Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1912-12-14
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CAPITAL JOTTINGS.

/
| Rear Admiral W. IL, III. Switzerland,
! who. next, March, will be succeeded by
/ Rear Admiral w. c. Cowles as commana-
! er-in-chief of the Pacific fleet, will go to
| Washington for duty with the general
board of the navy.
| The new nickel, with an artistic Indian
head on the face, will be in circulation,
according to the expectations of the
treasury department, by Feb. /. See.
! MacVeagh has definitely accepted the de-
sign. Within day an order will be given
| the mints to begin making the new coin.
High. hats will probably be higher.
| The. treasury department has ruled
| that the conventional silk hat must
| pay the duty of goods in part Of
| wooi," because the under brim anu
| band contain wooden material. The
| duty consequently will be Al cents
per pound and 60 per cent. ad valorem
instead of only 50 per cent. ad Valo-
rem, which many ports have assessed
under the silk schedule. Collector Loeb
at New York raised the question.
The Interstate Commerce Commission
ruled, Friday that under the act making
telegraph and telephone companies COM
mon carriers, it has jurisdiction over
wireless messages from commercial sta
ton in the United States to ships at sea,
whether a United States or foreign
ship, but that it has no jurisdiction over
messages between two American ships at
sea. The effect of the ruling is that the
commission may retermine, in the event
of complaint, whether charges are rea-
sonable.
BY temporary legislation the navy de-
partment has tided over until next ses-
sion the question as to whether it would
be necessary to withdraw all the naval
craft from the Great Lakes because of
difficulty of having necessary repairs
made to keep them in service. Repairs
on the Dorothea at Cleveland have been
arranged for with a firm willing to COM
ply with the S-hour law requirements on
this job. Navy officials hope that by next
year lake shipbuilding concerns will have
adopted the s-hour day, and there will
be no further difficulty in having repair
work done on the naval vessels on the
lakes.
Oscar Oleson, an aviator of the war
departments aviation field at College
Park, near Washington, Friday, isl
suffering from bruises and shock as
the result of narrow escape from div
ing in mis- machine into a fast flying
express train. The aeroplane's engine
failed, Thursday, when Oleson was
beginning a fight and when he was
only 100 feet up. He promptly sought
to make a gliding descent, but the APP
proach of the train which was directly
iii his path came near to causing Il
tragedy AS it was, Oleson grazed the
top of the cars and fell into pond
from which he was rescued by on
lockers.
Some phases of the new wireless law
which became effective, Friday, will
not be actually enforced for several
days because the department of com
merce and labor at Washington has
not been able to complete all the pre-
liminary arrangements. There has
been some delay at the government
printing Office in getting out enough
licenses for all wireless operators on
ship and land. One of the salient fea-
lures of the law is that all operators
shall hold government permit. Inc
war, navy and commerce and labor
departments are cooperating to per-
feet the arrangements quickly, DIS
some of the naval and military sta
tons on the South Atlantic, Pacific
and Alaska coasts will now be avail
able for commercial business.
The wooden frigate Nipsic. for several
years past prison ship at the Bremerton
Wash, navy yard. is to be offered for
sale within few weeks. The vessel
was launched in 1879 and performed many
important duties on the Pacific coast and
in the Orient. She survived the typhoon
in Samoa in March, 1889. when three 9th
er warships sank. The Nipsic is of 5000
tons displacement and formerly carried
Al officers and 800 men.
Washington, Dec. 13.-Representative
Benz. johnson of Kentucky introduced in
the House, today, a sensational resolu-
ton calling for a congressional investi-
CATION of the insurance department of
the District of Columbia, and has arrang
ed to speak upon it on the floor, tonnor-
row Some local fire insurance compa-
MES in which men of political and social
prominence are interested are said to be
concerned.