Birmingham state herald., 1896-01-01
NATIONAL CAPITAL GOSSIP The Venezuelan Commission Is Not Yet Appointed. MANY RUMORS ARE CURRENT haryland's Chief Justice, Mir. Alvey, Has Not
 Been Selected. THE PRESIDENT SAYS NOT A WORD Under the Resolution He Can Appoint as Many Commissioners as He Pleases
 and When He Pleases-Con-
 firmation Not Necessary.
THE PRESIDENT SAYS NOT A WORT

Washington, Dec. 31-No information whatever can be obtained at the White House as to whether the president has yet come to any decision in regard to the membership of the Venezuela commits sion, either as to number or personnel. Both are left absolutely at the discretion of the president by the terms of the res olution, not even the necessity of com municating with the senate on the mat ter. The exact text of the resolution as adopted by both houses of congress was as follows:
 Be 1t enacted by the senate and the house of representatives of the United States of America in congress assembled, That the sum of $10O00O, or so much thereof as may be necessary, be and the same is hereby appropriated for the ex- penses of commission to be appointed by the president to investigate and re- port upon the true divisional line be- tween the republic of Venezuela and British Guiana" !
 It will be seen that authentic informa- tion as to the composition of the con- mission can proceed only from two sources, the president or the person to whom he has rendered the office. The president has not spoken and there is no
 
 gentlemen whose names have been widely mentioned in connection with the position has authorized a statement to be made in his behalf. The story sent out some days ago that the president had rendered one place on the commits sion to Richard H. Alvey of Maryland, chief justice of the court of appeals of the District of Columbia and that he was holding the matter under advisement, turns out to be entirely untrue, and 1t is quite possible that the other names men, toned may be equally composed of gos- sip and guess work
 MT. Dingley' Quite Busy.
 Chairman Dingley of the ways and means committee, will not leave Wash- . ingtoc during the holiday recess. He has been so busy with his public work that his correspondence has fallen badly in arrears and the intervening time be- tween now and the reassembllng of con- gress will be necessary to complete it. MT. Dingley will not call the ways and means committee together until the lat ter part of next week, at which time the sub-commttees will be appointed and a programme of work prepared. One of the first matters which MT. Dingley pur- poses bringing to the attention of the committee will be certain amendments to the administrative features of the present tariff law, with view to pre- venting undervaluation of imports. A strong necessity exists, Mr. Dingley says, for the correction of some of the defects in the administrative law, which will ex- plain his purpose in giving 1t his early attention. There are also other matters coming within the Jurisdiction of the ways and means committee upon which action will be taken, but of these the chairman does not care to speak in de- tail at present.
 The house committee on elections No. g. of which MT. Johnson of Indiana is chairman. today heard motions to re- open for the purpose of taking further testimony in the contested election cases of Mitchell against Walsh, of the Eighth New York district; Campbell against Miner, Ninth New York district, and Vanhorn against Tarsney, Fifth Mis- souri district.
 MT. Mcclellan, from the Twelfth New York district, whose seat is contested by MT. Cheesborough, stated to the com- mittee that the contestant in his case had withdrawn, and asked the committee to report resolution removing the cloud to his title to the seat.
 MT w. A. Stone of Pennsylvania, chairman of the subcommittee on pen sions, has issued call for a meeting of his committee on Friday of this week. The amount appropriated for pensions for the current fiscal year was SAC, ,000,- 900, which Is the commissioners estimate for the next year. It Is MT. Stones de- sire to begin the preparation of the pen sion bill at once, in order that no delay may occur in reporting It to the house. This is in conformity with the republi- can programme, which looks to an ad- journment of congress as soon as all the appropriation bills have been passed.
 The figures of the treasury receipts and expenditures for the first half of the fis- cal year 1896 are now practically com- plete. The official statement to be is- sued on Thursday, January 2, will show approximately that the receipts for the six months were $167, 100000 and expen- ditures $182. .500. 900, making the deficit $15,000,O00. For the month of December the receipts were light. being $26, ,250, 900, and the expenditures $25, 5,750.0 900, making an excess of receipts over expenditures of s5ON.O00. Because of the heavy interest payments in January and the maturity of s4, 3eO, 900 of Pacific railroad bonds. 1t is estimated that the month of January will show a deficit of $10.0o00o0 or $12,- aoza ana