounting to about $9,000,000.

The United States Supreme Court, in a recent decision at W.ashington, for the first time laid down the broad principle that an illegal combination in restraint of trade practically has no standing in court when it attempts to enforce contracts that are made in connection with such illegal agreements. The president has signed a proclamation which adds more than 330,000 acres to the Cleveland National Forest in Southern California, and eliminates some land not considered suitable for national forest purpose. After these changes the forest has a present area of more than 1,573,000 acres.

An amendment to the sundry civil bill, appropriating $200,000 to enable the United States to participate in an international exhibition at Brussels in 1910, has been favorably reported to the Senate from the committee on foreign relations.

The Bureau of Corporations is investigating the United States Steel Corporation, the tobacco trust, the oil industry, lumber industry International Harvester trust, and cotton exchanges.

President Diaz of Mexico has accepted the invitation of President Roosevelt to send delegates to attend an American conservation congress to be held later in Washington.

In round numbers the cruise of the battleship fleet, when it is finished at Hampton Roads on Feb. 22, will have cost the American people $20,000,000.

International.

Progress is being made in the work of the closer union convention, which has as its objective a union of the four British colonies in South Africa, the Transvaal, Cape Colony, Natal, and the Orange River State, the whole to form a great federation. A compromise has been reached on the question of the location of a capital of the federation. The Federal Parliament will meet at Cape Town, while Pretoria will become the administrative capital. The compromise as first suggested provided for making Bloemfontein the headquarters of the judiciary.

Under the new schedules of tariff duties proposed by France the maximum tariffs under which American products are imported into France have been increased on an average of twenty per cent, whereas the minimum rates under which the products of European countries are imported are increased only five per cent.

The Canadian Parliament, in recent sessions, discussed the proposal by President Roosevelt that the United States, Canada, and Mexico shall cooperate for the conservation of the natural resources of North America. The leaders of both partics expressed hearty approval of the plan.

During 1908 France imported foodstuffs to the value of £36,750,000; raw materials, £160,750,000; manufactured articles, £46,000,000. She exported foodstuffs to the value of £29,500,000'; raw materials; £59,000,000; manufactured articles, £104,750,000.

A Mexican National Democratic party has been organized in Mexico City, upon the suggestion of President Diaz. A declaration of principles was adopted. This gives a strong opposition party.

The president of the Chamber of Commerce of Chihuahua, Mexico, is promoting the building of an extensive system of long distance telephone lines in that state.

The French government will probably pass a bill to oblige French navigation companies to install wireless apparatus on all their ships above a certain tonnage.

The Panama-United States treaty has been ratified by the Assembly and signed by President Obaldia.

The international opium conference, arranged by the United States, opened at Shanghai Feb. 1.

The value of the commodities purchased by Great Britain in France in 1907 was £36,040,000.

Industrial and Commercial.

A British publication states that a new syndicate has established a factory in London and is placing upon the market a new form of leather, for which it is claimed there is a big future, and which it thus describes : The leather is submitted to a tanning process of the chrome variety, which preserves it; rubber solution is then worked into the interstices, rendering the hide thoroughly waterproof. The elasticity of the rubber permits of perfect flexibility and extraordinary toughness of some of the skins, especially of rabbit, goat, and sheep skins. Tests have been made for motor tires, soles for boots and shoes, pump washers, machine belting, miners' boots, etc. This new material, it is thought, may also prove useful for motor and cycle tires, as it is almost impossible to puncture it, while it is said to be much more resilient and waterproof than ordinary leather.

With a capital of $500,000 the Gulf Coast Gas and Oil Company has been organized, with offices at Shreveport and Gibsland, La., to sink eight wells in Bossier, Webster, Bienville, and Jackson parishes, La. The new company intends to construct a pipe line to New Orleans and supply natural gas for eighty cents, against $1.15 now charged by the New Orleans Gas Light Company.

Eight thousand bales of Philippine hemp, valued at $25,000, have arrived by steamship from Manila at New Orleans, destined for the International Harvester Company at Chicago in the manufacture of binding twine. It is thought that the hemp can be used as substitute for Mexican sisal, which heretofore has been used exclusively.

At the annual stockholders' meeting of the Detroit and Cleveland Navigation Company and the Detroit and Buffalo Steamship Company, the recently announced $4,000,000 merger of the two companies by the purchase of the latter by the former was ratified.

Application has been made for a charter for the Pittsburg Steel Products Company, which will become an independent and aggressive rival of the United States Steel Corporation.

On Jan. 20 idle cars in the United States and Canada amounted to 311,664, or 21,355 fewer than on Jan. 6.

General.

Five thousands cats have been shipped from Chicago to Japan to assist in ridding that country of its rats.