The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-04-12

was reported February 4 and passed the House March IT. It is now in the Senate.
 The legislative, executive and judicial appropriation bill was reported February Il, passed the House February 1T and the ence. The army bill passed the House February 2s and the postoffice bill March 13 The agricultural appropriation bill is now being considered in the House, while Notifications passed that body March N. The District of Columbia appropriation bill was reported Monday and will not be taken up for a couple of weeks. The diplomatic and consular bill, general de- ficiency, Military Academy, naval and sundry civil appropriations bills are in various stages of preparation, not hav- ing been reported as yet to the House.
 Sailing of Fleet.
 The American battleship fleet, under command of Rear Admiral. Charles M Thomas, will sail for San Francisco for its cruise around the world about June 25, instead of July 6, which date was announced before the Japanese and Chin csc invitations were received and accept ed. The new date Is tentative and de- bends upon the amount of docking and repairs, and the length of time this will take.
 Should the fleet get away by June 9 the host of tackles will celebrate the Fourth of July while the fleet is at Hon. olulu. They will all be granted short liberty for celebration, and the Fourth will undoubtedly take on new significance in Hawaii. Although the islands are American and there are large number of American residents, the population is mixed, and Fourth of July celebra- how .f f1 cntF
 It is believed by the navy department that should the new itinerary be adopted 1t will bring the fleet home to the At lantic coast. well before the end of the present administration.
 It is expected the fleet will reach Aus tralia the latter part of August, and the Philippines before the first of October.
 From the Philippines it will go to Yoko- hama. Chefoo, China, will be visited in- stead of Shanghai, because of the bet ter anchorage. Dates and the ports of call from China to the Suez and the Alt lantic coast have not been determined, but it is hoped to have the fleet arrive at New York on Washington's birthday, F February 22, thus giving the celebration there double significance.
 Rule Manipulation.
 The skill with which the leaders of the Senate can manipulate the rules is likely to be once more demonstrated with in the next few weeks, when 1t becomes obvious as it probably will, that there is no intention of passing the Penal Code bill on which many hours of the present session have already been spent.
 Senator Hepburn of Idaho, who has had previous experience with the Senate leaders, but who is not given to profiting by experience, has been working in sea- son and out for passage of the Penal Code bill. He has trampled on the pet hob bies of his colleagues in the Senate and has given interviews to the newspapers in his section of the country, telling how the bill under his charge is making great CT progress in weeks than it has before in years, and all the while the leaders have sat back and smiled at the guiless- ness of the Idaho senator who has as- stunned that because his bill had been made the unfinished business" it's pas sage was assured. A little thought given to the fact that the leaders were per- hitting the measure to become loaded with amendments might have suggested that the men who do things in the Senate did not intend to permit the measure to become a law, but MT. Hepburn has gone on in blissful ignorance of the facts, and he now believes that his measure is al- most a law, whereas it has little chance, much to the regret of the legal fraternity.
 Report on Creameries.
 There are approximately 5000 cream cries in the United States, making total of 500,OO0O00 pounds of butter annually. The average. net price per pound paid farmers for butter fat ranged from to 5 cents higher in 1907 than in 1906. This would indicate an increased return of 20 to 20 million dollars to the patrons for the year just passed.
 An interesting thing about the cream- cry business is the fact that 1900 of the 5000 creameries are cooperative plants. and the number of cooperative cream cries is constantly growing. The greater number of creameries thatssh have gone out of business for one reason or another in the past few years have been the in- dividual creameries, owned by individ- uals or corporations.
 Something over a thousand creameries, mainly in the middle northwest have reported the results of the past years