The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1907-04-26
OUR WASHINGTON LETTER..
WASHINGTON, D. c. APRIL 90, 1900


Mr.. ED1ToR:-Q Questions Of information
nal law which will be submitted in the
form of recommendations to the next
Hague tribunal, are being considered
here this week by the American Society
of International Law that is holding the
first of its annual sessions. This society
is only year old, but its president is
Secretary Root, and it numbers on its
board of directors several members of the
Cabinet. International law up to date
| is rather like the English Consttu-
ton, an unwritten mass of prece dents.
There is no international code in the
strict meaning of the term, and one of
The objects of the society is to develop
interest in the subject and secure the
adoption of we'll defined international
standard. The subject taken up at the
initial meeting of the society was long
debated one Of property rights on the
high seas. Judge Advocate General
Davis, Rear Admiral Stockton and a
number of other accomplished lawyers
took part in the discussion. While no
conclusion was reached, the cencensus
of opinion was that the cause Of civiliza-
ton would not be served to any great
extent by al international convention
assuring the safety of private property
on the high seas in time of war. 1t was
pointed out that one nation could weaken
off hxyo oh, Of
depredations, cutting off her food sup
plies and Gripping her manufacturing
interests without necessarily much blood
shed. The association held that this
would tend to shorten the duration of "a
war, and this being the case, it was a
good thing to leave this question alone.
There has just been organized in the
Geological Survey a new division, the
first of whose duties has already COM
menced, namely, the valuation of govern
ment coal lands throughout the west SO
as to give the government some data to
60 by in fixing the price of these lands
when they are rented or sold AS the
case now stands, coal lands are sold for
the nominal price of 81 % an acre, and
the government gets little money benefit
out of the sale. A large field force has
already been started out, and it is thought
that it will be bile to cover about 10000
square miles of territory during the
coming season.
The division will send in car load
samples of coal from all the government
coal deposits, and these will be tested
for their gas producing value, their
steam making qualities, and all other
lines in which coal can be made useful
A good deal of work in fuel investiga
ton has been done by the Survey in the
past year, main fuel testing plant being
| located at ST. Louis. One very valua Bile
| discovery has already been made, and
| that is some of the government coal that
has been thought absolutely valueless for
! burning will make excellent gas, and be-
| ing thus transformed and used in gas
engine will produce more power at the
same cost out a ton of coal than will the
steam, This is an immensely valuable
discovery, as will be readily appreciated.
There are hundreds Of thousands of acres
of very low grade coal land still belong
ing to the government. This coal is so
called Ignite, softer than the very softest
| bitumun Gus coal, and but little better
than peat. 1t has never even paid to
mine it. But if it can be used for gas
making and the gas used for power as
has been demonstrated, then the Ignite
| beds are as valuable as so much good
steam coal. This will add millions of
dollars to the value of the remaining
| public coal lands. There have been other
| interesting developments from fuel tests,
but some of them are too technical to be
Of general interest, and the above is
enough to show that they are giving
good value for the money expended on
them.
The election of the Daughters of the
American Revolution was held this week
and as had been generally expected, Mrs.
Donald Mclean of New York, the pre-
sent President General, was retained in
her position. This is matter of much
interest to women all over the country,
as these ancient daughters" despite the
fun often made of their parliamentary
squabbles and their much ado about
nothing, are nevertheless of interest to
some people.
Of course, one has to show Revolution
nary ancestry to be eligible for member
ship, and some who have not succeeded
in outlying through the army branch of
the services may be interested to know
that they have better chance now than
ever before to examine the naval records
of the revolution and possibly find a
revolutionary ancestor who served on
the water. 1t has been great regret to
genealogist for long time that the re-
cords of the navy in the Revolution were
so incomplete and scattered Now, how
ever, they have been collected as far as
possible from the original documents
and printed by the Library of Congress
as public document. This book is on
sale by the Superintendent of Documents
at the Government Printing Office, an
can be had by anyone interested in max