The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-01-26
And Alleged to Have Been Found
Lacking i'm Knowledge. of Matters
He Has Been Freely Criticising.
M'KENNA TAKES OATH TODAY
INTERESTING CEREMONY IN THE
UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT.
Nomination of Governor Griggs to BE
Attorney General Confirmed by
Senate-Mrs. Fairbanks Ill.



WASHINGTON. Jan. 25.-For two days
General Nelson A. Miles has been before
the subcommittee of the House appropria-
tions committee which has charge of the
coast defenses and Notifications bill. This
subcommittee of which Representative
Heminway of Indiana, is chairman, anX-
iouslv sought enlightenment from General
Miles as to how the service could be
strenethened and wherein Congress had
been negligent in not providing adequate
continent. General Miles has been free in
his structures on Congress al d has Specif-
cally charged that the engineering and ord
nance were not kept equally balanced =
that is guns were manufactured and not
provided with carriages, or guns placed on
forts and Notifications and left without am
munition. and that generally the military
establishment was neglected by Congress
and things allowed to run at loose ends
When asked for details and specifications in
support of his widely scattered statements
the general was found to be woefuily lack
ing in facts and in information about the
military equipment over which he presldes-
Members Of the committee, who had been
considerably nettled by his loose and indis-
criminate charges rejecting on Congress,
took delight i'm cornering him, and it is a
fact that he made a sorry exhibition He
was unfamiliar with what was being done
for the betterment of our coast defenses.
knew very little about estimates for the
army and confessed that he did not know
that an appropriation of 100000 had been
made for field pieces, that the money had
been nearly all spent and the new guns
almost ready for use until informed by
members of the committee. He was appar-
emily unaware that appropriation of $751;
100000 had been nearly all spent within the
past two years on our coast defenses and
Notifications and that the whole appropria-
ton would be exhausted by July next The
Notifications bill will be reported in day
or two 1t will carry. $5,OO0,0oO this session.
There will be full Supreme Court on
and after tomorrow for the first time in
months. Associate Justice McKenna will be
sworn in tomorrow and take his seat. The
ceremony is interesting. The new judge is
sworn twice, once in the consultation room,
where he takes a modified form of the
Iron CLAD oath, and afterwards in the
court room, where he is sworn in by the
clerk as a judge. He then takes his seat
at the extreme left of the chief justice,
where junior justices go first. Several inn
portant cases which haVeUbeen awaiting a
full bench will be taken up during the next
month **
Judge Louis E. McComas, who will sue
coed Senator German, is clean, brainy,
able man. He now finds himself where he
has always wanted to be and where he
would have been two years ago but for his
withdrawal from politics ON his defeat for
Congress four years ago by McKaig. He
has always aimed for a seat in the Senate
and the leadership of the Republican party
in Maryland and there is where he is to-
day. He has enjoyed long congressional
experience and has the acquaintance and
confidence of national leaders. When APP
pointed on the District supreme bench by
President Harrison it was sneeringly
charged that he was politician and not
lawyer He has proved himself an able
judge. His return to the field of politics
will be hailed with satisfaction by a Repub-
lican Senate.
Both Senate and House committees on
Pacific railroads have decided on policy
of congressional inactivity in the Kansas
Pacific matter under the foreclosure sale
on the 18th of February. next.
DR.. Mary Sphinx, of indianapolis, arrived
here this afternoon, having been summoned
to the bedside of the wife of Senator Fair
banks, who has been quite i'll. Mrs. Fair
banks was much better this evening" but is
still suffering and may not be out for
fortnight or more.
Ex-President Harrison, his wife and baby
visited the White House to-day, where they
were received by the President and MEM
bers of the Cabinet.
The contract for Improvement of grounds
in and around the courthouse and postoffice
at Charleston S. c., was to-day awarded
to William Everrood & Sons, of Columbia,
Ind. Their bid was $11 ,OS2.