The Elk Mountain pilot., 1900-03-20
WASHINGTON NEWS.
What Congress Is Doing.-Notes From the
White House and the Departments.

Representative Harmer of Pennsyl-
vania, the father of the House, is
dead. He served in Congress for
twenty-six years.
The secretary of war has lately ruled
that no more appointments would De
made in the regular army from civil
life. Hereafter all vacancies will be
hlled by promotion:
A stock company has been formed to
establish a telephone system at Whlte
Oaks. The company further plans TO
light the town and the principal mlnes
with electricity.
The House committee on public lahds
has reported favorably the bill extend
ing the provisions of the soldiers
homestead act to soldiers of the Span
ish war and Philippine insurrection.
The ratifications of the Samoan arbi-
tration treaty were exchanged AT the
State Department on the 18th by Secre-
tary Hay for the United States. Lord
Pauncefote for Great Britain and DR..
Won Holleben for Germany.
The President has commuted to i'm
prisonment for life the sentence OF
death imposed by court-martial in the
case of Private George Murphy, Com
pany c, Twenty infantry, con
victed of the murder of another sol
dier of the same company in the Phil
ippines.
The Senate committee on Interstate
commerce has decided to ask the Sen
ate to recommit the bill extending the
| maximum time for the confinement of
| live stock in transit from twenty-eight
| to forty hours. This decision was due
largely to the representations that the
| change would result in cruelty to ami
u.als undergoing shipment.
The last Legislative step in the enact
! ment of the financial bill was taken by
the House of Representatives Tuesday,
when the conference report on the Dill
| was adopted by n vote of yeas lO6,
nays 100; present and not voting, 10.
The Senate had already adopted the
| conference report, so that it only re-
mains for the President to atfix his sig
| nature to the measure to make it Il
| law.
1T is a singular fact" said Il member
! of the senate recently. that of all the
| hundreds of letters l am receiving
about the South African war not one
has ever expressed the slightest sym
| pathy with England. Everybody IA
! vors tie Beers. My experience is
! chared by every member of congress
so far as | know. The friends of Great
Britain are not appealing for sym
pathy."
| The investigation of charges that GER
J tain federal appointments are polyga
miSts came to IL close Tuesday by an
| agreement for Il unanimous report from
| the House committee ON postfhces ana
post roads, which holds that at the time
the appointments We're made the Pres
ident was not aware that the appoint
ees were charged with polygamy. AS
to the facts of the polygamous status
! of appointces. the report states that the
common reputc of the communities in
which they lived. was that the parties
were polygamists, but that there Is Il
! want of definite and conclusive evi-
, dence on that point.
Commissioner Wilson of the internal
revenue has decided to proceed against
| manufacturers of tobacco and cigar
cites who violate section 10 of the act
of July "A. 1897 This section prohib-
! its placing in or connection with pack
ages of smoking tobacco and tinecut
chewing tobacco or cigarettes any ar
ticle or thing whatsoever other than the
manufacturers wrappers and labels,
and excludes all gifts, prizes, pre-
miums. etc. or orders for the same.
To-day the commissioner sent tele-
graphic instructions to collectors of in
ternal revenue that this act must be
strictly observed, and that tobacco and
| cigarettes found upon the market, in
disregard thereof. stamps bearing can
collation. on and after the first proXimo
must be seized.
The Treasury Department has taken
decided stand relative to shipping
| American goods via Canadian points
into Alaska on British vessels, even
| if they are accompanied with export
certificates. Many shippers to Alaska
| obtain export certificates and send
their goods to Vancouver and other
points and thence to Alaska in Brit
ish vessels. thereby working a hard
ship on American ship owners. The
new order will practically debar Brit
| ish vessels from entering the new
trade in freight carrying business. 1t
| is said that many American firms
have already contracted with British
vessels for the delivery of large con-
signments of merchandise at Nome
but owing to the ruling of the treas
: mr. department, these contracts will
have to be cancelled.
The House committee on naval af.
| fairs reached q definite and final decis-
| ion Thursday AS to the number of new
| warsnips to be authorized in the forth
coming naval appropriation bill as fol
! lows: Two sea-going line battleships
! of about 1880 tons each, to cost ap-
| proximately $4,000 900 each. Three ar
mored cruisers of the highest practical
| speed and most powerful armor and
armament. to cost approximately 81,
| 100000. Three protected cruisers, to
cast about 81. 141 900 each. 1t was de-
| termined not to provide any gunboats,
in view of the opinion expressed by
| Secretary Dewey and Admiral Dewey
that General Otis recent purchases cf
| serN icc:ble boats of this charautn" met
| present gunboat requirements. The