BANKS AND BANKERS. Circulation issued by any bank, etc., or person, per month Circulation exceeding 90 per cent. of capital, in addition, per month... Banks, etc., on amount of notes of any person, State bank, or State banking association, used for circulation and paid out... Banks, etc., bankers, or associations, on amount of notes of any town, city, or municipal corporation paid out by them.... Every person, firm, association, other than national-bank associations, and every corporation, State bank, or State banking association, on the amount of their own notes used for circulation and paid out by them... Every such person, firm, association, corporation, State bank, or State banking association, and also every national-banking association, on the amount of notes of any person, firm, association, other than a national-banking association, or of any corporation, State bank, or State banking association, or of any town, city, or municipal corporation, used for circulation and paid out by them PLAYING CARDS. Playing cards, per pack, containing not more than fifty-four cards.. of 1 p. c. of 1 p. c. 10 per cent. 10 per cent. 10 per cent. 10 per cent. .02 TAXES NOT PAYABLE BY STAMPS. Tax on deficiencies in production of spiritsOn excess of materials used in production of spirits. On circulation of banks and bankers. On notes paid out by banks and others. On legacies and distributive shares of personal property. Excise taxes on persons, firms, companies, and corporations engaged in refining petroleum and sugar. Special tax of banks and bankers. Penalties of 50 per cent. and 100 per cent. It will be observed that the new law repeals. the following items of taxation in the old law: Bank checks, 2 cents. Bills of lading for export, 10 cents. Bonds of indemnity and bonds not otherwise specified, 50 cents. (Repealed except as to bonds of indemnity). Certificate of damage, 25 cents. Certificates of deposit, 2 cents. Certificates not otherwise specified, 10 cents. Charter party, $3 to $10. Chewing gum, 4 cents each $1. Commercial brokers, $20. Drafts, sight, 2 cents. Express receipts, 1 cent. Insurance-Life, 8 cents on each $100; marine, inland, fire, 1⁄2 cent on each $1; casualty, fidelity and guaranty, cent on each $1. Lease, 25 cents to $1. Manifest for Custom House entry, $1 to $5. Mortgage or conveyance in trust, 25 cents for each $1,500. Perfumery and cosmetics, % cent for each 5 cents. Power of attorney to vote, 10 cents. Power of attorney to sell, 25 cents. Promissory notes, 2 cents for each $100. Proprietary medicines, % cent for each 5 cents. Telegraph messages, 1 cent. IRON AND STEEL INDUSTRIES.-The beginnings of American iron production date back to colonial times. In 1771 the exports of pig iron to the mother country were 7,525 tons. There were no factories then in America, but the manufacture of iron became a necessity during the Revolution. A stimulus was given to iron manufacture in 1791, when Alexander Hamilton, in his able report, recommended an additional duty for the encouragement of this industry. Its growth was slow up to 1840, when the product of iron in the United States reached the figure of 315,000 tons. The amount fluctuated from year to year until 1855, when it was 1,000,000 tons. Down to 1840 the fuel used in smelting iron ores was charcoal. Then followed a period of experimenting with coal. From 1855 to 1875 anthracite coal was largely used as fuel in the production of iron; then followed the bituminous period, 1876-1883, followed by the coke period. Charcoal and anthracite unmixed are no longer in much use as iron-smelting fuels. Pennsylvania leads in the production of Bessemer pig iron, its output for the year 1899 being 4,473,493 gross tons, while Ohio and Illinois came next with 1,852,965 tons and 1,330,169 tons respectively. The total production of the fifteen iron-producing States was 8,202,778 tons for 1899; for 1900 it was 7,943,452 tons. Pennsylvania, Ohio and Illinois also lead in the production of pig iron, their output for 1899 being as follows: Pennsylvania, 6,558,878 gross tons; Ohio, 2,378,212; Illinois, 1,442,012. Alabama came next with 1,083,905 tons. Of the twentyone States producing pig-iron the total output for 1899 was 13,620,703 gross tons, of which Pennsylvania supplied nearly half. The total output for 1900 was 13,789,242 tons, of which Pennsylvania produced 6,365,935 tons; with Ohio next, producing 2,470,911 tons; Illinois, 1,363,383 tons; and Alabama, 1,184,337 tons. It is estimated that the world's total production of pig-iron in 1800 was 825,000 gross tons; in 1830, 1,825,000 tons; in 1850, 4,750,000 tons. In 1855 the world's output of pig-iron was approximately 7,000,000 tons, of which Great Britain produced one-half and the United States from 11 to 14 per cent. In 1878 the four leading countries were Great Britain, supplying 44 per cent.; the United States, 16 per cent.; Germany and Luxemburg, 15 per cent.; and France, 10 per cent. Since 1897 the United States has surpassed Great Britain in the annual product. of pig-iron. For 1899 the output of the leading iron-producing nations was as follows: United States, 13,620,703 gross tons; Great Britain, 9,305,319 gross tons; Germany, 8,142,017 metric tons; Russia, 2,672,492 metric tons; France, 2,567,388 metric tons.1 From 1857 to 1892 there was a