National.

Three new national bird reservations, two in Alaska and one in Nebraska, have been created by President Taft and placed under the department of agriculture. On Forester island, one of the Alaska reservations, the rhinoceros auklet breeds. This island, which is the most northern home of that bird and one of its few breeding-places, contains one of the most extensive bird collections in southeastern Alaska. "The Nebraska reservation is in the heart of the prairie chicken country and furnishes the only refuge which has been established for this fast disappearing game bird," says Dr. Henshaw, head of the biological survey. "It will be tenanted also by sharp-tailed grouse and quail and offers conditions suitable for a satisfactory range for big game." This makes a total of fifty-five bird reservations established to date, eight of them in Alaska.

Although a further extension of time to Feb. 14 from Jan. 31 has been allowed for hearing the arguments on the demurrers to indictments standing against five officials of the United Shoe Machinery Company on the charge of conspiracy in violating the Sherman act, it probably will not be necessary to go into court on such a proceeding, as the company has practically reached an agreement with Attorney-General Wickersham whereby the criminal charges against the officials of the company and the dissolution suit will be abandoned. It is understood that when the case is finally settled the company will be conducting its business in accordance with the interpretation of the Sherman act.

District Attorney Whitman has decided to investigate the butter business in New York to find out whether or not the men who control the butter market, if there are such, are guilty of a conspiracy in restraint of trade. Witnesses will be called who will tell the grand jury who controls the butter situation in New York. Then an Information will be laid before a police magistrate, as was done last summer when the price of ice went up during the hot spell. The case will be in the same hands as conducted the prosecution of the live poultry trust last summer which resulted in thirteen convictions.

A petition to dissolve the American Telephone & Telegraph Company on the ground that it is a monopoly in violation of the provisions of the Sherman law, has been made. According to the petition the company, which controls the Western Union Telegraph Company and eight subsidiary telephone companies in various parts of the United States, is one of the largest financial concerns in the world, having a capital of nearly one billion dollars, and it now dominates the telephone business of the country and practically bars all competition.

According to a preliminary report on the cost of production in the steel industry by Herbert Knox Smith, commissioner of corporations, unreasonable profits are made on iron ore in the lake region; excessive earnings flow into the treasury of the United States Steel Corporation from its ore transportation facilities, which suggest the necessity, from the standpoint of public policy, of segregating the ore railroads from the giant corporation; and large inter-company profits are made by consolidated ore, iron, and steel companies.

Promoters of fraudulent schemes who had obtained seventy-seven million dollars from the public through fraudulent use of the mails, were put out of business during the fiscal year ending June 30 last. Of the five hundred and twenty-nine individuals who were indicted on the charge of using the mails in furtherance of schemes to defraud, one hundred and ninety-six persons were tried and one hundred and eighty-four were convicted.

Powerful influences are said to be working against the Congressional inquiry into the "money trust." It was learned that, acting upon the advice of the big banks, hundreds of little banks in every section of the United States are writing in to the congressmen representing their districts, urging them to exert pressure to stop the investigation.

But ten years ago the highest percentage of bad roads was in the Southeast or Southwest. This condition no longer prevails. From being a fad, good roads have become in the Southwest a public passion. The bicycle led the way in the new movement and the motor car is completing it.

United States District Judge A. C. Angell has denied the motion made in behalf of the Colwell Lead Company of New York to quash the indictments in the government's criminal case against the "bathtub trust." This reinstates the case. There are about two score defendants.

International.

The Canadian minister of public works outlined in the House the other day the system of public highways upon which the government proposed to guarantee a loan of ten million dollars, which sum will be available for the towns and municipalities of the province on the payment of half the interest rate of two per cent. He said that the project included the macadamizing of four highways between Montreal and Quebec, two on the north and two on the south shore, of a highway from Quebec to the United States boundary by way of Sherbrooke and Beauce county, of a highway from Quebec to Gaspe, and of a highway from Quebec to Tadousac. Continuing, he added that they contemplated a macadamized roadway from Montreal to Sherbrooke, one from Montreal to Ottawa, and another roadway from Montreal to the American border. In addition to that there would be funds for the building of two hundred miles of road in the Lake St. John district, and it was estimated that even then there would be funds for twelve hundred miles more of macadamized roadways, mostly in the vicinity of Montreal. He said that the ten million dollars which was to be placed at the disposal of municipalities of the province would enable them to construct thirty-three hundred miles of roads.

The royal commission on taxation, in reports to the provincial Parliament, recommends that British Columbia adopt the single tax. The commission, which conducted a thorough investigation of taxation in the province, advocated the abolition of the poll tax, personal property tax, and the tax on improvements. The single tax is already in operation in the city of Vancouver.

The younger princes of the Manchu dynasty of China have carried their point, it is said, against abdication of power by the throne. Yuan Shi Kai, who has been acting for the throne, has resigned and has been succeeded by General Yin Tchang, who is reported in favor of resuming war with the revolutionists at once.

The long-talked-of amalgamation of the electric tubes and railroads of London with the London General Omnibus Company has been finally carried through. The properties owned by the companies concerned in the new amalgamation represent a value of one hundred and seventy-five million dollars.

According to the annual report of the director of public instruction in the Bombay presidency of India for the year 1910-11, the number of persons under instruction, taking all institutions together, rose from eight hundred and fifty thousand to eight hundred and sixty-nine thousand.

Industrial and Commercial.

Sir Joseph Ward, in the course of some remarks dealing with industry in New Zealand, said: "I am of opinion that it is of great importance to the country that we should encourage the production of iron from our ores and iron sand and have it supplied at a rate to our manufacturers that would enable them to compete successfully in the work of manufacturing articles against competition from beyond New Zealand. If such a work is put in hand, I should expect in a few years to find at least ten thousand men employed in a great industry of the kind. Should private enterprise not be attracted to the iron industry, the government will consider immediately the expediency of developing the iron resources of the dominion."

The first and most important part of the great scheme of improvements and extensions to the London docks, which is being carried out by the port of London authority, will be taken in hand in the carly spring. This is the construction of a new dock to the south of the Royal Albert docks. The provisional cost of the scheme is estimated at about two million five hundred thousand pounds and the work is likely to occupy several years. The dock will be forty-six hundred feet long, giving a quay length of ninety-two hundred feet. The water in the dock will have a depth of thirty-eight feet and cover an area of as much as sixty-five acres. The land on which it will be situated was purchased some ten years ago by the port of London authority.

Trade of the United States with China in the calendar year just ended approximated fifty-five million dollars in value, of which about twenty-three million represented the value of exports to and thirty-two million that of imports from China. Cotton goods, illuminating oil, flour, iron and steel manufactures, and lumber are the principal articles of export from the United States to China, and from China the United States imports annually from twenty to forty million pounds of wool, three to five million pounds of silk, about ten million pounds of goat skins, about thirty million pounds of tea, fifteen to twenty-five million pounds of rice, and about thirteen million square yards of mattings.

Authority is to be asked of Parliament by the Eastern Canada Power Company to wipe out form the topography of the St. Lawrence river the Coteau and Cedar rapids and divert the whole flow of the waterway nearly half a mile from its present course. Niagara has an electrical potentiality of about six hundred thousand horse-power. The new Canada company plan would be capable of producing nearly twice that amount. It is capitalized at one hundred million dollars.

A wealthy syndicate, comprising, it is reported, United States and Canadian capitalists, has been formed with the purpose of inaugurating a Brazilian beef trust. It is stated that nine million acres of land in Brazil have been acquired for the purpose of rearing cattle and competing with the great Argentine cattle-rearing industry.