The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1898-07-01

each. In the last two years nearly six
millions such packages have been sold
in lower Bengal alone, n the system
has been successfully extended to other
provinces. One of the many good serv-
ices done by the Indian postoffice is a
system by which packages may be sen,
collect on delivery and the money col
lected by the postman and returned to
the sender of the package. The object
is to encourage cash trading and to give
persons living in remote districts the
benefit of prices in leading business GEN.
tiers.
Cooperative Production in France
A report which has just been published
by the French Labor Department places
the number of cooperative associations
formed by workmen in that country at
172, with 9,029 members. Their capital
is about 50, 500, 900. During the year
1895 they did IS, 500, 900 worth of bust
ness, earning profits to the amour of
$3.50, 600.
Labor RegistrieS in MOScOw-The sue
cess of the system of public labor reg
istrieS II employment bureaus in for,
eign cities. has led the municipal gov,
eminent of Moscow to establish such
an institution in that city. During the
months of September, October and No
vember, 1897, the first three months Of
it's operation, situations were found for
1000 applicants.
Pauperism in Great Britain-The av-
erage number of paupers receiving pub,
lie charity in thirty-five selected dis
tricts of Great Britain during February,
1898, We're 342, 92S, or 217 in each 1000
of population, or PIT per cent of the
total population of the districts.
Clearinghouse for German Labor
Notwithstanding to the report re-
Gently published of the proceedings of
the conference held September 10, 1897,
between the heads of German public
labor registries it has been decided to
establish a clearing house for the un-
employed. The clearing house is to be
directly informed of the vacant situa-
tons in all districts, nj whenever the
supply in n is greater than the de-
mand, the surplus will be sent where
the demand is greater than the supply,
Municipal Insurance-The insurance
companies having decided to increase
the rates for insuring municipal build
ings in Rangoon, India, although the
city has been paying premiums for
twenty years without a claim, the city
has decided to cease insuring municipal
property against fire and to set aside
and invest the premiums. The munich
pal buildings are scattered all over the
town, and only in the event of a general
confagration can there be serious loss.
The Unemployed-In his annual report
General Agent Henry Peterson of the
Industrial Aid society of Boston said:
Since 1893, or the date of the depreS-
sion in business, the ranks of the un.
employed are kept full, and apparently
little progress is made in diminishing
their numbers. In former years it was
customary for manufacturers to retain
during the entire year a very large
proportion of their help, but lately it
is becoming more and more the custom
to employ a large force for certain
months in the yea and then entirely
close their factories, throwing out OF
employment for two or three months a
large proportion of their operatives"
Constitutionality of Gold Contracts
The law passed by the legislature Of
Washington declaring hat a contract
to pay in gold coin should not be spe-
officially enforced by the courts, but the
debt might be paid in and fully sat
isfied with any kind of lawful money
or currency Of the United States" has
been declared unconstitutional by the
supreme court of that state. The court
decided that it was an attempt to leg
islate on a subject belonging exclusively
to the federal government, and that a
stipulation in a note or mortgage that
the debt shall be paid only in gold coin
of the present standard value, and that
the decree and judgment thereon shall
so provide is valid"
Russia's Railway Policy-Russia's
policy of binding the remote parts of
the empire together with state railways
is about IL be shown in other directions
than in the construction of the great
Trans-Siberian railway. A very impor-
tant line will be begun at an early date
to connect Ufa, in the southern Ural
district, with Tashkent, in Turkestan.
This line will give the shortest route
from Russia into central Asia, from
which Russia draws its great supplies
of natiVe-grOWn cotton. A second im>
portant line is projected from Nizhnee-
Novgorod into the Ural district, where
a number of feeders to the new line will
be built.
National Ownership Of Canals-The
steamship and grain merchants of New
York have set on foot a movement for
the national ownership and control of
canals. The canal that they especially
Wish to see under national control is
the Erie canal, which at present, by a
constitutional provision, must always
remain under the ownership of the state
of New York.
Swiss Alcohol Monopoly-For eleven
years the trade in alcohol has been a
government monopoly in switzerland
The importation Of alcohol and it's dis
%tillation became a monopoly of the state
in 1887, the law being adopted by means
of the referendum. According to the
Swiss officials the experiment has sue
ceeded we'll. According to the last re-
port of the director of the monopoly it
has accomplished the objects for which
it was adopted. In the first place a
purer article of liquor is sold and this
is made of the best articles, instead of,