material reduction in the cost of production of anthracite pigiron in Pennsylvania - the comparative costs being $19.54 and $11.11 per ton for the years 1857 and 1892 respectively. Many economies in cost of production have been effected since 1890, bringing American pig-iron into European markets. The production of iron and steel on a large scale began in the sixties, after the Civil War. The gain from 1870 to 1890 was extraordinary. The following table covers the first thirty years of this development. No. of esYEARS tablish production of 1890 was 9,202,703 gross tons. Of this 4,277,071 tons of crude steel were made, or 46 per cent. In 1900 the crude-steel product was about 77 per cent. of the pig-iron output, 13,789,242 gross tons. In 1878 the world's production of steel was estimated as 3,021,000 gross tons. In 1889 it amounted to 10,948,000 tons, and in 1899 to 27,110,000 tons, of which the United States made about 39 per cent. Of the world's output of pigiron about 70 per cent. is made into steel. A comparison of the number of furnaces in blast month by month in 1900 and in 1901 (January-June), and the weekly capacity of the blast-furnaces, shows a moderate increase in pigiron production over that of 1899. Capital ments Average number of employés With the invention and application of the Bessemer process of steel manufacture, in 1856, the age of steel began. Several years passed, however, before iron-makers generally adopted his process for refining iron. It has probably done as much as any other invention to revolutionize the industrial world of our time. The increase of the steel product of all kinds was greatest from 1880 to 1890. This is preeminently the decade of steel expansion. The increase of the last decade, 1890-1900, though rapid, was not so great. Steel has advanced beyond all other iron products. The pig-iron The metric ton contains 2,204 pounds; the gross ton, 2,240 pounds. capacity per week of 306,991 gross tons, as compared with 266 in blast June 1, 1900, having a capacity of 288,771 gross tons. During the last two decades our exports of iron and steel have grown from $14,716,524 (for the year ending June 30, 1880) to $121,858,344 (for the year ending June 30, 1900). They now rank fourth in the list of exports, next to provisions, meat and dairy products. The value of the four principal exports for the year ending June 30, 1900, is as follows: The exports of iron and steel for the ten months ending April, 1901, amounted to $99,229,044. A study of our foreign markets shows that British North America, Asia, and Japan with Oceanica are the best customers for steel bars and iron rails. Less than a quarter of the whole export goes to Europe and Africa. The United Kingdom and the countries of Europe took 45 per cent. of our tools, saws, and builders' hardware, $4,403,092 out of a total of $9,646,017 for the year ending June 30, 1900; and the figures for 1900 were $4,601,622 out of a total of $10,895,416. Wire finds a market in many countries-Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Australia, and British Africa-the value of exports for 1900 being $4,604,047. More than half of our electrical machinery went to the United Kingdom and Europe in 1900; out of a total value of $6,788,938 these countries took goods worth $3,891,694, while Mexico, Japan, and British Australia were the next best buyers. The United Kingdom and Continental nations were also the best purchasers of other machines, while British Australia led the other countries. The Commissioners of Customs have issued statistics of Great Britain's imports of machinery for 1899 and 1900. These figures show the source of "iron and steel machinery," except cycles and sewing machines. Of the dozen or more countries whence iron and steel machines are imported, the United States is by far in the lead. IMPORTS OF MACHINERY INTO GREAT BRITAIN. greater energy of the American over the European. It is that energy which enables them to do what they cannot do abroad. If you will visit the steel plants on the Continent and in England you will at once see the difference between the methods in force there and in this country. It is simply a question of greater energy in the United States than in Europe. I do not think that they have ever had to work as hard as we have. They take life easy over there; the office hours are shorter and the men are allowed more time to do things" (The Iron Age, April 18, 1901, p. 14). The economic responsibility of industrial organization is looked upon as a factor of no small importance in the prosperity of our iron and steel manufacturers. On this point there is an interesting comment in the Monthly Summary of Commerce and Finance, August, 1900: "The turning of the tide of the American iron and steel trade outward toward Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australasia marks the end of an old and the beginning of a new régime, not alone in our relation to the world market, but also in the economic organization of this industry at home. Hitherto the assumed higher cost of production had been regarded as sufficient to shut out the American ironmaster from competition in the foreign market. The higher cost of production was usually attributed to higher money cost of labor, and the higher cost of labor was regarded as the result of