The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-02-12
MORE slGID
 REGULATIONS Echo In House of General iSlOcum Disaster. INSPECTIONS IN FUTURE Steamb pat Service tOBe Care
 1ully Handled. Several Resolutions Called Up by COm- mittee Chairman GrOsvenOr
 Passed Yesterday by the
 Representatives.

Washington, Feb. 11.-As an out growth of the investigation of the Gen. eral Slocum disaster the House today passed a number of bills, called up by Mir. Grosvenor, Chairman of the House Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries, amending the laws relating to the steamboat inspection service, and making far more rigid provision for the regulation and control of steam ves- sells. The amendments recommended by the Department of Commerce and La- Dor were sent to the House in the form of eight bills. Six of these were re- ported favorably by the committee and five of them passed today. Considers ton of the bill providing for the alter ing of the salary system for inspectors was prevented by the objection of Mir. Sherley of Kentucky.
 Except for an effort by Mir. Livernash of California to amend the provision relative to complements of crews there were no controversies on the measures.
 The bills amending the steamboat in- spection service as they passed the House provides for an Executive Com mittee or a Board of Supervising In- spectors with power to amend the rules of the steamboat inspection service in the interim between the meeting of the Congress being subject to Secretary of Commerce and Labor to make com pulsory inspection once a year whether applied for by masters or owners or not; make effective inspectors con- demnation of defective equipment; give inspectors power to stop a vessel by re- vocation of her certificate and provide an adequate statutory penalty for per sons manufacturing or selling defeet- i've life saving apparatus.
 They provide also for the repeal @f the existing provision. of law requiring supervising inspectors to give bond. As- sistant inspectors are added to those prohibited from having any pecuniary interest in vessels and motor vessels of over fifteen tons are brought under the utes. An alternative suspension of IT, cense instead of revocation K pro- vided in case a licensed officer shall un- reasonably refuse to serve.
 Provisions for Appeal.
 Provision is made for an appeal ia certain cases of revocation and for in- jecting fire extinguishing gas into holds as we'll as steam. Motor vessels other than steam on the Red River of the North and the Mississippi system are brought under the collision rules of those waters. Minor details in num- Der of instances are transferred from statutes to regulation.
 The House also passed a number of minor bills, among them being the following:
 To provide for sittings of the Circuit and District Courts at Fernandina. Fla; to create a new division of the Western Judicial District of Louisiana, and to provide for terms of court at Lake Charles. La: authorizing the Pres ident to nominate and appoint William
  United States army; to authorize the construction of railroad bridges across the Boeuf River and Bayou Macon. in Louisiana, at locations to be approved by the Secretary of War.
 Among others, the bill authorizing the President to appoint to the naval academy three midshipmen who were dismissed from the naval academy at Annapolis. was called up. Mir. Brick Und) offered as substitute to the pending bill the one prepared by the Navy Department and forwarded to Congress with favorable recommenda- tions by the President.
 Mir. Maddox (Ga.) said the House had held off long enough to show the au- thorities at Annapolis that they were to be sustained and announced that he would vote for their restoration. He said 1t was not a party measure.
 Mir. Slayden CTex0 said that unless the House wanted to see hazing at West Point and Annapolis. the bill should be voted down.
 MT. Williams (Mass) said he had re- sisted 10 The present moment with an idea of teaching young men that Con- gress would not be in a hurry to get them out of a scrape. and that their comrades might learn that Congress was in earnest He thought the boys had been punished sufficiently and an- nounced that he would vote for the bill
 The substitute offered by Mir. Brick was passed and the House adjourned.