The Elk Mountain pilot., 1902-02-11
LATE WASHINGTON NEWS AND
CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS

The Senate committee on foreign re-
tations ordered favorable report on
the treaty to acquire the Danish West
Indies. No amendment was made TO
the treaty in committee.
The Senate has confirmed the nomi-
nation of Medical Inspector Presley NJ.
Rixey, u. S. n, to be chief of the
bureau of medicine and surgery in the
navy, with the rank of rear admiral.
Also other naval promotions.
The proposition to dispose of the
United States transports and to depend
upon private steamship corporations
for the transportation of troops iii the
future does not meet with very general
approval in Congress.
Secretary Long has detached Rear
Admiral Wildes from his present duty
as commandant of the Pensacola navy
yard and ordered him to relieve Rear
Admiral Louis Kempff. the Junior
squadron commander on the Asiauc
station.
The House committee on coinage has
acted favorably on the bill appropriat-
ing 100000 for establishing Il branch
mint at Tacoma, Washington. Inc
general purpose of this new branch Is
to give added mint facilities for the
gold and silver coming from Alaska.
The comparative statement of the
government receipts and expenses
sho- that during January, 1902, the
total receipts We're SAG, 143, and the
expenditures S3S, ,54S,277, leaving sur
plus for the month of SS033, ,S66. The
surplus for the corresponding month
last year was SI,4oo,oOO.
The House has passed the Lacey bill
for the protection of miners in tho ter
ritories. 1t provides that in every mine
over 100 feet in depth. mine owners be
required to provide $500 cubic feet or
pure air for every fifty miners. 1t also
provides that managers of coal mines
shall employ shot firers.
Representative Boreing of Kentucky
has reintroduced bill providing for
the establishment of pension court
of appeals. The bill provides for the
appointment of seven judges whose
duty it shall be to hear arguments for
the granting or the increase of special
pensions, instead of the petitioners
coming to Congress for relief.
The friends OF the oleomargarine bill
have no doubt Of its passage. They re-
gard the vote on the adoption of the
|
test vote The bill is practically the
Grout bill, imposing a tax of 10 cents
pound on products colored in imita
| ton of butter and to make retail deal
! ers who color oleomargarine subject TO
the same penalties as the manufactur-
ers.
| There is a growing disposition among
senators and members who keep close
watch upon legislative conditions to
believe that there will be no bill for
canal across the isthmus between the
Atlantic and Pacific oceans during the
present session of Congress. The
truth is that nine out of every ten men
one meets in Congress or out of 1t is
disposed to see scheme" in this sud
den desire of the Frenchmen to sell
out their rights.
Senator Hoar. from the committee on
the judiciary, has reported favorably
the bill to limit the meaning of the
word conspiracy" and the use of ''re-
straining orders and injunctions' in
certain cases. The bill provides that
combination to do an act or not to do
It shall not be punished more severely
than the act itself. and that combi-
nations of this character between en-
ployers and employees engaged in inter-
state commerce shall not be considered
In restraint of trade or commerce. The
bill is intended to aid in adjusting Ia
Dor disputes on railroads.
Senator Morgan, chairman of the
committee on inter-oceanic canals, has
prepared report which he has sent
to each member of the committee rel
ative to the canal situation, since the
offer of the Panama company to sell
Its property for S4O,OOO,OOO was made.
The report takes the ground that the
Panama company cannot give the
United States a good and sufficient IT,
tie and also criticises the whole mat
ter as n movement intended to delay
canal legislation. The report will be
considered at the meeting next Mon
day.
Representative Bell has filed with
the secretary of the interior n resolu
ton adopted by residents of the Grand
River valley requesting survey and
estimate of cost of n geological survey
for diverting the waters of the Grand
river onto the highlands lying along
the Grand valley in northwestern Colo
RADIO and eastern Utah. 1t is believed
the waters of this stream can be di-
yerted at n reasonable cost and n large
area of land now yaluelesS be re-
claimed and placed under cultivation.
Secretary Hitchcock will order a pre-
liminary examination of the project at
once.
The subcommittee of the Senate
committee on foreign relations, which
had been giving especial attention to
the legal aspect of the reciprocity
treaties, has reported its findings to
the full committee, and Senator
Spooner was authorized to prepare
written report on the subject. The
committee concludes that the power
| to make commercial treaties rests with