a higher standard of living in the domestic life of the American citizen. But no fact has been better established in statistical inquiry than that this entrance of American iron and steel products into foreign trade has occurred side by side with the rise of labor and the fall in the cost of production. These two tendencies may not always be casually related, but a third factor has to be assumed to explain the success of the United States in the world's iron and steel trade. This factor is to be found in the reduction of the entire process of iron and steel production, from the mine to the consumer, to machine methods on a large scale. No other single factor has equaled this one in bringing about this result. This reduction in cost applies to transportation, both of materials and products, to production in all its phases, and to commercial disposition of the product under continuous control of the producer. These economies have come with the reorganization of the iron and steel industries into larger aggregations of capital and centralized control of materials and markets." The man who has been most prominently associated with the iron and steel enterprises of this country during the last thirty-five years is Andrew Carnegie, who realized the growing needs of our country and enlarged the field of his business operations to meet the increased demand, first at home and then abroad. The American workingman has co-operated with him in bringing this country to the front. The centers of cheap steel are the districts where the materials. ore and coal, are found side by side or not far apart, as at Pittsburgh. Mr. Carnegie availed himself of these natural advantages in building up the industries of which he was the acknowledged head. He saw also the opportunities for great combinations, and was a leader in the consolidation of the steel interests of this country. The movement toward greater centralization has been carried still further by Mr. J. P. Morgan, (see p 111) the promoter and organizer of the new combine known as the United States Steel Corporation, incorporated (Feb. 25, 1901) at Newark, New Jersey, with a capitalization of $1,100,000,000. That it is possible to pay dividends even on so large a capitalization is shown by the fact that on July 2, 1901, the directors met in New York and declared a dividend of 1% per cent. on the preferred stock, payable Aug. 7, and 1 per cent. on the common stock, payable Sept. 15. The dividends thus to be paid amount to $15,125,000. The president is Charles M. Schwab, formerly of the Carnegie Company. In 1868 steel rails sold at $174 a ton; in 1878, at $41.50. During the next ten years prices fluctuated, reaching $85 in 1880 and declining to $31.50 in 1888. At this time there were 130,388 miles of steel tracks, and 52,979 miles of iron. In 1898 the prices had fallen to $18, and there were 220,800 miles of steel tracks. In December, 1899, the price had risen to $37. In 1900 the prevailing prices were from $26 to $35. In 1901, JanuaryApril, the price was $26 to $28. JACKSONVILLE, a city of northeastern Florida, which was devastated by fire May 3 and 4. The fire which was the most disastrous known since the Boston conflagration of 1872, swept over the best portion of the city, a district thirteen blocks wide and two miles long. The fire laid waste 148 blocks, destroying property worth more than $10,000,000, and leaving 10,000 persons homeless. The buildings burned included the City Hall, Courthouse, Criminal Court Building, the opera-house, the leading hotels and churches, and more than 1,300 homes. The fire started at noon in a wooden factory of the American Fiber Company, and a strong southwest wind drove the flames over the finest part of the city. The little fire department was helpless. and at 10 o'clock in the evening the area of blackened ruins extended from Burbridge Street on the north to the St. John's River on the south. At the time of the fire Jacksonville was one of the most flourishing cities of the South. For a dozen years or more it has been an important shipping point for the South Atlantic trade, its commerce increasing from $3,000,000 in 1887 to $20,000,000 in 1900. Its mild and healthful climate makes it a popular winter resort, attracting thousands of invalids in the months of January and February. The city of Jacksonville was founded in 1822 and named after General Andrew Jackson. It was not much of a town before the Civil War, its population in 1860 being 2,118. In 1870, the population was 6,912; 1880, 7,650; 1890, 17,201; in January, 1900, 33,000. Its site, on a bend of the St. John's River, twenty-four miles from the sea and within 100 miles of the Gulf of Mexico, makes it one of the principal stations for the inland trade to Cuba and other West Indian islands. It has several manufactories of lumber, machinery, soap, and marmalade. Besides these articles, its chief exports are cotton, phosphate, oranges, and other fruits. Of late years it has had a rapidly growing industry in palmetto fiber plants, and in one of these establishments the fire started. It has steamship connection with New York and numerous railway lines make it a center of business and travel. In 1887 the U. S. government projected and is now doing extensive river and harbor work at Jacksonville, with the view of deepening