Morning journal and courier., 1889-05-17
uasaInGroN NOTES.

WASHINGTON NOTES.
 The New Ministers and Consuis-Pen-
 stons For Relatives of Men Who
 Lose Their Lives En the Samoan Dfs-
 aster-The Hearing In Regard TO
 1 She Classification of Lead Ore.
 WASHINGTON, May 16.-Solomon Hirsch,
 of Oregon, to-day appointed minister to Tur-
 key, is a prominent business man of Port
 land, of Hebrew percentage. He was a lead
 ing candidate for senate from Oregon at the lsst election and lacked bu. one vote of
 securing an election, finally giving way to Senator Mitchell after long struggle. l Clark E. Carter, of Illinois, appointed I minister to Denmark, is a leading Republican l ffty-fve years old, living at Galesburg, l where he has been postmaster. He was prominent in the last campaign.
 Henry W. Severance, of California, made l consul general, to Honolulu, has for years been identified with the Sandwich Islands. He is about fifty years old.
 John Jarrett, who goes as consul to Birm- inghan, is well known from his long connec- ! tion with the steel and iron industries. He | is secretary of one of the largest associations of metal workers in the United States. Thomas H. Sherman, selected as consul at Liverpool, is credited to the District of Co., ! lumbia, where he has lived for years although he came originally from Maine. He was I telegraph operator and became private secre- 1 tary to Mr. Blaine when the latter was speaker in 1869. He retained the same con- nection during Mir. B1aine's term in the sen- ate and his former administration of the state department. After MT. Blaine's retire ment from public life MT. Sherman continued I in the department where he was attached to the consular bureau. He has acted as pri- vate secretary to MT. Blaine since Mar ch of the current year.
 Applications for pensions are beginning to come into the department from the widows l and dependent relatives of the officers and l men who lost their lives in the recent naval | disaster at Samoa. The widow of Captain Schoonmaker filed her claim few days ago, { and it has been submitted to the provision ! for allowance. Her pension will amount to ! $50 per month. To-day colored woman I whose son was employed on one of the lost vessels, appeared at the pension office and filed her claim for pension. She will be al- lowed $12 per month.
 ! Secretary Blaine has sent out notice to the diplomats invited to go to Mt. Vernon to- morrow postponlng the excursion until fur ther notice on account of the death of Minis ter Rice.
 Jerome Berry was to-day appointed fourth class postmaster at North Kent, Conn. The hearing in regard to the classification of lead ore was continued to-day before Az sistant Secretary Tichenor at the treasury department. Arguments in support of the present ruling under which lead ore mixed with silver ore of greater value is admitted free were made by ex-Governor McCrary, Judge McCammon, Oscar Keene of Newark and A. R. Meyer of Kansas City. Argu- ments in favor of 8 change in the practices so to compel lead ore to pay duty as lead, no matter how much silver may be contained in the ore, were made by Senator Walcott of Colorado, ex Governor Grail of Utah, MT. Sheedy of Colorado and R. M. White of New Mexico. The closing argument was made by Senator Waleott, who said he represented no client in particular, but spoke against the free admission of foreign lead in theSinterest of the whole people of his State.
 large number of af6davits were subrnit- ted to show that containing lead was commercially known as lead ore regardless of the percentage of silver contained in it, and Professor Gray of Yale college submitted a paper practically sustaining this view from a scientific standard. He argued that com- pound ores of this kind should be described by the names of both constituents. Mir. White of New Mexico, stated that it was not true that Mexican ore was necessary for tho smelling of the domestic product.
 The advocates of a continuance of the present practice of classifying silver ores con- taining lead argued that these ores are com I mercially and technically known as silver ores and that Congress was well aware of the fact when the present tariff was enacted. | They held that the question had already been adjudicated and settled and that our smelt- X ing industries were born and had grown up under the present construction of the law.
 Judge McCammon in his argument said the ! case is free from any question of fact, because ] the highest known official expert authority l designates ores containing silver greater value | than the base metal technically and oommer- | eially known as silver ores. The classification was known and acted on, he said, when the act of 1883 became a law, which did not ! change the status of ores in respect to paying duties thereon except ss pointed out by the 1 judiciary committee.
 Senator Wolcott closed by referring to the ! great interest taken by the people of the West in this question, and expressing the | hope that the treasury department would give the law the construction the lawmakers | intended it should have. The hearing was | closed at this point with the understanding that either side may file any additional evil dence bearing on the question of commercial | designation of the ore. Assistant Secretary ! Tichenor says that the question will be | thoroughly considered by the department, but cannot well be decided for a month yet.