Jasper County Democrat, Volume 5, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 October 1902 — WASHINGTON GOSSIP [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

WASHINGTON GOSSIP

£y| The State and War Departments are ;»|teriously considering the act of the Ventsuelan government in using an American flag on the gunboat Restaurador to .Apceße the people of Ciudad Bolivar, #hen that city was bombarded Sept. 30. President Castro at once granted the •pology demanded by United States Minister Bowen, but there are questions involved which Secretary Hay says cannot be settled so easily. International law on the subject permits a nation to use the flag of a, neutral nation in time of war, but the peculiar relations existing between the United States and South American countries makes this case an entirely new one. Besides this the flag was used in the River Orinoco, within the three-mile limit, not 4)11 the high seas, making another irregularity in the case. “ '.. Attorney General Knox has discovered defects in the Panama Canal Company’s title to Colombian concessions which, it is thought, may prevent the sale of the company’s property to the United States. A six j ears’ extension of the original concession by the Colombian government in 1898 fniled to have the approval of the Congress, the country being under martial law. The rebels at that time declared their intention of repudiating the extension, and the question is still unsettled. The War Department has decided to the manufacture of disappearing ''gun carriages for 8-inch, 10-inch and 12inch guns, and stop mounting G-inch guns on disappearing carriages, as the development of rapid-fire G-inch guns has made it necessary to mount them on barbette carriages. Gunners are to be paid more as an inducement to expert mechanics to engage in the service, and they are also to be provided with better protection in the form of small movable shields. The totals of the naval estimates for 1904, made public, are over $9,000,000 less than the amount asked for by SeeretwciL Long last year. The estimates include a $.>,000 annual appropriation for a new civilian expert advocated by the ordnance department, for the gun factory at Washington. It is claimed that work suffers from the constant shifting of the officers in charge. Three new ships asked for are two steel and one wooden training Vessel propelled by sail. The treasury report for the first quarter of the fiscal year shows that the June deficit of $9,000,000 is entirely wiped ont, and the excess of receipts for the months was $9,009,909. Customs receipts for September show an increase of $7,000,000 over the same month of last year. Internal revenue increase is over $2,000,000. The total gold fund is now $590,500,825, the largest sum of gold ever held by the treasury, or ever held in any one place in the world. The New York commissioner of labor, McMackin, reports that immigration during the past year lias surpassed all previous records, the number recorded at the port of New York being nearly 500,000. He attributes this to improved conditions, offering large attractions to this country, and to the industrial depression prevalent in European countries. The contracts for carrying the mails by pneumatic tube service in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago and St. I-ouis have been awarded by the Postoffice Department to local companies in those cities. The agreements provide that the total nrnount paid for the service in all cities shall not exceed SBOO,OOO a year, the amount which Congress has allowed. Admiral Bradford, chief of the equipment bureau of the navy, states that he has on hand.about 100,000 tons of coal, distributed throughout the coaling stations and navy yards, besides contracts which insure to naval vessels an adequate supply ns long as there is nny coal to be had, and at the same low prices paid in the past. Secretary of the Treasury Shaw has announced to all employes under his department that participation in partisan politics will not be tolerated by the United States government. He says no person is under obligation .to contribute to nny political fund, nnd no person will be removed for refusing to do so.

The War Department hns ordered the establishment of schools at every post in tlie army for the instruction of officers, including nil lieutenants and captains of less than ten years’ service 11s commissioned officers. The plan is to give thorough technical training in all branches of knowledge relating to the military profession. The anual report of the commissijnqr of pensions shows a gnin during the yenr of 5,732 names, the totul enrollment now being 999,440. The amount paid is $137,504,2G8. The total cost of pensions since the beginning of the government is given ns $2,992,509,019, exclusive of the establishment of soldiers’ homes. William Nelfloh Cromwell, counsel for the new Panama Ounal Company, returned from Paris, asserting that the titles to the Panama property were good, lie said it only now remained for the United States to perfect a treaty with Colombia. The steel floating dock at Havana, brought there by the Spaniards nnd sold to the United States for $275,000, has broken, and it is estimated that repairs will cost SIOO,OOO. It Is observed by officials of the government service that the proportion oT women in the public employ is gradually Increasing. The ratio of appointments of men nnd women is about the same, but practically no women leave their places to take employment elsewhere. The naval board which witnessed ths battleship Maine’s speed trial reports that an average of eighteen knots an hour was maintained, but that the conditions of the trial were unsatisfactory.