the channel to the sea. The amount of $1,500,000 was appropriated for this purpose. In 1894 Dúval County, of which Jacksonville is the county seat, dredged the St. John's River from the city to the bar (20 miles) to the depth of 18 feet. The U. S. government will increase the depth of the channel to 24 feet. JAPAN, a country of Asia, lying in the Pacific Ocean, east of Siberia, Corea, and China, comprises five chief islands, Yezo, Honshu (the largest one), Shikoku, Kiushiu, with about 4,000 small islands, including the Kurile and Loochoo groups. The geologic basis of these islands is a chain of volcanic mountains running from S. W. to N. E., in continuation of the similarly constituted Philippines. Several of these volcanoes are still destructively active, as are the somewhat periodically recurrent earthquakes. Hot springs, which have great medicinal value, abound. The climate varies from the snow and cold of the northern Yezo to the rain and heat of Kiushiu and Formosa. The heavy summer rains depend upon the S. W. monsoon which prevails over Asia. The Japan stream flows up the eastern coast, and then turns eastward to reach America. The people, though belonging, with Coreans and Chinese, to the Mongolian race, are strongly differenced by reason of the Malay strain which entered Japan from the south. Thus, the Japanese by no means share the Chinese immunity from certain diseases (See "China," p. 31) nor their stolid and conservative temperament. They are to a remarkable degree the French of Asia; logical, versatile, mercurial, impressionable, dexterous, artistic, courteous and warlike; but also licentious and fickle. intense patriotism is common to high and low, and displaced filial piety from its position as prime duty in the imported Confucianism. The Japanese adoption and adaption of Western culture form, in respect of both rapidity and completeness, an achievement unique in human An history, and in polar opposition to the immobility of all other Asiatic peoples. POPULATION.-In 1898 this was 43,760,815, crowded on islands whose total area does not equal that of California, while only one-twelfth of that is fit for cultivation. A unique feature of this population is the numerical superiority of men to the extent of 384,700, which in 1889 was 420,652. During recent decades it has overflowed into Yezo, Hawaii, Formosa, and Corea, a process demanded by its accelerating increase, which in 1898 amounted to 475,119 or 1.23 per cent. All the above data are exclusive of those for Formosa. Early in 1900 Japanese coolies also reached California at the rate of two or three thousand a week, and excited alarm there for an industrial invasion, which would require an exclusion act similar to that in force against the Chinese. But the tidal wave arose from other than constant causes, and was promptly suppressed by the Japanese government, which has both the power and the desire to keep its people at or near home. Any such indiscriminating exclusion as was proposed by some alarmists would be as needless as it would be harmful to the present rare friendship between the United States and Japan. Japan was long since cultivated to the highest degree of which it is capable; and consequently requires for its annual increase of 400,000 either immigration or entrance into manufacture. GOVERNMENT.-In 1899 the then absolute ruler of Japan bestowed upon his people, in response to their known desire, a constitution of a parliamentary nature; and under it the people are just now achieving a cabinet rule responsible to the electors. Japan thus effected within a gener ation what cost Europe many centuries. Under this constitution the Emperor is a limited monarch, the ministry is appointed by him and responsible to him, and the imperial diet is constructed on European models with a house of peers and a house of representatives. The house of peers affords an excellent example of the Japanese talent for adaptation of foreign models to their own conditions. It includes all the male members of the imperial family and of the higher orders of nobility-princes and marquises -who are entitled to seats for life; representatives of the lesser nobility elected by the orders for a term of seven years; persons distinguished for learning or state-service who are appointed by the Emperor; and, last, one representative from each province elected by the largest property holders there. It number about 300. house of representatives is elected by male citizens over 25 years of age, who pay more than five dollars of land tax or direct tax or of both. The elective districts coincide with the provinces, and so one district elects several members, though each voter has but one vote which is unsigned. Cities with over 30,000 population, however, constitute separate districts, and elect one member for each 30,000 or fraction thereof. The provinces elect one member for each 130,000, or fraction above 50,000. The sole qualification for candidates is that they be Japanese male subjects of 39 years and upward. The term is for four years, and the number of members 61 for urban and 308 for rural constituencies. The The cabinet consists of the heads of the ten great executive departments. There is besides a privy council for consultation upon grave matters of State. The constitution makes this min |