The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-03-01

mend the complete elimination of such concerns. This will effect a saving of s375,06o to the cities represented in the convention, and will force the bonding companies to decide on a uniform policy that has merit, and will offer some real protection to the city,
 War on spurious silks, the mixtures and commercials of silk. which have hurt the reputation of the real thing, will be de- clared during the Chicago textile exposi- ton by one concern, which uses each week the product of 100000 silkworms and handles each day enough silk to girdle the earth six times. In spite of claims, based on government estimates. of an in- creased consumption of silk during 1909 by American women, the sales have shown disastrous effects from the counter feits of silks. Women the world over are buying silk doubtfully. and in the United States there is no protection Of law against imposition. Fabrics which con- tain only small per cent of silk have been selling as silk, and limitations of silk have been made from substances wholly foreign to anything turned out by the industrious silkworm, which spins the strongest, most durable and beautiful fiber on earth Notwithstanding that the law requires that gold shall be stamped
 
 with less than 10 carats shall be called gold, silk has become the trade name for any fabric that can be made to look like silk. And womankind has learned the diff ference to her sorrow. She has become so doubtful Of all silk that good, bad and arr tifcial have been in less demand popula- tion considered, than when silk was silk, honey was honey and woolens were wool ems. The government estimates, which put the silk sales of 1909 in the United States at 165, s880, ,000 also showed that S132 100000 of that total was of domestic manufacture and that s33, ,0Oo 600 was i'm ported A houseclcanng in the United States at s16S,000,0OO also showed that deal of fraud in silk, of which dealers are complaining.
 Never has winter cost the railways of the country radiating from Chicago any thing like the huge total already reached by the snow blockade, the damage claims for frozen goods and the unusual oper- ating costs. The aggregate will run into millions. even if the expected freshets and washouts, as result of heavy snows, do not materialze. The claim depart ments of all lines are swamped as result of freezing of beers. vegetables and other perishable goods and of the unusual mum Der of accidents which the severe cold, the ice and snow have caused. Every preparation is being made against floods, for the breaking up of rivers throughout the northern states now promise havoc by the thick ice The breakup Is now due for the first birds arrive from the south by March l. the bluebird. which always Is on the skirmish line of spring, having appeared last year on Washington s birthday, appropriately enough in the Field Museum grounds. Snow which fell early in December still fingers. a record not equaled in years. Two months of sleighing in northern Illinois has not been known in many years, some pioneers say Tn 50 years. The corn. still unpicked in the fields of Illinois and Iowa, Is the subject of concern approaching that felt on the freshet question.