Page:The Czechoslovak Review, vol4, 1920.pdf/362

The post office department has put into effect, on August 1st, new postal rates. The fees for letters intended for delivery in countries which are members of the international postal union are 1 C. 25 h. for the first twenty grams or a fraction thereof, and for each additional twenty grams or fraction 75 h. is added.

The Great War has left deep scars on all classes of people in the Republic. Undernourishment has brought about tuberculosis in many instances. For employees of the State railroads afflicted with the “White Plague”, the Minister of Railways has established at Květnici, a health resort in the high mountains of Slovakia, a sanitarium where their treatment, under proper conditions will be undertaken.

It is currently reported that within the domains of Czechoslovakia there are no less than 250,000 graves as a result of deaths during the war. In Bohemia there are 50,000 graves, in Moravia and Silesia 80,000 and in Slovakia 120,000. Tuberculosis and typhus raged unsparingly in internment camps and the toll included not only interned aliens and captured allied soldiers but many Czechs and Slovaks, who were concentrated in stockades upon slightest pretexts.

Vital statistics for the city of Prague for the six months ending June 30, 1920, has just been made public. They show 2,098 births as against 2,463 births for the twelve months of the year 1919. It is true that many families have moved into Prague within the last eighteen months, but notwithstanding, the increase is remarkable. It is said that a large number of births is recorded in every section of the country. Another singular thing about the Prague figures is that approximately three times as many boys as girls are born.

Prague consumes approximately 100,000,000 kilowat hours of electricity in a year. To generate this force 200,000 tons of bituminous coal are required. The approximate cost of hauling this quantity of coal from the mines to the power houses is 6,000,000 Cs. crowns. In keeping with the tendencies of the times to develop economic processes to reduce high costs, A. Balcar, an engineer, advocates in New Labor, of Prague, the transfer of the generating stations from the vicinity of the city of Prague to points near the mines and transmitting electrical energy over high voltage cables to distributing sub-stations in the city. He further points out that the transmission and transformer losses would amount to considerably less than the freight charges on the coal and that the saving thus effected will quickly amortize the cost of power house removal and transmission line construction 

Roumania is desirous of placing contracts for the delivery of 4,000 locomotives with the Škoda Works of Pilsen. Should the proposed contract be consummated it will mean that the locomotive department of this vast enterprise will be busy for a number of years to come.

In Prague, in the Vinohrady Theatre, John Drinkwater’s great success, “Abraham Lincoln”, is being produced in Bohemian. The people are intensely interested in the story of the great American emancipator and are flocking to the performances.

From July 31st to August 8th the Automobile Show was held by the Prague Automobile Club. It was a signal success where many foreign firms, as well as all domestic firms, were represented.

The Slovak League of America, of which Mr. Albert Mamatey is President, has conferred an honorary membership on President Masaryk.

So that Czechoslovakia may obtain the Rumanian oil it has been forced to place at the disposal of the Caile Feraate Romane five locomotives with the necessary crews to haul tank cars with oil from Campini and Ploesti to Girgiu on the Danube for reshipment in tankers to Bratislava. While it was a sacrifice by Czechoslovakia to part with these locomotives yet the accruing benefit to industry is such as to warrant this move.