It is the purpose of Secretary Wilson and his department to act as a clearing house for those who seek employment and those who have employment to offer. Both union and nonunion workers and proprietors of open or closed shops throughout the country are interested in these operations of the department. It is Secretary Wilson’s intention, it is further stated, to try to induce municipalities which contemplate building projects and public improvements to begin their work as soon as possible. Mr. Wilson believes the greater part of this work should be done in times of industrial depression and less should be done during periods of great industrial activity. Finally, the secretary of labor believes it will be necessary ultimately for the Federal government to actually put the unemployed on the land. He favors a plan much like the one provided for Ireland by the Gladstone bill. The government bought the land, cut it up into small farms, built houses and other improvements, placed a family on each farm, and received payment in amounts little larger than taxes. War Costs Germans Trade in Chemicals. The German exports of chemical products, in the manufacture of which that country undoubtedly led the world, have been virtually entirely cut off since the outbreak of hostilities. Last year they attained the enormous figure of about $250,000,000. German experts in this trade, however, express no fear as to the future. They are of opinion that the competition which has started in other countries will, after the cessation of the war, only tend to sharpen the edge of the inventiveness of German chemists, who will, they say, be able to make further chemical discoveries which will place them in a position at least equal to that which they have hitherto held. Quitting Booze and Smokes. Under the conditions that he neither smokes nor uses intoxicants until he is thirty years of age, Charles Gordon Emery II., of Watertown, N. Y., is left the sum of $50,000 in trust by the will of his grandfather. Charles G. Emery, the tobacco millionaire, filed for probate here to-day. The estate amounts to between four and five million dollars. Bear Curfew in Jersey. Women and children of Vernon, N. J., are staying indoors nowadays from fear of bears. Two or three have stolen sheep and beehives lately, carrying their loot into the woods and swamps on the outskirts of the town. Hunters are organizing to put a stop to the bear raids. Thanks Good Samaritan of ’61. A resolution was adopted by the legislature of Vermont commending Mrs. Bettie van Metre, of Berryville, Va., for her care of Lieutenant Bedell, of Westfield, Vt., after he was injured during the Civil War.