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TRADE AND INDUSTRY. The offerings of three and four per cent. bonds to date under the recent refunding circular of the Secretary of the Treasury aggregate $61,259,650. A dispatch from Osnabruek, Prussia, says a syndicate of American firms, with a capital of $500,000, is erecting a factory there for the manufacture of photographic paper. Reports from State conventions of Modern Woodmen of America in Illinois, Iowa and Wisconsin indicate that sentiment is strong against a readjustment of the rate system. The other New York trust companies, the New York Security and Trust and the Mercantile Trust, have formally decided to withdraw from their clearing house connections. Because of heavy losses suffered during the last few years the stockholders of the Commercial National Bank of Providence, R. I., have voted to place the institution in liquidation. The Commercial Bank, which was founded in 1833, has a capital of $1,000,000. It is stated at New York that negotiations have been almost completed to float a Mexican loan, ostensibly in this country, but really abroad. The amount of the loan will be less than $25,000,000, and will, it is thought, take the form of a 5 per cent. bond. The money will be used for public improvements. Official announcement was made Wednesday that the special meeting of the stockholders of the Detroit Southern Railroad Company to vote on the increase of stock will be held in New York on May 25. The contemplated increase is from $6,500,000 preferred and $10,500,000 common stock to $10,000,000 preferred and $16,000,000 common stock. On a bill filed by Richard Sperry against his partner, Charles H. Jones, a receiver was appointed for the banking and brokerage firm of Sperry, Jones & Co., Baltimore. The firm says the suspension was due to valuable assets that are tied up, and that they were unable to meet obligations on account of a tight money market. The members of the firm state that the assets are over $400,000, and that the unsecured obligations do not exceed $30,000. W. J. Slater, manager of the Louisville office of the Postal Telegraph-Cable Company, has been appointed superintendent of the fifth district of the Postal's Southern division. The appointment will take effect June 1, when the new district will be created, with Louisville as headquarters. The district covers all save one line in Kentucky and a part of Tennessee. Mr. Slater, before going to Louisville, was chief operator at the Washington Postal office. Arrangements have been made to hold the annual- wage conference between the American Tin Plate Company and the Amalgamated Association scale committee in New York next Tuesday. No advance in the general scale is being asked by the workers, but a number of new features have been introduced, which may be opposed by the company. A change in the present system for providing for the reexport trade likely will be made as the present arrangement, which has been in force for several months, has not given general satisfaction. Representatives of process butter manufacturers, including the territory from the Mississippi river east, have organized at a meeting in Toledo and elected the following officers: A. G. Westling, Kenton, O., president; A. S. Kreps, Lima, O., vice president; Thomas F. Walsh, Cleveland, O., secretary and treasurer; J. J. Coon and S. J. Bailey, Toledo: B. F. Murdock, Columbus; C. E. Thomas, Lima, and J. A. Baird, Kenton, directors. They style themselves the Eastern Association of Process Butter Manufacturers. The company will incorporate under the laws of Ohio and will seek to reduce the price of raw stock to maintain steady prices. The strongest efforts will be directed toward the removal of the 2-cent internal revenue tax.
