The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1899-03-24
NEWS AND COMMENT.

According to Professor Knapp, of the
agricultural department at Washington
who has recently returned from a mis-
sion of inquiry into the agricultural pos
sibiltics of the Philippines the chances
or money making out there by tilling the
soil are good. Says he THE sugar
lands are excellent. l examined many
sugar estates, and find that their large
profits are not due so much to the quality
OF the soil as to the exceedingly admir-
able climate. There IS an eVCnness of
temperature which is very desirable for
sugar, and a large rainfall. That is a
| great thing for the rice, which wants lots
| of water. Their cane can grow all VIM
| ter, SO they give 1t from twelve to six
teen months to mature. They commence
cutting when it is about twelve months
| old man can take a small farm, put
| 1t in sugar cane get labor at So a month
| or work it on shares to a profit. 1t is
not customary to hire labor by the month,
| but the wages for farm labOrers will av-
! erage probably So in gold or So in silver
| The farming is mostly done on shares.
| The proprietor gives his tenant generally
| one-half of the crop and then buys it from
him. Tobacco and coffee are mostly
| worked by hired labor. The hemp is paid
! for by weight. There is a wide field for
| our capitalists to go into the plantation
| business There is lots of money to be
made in well managed estates, but our
people must learn the business first. An
| Englishman in IlOilo has authority from
| London to buy all the plantations he can
| get, provided the United States holds the
| islands. The climate is all right. 1t IS
| comfortable at night and in the morning.
I but hot in the middle of the day and
| early evening. But by adapting himself
to the conditions there an American can
get along very comfortably"
Opposition to the big department stores
| is not limited to the United States. In
| Germany the government has proposed a
! scheme of taxation aimed directly at
! them. The bill provides that three factors
are to determine the taxation, the num-
! Der of branches, the number of employees
| and the amount of rent. 1t divides the
branches into five groups, food and drugs,
! clothing, furniture, glass and jewelry.
| Establishments trading in two or more
| of these groups and employing more than
! twenty-five persons come under the new
| law. Those engaged in two groups pay
10 per cent of their profits in taxation,
three, 10 per cent; four, 20 per cent;
| 1--WE, 20 percent. Shops engaged in three
groups and employing twenty-five per-
| sons pay an annual tax of % marks for
each one of the Twenty-Five and 10 marks
for each additional employe. Stores with
! branch establishments will be treated as
! if all We're under the same roof Coop
! eratiVe stores will not be taxed under the
! new law. The bill is intended to create a
| good impression among the small shop
keepers who supported the conservatives.
who are anxious to strengthen the party
in the large towns and among the Social
, isstS, and who regard department stores
as a dangerous extension of capitalism.
The methods employed by the Porto
Rican fishermen in catching fish are very
| primitive. Most all of the fishes are
caught in crude traps, which are anch-
Ored ON the banks of the waters fire.
quented by the fish TO be trapped. Or
dinarily they are not baited. Some little
line fishing is done, but it is unmportant.
Very few of the fish boats have live
wells, and as "A result Of this lack of mod
eTn fishing boat equipment, the fishes
that are caught have 10 be marketed the
same day, and as ice is "A luxury there
| the fish have to be eaten the same day.
| Very little. if anything, is done i'm Porto
| Rico i'm the way of curing fish, or prepar-
ing them to be saved for future sale or
! consumption. \ few fishermen come over
/ from the British islands OF TOrtoa and
| Culibra to hsh in Porto Rican waters
and they sometimes corn their catch in a
very crude way and the fish which Is
thus temporarily preserved is marketed
at Santa Cruz. There are more than "a
| thousand varieties of edible sea and fresh
water fish in Porto Rico and its vicinity
and Yankee enterprise will probably turn
this piscatorial abundance to good ac-
count.
Before adiourning, the legislature Of
North Carolina took every appointment to
office away from the governor except the
directors of the asylum for the insane,
and to these offices they virtually forced
the governor to appoint the men whom
they selected. Instead of the governor
appointing TO the various Offices, tho leg
isature proceeded to elect the officers of
the penitentiary, of the Agricultural de-
partment, of the Bureau of Labor sta
tistics, of the two asylums for the deaf.
dumb and blind; the Board of Internal
improvements, the State Librarian, tho
keeper of the capitol the Shelltish Com
missioner the Surveyor of State Lands.
and created the office of Insurance Com
missioner and elected the commissioner.
They repealed the railroad commission
act and enacted law establishing a cor
pOrate commission, which has all the
powers which the railroad commission
had. The right Of the legislature TO do
all this is in dispute and decision from
the state Supreme court is expected at
an early day.
The Illinois Humane society wants a
law passed providing for whipping as a
punishment for wife-beating, robbery,
burglary and certain classes Of assault.
The CATO -nine-tails applied to the bare
hack is to be the instrument Of punish
ment. Sixty lashes is TO be the maxi
mum. The sponsor of the measure re-
Gently told the Chicago Record that when
first asked to introduce the bill he re-
fused, but after rejecting ne came to the
conclusion that the measure was a good
one. He was particularly influenced In
arriving at this conclusion by statistics
showing the effect Of a whipping law in
lessening crime in England, Some fifteen
years ago such offenses as wife beating
! and hold-uDs were increasing at AN