The National tribune., 1903-02-19

CONGRESS.

| The President has approved the act
providing for free homesteads on the pub
lie lands for actual settlers in the north
half of the Colville Indian Reservation in
Washington.
| Senator Penrose Pa.) wants "Medal
of Honor Rolf established for the Navy,
and to place the persons named thereon
upon the retired list of the Navy.
Mr.. De Almond. who is the mildest
hammered of men, must be preparing for
war out in Missouri. He wants 1O,OOO
copies of the military laws of the United
States from 1776 to the end of the pres.
ent Congress, March 4, 1903, collected and
printed. He specifically stipulates that
they shall be ''indexed." A wise provision,
but there is indeXing and indexing. One is
bad and the other is worse. Such books
any book of reference, in facts valueless
unless properly indexed.
Senator Daniel has introduced bill to
provide souvenir medallions for the bene-
| fit of the Thomas Jefferson Memorial AS
ISOLATION of the United States. This As
ISOLATION is organized for the purpose of
erecting in the District of Columbia an
appropriate memorial to him who is said
to be the author Of the Declaration of In
dependence. The medallions are to be of
silver and bronze, and are to be struck
at the Philadelphia Mint, and sold, the
proceeds to go toward raising the funds
| for the monument.
How is the following for one sentence
and that the first, in the seven page argu-
ment flung at the head of Mr.. Platt, of
| New York by its author. Mr.. Hinton
Rowan Helper. who is the promoter of the
I'm 81 p,iI prrfrI, thn
three Americas?" Mr.. Helper begins as
| follows:
I $50 varied and extensive are the meas
ureless merits, industrial, commercial, So
cial, political. probity-propa eating, peace
preserving, and progress-promoting, OF my
projected intercontinental railway through
the three Americas. that nearly 40 pounds
avoirduDois of official literature upon the
subject are still but too obviously INSULT
cient to comprise and proclaim all the fair
and essential facts in the premises"
Mr.. Helper is a tall, gaunt man, who
dresses in military blue. and has a flow of
language that would bankrupt old Noah
| Websters vocabulary. Mr.. Helper is
North Carolinian, of Scotch extraction,
and is the author of that firebrand book,
''The impending Crisis" which appeared
shortly before the war of the rebellion and
raised particular Cain throughout the
whole country. He was intensely Union.
and while the North was saying it would
have nothing to do with the slave issue,
his book was being eagerly read and his
argument that war must come, and the
reasons why it was to come, were being
discussed from the Lakes to the Gulf.
The President has signed the bill pro-
viding for the allotment of lands in sew
crafty to the Indians of the Lac Courte
| n Nd I t,r
lions in the State Of Wisconsin.
One of the most meritorious bills before
Congress- and one which will undoubtedly
pass, has for its object the placing of
reading matter within reach of all blind
people of the United States. According
| to the last Census there are in the United
| States about 100000 blind persons, very
evenly distributed according to popula-
| ton.
The bill provides that ali books. pamph-
] lets, and other reading matter in raised
characters for the use of the blind, wheth-
er prepared by hand or printed, in single
volumes or in packages, and containing
no advertising or other matter whatever,
uDseaied and not exceeding 10 pounds in
weight, when sent by public Institutions
Cor the blind as loan to blind readers,
or when returned by the latter to such in
stitutiens, shall be transmitted in the Uni
ted States mails free Of postage.
The great cost of books printed for the
blind places them beyond the reach of
any but the wealthy. A dictionary, for
example, sells for $50, nm English gram
mar, for $40, and Bible sells at cost for
81. The character of the type in which
books for the blind are printed makes
them very cumbersome. Robinsons Arith-
! the Bible in ii volumes, and the diction-
airy in IS volumes. Tie expense, there
fore, and great amount of space which
these books occupy make it impossible for
the great majority of blind persons to
possess a library containing any consider
able number of books.
! The National Government has already
established a precedent for philanthropic
legislation of this character in behalf of
the blind. For some years the interest on
$3.50 600 has been given annually to the
American Printing House for the Blind,
at Louisville, Ky. This sum of $4,000 a
year is used for printing books for the
blind, which are distributed pro rata
among the schools for the blind. There
are 81 public schools and five private
schools for the education OF the blind
which receive the books published with
this fund. The Principals of these
schools are trustees of the fund and ap-
point publication committee. This COM
mittee selects the books that are to be
published. There are in these schools
about 1900 pupils. This bill simply en-
larges the scope and efficiency of the work
for the amelioration of the condition OF
the blind already undertaken by the Gen.
eral Government. There is no daily paper
published in the country in characters fol
the blind; only one weekly and three
monthly papers.
Representative Norton (Oho) has in
troduced n joint resolution rendering the
thanks of Congress to the members of Co
II, AID U. S. ", for courage and devo
ton displayed by them, and their gallant
and heroic defense, Mt the five days siege
at Ca ubig, in the Island of Samar from
April IA to 10, 1900. The resolution alst
instructs the Secretary of War to bestow
suitable bronze medal of honor upoI
each of the members of the company who
were in the siege, or upon the legal rep
l resentatves of such as lost their lives.
The President has approved the bill pro
viding for the compulsory attendance
Of witnesses before Registers and Re
ceiyers of Land-Oflices. The penalty fo
non-appearance of the witnesses is eithe
/ a fine Of 5000 or Imprisonment for Ok
1 days.