The leader., 1897-11-24

1ecblng an organization W cohtiOi tuS
production and sale of cotton in the
south and to fight trusts that seek to
lower the price of cotton.
AN electric road, it was said, will
soon be built from New York to Phil
adelphia that will enable passengers
to make the Journey at the rate of 200
miles an hour. Tesla, the electrician,
says the scheme is feasible and that
the speed can without difficulty be at
tanned and without inconvenience to
the travelling public.
THE greatest Y ray machine in the
world was exhibited the other night
in the Lawrence scientific school of
Harvard college at Cambridge, Mass.
1t has an electric motive force of ,200,
900 volts, which is about equal to the
voltage of 2,400 electric cars. 1t gives
spark As inches long-an achieve
ment hitherto unknown.
THE great globe which is to be the
feature of the Paris exposition is now
nearly completed. Elevators and
stairways will run to nine tiers or
floors, from which section of the
globe can be seen. 1t will thus be pos
sible to follow the equatorial line, the
temperate or the arctic and antarctic
circles and make a thorough study of
the earth's surface. Every place of
any note will be given and all towns of
5000 inhabitants, while larger towns
will be marked according to scale
Various colors will be employed to
distinguished them.
THE problem of how convlcts shall
be kept at work without competing
with free labor has seemingly been
solved by the law which went into eff
feet January last in New York. This
provided that all state institutions
should purchase their supplies from
the prisons, if such could be manufac-
tured there. Since the law went into
operation acquisitions were received for
over S750,000 worth of goods, which
guarantees the continuous employment
annually to maintain the prisoners
they are thus made self-sustaining.
THE United States circuit court of
appeals in St. Louis recently handed
down an opinion that the boycott was
not legal weapon. Judges Sanborn
and Thayer said that men had no
right to form a conspiracy to deprive
company of its rights to manage its
own business, but Judge Caldwell dis
sented from his associates in lengthy
opinion, in which he said: The only
weapon of defense the laborer can APP
peal to is the strike or boycott or both
These weapons they have an undoubt-
ed right to use SO long as they use
them in a peaceable and orderly man
ner."
PROF. f. STONE WIGGINs, of Ottawa,
Ont, believes that the aerolite which
fell near Binghamton a short time ago
and is alleged to have contained a
piece of iron with hieroglyphics was
a message from Mars. He said: "My
opinion is that stones have for MANY
thousands of years fallen from space
upon the earth which contained writ
ten characters. Many nations speak of
their sacred books as having fallen
from Heaven and as the earliest i'm
portant records were preserved in stone
it seems proba BILE that the idea origi-
mated with aerolites, like that of Bing-
hamton."
A REPORT was recently made by
United States Labor Commissioner
Carroll ID. Wright that the padrone
system of Italian slavery, with all it's
attendant miseries, is being carried on
rs extensively and successfully in Chi
iago to-day as ever, notwithstanding
Ill denials. An investigation has
proved that fully 90 per cent. of the
Italian laborers in that city are under
the absolute control of padrones.
These poor wretches are the white
slaves of the masters. He must vote
as directed, eat what is allowed him
and in every conceivable way do the
bidding of his owner.
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ACCORDING to dispatch from Osh-
kosh, Wis, the worknouse, as a specific
for the tramp evil, has proved effica-
eious in Winnebago, in that state 1t
has saved the country during the past
year $1,000 a month. During 1896
tramps cost the county SIS, 399. IS. The
cost of maintaining the workhouse
the past year was S., 39S.0S. In 1896
there were 6,199 tramps handled" in
the county. In 1897 the whole NUM- Der
was s24, a decrease of 1915. The en-
tire cost of building the workhouse,
purchasing the site and equipping it,
was 81, 400, so that it has been saved
several times over the first year.
-
A NUMBER of representative women
have taken hold of the project for es-
tablishing in Washington great ma
tional university on the lines suggested
by President Washington. They have
started out in a practical manner by
seeking to raise the first $3.50, 900 nee
essary for the erection of an admins
tration building to form the nucleus
of the university and hope to be able
to lay the corner stone on February
%, 1899. Their purpose in the interim
is to urge the matter continuously on
the attention of women all over the
country. They intend likewise to in
terest all school children in the work.
PRoF. MILTON WHITNEY, who is in
charge of the division of soils of
the agricultural department, is en-
gagged at present in the investigation of
the climatic conditions of moisture
and temperature in their relation to
the local distribution of crops. The
work has scope as broad as the coun-
try. 1t will eventually embrace all
the soils and staple crops and in its re-
lation TO the future of the country.
when crops must be specialized under
the intensified system of agriculture
which must come to American farmers
in few years, it promises to be of the
utmost economic and practical value.
e. c. BRIcE, chemist, inventor and
metaliurgist, of Chicago. declared that