Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 39, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 January 1907 — INDIANA LAWMAKERS. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

INDIANA LAWMAKERS.

Oklahoma’s star be added to theflag on July 4 nextyear "it the formal admission of the State to the I nioib takes place before that time. *flhe War and Navy Departments have agreed upon the arrangement of the forty-six stars, to accommodate the new one r and to make it easy to add two more when New Mexico and Arizona are admitted. The plan provides for four rows, of eight stars each, and two rows of seven stars each. The rows, of seven -are the second and fifth. The rows of seven can be made into rows of eight when the other territories are admitted, and the arrangement will then beabsolutely regular. Brigadier General Arthur Murray, chief-of .artillery, in his annual report, says that both the coast and field artillery are deficient In both personnel and material, and that neither is even in approximately proper condition for instruction in time of peace, much less in condition for efficient service in time of war. He also says that it will take years to put either in good condition. He estimates that the proper ffeTense "orinsiihrt’ ports873.895, and that the cost of proper defense at the entrances of the Panama Canal will cost $4,827,682. About 120 tons of paid money orders are annually filed in the office of the auditor of the Postofiice Department, requiring more than 5,000 feet of shelving to file them accessibly. The law requires these orders to be kept seven years, but the tremendous accumulation is expensive in rent for the necessary storage room, and the Secretary of the Treasury and the Postmaster General have united in a request to Congress for authorization to destroy the files after five years. The number of money orders have increased about 85 per cent in the last six years.

Secretary of the Interior Hitchcock has finally refused to rescind the order withdrawing Indian lands from entry for forest reserve purposes, as requested by a committee of senators. The senators are exceedingly angry over this refusal, as they regard the order as amounting to a suspension of the federal statute. Secretary Hitchcock gays that his action has been sustained by the Department of Justice and that It will stand unless modified by Congress. Before the end of the present year, it is expected that all of the negro troops will be serving in the Philippines, as an order by the Secretary of War directs that the Twenty-fifth Infantry and the Ninth and Tenth Cavalry, which are the only three negro regiments now in this country, shall proceed to the Philippines during 1907. This is in pursuance of the recommendation from General Wood. Mr. William H. Moody is not the first Attorney General to be promoted to the Supreme Court. Andrew Jackson made Roger B. Taney Chief justice, and William McKinley put Joseph McKenna on the bench. Mr. Moody is peculiar, however, in that he is one of the few bachelors to sit on the bench of the highest court, if not the only one. Afore than eleven and a half million pieces of mail found their way into the Dead Letter Office last year, and, as a further mark of our national carelessness they contained money, checks, money orders, drafts and other forms of exchange to the value of nearly $2,000,000. A large proportion of both mail and money is eventually restored to the senders. The pay of the army haq -not been changed in thirty years, while' the cqgt of living has almost doubled in that time. The Capron bill, which is now before Congress, and which is backed by the War Department, grants an increase of 20 per cent all along the line. It includes the navy, marine corps, and revenue marine service. Four warships now attached to the (Atlantic squadron, including the battle ships Kentucky and Kearaarge, are to be sent to Join the Pacific squadron. These, with the commissioning of other vessels, will double the strength of the Pacific fleet Thus is changed the policy of keeping all the larger warships on the Atlantic. Officers of the geological survey have lately announced that the coal fleposits tn America will not'Tbe exhausted for four or five thousand years. Since 1875 the country has produced more than five billion tons of coal, whereas its total production up to that date was only seven hundred million tons. The Internal Revenue Commissioner la overwhelmed with letters from farmers asking whether the manufacture of denatured alcohol on a small scale ia profitable. It has been necessary to print a circular explaining that the manufacture of alcohol requires expensive machinery, that a separate bonded warehouse will be required at each sac- * tory, and therefore only those who hare a considerable capital will find it profitable to go into the business.