The searchlight. [volume] (Culbertson, Mont.) 1902-current, 1912-06-07
CONGRESS HAS
A BUSY DAY
NELSON GETS $3.50 q MONTH PEN
SION FOR WIDOW OF 40
M,RAI ScHLEY.
NEW OCEAN SAFETY BILL
Senate Restores eattieship Provision
TO Naval Appropristion-costs
Six Dollars to Battle a U. S.
Senator.


Washington, June 5. - With tears
shining in his eyes and his voice
broken with the emotion he felt, Sen
ator Nelson paid a tribute to the men,
DRY of Admiral Schley, and contribut-
ed in great measure toward inducing
the United States senate to break an
established precedent and vote an un-
usually large pension to the widow of
the admiral.
This action by the senate followed
speeches by Senator Raynor of Mary
land, directly on behalf of Admiral
Schley's widow, and that OF Senator
Nelson, who spoke eloquentiy and
avowedly as a representative of the
fighting soldiers Of the Civil war. The
action was also taken in the face of
protest by Senator McCumber OF
North Dakota, chairman of the senate
pension committee, who declared that
10 vote a pension of $3.50 a month to
Schley's widow would be an injustice
TO the many widows of officers of the
army and navy to whom the uniform
sum of $50 a month had invariably
been voted by congress. Attention
was called to the fact that the widow
of General Joseph r. Hawley OF Con-
| necticut, who was for many years a
senator of the United States, had been
denied pension of $50 a month.
The senate rejected the policy of
the committee on pensions, and by a
decisive vote increased the pension of
Mrs. Schley to $3.50 a month.
ocean Safety Act
An all-inclusive bill. to be denom-
mated THE Ocean Safety Act of 1872"
7 designed to cover all the navigation
I lessons drawn from the Titanic disas-
ter, was introduced by Senator Nelson
! of Minnesota, chairman of the com.
merce committee, which, through a
/ subcommittee. investigated that dis
aster.
The bill includes stringent regula-
tons for better wireless equipment,
continuously operated, on ocean and
Great Lakes vessels, carrying so or
more persons, just as provided in a
bill which passed the house yesterday
and almost identical with a bill al.
/ ready passed by the senate. This
! wireless section vests control of the
apparatus in the master of the vessel,
/ and TO avoid the wireless communica-
ton being shut off by failure of the
vessels engines, requires a powerful
auxiliary power supply that can COM
municate 100 miles at all times.
The Nelson bill would recognize for.
eign steamships laws whenever they
are as effective as American laws and
regulations; would equip every pas
senger craft leaving an American port
with sufficient life boats to accommo.
date everybody aboard, together with
other safety equipments, and would
create commission of five persons to
investigate here and abroad merchant
marine construction. 1t would require
rigid port examination, boat drills, de
fine qualifications of seamen, penalize
failure to assist any person in dis
tress at sea and make criminaly liza
BILE any master, managing ownes
steamship director or principal resi-
dent agent of foreign steamship fol
sending from an American port a yes
sci SO unseaworthy as to endangel
life.
Provide for Battleships.
The senate committee on naval af
fairs restored to the naval appropria
ton bill provision for two battleships
stricken out by the house.
T.. aIA IN hn hnf h.
senate committee provides for eigh
submarine torpedo boats instead o
four voted by the house; retains tn,
house provision for six torpedo boa
destroyers, two fuel ships. one to b,
built In Pacific coast navy yard:
tender to destroyers and a submarine
tender.
The committee struck out the hous,
eight-hour restriction on government
contract work; adopted an amendmeu
incorporating the Hobson plan 70
creation of a national council for de
tense; and provided the grades Of ad
miral and yice-admiral for the com
manders-in-chief and second officers Il
command. In the Atlantic and Pacif
fleets, while they held such com
mands.
The committee fixes the terms of al
enlisted men Of the navy at four year
with provision for voluntary extension
Of service; authorizes the secretary I
buy war material abroad in an emel
gency. and provides for the millio
dollar round the world wireless system
which the house threw out of the bill
Charging that it costs Sc to bath
q senator in the luxurious bath room
in the senate Office building. Senate
John Sharp Williams of Mississippi
renewed the agitation for the remova
of the baths to make place for publ
documents.