Amador ledger., 1906-04-27
Washington
Letter.
From Our Regular Correspondent.

While there is temporary lull in
rate legislation, the marine commit
tee of the House is having its hands
full with the hearings on the ship sub
sidy bill. There have been a mum ber
OF prominent witnesses before the
committee since the hearings were
commenced last week. Former chief
constructor Bowles, once of the navy,
and now of the Fore RiverShip Build
ing Co., spoke in favor of the bill.
ETe contradicted the testimony of Ed
win Cramp saying that while there
was a difference between the price of
English and American steel in Ameri
can yards, steel was % to 30 per cent
cheaper in English yards than it was
here. AS American firms have at DIFF
erent times in the past under bid Eng
Iish firms in providing steel for
English ships, it looks as though they
had been selling fully quarter cheap
er abroad than at home. But Mr. Bow
les is no longer an officer OF the navy.
He is in the employ Of private ship
building firm, and he naturally wants
the ship subsidy bill passed.
There were a number of other wit
nesses and letters from interested ship
owners, saying that if the subsidy
were not granted all of the American
Pacific lines would be forced to go out
of business. 1t was pointed out that
the English and Japanese lines en-
gagged in the Pacific trade received
large subsidies, amounting to several
hundred thousand dollars each, while
the most that any of the American
lines received was So, 600 for carrying
the mails. AS a matter of business,
it was urged, this carrying trade
ought to be saved to the United
States, and the only way of saving it
was by subsidy. Nothing has yet
been done in the way of reporting
the bill, however, and 1t is a question
whether the speaker will ever give it
chance on the floor.
1t is matter of some interest to all
the people of the United States, and
especially to the people of the west,
that the president has injected himself
into the fight against the illegal fenc-
ing of grazing land on the public do
main. There has been a law formu-
lated by the secretary of agriculture,
with the approval of a special commits
to cattle owners in the west at a very
nominal price. The income from the
leases would pay for policing and
seeding such parts of the range as
needed it and improving the watering
places on which the cattle depend.
But so long as the fences that have
been illegally erected remain in place
it will of course be impossible for the
small cattle owners to take advantage
of the new law. The president, how
ever, has intimated his intention of
giving the big cattle owners a reason
able time, say sixty days, in which to
remove the fences that they have
erected in defiance of law, at the end
of that time, if they refuse, to prose-
cute them vigorously.
In line with the law which will
straighten out the fence tangIe of the
west, it has been decided also to
amend the laws under which western
coal lands are being taken up. 1t has
been generally understood for long
time that much fraud was INDUCED in
to get these lands, but no one had any
idea of the extent of the business till
the secretary of the interior put the
geological survey to work in conjunc
tion with the land office to find out
Just where the western coal lands
we're, and what measures we're uece-
ssary for their protection. The sur
vey has now mapped roughly the lar
ger coal beds of the west, showing that
there are immense areas in Colorado,
Utah, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, and
New Mexico, where there are great
coal measures, much of it Ignite,
but some good bituminous and some
anthracite. Railroads and private
companies have been taking this land
by the thousand acres as agricultural
land" and paying for it at the rate
of 81. 80 an acre, whereas it should
have gone as mineral land at 800 an
geological survey has just baked one
steal of 81, ,500,0 900, though much of the