Jasper County Democrat, Volume 6, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 October 1903 — WASHINGTON GOSSIP [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

WASHINGTON GOSSIP

The famous Marine band, after an ex* latence of 100 years, may be forced to fall to pieces. The Federation of Musi-

clans, having affiliated with the American Federation of Labor, attempted Inst year to get a resolution through Congress the effect of which would have been to forbid any member of the Marine band to play at any performance in civil life for pay. The resolution failed, bnt the must-

clans, with the hacking of the Federation of Labor, are going to try it again next year. The unions object to the Marine band because it* members are employes of the government, but Lieut. Santleman says that of twehty-seven members of the local musicians’ union, which instigated the war on the band, seventeen are government clerks drawing more than SI,OOO a year each and the pay of some of them runs up to $2,000 a year. Some time ago the inusleians of the Marine baud applied for membership in the local musicians’ union. Their applications, fees, etc., were returned to them without any explanation. It appears that the Federation of Musicians has a clause in its bylaws which forbids members to play with any enlisted man of the United States army or navy.

Brig. Gen. Funston,' in command of the department of the Columbia, in his nnnual report made public at the WarDepartment had this to say of the enlisted man: “To get and keep a good class of men there must be a radical increase in the pay of the rank and file. There is no disguising the fact that recruits are obtained with difficulty, nnd that most of them are not satisfactory. Few men re-enlist, while the number of desertions and dishonorable discharges is phenomenal. The government cannot gtet something for nothing. The pay of the enlisted men of the army is ridiculously small. The wonder is, not that so few men enlist nnd that so small a percentage of them re-enlist after three years, but that we obtain and keep so many really good men as we do. In many parts of the United States Ignorant, unskilled laborers, working by the day, are able to save above their board and clothing twice the amount received by a private soldier on his second enlistment, and yet only a small percentage of these men could pass the test In a recruiting office. If the pay of a private on his first enlistment were made to approach that of a farm laborer, I am of the opinion that there would be a sufficient number of enlistments of a very superior class —young men from the farms, who are usually of good physique and have a common school education, and are not so much addicted to intemperate habits as men recruited in the cities.”

Congress will bp asked to appropriate at the coming session $102,860,449.34 for the support and increase of the navy during the next fiscal year. This is an increase of more than $23,000,000 over the appropriation for the preseut year, and contemplates an expenditure of $23,826,860 for the construction of new warships and $12,000,000 for armor and armament for new ships. The estimates also include an item of $250,000 for a naval training station on the great lakes. The earnest desire of the Secretary of the Navy and others who have conferred with him upon the upbuilding of the navy for n generous allowance for new vessels is demonstrated in the request upon Congress to allow over $23,000,000 next year for additions to the navy, whereas the appropriation for new ships during the present year was only $8,000,000. In other words, Secretary Moody will urge Congress to grant nearly three times as much money for new warships next year ns was allowed this year.

A systematic and extensive violation of the contract labor law hns been discovered by the Bureau of Immigration, and steps are being taken to deport a number of immigrants, some of whom have already arrived and others due at New York in n day or two. The immigrants are Welsh coa! miners, persuaded to come to the United States by advertisements for 3,000 miners, who are promised from 16 to 25 shillings a day. The Bureau of Immigration has collected evidence which shows that the advertisement was inserted by agents of a Pennsylvania coal company, the miners being brought over in violation of the contract law. It is charged that the Welshmen were lured on by photographs of the surface of the collieries and the best buildings of the town, which was described as the “garden spot of America.” 'w“ : * Reports which are daily received by the War Department show that as a result of the new regulations for smallarm firing the men are acquiring wonderful proficiency. These regulations require the men not only to hit the bull's eye but to estimate distances up to 10 per cent of a thousand yards. In firing outside the target range at dummies the reports state that the results have been remarkable. According to census figures in the countries where the postal union exists 50,000,000 letters were undelivered in 1901, and of 28,000.000 of these even the senders could not be traced. Laying astern 1,185 miles of the trouble! Atlantic at an average rate of fifteen knots an honr and for one stretch of fifty hours cutting the blue waters at the rate of 16.7 knots an hoar, the- new battleship Maine the other day completed an extremely fast endurance run. Hen performance stamps her the fastest American battleship now in commlatiom although the five of the Virginia daal building will doubtleea excel the Maine in long cruises. The ran was made M I Jest the boilers,

LIEUT SANTLEMAN