The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1874-04-14
WASHINGTON.



WASHINGTON, April 13.-The District Inves-
tigating Committee heard the testimony tod ~
of A. M. Gibson, newspaper correspondent,
who stated that he heard the Superintendent OF
Public Works state to G. HI. Parsons that he
could control the contracts.
Bill to Abolish RIoieties.
In the House to-day, Mr.. Wood of New York
introduced a bill to regulate the service of col
lection of customs, which was referred to the
Committee of Ways and Means. 1t enacts
that no NOTES, perquisites or commissions
shall be allowed collectors, naval officers, sur
veyors or other officers or employees of the Col
lectors Department, and all laws providing
such are to be repealed; that all proceeds Of
condemnation by seszures shall be paid into
the Treasury. that the District Attorney upon
complaint shall make investigatigation into
the facts before commissioners and then cause
the arrest of the offenders; that compromises
by special agent or district attorneys shall be
unlawful, with penalties for felony. but the
Secretary of the Treasury may remit when no
intimation of fraud was proven; that only sin
gle items of merchandise shall be forfeited, in
stead OF the entire invoices; that all the settle
ments of duties shall, in the absence of fraud
and in the absence of a protest, be final upon
all parties; that suits for recovery must be com
menced within two years; that books and pa
pers must be ordered by judge of the district
times to the owners. All acts inconsistent
with this are repealed, and this is to go into
effect Immediately.
The sanborn Contract.
VIM. H. Kelsey, formerly member of Con-
gress from New York, and more recently con-
nected with the contracts to collect derelict
taxes similar to the Sanborn contracts was the
only witness examined this morning by the
Ways and Means Committee.
Mr.. Kelsey stated that he had drafted the
clause in the appropriation bill under which
Mr.. Sanborn's and other contracts were made
T1o oh md Hnla n
Maine, discouraged the scheme, but Mr. Cole
of California, Mr.. Logan and Mr.. Sawyer of
South Carolina, favored it. He Kelsey
thought it was good law and did not hesitate
to press it.. He threw up his contract because
he believed an Official in Phila elphia favored
the railroad companies. He had talked with
Secretary Richardson and Solicitor Bantield
and with Mr. Boutwell,, but latter did not have
much faith in the contracts. it being thought
the law to elect abandoned property in the
South might be so construed as TO apply to the
collection of derelic taxes all over the United
States. Kelsey testified to holding interviews
with Secretary Richardson and that Sawyer
went with him Kelsey from Richardson's to
ion, which proved, like Kelsey's, to be such a
construction of that law. He didn't know what
interest Sawyer had in the business.
The Geneva Award Bill.
The House Judiciary Committee considered
to-day the Geneva award bill. After discussion
it was voted to insert section to pay insurance
companies the amount of their war premiums
ON vessels destroyed by Confederate cruisers.
The committee did not dispose of the other Sec
tions of the bill.
The Taxation of Non.Residcnt Bank
Shareholders.
The Chief Justice developed his first opiulon
on the bench of the Supreme Court to-day in q
case from Illinois, touching the right of the
State to tax nonresident national bank share
holders at the residence of the bank Members
al the bar who heard it and his brethren on the
bench speak of it in eulostic terms. The court
below decided that the tax could not be thus
laid and the decree was against the Collector.
That decree is here reversed the Court holding
that shares of stock in national banks are per-
sonal property. Under the national banking
act they are a specie of personal property say
the Court, which is in one sense intangible and
incorporal, but the law which creates them
may separate them from the person of the
owner for purposes of taxation and give them
status of their own. This has been done, it is
held. by the banking act.
Treasury Balances.
The following are the Treasury balances to-
day:-Currency, $3,197, sos; special deposit of
legal tenders for redemption of certificates of
deposit, $53 42O 900; coin, $S7 800 1884, including
coin certificates 1856 652, 200; outstanding legal
tenders, $382,000.000.