SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS 



MATTERS OF SCIENTIFIC INTEREST IN CONGRESS^ 



The Senate and House adjourned sine die on November 19, and the 

 Sixty-sixth Congress convened for the regular session on December i, 

 1919. 



The bill to provide for an international conference on international 

 communication (H. R. 9822), which is expected to have to deal with 

 many technical questions such as wireless wave-lengths, has progressed 

 to final action. It was reported in the Senate without further amend- 

 ment and passed December 8, and was signed by the President on 

 December 17 as Public Law No. 100. 



On December 6 Mr. vSutherland introduced S. 3496: "To amend 

 an Act entitled : 'An Act to provide compensation for employees of the 

 United States suffering injuries while in the performance of their 

 duties and for other purposes,' approved September 7, 191 6." The 

 importance of this legislation to the members of the scientific bureaus 

 has been recently emphasized by the accidental death of Mr. E. C. 

 McKelvy in one of the laboratories of the Bureau of Standards. 



The act which it is proposed to amend is Public Law No. 267, Sixty- 

 fourth Congress. The amendments provide, in addition to minor 

 changes in details, for an increase of fifty per cent in the maximum 

 and minimum monthly compensation; continuation of payments to a 

 widow for two years after her remarriage; more liberal terms of pay- 

 ment to dependent parents, brothers, sisters, or grandchildren; and 

 an increase from $100 to $150 per month as the maximum salary on 

 which compensation to dependents may be computed. New sections 

 provide for : payment of compensation to the heirs of a beneficiary w^ho 

 dies before he has received the amount due him; vocational education 

 of an employee permanently disabled for work at his former occupa- 

 tion; maintenance of a temporarily disabled employee's right to rein- 

 statement; and reduction of hazards by the aid of a safety engineer 

 to be emplo3^ed by the Com.pensation Commission. The bill was re- 

 ferred to the Committee on Education and Labor. 



On December 5 Director Van H. Manning of the Bureau of Mines 

 requested an appropriation of $100,000 to conduct an investigation 

 into the ventilation of tunnels and subways for motor vehicles. The 

 Secretary of the Interior also asked for ^725,000 for the Bureau of 

 Mines, with which to carry on a fuel inspection service to assure con- 

 sumers that they get the grade of coal for which they pay. 



1 Preceding report: This Journal 9: 645. 1919- 



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