Company News and Views

they have no authority to act
Sometimes, indeed, persons pretend to be agents for others when really
they have no authority to act. When this is done, and the person for
whom they are pretending to act finds out what they are doing, then it
is his immediate duty to take such action as the circumstances require
to disown the acts of such pretenders. If this is not done he may be
bound by them. His action in adopting or approving is called the
RATIFYING of an agent”s act; and when this is done the agent”s action
is just as valid as though authority had been given to him to act in
the beginning. The principal”s conduct in thus ratifying an agent”s
acts relates back to the time when the agent first began to act.

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baggage stating that in the event of loss the company will not be
responsible beyond a certain amount–$50, or $100, or other sum
Every now and then we receive a cheque for a trunk or other piece of
baggage stating that in the event of loss the company will not be
responsible beyond a certain amount–$50, or $100, or other sum. Is
that statement on the cheque worth anything? The courts have held that
if one of these cheques is taken by a passenger and he reads it he is
bound thereby. This is a contract between carrier and passenger,
consequently he is bound by the figures mentioned under ordinary
circumstances. This rule is just and is based on a good reason. As
every one knows, whenever a trunk is lost it is very difficult for the
carrier to get any proof of the real value of its contents. All the
evidence is in the hands of the passenger. If he is without a
conscience and apparently proves that the things in it were worth
$200 or $300, he may succeed in getting this much, although it might
have been full of shavings. It is because of much experience of this
kind that carriers have tried to limit the amount for which they will
be responsible, and so long as they do this in a fair, open way the
law regards their conduct with favour. If, however, a passenger
receives such a cheque and at once puts it in his pocket and does not
know its true nature, then the courts have held that he was not bound
by any limit of this kind.

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with blank spaces to be filled up with names, the amounts to be paid,
times of payment, etc
Furthermore, it may be added that leases nowadays are often furnished
with blank spaces to be filled up with names, the amounts to be paid,
times of payment, etc., and persons often sign them without even
reading them. They should not do this. They should be careful to read
them over two or three times or more, until they fully understand them
and are sure of their nature before signing or executing them. People
are still more negligent in taking out insurance policies without
reading them. They are very long and parts of them are printed in fine
type and, perhaps, are quite difficult, especially for old eyes, to
read. In truth some of the most important parts are put in the finest
print–some of the exceptions against loss and other matters, which,
we are quite sure, if a person when taking out a policy should read
over and understand he would insist on having changed.

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A person who makes an offer cannot turn it into an acceptance. An old
uncle offered by letter to buy his nephew”s horse for $100, adding:
‘If I hear no more about the matter I consider the horse as mine.’ The
uncle, not hearing from the nephew, proceeded to take the horse. At
this stage of the proceedings, however, the nephew was not inclined to
suffer his good old uncle to make the contract entirely himself, and
refused to give up the horse. The court said that one person could not
do all the contracting himself, and this is what he virtually
undertook to do. If a person could, by correspondence or otherwise,
make a contract in this manner, one can readily see the dangers that
might follow. Some positive act must be put forth by the other party
showing or indicating his assent before it will be regarded as given.
A person, in truth, is not obliged to pay any attention to an offer of
this kind.

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8. Each bank must keep on deposit in the treasury of the United States
lawful money equal to five per cent. of its circulation as a fund
for redeeming the same. This five per cent. may be counted as
part of its lawful reserve. This does not relieve banks from the
duty of redeeming their notes at their own counters on demand.

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Russia”s principal business is AGRICULTURE. More than one half her
whole internal trade is agricultural. Her agricultural products are
one and one half times greater than the products of her manufactures
and ten times greater than her mining products or her imports. And
though her production of grain per acre is the lowest in all Europe
except Italy, Spain, and Portugal, and her total production of all
food products per acre by far the lowest in Europe (not more than one
third that of Spain, which is next lowest), yet she manages to export
a larger quantity of GRAIN than any other country in Europe, France
only sometimes excepted. Russia”s export of grain for some years past
has averaged 266,000,000 bushels a year. Her export of WHEAT alone has
averaged 94,000,000 bushels a year, or considerably more than a fifth
of the total wheat export of the world. The explanation of this
enormous export of wheat from so poor a country is that three fourths
of the people live on rye. Among the peasants wheat bread is
practically unknown, and nothing could be more pathetic than the hard
rye lumps which passed as bread during the last famine. Other
agricultural exports (besides grain) are flax, hemp, oil-seed cake,
linseed and grass seed, butter, eggs, wool, hides, and hogs” bristles.
Wood, lumber, and timber are also extensively exported. England is
Russia”s best customer. The amount of England”s annual importation of
the above products (including grain) exceeds $112,000,000.

