National.

The waters of the Pacific ocean were let into the Panama canal on May 18, when a giant blast, composed of thirty-two thousand seven hundred and fifty pounds of dynamite, demolished the dike to the south of the Miraflores locks and allowed the water to flow into an extensive section in which excavations have practically been completed. The dike had dammed the waters of Ancon harbor in the Gulf of Panama on the Pacific until the United States engineers practically finished excavating a long stretch of the canal near Miraflores. The time set for its destruction was made public, and thousands of American swarmed Zone residents, and other sightseers swarmed the hillsides to see this important step toward the completion of the big waterway. All the charges had been set at sunset the night before, and throughout the night the immense quantity of dynamite was under heavy guard, no one except the engineers and their assistants being permitted to pass the sentry lines.

President Wilson has issued an executive order by which all fourth-class postmasters, except those receiving less than one hunddred and eighty dollars a year, are required to take a civil service examination to demonstrate their fitness for office. The effect of the order is to throw all appointments to fourth-class offices open to competition. During his administration, President Taft, by an executive order, put these offices in the classified service, keeping in office the incumbents who had never been required to take a civil service examination. The new order affects 49,682 postmasters. President Wilson takes the ground that his predecessor's order failed to apply the merit system to the service.

The Coaster Brake Company, with headquarters at Buffalo, will be dissolved without a contest in the courts, to meet the demands of Attorney-General McReynolds, and it is expected that the pending criminal case against the combination and its officers will be settled in the near future. This suit involves six corporations and eighteen individuals, all indicted at Buffalo Jan. 8, 1912, on charges of unlawful combination and conspiracy to monopolize the entire coaster brake business and to fix and maintain prices.

Mt. Vernon, the home of George Washington, will remain closed to visitors on Sundays as heretofore, as the result of resolutions adopted by the council of regents of the Mt. Vernon Ladies Association, at its annual session. This action was in response to a recent formal request from the Chamber of Commerce of Washington, pointing out that if open Sundays, Mt. Vernon would be visited annually by thousands who are unable to do so week-days.

Work is to be started at once on two buildings for the recently organized women's college at New London, Conn., one to be known as Plant Hall, the gift of the family of Morton F. Plant, and the other as Blackstone Hall, the gift of Mrs. Blackstone of Chicago. It is expected that the college will open in September, 1914.

The New York Yacht Club on May 20 cabled to the Royal Ulster Yacht Club, definitely accepting Sir Thomas Lipton's challenge for the America's cup. The races will take place in September, 1914, under the New York Yacht Club's present rules as to measurements, time allowance, and racing.

Governor Earl Brewer announced that the Mississippi Legislature would be convened in extraordinary session on June 10, to consider issuing bonds of one million dollars or more, the funds to be devoted to levee constructions along the Mississippi river.

President Wilson has by executive order set apart a large tract of land in Arkansas for use by the department of agriculture as a resort and breeding-ground for native birds. The tract is to be known as Walter Lake Reservation.

Under the terms of a bill approved by Governor Tener, ten verses of the Bible must be read daily, without comment, in the public schools of Pennsylvania. Teachers who violate the law are subject to dismissal.

A "blue sky" law, drawn on the lines of the Kansas and Wisconsin acts, is to be presented in the Massachusetts General Court and is intended to protect investors in stocks, bonds, and securities from fraud.

The supreme court of Missouri has granted the Standard Oil Company a rehearing in the Missouri ouster case.

International.

An important scheme, the details of which were given by the postmaster-general some time ago, for the construction of a special tube railway for the conveyance of letters and parcels in London, has again been brought into notice. In addition to the general post-office, there is a chain of post-offices, each forming the center of districts scattered all over London and situated miles apart. The growth of traffic, especially that of motor traffic in main thoroughfares, interferes with the punctual running of the mail motor van service, which is worked on a rigid time schedule between the central offices, and has led to a scheme for the conveyance of the mails in a subway which would link the central offices together without interruption of any kind. The ultimate intention is to connect all the London central offices.

The Bernese Alps railway, forty-eight miles in length and involving many engineering difficulties, has been constructed during the past six years at a cost of twenty million dollars. Not only was it necessary to drive a nine-mile tunnel, but the line on either side of it had to be carried through wild, precipitous country, where the laying of a railway track was accompanied by many difficulties and dangers. Material had to be conveyed into remote valleys, where the only means of progress was a mule-path, and thousands of workmen had to be accommodated in a country hitherto almost uninhabited. The advantages of the new line are many, and from certain places a saving of three or even four hours will be effected on the journey to Italy.

President Saenz Pena's message, read at the opening of the Parliament of Argentina, made reference to the excellent relations which the republic has maintained with foreign countries, the peaceful conditions throughout Argentina, and the flourishing state of commerce. Immigration during 1912 surpassed the records of other years, reaching a total of nearly three hundred and twenty-five thousand. The revenues for 1912 amounted to 405,237,000 paper dollars; expenditures, 402,838,000 paper dollars. Exportations were valued at $480,391,000 gold; importations, $384,853,000 gold.

The Liberal government of Alberta, Canada, headed by former Chief Justice Arthur Sifton as premier, was returned to power by a large majority on its record of legislation palled in the interest of farmers. The government's record in passing an act providing for a cooperative system of elevators, as asked by the farmers, and passing the machinery act, a measure which prevent implement men from securing a lien on a farmer's property in payment for machinery, was very popular in the election.

Industrial and Commercial.

In the course of the investigations of the fertilizer resources of the United States, made by the bureau of soils, the possible utilization of the waste products from various industrial processes is receiving serious attention. One of the most important of these by-products is the slag produced in the manufacture of iron and steel. In Germany, where the iron ores used are high in phosphorus and the basic Bessemer process for the manufacture of steel is largely used, the slag produced is rich in phosphoric acid, and therefore finds a ready market as a fertilizer. The iron ores used in this country, however, with the exception of some mined in Alabama, are very low in phosphorus, and consequently give slags containing, as a rule, considerably less than I per cent of phosphoric acidd.

The government, which has been making an investigation of the composition of sole-leathers, finds that no less than 60 per cent of American sole-leather is "weighted" with Epsom salts or glucose or both, and that practically all of it contains more uncombined tanning materials than it should, to give the purchaser his money's worth of genuine leather. The results obtained indicate that not less than twelve million pounds of glucose and Epsom salts are sold annually in sole-leather to the American people.

The threatened strike of miners employed in the New River coal field of West Virginia became an actuality last week, and in consequence one thousand miners, many with their families, are living in tents. The strike is due, it is alleged, to the coal operators having dismissed a large number of men owing to their affiliation with the United Mine Workers of America. There are fifteen thousand miners in the New River coal field, which tract embraces a part of Raleigh, Fayette, and Wyoming counties.

More than a million dollars collected in corporation taxes must be surrendered by the treasury as a result of the decision of the United States Supreme Court that a corporation leasing its property and deriving its only income from that lease is not "doing business" within the meaning of the law and is not taxable.

The Fore River Ship-building Company at Quincy, Mass., has been bought by the Bethlehem Steel Company. The price involved is said to be about one million two hundred and fifty thousand dollars.

There is a prospect that the wheat crop of Kansas will reach a total yield of one hundred and twenty million bushels this year, or one third greater yield than that of last year.