The National tribune., 1883-01-11
OUR GROWING COUNTRY.
IFS Industrial, Commercial, Railroad,
and Agricultural Development.
FINANCE AND TR AIDE.
Latest Reports from Leading
Business Centres.

The bill introduced in the House by Mr.. An
dersom. of Kansas, TO create postal telegraph
of the United States, provides that the Gov
eminent shall issue bonds to the amount Of
S3.OOOO0O, redCcmablc in twenty years and pay
able in thirty years. and that n the expiration
of ten wears there shall be set aside from the
earnings of the telegraph 100000 TO form a
sinking fund for the payment OF the bonds.
The bill provides that there shall be uniform
rate of twenty-five cents per message OF ten
words or less and twenty-five cents for every
additional ten words. 1t contemplates that
there shall be a telegraph postal office at every
postofiice where there is carrier system, and
that there may be one at any Office where the
postmaster can give a sufficient bond to cover
any amount which the office may fall short OF
meeting the expenses incurred on account OF
the telegraph. The telegraph line contem-
plated In the bill Is 10 run from Portland,
Maine to Topeka Kansas, with branches TO all
17rincipal cities between those points. The pro-
vision allowing smaller postotiices to have the
telegraph postal service on the condition that
what each office lacks of paying expenses shall
he secured by a bond given by the postmaster,
APPLIES only TO offices near the lines provided
for The control of the postal telegraph line
Is to be under an officer Of the PoStothce De
partment to he known as the supervisor Of the
postal telegraph.
There is good reason TO believe that the pres
entunsatisfactory condition OF business is due
TO long credits and orerstanding. During the
past wear there We're 6.73S business failures,
with aggregate liabilities of SOL, 81 sol during
the wear. As there were only 4,G35 failures,
with liabilities of 500 52 600, during the year
1850 the remarkable increase in the short space
of two years is at once seen to be out OF all pro-
portion TO the increase IN the volume OF bust
ness. 4 comparative statement OF failures and
liabilities for the twenty-siX years extending
from 1877 10 1852 shows that several times dur
ing that period the tide of business disaster has
risen very much higher than at present. In
1857 the liabilities aggregated S29l,15OOOO; IN
1851, 500 100000; IL 1875, S22c,499,OUo, ana III
ISIS, 1924 3S3 1872. But these were all periods
of exceptional business depression. The general
panic in 1857, the beginning Of the warm lo6l,
the overtrading and over-railrOad building OF
1873 and the rush Of insolvents TO get through
bankruptcy in 1873, before the termination of
the bankrupt law, account in n perfectly
natural way for the exceptionally great num-
Der of failures in the years above mentioned.
A purchaser of land in California always
stands a ceance of finding 1t turn out 10 he gold
bearing, or 10 possess stores of quicksilver, cop
per. or other hidden mineral wealth. One of
these surprises has befallen DR.. L. T. Brunette,
OF Oakland, who bought hill near Los Gatos
about sixty miles below San Francisco, for use
as a pasture ground. 1t was necessary TO dig
in order to deepen n we'll and a large number
of blocks that looked like ordinary stones were
taken out and thrown on one side in heaps
Some of these stones, being afterward used to
build a fire upon for cooking purposes, were
found to be highly combustible, burning rap
idly with a blush fame. Further examination
showed that they were simply solid blocks Of
sulphur, and that the whole hill is substan-
TALLY an immense mass of this mineral. With
sulphur selling at $40 ton, Mr.. f5urnettes pur-
hne Cd ont 70 no of
treasure than many gold mines.
The annual meeting of the Reading Railroad
stockholders was held in Philadelphia on Mon
day Franklin B. Gowen was reelected presi-
dent and the old board of directors continued.
President GOwen read his annual report. 1t
states that the sum Of s. sos, 1870 has been
paid in cash on the deferred income bonds, of
which $6,643, sos was paid in England, and the
remainder in America. The plan Of financial
reorganization was discussed. The receivers
during the three years of their control have
expended j,44S, 1916 in new equipment and
other expenses. In order to terminate the re-
Ownership, an attempt has been made to negO-
tiate Sl3000G00 Of the > per cent. cOnsols only
$4,000 Of which have been sold. Judge Nc
Kenna, of the United States Circuit Court, will
return to the city next Monday, and an appl-
cation viii probably be made for dissolution
of the Reading Railroad receivership.
L
that at least 10000 looms and probably 100000
spindles are idle in the cotton and wooden mills
of this city in consequence Of continued de-
preston in the trade. At the usual rate of
running these machines this means total loss
of work for between 5000 and G000 operatives,
while ten times as many are working at re-
Guced wages and shortened time. A leading
mill owner said to-day as a reason for all this
that everybody who could afford 10 do so was
closing down. Mills were stopped because they
did not pay, and this would continue until the
price Of labor decreased or that Of products ad-
vanccd. Some Of the mill owners think that
Southern cotton mills are competing, and others
that the unsettled condition Of the tariff qucs-
ton is working harm. All of them expect the
depression to wear oil in short time.
Philadelphia has cooperative store with a
present capital OF $685. $50 and real estate worth
$4,000 II pays an annual dividend to its
shareholders Of six per cent. and returns quar-
terly 10 customers from four to nine per
cent. on their purchases The manager says
that the whole secret Of success in CO.
operation Is TO start on a small scale and
extend the business slowly. To this rule
he attributes the success Of the venture. II
Waa begun eight years ago by several men who
worked III a factory and thought it would be a
toOu Iuea 70 cAcapcn provisions by buying in
lots and then dividing. They formed a little
society, and kept their stock in a room of a
1llCLlDCI > Ic54uCl!'c -NcaBthgV hired small
store, and from that the business has grown ia
annual sales aggregating $4,000.
The Baltimore and Philadelphia Railroad
Company was chartered at the State depart-
ment at Harrisburg, Pa, on Monday. The line
Of the road Will run from point on the bound
airy line between Delaware and PENNSYLVANIA
IN Upper Chester township, Delaware county,
Pa, 10 the city Of Philadelphia, a distance of
q miles. The capital stock is 81 100000 The
directors are Thomas VI. King Allegheny CITY
John VI. Cleaye, Pitts5uTg; Harry s. Burgesscr
PittsbUrg: Robert Garrett, John w. Davis
John X. Cowen, Baltimore and VIM. S. BisseII
Allegheny City. The president is James B.
Washington, Of Allegheny City. The principal
Office is in Philadelphia. This is the PennsyI-
vania division of the Baltimore and Ohio line
between Philadelphia and Baltimore. A corps
Of engineers is now engaged in surveying the
Maryland division.
The Portland OregOnian says: A log cut on
the Skagit last week measured nine feet across
al the stump. The first cut was over twenty.
four feet IN length and measured eighty-foul
inches the next log. tbirty-two feet and sew
enty-siX inches ut the top, and the third log
was thirty-six feet long and measured sixty
three inches. Ninety-twO feet of saw-logs were
cut from the tree, the average diameter being
scvonty-fouT inches. This tree would probably
scale about 1900 feet.
During the past year there were built at the
Baldwin Locomotive Works, Philadelphia J63
locomotive and of This uurubrr 100 or mora