The Black Hills union and western stock review. [volume] (Rapid City, S.D.) 1904-19??, 1909-01-15
The Union Publishing Company.


Subscription, $1.50 year.
The canal tolls which the United
States must pay to put the battle,
ship fleet through the Suez canal
will be nearly $140,000 OF the six
teen battleships and three auxiliaries
the Kansas is liable to be the heav-
lest tax, its tolls being $S,S23.3S.
The Minnesota, the next in tonnage,
will cost the government $S,797.90.
Rear admiral Sperry's flagship, the
Connecticut, will require an outlay
of $S,7OS.GS. 1t is tonnage, not
displacement that counts and it
makes no difference whether a ship
is loaded or empty.
An aerial warship 700 feet an
length with accommodations for 100
passengers and food and fuel enough
for a voyage across the ocean, and
full complement of guns is to be
built Immediately at the Nixon
yards, according to Lewis Nixon, de-
signer and constructor of warships.
Nixon said that the giant air craft
will cost more than a million dol
lars. An order was given by inter
ests expecting shortly to be incor-
porated as the Aerial Navigation
Company of America, with capital
of $5O,OO0,0OO. Nixon declared he
was positive the ship will be asuc-
cess.
With 100000 men In the United
States able to bear arms, there are
not enough rifles to equip an army
of much more than 100000, and two
thirds of these rifles are practically
obsolete. In addition the army cs-
Enlistment has not enough field ar
tillery of modern type to equip an
army of 100000 properly. Briga-
der General William Crozier, chief
of the bureau of ordinance, not only
acknowledges this fact, but adds that
it will will require several years to
remedy the lack. He blames the
conditions on the failure of congress
to appropriate funds sufficient in
the past to meet the demands.
AS the first move in their plan of
campaign, the Pittsburg councilman
ic grafters have started a back fire.
They are charging that the presi-
dent of the Scranton Civic league,
one of their accusers, is no better
than he should be, in fact, no bet
ter than they are said to be, and they
have begun all investigation to get
evidence to support their charge.
This doesn't serve to still the
charges against themselves, but the
theory is that If sufficient dust can
be kicked up to cloud the general at
mosphere, all the wrongdoing that
they may be guilty Of may not be
discovered. 1t is the usual way that
grafters act when they are cornered.
Europe is not the only part of the
world where earthquakes have been
felt. From the grimly named death
valley comes the announcement of a
series of shocks there and in that
vicinity causing great consterna-
ton. Heavy boulders have been
tossed about, miners have been
thrown out Of hunks, the usually
placid mules have been driven to
frenzy which caused them to STAN
pede and there have been general
"ructions," one result of which has
been the fleeing Of many miners
ytJ oh, Of
an antic disposition. No really SER
ious harm is reported, but the up
heavals, in connection with pertur-
bations elsewhere, would seem to
show that there is very lively and
extensive agitation going on in the
worlds interior.
Russia is again to be the scene of
widespread bloodshed. 1t was eX-
pected that the revolutionary forces
would bitterly resent the latest po-
lice butchery, and so everybody con-
versant with Russian affairs and
Russian feeling is prepared for the
announcement sent out from the nj
5hilist headquarters, at Geneva, that
reprisals are to be exacted for the
Moscow outrages. The nihilists sus-
pended their operations when the
car proclaimed an approach to lib
eralism, but since 1t is apparent that
the reactionaries are again in con-
troll and that the purpose is to fully
rehabilitate the old regime, opera
lions will be renewed with vigor and
over a wide area. They profess to
regret the necessity which impels
them to violence, but they declare
that in violence lies their only means
to impress the government that lib
eralism presents the only solution of
the problems which face it. It will
surprise no one If the life of Nicho-
las shall pay for his weakness and
vaoillation.
DR.. Wiley, the government food
expert and chief chemist of the de-
spartment Of agriculture, is having
his troubles. The board of food and
drug inspection has butted in to
hamper him in his work, and has
given food puryeyors authority to
use benzoate as a food preseryative.
Also notifications of regulations
have been made or threatened which
will permit French foods contain
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