K6e Nebraska, Independent
PAGE 6
SEPTEMBER 211905
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THE
OF PROGRIE
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a
N
WORLD
A significant matter in connection with the
mission reports to the American board related to
the conquest of China by Japan. "Five thousand
Chinese students," they reported, "are in the
schools of Japan, and China is rapidly filling with
Japanese professors and teachers, and schools of
lower grade and Japanese editors are connected
with Chinese journals. A peaceful conquest of
China by Japan is already in full operation."
John Isaac, after acting as representative for
California In a conference with the horticultural
authorities of Mexico, has just reported that he
has discovered that six and perhaps more states
in Mexico are harboring a foe to oranges which
there is reason to dread if it should be permitted
to enter California. He reports that he found
thousands of oranges and mangoes have been de
stroyed within three months by the Mexicans in
an attempt to eradicate the orange maggot, which
has occasioned much damage. The orange maggot
proceeds from the eggs of the insect known as
the trypeta ludens. The fecundity of this insect
is something astonishing.
Baltimore, which is having to start anew
after its great fire, is now struggling with the
problem of its sewage disposal. It was at first
expected that the sewage might be turned loose
into tidal water, as is done in Boston and New
York. But the fact that Baltimore is not so
near to the open sea as these cities, has led to
doubt and probable reconsideration. The chair
man of the sewage commission there, General
Leary, has been inspecting the sewage disposal
plant at Brockton, and present indications are
that a filtration system will be adopted at Balti
more. The next step will be to get the advice
of expert engineers on the subject.
A majority of the foreign members of the
consulting board of engineers of the isthmian
canal appear to favor a sea level canal. This fact
may be -of the greatest importance of their
votes shall become necessary to decide that,
which is the principal question requiring ratifica
tion at the hands of the board. No attempt has
been made to pass on the question at any of the
board meetings, but the fact Is that the majority
of the foreign delegates who have been closely
studying the vast amount of data collected and
laid before the board by the canal commission
are at present of the opinion that a sea level
canal would be better than a lock canal.
A decision by John W. Yerkes, commissioner
of internal revenue at Washington, imposes upon
patent medicines composed largely of distilled
liquors the same tax that is paid on retailed liquor.
This reverses a ruling made four years ago and
necessitates the taking out of rectifying and
liquor-dealing licenses by the manufacturers of
such medicines. It reuires that druggists and
others handling such medicines must pay the
usual retail liquor dealers' licenses. The ruling
goes into effect December 1, but notices of the
change will be sent out at once. Commissioner
Yerkes' ruling seriously affects several well
known patent medicines and is expected to put
an end to the practice in prohibition districts and
throughout the Indian Territory of obtaining alco
holic stimulants sold as medicines.
The public schools of the Indian Territory
have upwards of 15,000 pupils . enrolled. They
have now entered upon the last term under the
auspices of the Indian nations, and. unless con
gress takes some action previously the schools
will close March 4 next and not reopen. The
tribal governments expire by law on that date.
The Indians have supported the schools out of
their tribal funds at an annual cost of $450,000.
After the dissolution of the tribal governments,
the funds will be distributed and apportioned, the
lands having already been allotted, and there will
be no trust funds to draw upon and no lands
taxable for school purposes. Attention has been
directed to this situation in strong language in
the annual reports of the secretary of the in
terior, the commissioner of Indian affairs, the
education division of the Indian bureau and the
superintendent of public schools in Indian Terri
tory in the last two years. The Cherokee nation
last year had 5,922 pupils enrolled in four board
ing schools and 175 day schools, the maintenance
of which cost $11,821. . The Greek nation had
2,547. pupils in forty-nine day schools and ten
boarding schools, which cost $76,159. The Chero
kee nation had 4,976 pupils in 160 day schools,
ten small boarding schools and four large board
ing schools, costing, all told, $121,517. The situa
tion in the Chickasaw nation is very muddled, as
the superintendent of the territory was able to
get reports from only two boarding schools last
year, while the nation has fifteen day schools
and five boarding schools. The reports were
scattering and inaccurate, and entirely unsatisfac
tory to the superintendent and to the Indian
bureau. This is the nation in which there has
been juggling with the school certificates', for
which several persons have been Indicted.
Joseph Ramsey, Jr., president of the Wabash
Railroad company, has thrown down the gauntlet
to George Gould and will engage in a fight for the
control of the Wabash system which will doubt
less prove to be one sof the most sensational
struggles ever witnessed between railway mag
nates. Ever since Ramsey was deposed as presi
dent of the Pittsburg lines of the Wabash the
feeling engendered by that action on the part
of Gould has increased in bitterness, and the con
test for the control of the system will be fought,
out in the annual meeting of the stockholders
October 10. In furtherance of this fight Ramsey
issued a circular letter to the debenture bond
holders and stockholders of the Wabash company
appealing for their proxies that he may repre
sent them in this annual meeting. In his letter
Ramsey reviews his service in the company for
the last ten years; calls attention to the exten
sions and improvements he wrought; says the
power and capacity for handling traffic is more
than doubled, and the cost of this work, at least
$12,000,000, has been paid out of the net earnings.
Concluding, Ramsey says "No one is better ac
quainted with the Wabash railroad, its capabili
ties, and its possibilities, than myself; I do not
hesitate to say that with prudent, conscientious,
and impartial operation, there should be at an
eraly date some pecuniary return to its owners."
The new $20 gold certificates which the offi
cials of the bureau of engraving say Is a great
improvement over the old bill 4ias a portrait of
Washington in the center. This is surrounded by
an ornamental border with a background of intri
cate lathe work, displaying denominational count
ers so arranged that no matter how the certifi
cate may be placed in a pile of bank notes, the
teller can readily determine its denomination.