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world
France by nature is one of the most highly favoured countries in the
world. Its climate is genial. Its temperature is so varied that almost
every vegetable, grain or fruit needed for the sustenance of man may
be raised within its borders. Its soil, though not surprisingly
fertile, yet yields abundantly such products as are suited to it. Its
mineral resources, especially in coal, iron, lead, marble, and salt,
are very considerable. Its area is compact. Its facilities for foreign
commerce are unsurpassed. It lies between the two bodies of water–the
Atlantic and the Mediterranean–of greatest commercial importance in
the world. And its people, especially those in rural parts, are
exceptionally frugal and industrious. But France as a nation has not
made the progress in the world that its natural advantages call for.
It has been cursed with expensive and unstable governments and
sanguinary wars. Its upper classes, the natural leaders of its
peoples, are excessively fond of pleasure and military glory, and the
energies of the nation have been much misdirected. As a consequence,
despite its natural advantages, France is losing ground among the
nations of the world. Its national debt amounts to nearly
$7,000,000,000, the largest national debt known in history, being per
head of population seventeen and one half times as great as that of
Germany, six times as great as that of the United States, and much
more than one and one half times as great as that of Great Britain.
But, what is of more serious consequence, the vitality of its people
seems debilitated. For years the annual number of births in France has
been steadily decreasing, while the annual number of deaths has been
more or less increasing. Over a great part of the country the number
of deaths annually exceeds the number of births. In numerous years
this is so for the whole country. The birth rate is the lowest in
Europe. The death rate, while not the highest, is yet higher than in
many other countries. As a consequence of all this the population of
France is almost stationary. During the last seventy years it has
increased only 18 per cent., while that of Great Britain has increased
63 per cent., Germany 75 per cent., Russia 92 per cent., and Europe as
a whole 62 per cent. And even this increase, small as it is, is
largely due to immigration from other countries. Nor is the emigration
of Frenchmen to their colonies or to other countries to be set down as
a sufficient explanation. The French are averse to emigration. At the
present time the number of Frenchmen residing abroad is only a little
more than half a million, while of foreigners residing in France the
number is not far short of a million and a quarter.

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manufacturing and trading nation lies in the fact that Britain was the
first nation to utilise on a large scale the power of steam as a help
to manufacture and trade
One reason for the great development which Britain has made as a
manufacturing and trading nation lies in the fact that Britain was the
first nation to utilise on a large scale the power of steam as a help
to manufacture and trade. The steam-engine was a British invention.
The first railways were built in Britain. The first steamship to cross
the Atlantic was a British enterprise. A second reason lies in the
fact that when Britain began to use steam as a motive power she found
her supplies of coal so near her iron mines, and so near her clays and
earths needed for her potteries, that from the very first she was able
to manufacture cheaply and undersell most of her competitors. Her
coal-fields have an area of over 12,000 square miles, and wherever her
coal-beds are other natural products have been found near by, so that
her manufacturing areas and her coal areas are almost identical.
Taking Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Sheffield,
Leeds, Newcastle, Durham, Bristol, Stoke, Carlisle, Cardiff, Swansea,
Glasgow, Paisley, and Dundee as centres, around each of these lies a
coal area of such richness as amply sustains it in its commercial and
manufacturing pre-eminence. London is almost the only great
commercial centre of Britain that does not lie in the midst of or
quite adjacent to a rich coal and other mineral region. But London is
within easy distance, not only by rail, but also by canal and by
coastwise sailing, of every coal-field and mineral deposit of Britain.
London, however, is an importing and exporting centre rather than a
manufacturing centre.

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NECESSARIES? Much depends on the condition of the person who buys
Of course it is not always easy to answer this question, WHAT ARE
NECESSARIES? Much depends on the condition of the person who buys. A
merchant would be safe in selling more to a minor living in an
affluent condition of life than to another living in a much humbler
way. Quite recently the question has been considered whether a
dentist”s bill is a necessity, and the court decided that it was a
proper thing for a minor to preserve his teeth and to this end use the
arts of the dentist. Again, is a bicycle a necessity? If one is using
it daily in going to and from his work, surely it is a necessity. But
if one is using it merely for pleasure a different rule would apply,
and a minor could not be compelled to pay for it. Cigars, liquors,
theatre tickets are luxuries; so the courts have said on many
occasions.

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