National.

At the twenty-second annual convention of National Association of Railway Commissioners, in session at Washington, President Decker, who is a member of the New York public service commission and an authority upon questions of this character, said: "The whole matter of express service and express rates demands careful and thorough examination, with a report upon existing conditions and any indicated remedies. Such inquiry could also involve consideration of the propriety and effectiveness of a parcels post. It is my view that a strong and large committee of the association, organized to go fully and actively into the whole subject, should be appointed. This does not mean that such investigation should go to the extent of determining whether specific rates are unreasonable or unjust, for that is a matter for action directly by the commissions, but it does include the bearing of the general express rate system upon commerce, requiring quick service, the public requirements, the effect of the present system of express companies, contracts with railroads, the manner in which express rates are constructed, and the particular services which are rendered therefor. If our present express system contains features that burden or prejudice the public interest, the system to that extent should be revised. If the whole scheme of express service, as now performed, is obsolete or radically defective, it should be thoroughly reformed."

Secretary Ballinger of the department of the interior has issued a long statement emphasizing the necessity that Congress provide a method for the exploitation of the oil resources of California which will protect the interests of the public. It must be borne in mind, the secretary explains, that if the Government does not obtain a decision in the courts reserving oil lands heretofore patented to the Southern Pacific Railroad Company, "it will materially affect the policy which should be developed by Congress. The railroad, if the owner of the odd sections, will be enabled with its checkerboard holdings to drain the oil from the reserved public lands while the Government keeps them under reservation."

It is now nearly six months since the first automatic scale purchased by the Government was installed on the docks of the American Sugar Refining Company in Williamsburg,

N. Y. The remaining nineteen scales contracted for are expected to be delivered in the near future. Taking everything into consideration Surveyor Henry of the port believes that the automatic scales are eminently satisfactory for the purposes they have been put to, and that one hundred and fifteen drafts an hour, of three bags of sugar each, is as much, if not more, than can be weighed accurately by the old device of beam scales.

President Taft spent three days at the Canal Zone, examining the construction work of the canal, and was highly pleased with the showing. The canal will be completed Dec. 1, 1913, it is declared, although the official date of the opening remains Jan. 1, 1915, Lieutenant-Colonel Goethals desiring one year in which to train the canal tenders and get the machinery working smoothly. Ships in the mean time will be granted the privilege of the canal, but at their own risk of delays incident to inexperienced operation. The canal will be completed with the $375,000,000 already authorized.

The New Jersey court of errors and appeals has reversed the decision of the supreme court which sustained Justice Swayze in ordering the four great beef-packing companies to produce their books before the Hudson grand jury of New York state during its investigation of the high cost of living. While the prosecutor thinks the books would prove that there was an agreement to raise the price of beef. he thinks there is evidence enough for conviction without them.

The dissolution of the "glass trust" under a federal attack promises the development of deposits of silica glass in various places adjacent to Chicago. From some of these deposits the raw material has been shipped at heavy transportation expense to the eastern factories, the manufactured glass costing buyers in the West enough more to cover the "economic waste."

The tariff board has begun active work in the field to ascertain the truth regarding the cost of manufacturing pulp and paper in the United States and Canada. This was one of the questions in dispute when Congress undertook a revision of the tariff, and it is the purpose of the tariff board to uncover every possible fact that will show the exact situation.

After adopting resolutions in which charges are made that the state and federal antitrust laws are being violated by combinations of capital which effectually restrain trade in sugar and molasses by monopolistic methods, sugar planters gathered at Donaldson, Ala., from eight parishes have taken steps to secure the prosecution of the alleged offenders.

Attorney-General Wickersham, by direction of President Taft, has begun an inquiry to determine whether six thousand acres of valuable oil lands in California were known to contain oil when patented to the Southern Pacific Railway Company. If such is the case, suit to recover will be instituted.

The perpetual franchise claimed for the trolley system of Providence, R. I., has been declared impossible by the city solicitor. He says the perpetual exclusive franchise creates a monopoly, and that it is repugnant to common reason. The local trolley system is now controlled by the New York, New Haven & Hartford.

The Boston municipal departments of street, water, and engineering works have been consolidated under one control in a board of public works, at the head of which will be a commissioner at a salary of nine thousand dollars a year, under whom there will be three deputies at five thousand dollars a year each.

The national deficit to date for the fiscal year is about $12,101,926, as against $27,182,028 at this time last year.

International.

Morocco has agreed to pay Spain thirteen million dollars indemnity as demanded by the latter government following the successful Spanish campaign against the Riff tribesmen in the summer of 1909. In addition to paying an indemnity, Morocco cedes to Spain the territory within a radius of sixteen miles of the Spanish settlement of Melilla. This is six miles farther than the Spanish army occupied during the war. Spain will also establish custom houses at Melilla and Ceuta.

A new section of the Cape to Cairo railway has just been opened from Wad Medeni to Sennar, a distance of sixty miles. In January last the section from Khartum to Wad Medeni on the Blue Nile was opened. One train per day will be run each way on the new section of the line. It is expected that the railway will reach Kosti, on the White Nile, by the end of this year or early next year.

Unable to reach any compromise on the veto bill as affecting the House of Lords, Parliament will be dissolved on the 28th inst. and a new election ordered. King George refused to promise the election of enough new Liberal peers to guarantee the carrying out by the Lords of the will of the Commons in adopting the veto bill.

It is now certain that the new British thirteen and a half-inch naval gun is to be met by the German admiralty with a fourteen-inch Krupp weapon of even greater power. It has recently been under trial and the results are said to be exceedingly good.

What is described as a "monster appeal" is being drawn up by the Chinese, urging Great Britain to abrogate the treaties with China which permit British interests to engage in the opium trade.

Count Leo Tolstoi, the great Russian reformer, passed away on the 20th.

Industrial and Commercial.

Comparisons made between the totals of lumber production and of lumber producers in the preliminary report of the department of commerce and labor on lumber, lath, and shingles, show increases of both in amounts that bode ill for conservation and for profits to the mills. The production has risen from over thirty-five billion feet to over forty-four and a half billion in ten years. The mills have increased from 31,833 in 1899 to 48,322 in 1909. These figures show that the small mill must have greatly increased in numbers. As the small mill is wasteful and not a conserver of the forests, the showing is regarded with alarm.

The New York, New Haven & Hartford railroad, having gained control of the Boston & Maine railroad through a holding company, is now petitioning for authority to purchase the Boston, Revere Beach & Lynn narrow gage road. The Company offers to standardize the gage, to electrify the whole road, and to extend it from Lynn to Beverly with a double track the whole distance from Boston, equipped with modern steel cars, electrically lighted, and a block signal system.

A picture postal card combine, comprising three of the largest firms in the country, has been formed, with nine hundred thousand Jollars capitalization. The combination was directly brought about, so it is said, by the Payne-Aldrich tariff, which increased the duty on postal cards two dollars per thousand, making it impossible for importers of German cards to compete with the American product.

The state board of assessors of New Jersey has completed the assessment of railroad property for 1910. The figures show an increase of nearly eighteen million dollars in assessed valuation, and on account of this increase and an increase in the average tax rate, the railroads this year will pay in taxes practically five hundred thousand dollars more than last year, or a total of $5,542,611.

Actual work in the new Maverick mills, East Boston, has been begun, the first building of the group having been completed and machinery installed. Twelve hundred employees are already at the spindles in these mills, which are located on the Boston water-front.

The world crop of oats is nearly three billion seven hundred million bushels annually.