The essential thing in connection with bank notes
is, the officials say, to make them as difficult as
possible to counterfeit. With this end in view
the underlying tint in yellow was used, and it was
so arranged as to produce the figures "20" at the
top and the words "in gold coin" at the bottom, in
apparently a deeper shade of yellow than the
tint. It is said that the design of this certificate
is the most difficult to counterfeit of any so far
issued by the government. The experiment of
obtaining designs of notes from artists was made
some years ago, but the judgment of the bankers
was that, while they were beautiful pictures they
were not bank notes. ,.--
The coffee, tea, and cacao trade of the world
Is the subject of a monograph just prepared by
the department of commerce and labor through
its bureau of statistics which will be published
in the forthcoming issue of the monthly sum
mary of commerce and finance. This report shows
the enormous increase both in the ocultivation
and consumption of these stimulants which is
one of the characteristic features of the last quar
ter of a century. In the case of coffee, which
is an indigenous plant of Africa, the center of
production may be said to have been transferred
to South and Central America, about three-fourths
of the world's consumption being furnished at
present by Brazil. The terms "Java" and
"Mocha," which in olden times indicated the
source of origin, have now become mere char
acteristics of quality and blend. In the case of
tea, the spread of culture precedes, in point of
time, that of coffee. - China, which may be said
to have been the center of the tea trade in the
earlier parts of the last century, lias been super
seded now by India and Ceylonso far at least
as imports into the United Kingdom are con
cerned. The cultivation of these two articles of
popular consumption may be said to be restrict
ed to certain well-limited areas, the bulk of cof
fee being raised at present in the central and
southern part of the American continent, and tea
being produced on the Asiatic mainland and ad
jacent islands. On the other hand, the consump
tion of these products, in the leading European
and American countries at least, is far from be
ing equally distributed. Roughly speaking, be
tween two-fifths and one-half of the marketed
coffee product of the world is taken by the Uni
ted States, while one-half of the tea product en
tering the world's markets is taken by the United
Kingdom. Another fact worth mentioning is that
the rate of consumption of these two articles,
wherever they have become part of the popular
diet, tends to increase continually. Taking only
those countries the statistics of which show con
siderable consumption of coffee, such as the Uni
ted States, Germany, United Kingdom, Holland,
Belgium, France, and Austria-Hungary, we find
that the combined consumption in these countries
has increased almost 60 per cent, from 1,140,740,
000 pounds in 1884 to 1,816,447,000 , pounds in
1904, as compared with an increase of population
of about 30 per cent in the countries named dur
ing the same period. In the United States the
total consumption has almost doubled in quan
tity, while the per capita consumption has in
creased about 26.9 per cent, from 9.26 pounds per
head to 11.75 pounds per head during the period
under consideration. Of special interest to the
Pnited States is the coffee industry of Porto Rico.
Its "banner year" was 1896, when the island ex
ported 58,763,476 pounds, valued at $8,318,544.
' The fall U prices, which became acute about that
time, combined with 'the hurricane of August,
1899, the change in money standard, and the
partial loss of the Spanish, French, and Cuban
markets, caused an abrupt decline, so that in the
fiscal year 1900-1901 the exports were only 12,
159,008 pounds, valued at $1,678,988. Since then
there has been a steady increase, the exports for
1904 being 34,329,927 pounds, valued at $3,903,257.
There is every prospect that the record of the
banner year will soon be equaled, especially since
Cuba, . under the reciprocity treaty, grants to
Porto Rican coffee a 20 per cent reduction of
duty, and the vast market of the United States,
which formerly took only trifling quantities, now
absorbs a rapjdly increasing amount of the Porto
Rican, product. The consumption of cacao has
increased at a rate even greater than that of cof
fee and tea. Figures showing the world's pro
duction are available for the last decade only.
According to an authoritative German trade jour
nal, Gordian, the world consumption has increased
creased from 142,212,611 pounds In 1893 to 280,
981,266 pounds in 1901 or 97.5 per cent. The in
crease is especially heavy in the United States,
namely from 17,494, 936 pounds in 1894 to 62,848,
917 pounds in 1903, or 59 per cent. Owing to the
fact that cacao is consumed both in the solid and
in the liquid form, its consumption in some Euro
pean countries, such as France, Germany, and
Holland, is now larger than that of tea. The fol
lowing table shows the per capita consumption of
coffee, tea, and cacao In some . of the principal
countries for 1903:
Per Capita Consumption.
, Coffee. Tea. Cacao.
pounds, pounds, pounds.
United States ....10.79 1.30 0.76
United Kingdom .71 6.03 .91
Germany 6780 .12 .81
France ; 6.27 .06 1.16
Holland ....14.39 1.45 4.36
' The Union Pacific railway gave a practical
test at Omaha of gasoline motor car No 2, built
by that company for actual service, before a large
number of interested eastern railway officials. It
ran from Omaha to Valley, Neb., and return, car
rying fifty-seven persons, mostly railway officials,
reaching a maximum speed of fifty-two miles an
hour. The return trip was made in six minutes
less than is taken by the overland limited, the
Union Pacific's best train. The first car was built
vfor experimental purposes, but this and others of
the same pattern now in course of construction
are built for regular service. The test was a most
successful one and may result in a general adop
tion of this style, of car for branch and suburban
business by all the railroads of the country. It
is- built entirely of steel, and is equipped with,
every modern convenience. . It is much lighter
than wood constructed cars. The car has numer
ous appliances on which patents have been taken
out by the inventors, who are young mechanical
engineers and designers employed in the office of
the superintendent of motive power and machin
ery at Omaha. y
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