AMERICAN AFFAIRS.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLIII, Issue 120, 19 May 1909, Page 3

AMERICAN AFFAIRS.

NEWS. AND NOTES

(Post Correspondent.) SAN'FRANCISCO, -April 15. •Under the Tariff Bill, as it now stands imports from New Zealand wflf be subject, to the-maximum rates, Jnich are 320 per cent.: higher than Siose provided %v favored nations I have read the amended proviso defining the position of colon es and depeldenfeies; there is nothang m it to exempt from the maximum rates a colony that gives preference to anothe/colony Wto that extent dtscriminates .against.the ted. .^r?* But an opportunity may be given to get this altered. The Senate will probably be asked to pass a proviso that the maximum rates shaiv./iot come into operation for a year. The Bill has been passed by the 'House of Representatives without a great deal of alteration: .However, two popular amendments have been made in the.removal of the duty from tea 'and the countervailing duty _troin coffee. The House thought it had also Blaced petroleum and its -products on the free list, but a "joker' .has since been discovered, by which. . the monopoly of Standard Oil, m the oil products business is well protected; ■The Bill is expected to be much more severely handled in the Senate.f The women of the. country are up, in arms against the increase in the tax on stockings', gloves, and millinery, and it is possible that the agitation will induce the Senate to restore the old rates.

BRITAIN AND AMERICA. ~ "Your people and our people nre one people—one in sentiment. So said Governor Gillett, of California, to Ambassador Bryce, 'of Great Britain, at a * banquet given to the Ambassador by the British residents of San Francisco. , He continued m enthusiastic ' strain: "Who knows whether in the future we shall :ot come together as one people under one government? Why not? We are already so closely identified in our rela- j tions With one another that we may well look forward tp the time, when the world will be civilised, its peace controlled ,and its laws made through/ the influence of the once-more-united English-speaking peoples." Ambassador Bryce was also cordial. "I do not think, the relations between the two nations were ever so friendly as they ar ; e at this moment," he said. "Had we learned 150 years ago the lesson we have since learned of' entrusting, the colonies with the powers of self-government, a somewhat different relation between America and Great Britain might now exist, although I am not sure it would have been for the good of the world that such a tremendous, overwhelmingly powerful community should exist thus." Later in his speech he said: "The deficiency of free government, both here and in England, and in the British colonies of Australia arid New Zealand and Canada, lies in the tendency of the people not to pay such close and constant attention to the working of their institutions as is required. In making the people *take a constant daily interest in their government lies the safety of democracy." STARS. AND STRIPES. While one, half of* ihe world is trying to bring airships to such perfection that they may be used in war, the other half is devising means for -their destruction. C. W. Sirch, of Los Angelos, claims to be able to manufacture a lightning flash that will destroy a balloon at a distance of ten miles. MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS. Very sad news comes from Hawaii. On the lonely leper island, M'olokai, was Mrs W. R. Brinkerhqff, an heiress to millions, who had sacrificed wealth, .social life, and every pleasure, to go and help 'her husband in his work among the lepers. To this cause she has just given the final sacrifice—her ' life. On Ist April the United States law forbidding the importation of opium except for medicinal use, come into force. Chinese and oipier merchants took care to get in abundant supplies before that date. ' ' Helen Emery haa her wish. Tn spite of the popular outcry she Las married Gunjiro Aoki, the Japanese, who was formerly house-boy in Archdeacon Emery's home. Her father was at last prevailed upon to consent to the marriage. Mrs Aoki says rhe is happy. . A new process of making paper from wood pulp has been invented by G. B. Frankforter, Dean of Chemistry in the University of Minnesota. It means, he ■says, that the greater part of the 60 per cent, of a tree that is now wasted will be turned into profit, and that the-United States will produce a hundred times as much wood pulp as ."as ■■formerly! believed possible.

The murder of Petrosino, the de-,, tective sent to Sicily to investigate the working of "Black Hand" societies, has caused an outcry in New York for a more thorough examination of immigrants "from Italy. Ihe growth of "Black Hand" crimes m New York, according to a list compiled by The World, is stupendous. Since .the. beginning of this year 424 of these crimes, and 44 bomb explosions, have been reported ; with 215 arrests, and only 36 convictions. Lawyers, bankers, priests and ministers have been victims. If this class of crime cannot be stopped in &ny other way, says one editor", all emigration from Sicilyor any other part of Italy from which "Black Hand" banditti are supposed to come should be rigorously prohibited. . '