The National tribune., 1882-12-14
OUR GROWING COUNTRY.
lis Industrial, Commercial, Railroad,
and Agricultural Development.
nee AND TRAD E.
Latest Reports from Leading
Business Centres.

An important suit in regard TO the response
bi!uy of telegraph companies has Just been
decided in Louisiana. James Crangle sued the
Western Union Telegraph Company for loss
of 500 which he had sustained in consequence
Of an error made by a telegraph operator IN
sending his message. The counsel for the COM
pany claimed that the original dispatch, which
was produced in court, so badly written
that the operator was not responsible Tor the
mistake in transmission and also claimed pro-
lection under the printed contract on the mes
sage. particularly that portion regarding the
repeating of the same. The court decided that
telegraph company cannot by special contract
relieve itself from responsibility for the faults
or negligence of its servants, and also that a
condition in a contract that telegraph COM
pany shall not be responsible for errors or neg
ligence of its servants unless message is re-
peated and then only TO the extent of the cost
of repeating such message, is an unjust and
unreas easonable condition, and cannot be en-
forced"
The bill introduced in the House by Repre-
sentative McCoid to provide 'forthe regulation
of commerce by rail among the States and for
the protection of the people from extortion and
oppression, and for the protection of capital in
vested in railways from maladministration and
railway wars" provides that each railway shall,
on March I of each year. publish schedule of
rates Fifty per cent. of the schedule of rates
shall be the minimum of rates, and 80 per cent.
above the maximum allowed TO be charged in
any case. These rates are TO be fixed upon the
principle of impartial service for a fair corpo-
rate profit from honest public service. Consoli-
dating, discriminating, and pooling prohib-
tied and TO be punished. A committee Of nine
members. one from each judicial circuit in the
United States, shall be appointed by each Con-
gress to supervise investigate, and report to
Congress as TO the management and control of
railways under the law, and recommend amend
ments thereto.
The &c lSus Office has issued a bulletin giving
the statistics of illiteracy in the various States
There are 36,761,607 persons in the United
States of ten years Of age and upwards, and of
these 4,923 451 (13.4 per cent? cannot read, and
6,239,954 IL per cent? cannot write. OF the
white people above ten years of age "a per cent
are unable to write, and of the colored people 20
percent In the Carolinas the percentage ofillit-
eracy is 4S.2 in Louisiana 45.S, in Georgia 42.9,
and in Mississippi 419. The States in which
the percentage Of illiteracy is smallest are:
Iowa, pa; Maine, 3.5; Kansas and Ohio, SO;
Minnesota, 81; Michigan, 3.s; Wisconsin, A.
The most illiterate population in the United
States is that of New Mexico where 60 per
cent. of the people are unable TO read.
The Marietta and Cincinnati Railroad was
sold at Chillicothe, O., Saturday, under fore
closure of bond mortgages and decree of sale
by order of the Court of Common Pleas of Chill
licothe, Ross county, o. The decree was en-
tered by the court on October "a. The road
was appraised at $6,554, ,s25, and the law re-
GuirCd that it should be sold for not less than
two-thirds Of the appraised value. The pur-
chaser was Robert Garrett, of Baltimore, the
only bidder, for 54,375,O 900. The road with its
branches, comprises about 255 miles, of which
about thirty miles is seldom used, being aban-
6Oncd because Of short cut at the Ohio River
extremity of the road. A reorganization Of the
road is expected.
The Hudson's Bay Company was formerly
the head OF the fur trade, and at one time vir-
tually moaopolized the markets of Europe and
America Russia excepted; but the business of
this company has greatly decreased of late, and
now the corporation known as the American
Commercial Company takes the lead. Last
year this company sold in the London market
about $1,000 sealskins. 1t monopolizes the
sealskins Of Alaska, under a contract with the
United States Government, which allows it to
kill one hundred thousand seals year The
$1,000 mentioned, however, were the accmula-
tions of other seasons.
An application has been made to the Attor-
ney-General of New York to begin an action
against the Western Union Telegraph Com
pany to enforce the legal penalty for the viola
tiOn Of various statutory obligations. In the
complaint it is proposed that the charter of the
company shall be vacated and its corporate
existence annulled, and that its directors shall
be compelled to account for the management
of the funds and property committed to their
charge and to pay TO the corporation or its
creditors the money and the value of the prop
erty which they have transferred to others, lost
and wasted by violation of their duties"
Several Of the leading companies and opera
tors engaged in the production of petroleum in
Pennsylvania have signed an agreement to
stop drilling from December ID to May Is
These operators own and control 5000 acres of
what it is believed will be rich oil territory,
in Forest county, and they hold that the de-
velopment of any new field would have de-
pressing effect the market. They believe
that by keeping this large area undrilled the
old fields will have so far declined in their
production as to make new one a necessity,
and that prices will then be so much higher
that even small pumping wells may be operated
at a large profit.
BradStred estimates the cotton yield for
1S52, as compared with 1850, in thousands of
bales, as follows:
1862. 1890
North Carolina. 434 449
EoDull 'tItllI4h blo UJS
Georgia Si5 92S