64 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



THE SILVER ELEMENT SHOWS 

 ITS TEETH. 



The revenue bill passed the House by 

 205 to 81, some Democrats voting with 

 the Republicans in favor of the measure. 

 As passed, the bill repeals the present 

 tariff law until August 1, 1898. It re- 

 stores 60 per cent of the McKinley rates 

 on wool and woolens, lumber and carpets, 

 and makes a horizontal increase of the 

 present rates in all other schedules, ex- 

 cept sugar, of 15 per cent. The House 

 passed the Republican (gold) bond bill by 

 169 to 136. It was on this bill that the 

 silver element showed its strength and its 

 disposition. Democrats and Populists 

 voted solidly against the measure, and 

 were aided by forty-seven Republicans, 

 several of them from the South and all the 

 others from the West and Northwest. 

 The President and Secretary Carlisle of 

 course tight both these bills. Silver rules 

 the Senate and the bond bill stands little 

 chance there, but men like Senator Thurs- 

 ton of Nebraska are of the opinion that, 

 after lengthy debate, the revenue bill will 

 pass. If it does, the President may allow 

 it to become a law without his signature. 



In advance of anything Congress may 

 attempt in regard to the gold bond bill, 

 the President has decided to issue $100- 

 000,000 more 4 per cent thirty-year bonds. 



ANOTHER CHICAGO REDUCTION COMPANY. 



Certificates of organization has just 

 been issued to the American Reduction 

 Company, at Chicago; capital stock, $150,- 

 000; to mine, smelt and reduce ores. The 

 incorporators are Walter J. Doere, J. A. 

 Pollock and S. S.Willard. 



A CRISIS IN THE INTERSTATE COMMERCE LAW. 



The Interstate Commerce law is ap- 

 proaching a crisis. The case filed in 

 New York against the Joint Traffic Asso- 

 ciation will make it or break it. The 

 Government will do its utmost to sustain 

 the law. Thirty railway companies own- 

 ing and operating nearly 31,000 miles of 

 road and capitalized at $1,000,000,000, 

 are combined against it, The Government 

 is by no means certain of success. Much 

 depends upon a decision in what is called 

 the Brown case, to be made early this 

 month in the United States Supreme 



Court. This decision will determine for 

 good the right of the Commission to com- 

 pel railway men and shippers to testify. 

 If the Brown case is lost the Interstate 

 Commerce act is lost and the Commission 

 is lost with it. 



AFTER THE BEEF COMBINE. 



Kenesaw M. Landis, formerly private 

 secretary to Secretary Gresham, has been 

 appointed a special assistant United States 

 attorney for the Northern District of 

 Illinois to appear in behalf of the Govern- 

 ment in the prosecution of the beef com- 

 bine among Chicago packers. His duty 

 will be to direct the investigation now in 

 progress. When Secretary Morton was 

 in Chicago some time ago he expressed a 

 desire to proceed with more rapidity in 

 the investigation. He had several con- 

 ferences with the men employed to secure 

 evidence. Col. L. Monroe Haskell, of 

 the Department of Justice, and Edward 

 Sheldon, of the Agricultural Department, 

 have been in Chicago for a long time look- 

 ing into the charges against the combine, 

 and have made frequent trips out of the 

 city. Mr. Landis will, as Gen. Black's 

 assistant, look after the legal end of the 

 work. A great mass of convincing evi- 

 dence will be presented to the Grand 

 Jury which has been called for January 

 14. A large number of cattle men from 

 all over the West will be present and testify 

 before the Grand Jury. The packers 

 have retained able counsel and will make 

 a hot contest. 



GETTING THEIR LANDS BACK. 



Judge Randolph, in the District Court 

 at Emporia, Kan., has decided that a deed 

 cannot be given after foreclosure and sale 

 by the sheriff, and instead ordered a simple 

 certificate of purchase. The plaintiff will 

 take the case to the Supreme Court. This 

 decision will save to the citizens of Lyons, 

 Chase and Coffey counties alone over half 

 a million dollars, as it means that in a 

 majority of the cases which have been 

 foreclosed and embraced under this act 

 the debtor may pay into court the price at 

 which the land was bid in, together with 

 the interest, cost and taxes, and get the 

 land clear. 



