a statement of all encumbrances known to the petitioner, the name of the person occupying or using the land, and other details of similar nature. Together with the petition is filed a plan of the property, which must conform to specifications prepared by the court. Upon filing this application the petitioner deposits a fixed fee to cover the expense of the proceeding. As in bankruptcy, the law may provide for the return of all unused surplus, or for a demand for more money by the court in proper cases.

The petition is referred to an examiner, who reports to the court the state of the title. Reasonable time is allowed for this work, which is, of course, equivalent to the ordinary search-making which marks every change of title under our present system. Upon a favorable report from the examiner or even without it, if the petitioner elects to proceed in such a case a general notice of the filing of the application is issued by order of the court. Copies of the notice are mailed to each party known to have interest in the proceeding, and to former and adjoining owners, while general notice is given to all other persons by advertisement.

On the day set for argument opposing claims are heard by the court, and any one may appear. If, however, no one objects to the registration of the title in the name of the petitioner, and if the court is satisfied from the evidence before it that he is legally entitled to the land, or if it so finds after trying objections to the title, a decree for confirmation and registration of the title is entered, and a copy of the same is transcribed in a book called the registration book. This entry is designated in all further proceedings as the Original Certificate. An exact copy of it is delivered to the owner, and this is known as the Owner's Duplicate Copy.

These certificates contain the name of the owner of the land, description of it, and a memorandum of the encumbrances set forth in the decree. From this time all dealings with the land which create encumbrances are registered. The paper creating the encumbrance is filed, and the duplicate certificate is annotated. Without presentation of the latter no mortgage or other voluntary encumbrance can be registered. When accompanied by the duplicate certificate the paper is stamped and filed, and a memorandum of its nature is posted upon the original and upon the duplicate certificate. Discharges of encumbrances are noted. in like manner. In the case of a judgment or other voluntary lien or encumbrance, the paper creating it is received and registered, and the owner of the duplicate certificate is immediately notified to bring it so that the encumbrance may be posted. Compliance with this notice can be enforced by the court.

When an absolute sale is made the deed is stamped and filed. The old certificates are cancelled and new original and duplicate certificates are made out, on which are entered, simultaneously with the filing of the deed, all encumbrances not discharged on the old certificates. If a part only of the land included in the certificate is sold, the grantor gets a new certificate for his remaining land; or if a plan of subdivision has been verified by the court, he may have an endorsement entered on the back of his old certificate that it is cancelled as to lot numbered so and so, in which case the purchaser receives a certificate for the land actually sold. In this way the exact state of the title is shown at any time by a glance at the original certificate. The certificate is conclusive of all matters stated on its face. Inasmuch as the holder's rights against land are registered rights, there can be no question as to the title at any time. While the expense of the first registration of land is no more than is involved in the ordinary search of an attorney, the title does not rest upon his mere opinion. It is certain and secure as against outstanding adverse interests, except for some peculiar cases. For these a special statute of limitations runs, upon the expiration of which the registered title becomes absolutely indefeasible.

An assurance fund has been frequently established in connection with this system. This fund, which is accumulated by charging a small fee upon each registration of land, is liable for injuries sustained by reason of the registration. Experience demonstrates, however, that such injuries are practically unknown, and do not warrant such accumulation.

In every State in which the Torrens system has been introduced it has awakened opposition, as might have been expected, from those whose fees are lessened by its operation. Because of this opposition, the constitutionality of the laws upon which it rests has been searchingly reviewed. The courts, however, have uniformly decided that the system can be adapted to our Anglo-Saxon law without serious difficulty. It is true that the original Illinois act of 1895 was set aside on the ground that it conferred judicial functions upon non-judicial officers. In 1897, however, a new act was drawn, applicable to Cook County alone. This remedied the defects of the former act and it has been sustained by the courts. In Massachusetts numerous ingenious objections were made to the law. The questions involved were carried to the Supreme Court of the United States, and the law was sustained.

With regard to the practical workings of the system, the recorder of the Court of Land Registration in Massachusetts recently wrote to me in part as follows:

Petitions have now been filed in the Court of Land Registration from sixty-eight cities and towns in the Commonwealth, aggregating in assessed value about two and one-half million dollars. Certificates of title, based on decrees entered in this court, have been issued from eleven different registries of deeds in the eastern part of the State and so far west as Worcester County. The number of certificates issued in the various registries would aggregate something like one thousand, I should estimate.

While the use of the act has not been availed of with anything like a rush, the system has had a steady and very satisfactory growth, in my opinion, since the operation of the same began. People who have had their land registered seem to be entirely satisfied with the advantages accruing to them under the land registration act, and return to file other petitions. From a business standpoint, that is really the practical and ultimate test of any system which seeks to supplant or improve a present established one.

In making a sale of registered land it is entirely practical to start and consummate the transaction on the same day. As the system grows, this is an item which will be of very great importance to the business communities of the State in times of sudden stringency in the money market, or of panic.

Large tracts of land to cut up in streets and lots is the best illustration of the future advantages to flow from the act, as all subsequent purchasers of single house lots, and mortgagees of the same, get a registered title at a nominal expense of $2.50 for a deed, or $1.50 for a mortgage.

