Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1910-02-17

The Maine members OF tHe SeHdle
and the House have had a busy Feb
ruary All of them have been engaged
t. I. greater on less extent in commit
tee work. Both the Senate and the
the House ar" behind with their com
nlitt.c work with the consequence that
neither body has been able to work as
continuously rs it could have done had
the preliminary work on blllS nave
been DISPOSED Of Then all OF them
have considerable departmental work
to at end to at this time Of year and
that cupies much of their time in The
forenor rs.
Repl sentative Burleigh has been
attending. to some odds and ends of
legislation before the census commit
tee, ne, essary to complete the ar
rangeme ITS for taking the census III
April. ! re appearance of the enum-
orators all over Maine, asking ques-
tions of he people incident to an EMU
meraEiol of the population. is hardly
six Neel away. But when the enum
orators we completed their work. the
onerati of the Census Bureau here
in Wa gton will have only begun.
The of tabulating the records,
gather y the enumerators, will oc-
cupy II. weeks and extensive pre-
paratiol re Necessary. not only Tor
the tabi on Of the records as Speedl-
ly Gs p, lie but for getting the re-
PORTS p y. Representative Bur
leigh W member of the census
commit, years ago. when it vas
tacl1ling ms similar to those
which il as to deal.
ReDrese i\ Allen of the first Dis
trict. Just u. ned from visit to
Portland. w. e he attended the Lin
coin Day ,rtebratiOn of the Union
League club. is having his annual
trial with tn. Indian appropriation
bill, the pre,,aeA.iun of which for the
House. invo es a lot of labor. Rep
rcSCntative uernsey of the Fourth
District is ST king to advance a bill t.
allow states Ia deposits in The saw
in%s department! of national banks.
the same as saw IS in savings banks
and trust compa1 les are taxed. Rep
sentative SWas, of the second Dis
trict has been L. oring with a ship
subsidy hill on ich there have been
numerous hearins in the committee
on merchant MAJ ne and fisheries.
The Senate post0ffice committee has
expressed its opinion in adverse terms
OF the "Spauiding claims 50 called,
affecting additional salaries of post
masters who served between 1864 and
1874. AS was recently pointed out in
these letters there is q number OF
these claimants in practically every
county OF Maine. They are surviving
postmasters OF Maine cities and towns
and the heirs and assis S of those who
are deceased. IL has been stated iii
the Senate that, at j Il some of these
Claimants have bee. Encouraged tc
contribute to firm attorneys in
| Washington for the u ose of paying
the expense of keeping these claims
alive and fer pressing them before
| Congress.
II was largely at The suggestion of
senator Hale. some weeks ago, that
me whole matter was referred to the
senate committee on pOstoffices and
postroads, of which Senator Penrose
! OF pennsylvania is CHI man, for an
Nes'leation and report senator Pen
rose has found that IL ,laims are
without any standing, which means
| mat 1t IS futile for tn claimants to
encourage claims attorneys to collect
the sums alleged to have been due 1t
has been repeatedly stated that the
postmasters' serving between 1864 and
1874, had been paid by d government
all the money to which ley were le-
gally entitled; also thht he alleged
claims were based upen| lnterpreta-
ton OF law which Isl MT officially
sanctioned.
II Because of the actNAtv OF late in
trying to revive these CLAIMS an en-
ployee of the Senate. has cen dis
missed and there hasbeen 4 nfavora-
Bile gossip about the intrests Wes-
tern senator in them. Maj. Estes G..
hathbone. once fourtl assistant post
master general, who fiji into Disgrace
IN Cuba and was dismissed theh from
MS posinon as director of posS, has
been trying to obtain legislatioa that !
would PERMIT of the auditing # the |
claims. It is not charged that h. is at
all to blfne, for his activities or sup
posed tolhave been entirely hcnTapie.
NeNTrthdeSS. the Senate has ,ut
qu'etus anon the claims and II 10
doHbttuil whether any further eHof'