National.

Seven corporation bills, favored by President-elect Wilson in his capacity as Governor of New Jersey, have been introduced in the Legislature. Explaining the bills, Edwin R. Walker, head of the chancery court, the highest in the state, who prepared them under the direction of the Governor, said: "These acts are designed to put an end to trusts and monopolies under the laws of New Jersey, and Governor Wilson confidently predicts that they will accomplish that much desired result. They emanated from Governor Wilson and have been drawn for the purpose of preventing monopolies by corporations, firms, and individuals." The bills make violation of the proposed laws a misdemeanor punishable by imprisonment for not more than three years or fine of not more than one thousand dollars. The measures provide that any combination between two or more corporations, firms, or persons to create restrictions in trade, limit production, prevent competition, transportation, or selling, fix prices for purposes of trade control, or make any secret oral agreement, shall be a misdemeanor. One bill provides that bona fide values in money or property must stand behind all stock issued; that stock shall not be issued against anticipated profits; that when stock is issued in exchange for other stock, no more shall be issued than was actually paid for the other stock; that no purchase may be made of a concern of different character from that doing the buying. It also prohibits one corporation buying into another for the purpose of restraining trade or acquiring a monopoly.

The forest service is considering a plan which, if adopted, will make the federal government the timber broker for all homesteaders who have stumpage for sale. The scheme is aimed at the relief of settlers in the national forest reservations in Montana, Idaho, and other western states. Complaint has been made that the government is selling stumpage to the great lumber companies which operate within the reserves at prices as low as one dollar per thousand feet. This timber is condemned by the forest service where growths become too thick, or when the trees are injured by storms, forest fires, or rot. It is then put up at auction and the government accepts practically any bid, no matter how low. Settlers living within or near the forest reserves point out that the prices at which the government sells its timber make it impossible for them to compete in the sale of their private timber. As most of the settlers rely on the sale of timber for their living while they are proving up on their homesteads, they very naturally protest.

The concentration of most of the timberlands of the United States into the hands of a few powerful interests has created a problem so grave for the nation, in the judgment of Luther Conant, Jr., commissioner of corporations, that he has recommended to President Taft that the existing national forests not only be retained by the federal government, but increased as far as practicable. He urges that the forests of Alaska be included in reserve, as well as all timbered lands recovered in forfeiture suits. He advises a further searching inquiry into land grants of the past, with the view of instituting additional forfeiture suits if the facts justify the procedure; while he warns us that attempts are still being made to "secure the transfer of public timberlands to private owners under the same pleas of settlement which in the past often proved wholly specious and insincere."

Articles of incorporation for the so-called "Rockefeller foundation" to administer a philanthropic fund of one hundred million dollars to be donated by John D. Rockefeller, were passed by the House, 152 to 65, after scattered opposition. The object of the foundation is "to promote the well-being and to advance the civilization of the peoples of the United States and its territories and of foreign lands in the dissemination of knowledge, in the prevention and relief of suffering, and in the promotion of eleemosynary and philanthropic means of any and all of the elements of human progress." The bill contains a provision prohibiting the foundation adding to the capital fund of one hundred million dollars and forcing the expenditure of the entire income from that fund currently.

One division of the garment workers' strike of New York city was settled amicably when the manufacturers' and employees' committees of the waist and dressmaking trade came to an agreement under which twenty-five thousand workers have returned to the shops. The strikers were granted their demands for general increase in wages on a sliding scale, better hours, and fire protection. The manufacturers in the association that agreed to these terms control about seventy-five per cent of the waist and dressmaking shops affected by the strike. The remaining shops are operated by independent manufacturers. Their employees will remain on strike until they agree to the same terms accepted by the association.

Declaring that in all the suits brought by the government the people of the country are the plaintiffs, and should therefore be accorded free access to the taking of all testimony in such cases, the House committee on the judiciary has favorably reported the Nelson bill to prohibit secret hearings in antitrust suits. The bill has already passed the Senate, and the committee is eager that the House should take action upon it as soon as possible and send it to the President, who is said to favor its enactment into law. With the Nelson measure was reported a duplicate bill embodying the same provisions.

The rivers and harbors appropriation bill contains an appropriation for a survey of the Naugatuck river with a view to plan the barge canal between the Housatonic basin at Derby and Ansonia, Conn., and at least this much of the project for a canal between Derby and Waterbury is likely to go through. The survey will include the Housatonic river from Derby to Long Island sound, which is believed to be able to carry a much larger tonnage than at present, with some deepening of the channel.

One of the largest gatherings of representative business men ever held in this country by the Chamber of Commerce of the United States, closed its annual session at Washington last week. A resolution was passed that there be conveyed "to President-elect Wilson the felicitations of the chamber upon the high honors accorded to him by the American people, together with the expression of the earnest desire of the organization to be of service to the incoming administration."

The total number of parcel-post stamps printed and distributed amounts to more than four hundred million, and the total value of the stamps distributed is more than twenty million dollars. The bureau of engraving and printing is sending out the stamps at the rate of twelve million a day.

International.

Lord Kitchener's great scheme for the drainage of the lower delta of the Nile and the gradual reclamation of a large tract of land is well on its way to realization. The delta of Egypt may be roughly divided into three zones: the southern, or upper zone, stands at a sufficiently high level above the sea to drain itself by gravitation; the middle zone, including the districts which have become water-logged from the increased water supply. since the inauguration of the system of perennial irrigation was completed by the opening of the Assuan dam; and the northern, or lower zone, where drainage has all along been practically impossible, much of it being actually below the sea-level. The proposal is to construct a great network of government main and secondary drains covering the whole of the middle and lower zones, which will provide not only for the more efficient drainings, and therefore the gradual restoration of the lands in the middle zone which have suffered in recent years from water-logging, but also for the new drainage and subsequent reclamation of great areas to the north which have never been cultivated at all. The cost of the complete drainage works alone will probably exceed ten million pounds.

The United Farmers of Alberta, Canada, are opposed to war, and are also against Canadian naval policies. They would have Canada lead the world in the international disarmament movement, and have so declared in an anti-naval resolution adopted recently. In all the six hundred delegates there were but twelve dissenting votes. "This convention, representing fourteen thousand farmers of Alberta," the resolution says, "places itself on record as firmly opposed to any expenditure whatever of public moneys for the consolidation of naval armament, but is decidedly in favor of Canada encouraging to the utmost the movement toward international peace and disarmament and the settlement of international difficulties by arbitration, such as is proposed by the United States."

The English House of Commons passed the home rule bill for Ireland by a vote of 367 to 257. The bill is now in the House of Lords, where it is expected it will be rejected. If passed by the Commons in three successive years it may then, in spite of its rejection by the Lords, become law by virtue of the so-called veto act recently passed.

The attempt of China to negotiate with the six-power group a loan of one hundred and twenty-five million dollars has not yet been successful.

Industrial and Commercial.

A group of Spokane capitalists have combined to organize a five hundred thousand-dollar conern to market directly the crops of the surrounding country. Articles of incorporation give the organization power to handle all problems of marketing and storage, all horticultural and agricultural products, and large cold-storage facilities will be provided in Spokane to care for the products while awaiting shipment. Organization is being perfected by forming smaller societies in the various sections of the surrounding country, all centering in the larger body in Spokane. It is probable that only apples will be marketed this year, the aim being to reduce the price to the consumer and to increase the returns to the grower by eliminating the profits of the middleman.