Inasmuch as land which is once registered remains under the operation of the act forever, it is evident that wherever registration is introduced it will supplant any older system. The channel of change is open in one direction and closed in the other. The rapidity of the movement, however, will vary. It may be accelerated by law, as, for example, by forbidding the investment of trust funds in unregistered property, or by requiring registration as an incident of mortgage foreclosure.

It is beyond the scope of this article to present more than the broad outlines of the subject. The reader, no doubt, will raise many questions as to the operation of the plan in detail. An answer to them would, however, unduly prolong this article; and, so far as the practical problem is concerned, they may, each and all, be dismissed without discussion. The solid, unimpeachable fact remains that no State or country which has used the registration system has abandoned it, and that all those things which real property law should enable a man to accomplish with land can be easily brought to pass under the Torrens system.

It is a marvel that so simple and practicable a plan has not been earlier introduced throughout the United States. At present, in view of recent and proposed legislation, it would not be an unwarrantable prediction that another quarter of a century will not pass before a vast majority of the States of the Union will have enacted laws to bring about its introduction into their respective Commonwealths.

WILLIAM C. MAINS.

OUR INDUSTRIAL POSITION IN THE WORLD.

THE United States has 7 per cent of the land area of the earth, and 5 per cent only of the world's population. One in 20 of the people of the world owe allegiance to Uncle Sam. In numbers, we are exceeded by China, which has more than one-fourth of the earth's inhabitants; the British Empire, with nearly one-fourth; and Russia, with about one-twelfth. All the people of China and 85 per cent of those of the British Empire represent an early civilization; the Russians promise a high civilization in the future; while the United States stands for the highest type of the civilization of to-day. After us in numbers are Germany, with 3.7 per cent of the earth's population; Austria-Hungary and Japan, with 3 per cent each; and France, with 2.5 per cent.

With only one-twentieth of the earth's population, we have subdued and devoted to the use of man not less than one-fourth of the cultivated land of the earth, that is, more than India or China, with their enormous populations; and our 400,000,000 acres of land under cultivation produce in such profusion as to give us preeminence in most of the products of agriculture. Of the wheat of the earth we contribute 21 per cent, which is more than any other nation. Russia produces but 15 per cent, and France but 12 per cent. We export from one-fourth to one-third of our crop to supply the deficiencies of Europe. Indian corn, one of the gifts of the New World to the Old, still finds its home in American soil; for four-fifths of the world's crop is grown in North America, and not less than 76 per cent in the United States.

Oats are more cosmopolitan. We produce a little more than a fourth, and are slightly exceeded by Russia, while Germany produces about three-fifths as much as the United States.

Rye and barley are a different story. Of these two cereals the United States produces scarcely any, while Russia raises more than half the world's crop of the former and a fourth of the latter, leading the world in these two cereals. Of rice we produce but a trifling amount, in comparison with the enormous crops of China and India.

As with corn, so with cotton. Of this textile fibre the United States furnishes three-fourths of the world's supply, while India con

tributes but one-eighth, and Egypt one-tenth. Two-thirds of our crop goes to Europe, to supply the factories of England and the Continent. Two-thirds of the cotton manufactured in Europe is raised by negro labor in our Southern States.

In the production of other fibres, the showing is not by any means so favorable to the United States. In the matter of wool, we are exceeded by Australia, Argentina, and Russia, which produce, respectively, 19, 15, and 14 per cent of the world's product, while the United States contributes only 11 per cent, and spends $20,000,000 annually in supplying her deficiency. Of raw silk we produce none; of hemp 4 per cent only, while Russia raises nearly half the world's supply; and of flax fibre very little. little. Here again Russia comes to the front, with nearly four-fifths of the world's supply.

Potatoes we gave to Europe, and Europe almost monopolizes their cultivation; producing over nine-tenths of the world's crop, while the United States raises less than one-tenth of it.

Our production of sugar from all sources

ana, Porto Rico, and Hawaii, and from beets

- from the cane of Louisi

is but 8 per cent of that

of the world. Of cane sugar we raise about one-sixth, and of beet sugar little more than 1 per cent. We spend $100,000,000 per year on im

ported sugar.

Of coffee and tea we raise comparatively trifling amounts, importing practically all we use; but in the production of tobacco we lead with 37 per cent of the world's product. In the production of hops we are exceeded by Great Britain and Germany; our country producing but 18 per cent of the world's crop.

In the making of alcoholic liquors this country does not take high rank. Of the wine of the world, we contribute 1 per cent only; of spirits 10 per cent; and of beer 19 per cent. Germany and Great Britain excel us in the brewing of beer, and France, Germany, Russia, and Austria in the manufacture of spirits.

In live stock our standing is good. We have one-fourth of the horses, or more than any other country except Russia; and nearly onefourth of the cattle, far more than any other country. We have only 7 per cent of the sheep, and here we are exceeded by Australia, Argentina, and Russia; but we have more than two-fifths of the hogs on earth. Our meat production is nearly one-third that of the earth; our catch of fish is proportionately but little less; and both are far greater than those of any other country. Our dairy products are nearly one-fourth those of the earth, and nearly double those of any other country.