Receipts and Expenditures.-The fiscal transactions of the government for the quarter ended September 30, show a deficit of $25,194,129, expenditures being $104,369,679, while receipts amounted to only $79,175,550. Details are given as follows: It should be noted that the volume of expenditures. was unusually large owing to the payment of $5,000,000 for sugar bounties under the recent decision of the supreme court (p. 484). Monetary Circulation. The total circulation of the country on September 30, including all money coined or issued and not in the treasury, was $1,582,302,299-a per capita of $22.05. Details of the circulation are given in the following table: " On September 1 the Indian Territory passed from under alien judicial jurisdiction, and its people came into possession of their right to be tried by a jury of their peers. The event marked an important stage in development, and was celebrated by mass-meetings during September. By the law of March 1, 1889, a United States court was established at Muskogee, which had criminal jurisdiction only over offenses not punishable by death or by imprisonment at hard labor. Such offenses were to be tried only by the United States courts at Fort Scott, Ark., Paris, Tex., and Wichita, Kan., the territory being divided and assigned to the said courts for the purpose. Delays, miscarriages of justice, and other abuses were unavoidable under this system. Acccordingly the 53d congress, early in 1895 (Vol. 5, p. 104), passed a law perfecting the judicial system of the territory, increasing the number of judicial districts from one to three, and providing that after September 1, 1896, the courts in Kansas, Arkansas, and Texas should be relieved of their jurisdiction. As it is, however, the powers of the United States courts in the territory are limited to cognizance only of crimes and controversies in which United States citizens participate. Where both parties in the case are Indians,the United States courts have no jurisdiction. "Offenses committed by one Indian upon the person or property of another Indian are still referred to the tribal courtswhich fact is pleasing to the Five Civilized Tribes, who still cling tenaciously to their courts and their autonomous governments. That the tribes, however, are making some progress toward complete investment with United States citizenship, is seen in the recent election among the Choctaws and Chickasaws, which resulted in a victory for those favoring "an equal division of lands and tribal This election is noted as "the first break in property." the solid front hitherto presented by the Five Civilized Tribes against allotments." During the latter half of August there was serious trouble in the Seminole nation due to an outbreak of hostilities between the full-blood natives and the "squaw men," or white men who have married into the tribe and thus acquired grants of land, arousing the jealousy of the full-bloods. A recent law of the Seminole council provided for the expulsion of all white men; and the attempt to enforce this law caused the outbreak. Quiet was restored by the dispatch of federal troops to the scene of the disturbance. The annual report of the commissioner of Indian affairs for the past year, shows very satisfactory progress in Indian education in the government and industrial training schools. There were enrolled in all schools, 23,352 pupils. The Indians are also becoming adepts in handicrafts, receiving during the year over $500,000 from the government in pay for work done. THE NAVY. Bids for New Battleships.-The bids for building the three new battleships Pennsylvania, California, and Alabama, were opened September 14. The sums bid were surprisingly low, and the number of bidders larger than was expected. Congress had appropriated $3,750,000 for each ship. No speed premium is offered, but a forfeit of $25,000 is to be exacted of the builders for every quarter-knot in which the speed falls below the required fourteen knots an hour. There were five bidders, and the average bid was $2,650,000, being more than a million dollars lower than the appropriation. This is an encouraging indication that shipbuilding is developing great facilities, and that. several firms have the enormous plants required for such vast enterprises. Compared with bids made six years ago, those of to-day seem still more remarkable. Then, when the ships of the Oregon class were to be built, the Cramps of Philadelphia bid $1,000,000 more for building a ship of 10,288 tons than they bid to-day for a ship of 11,325 tons. Another noteworthy fact is that the bids for ships of the new class approximate each other so closely. There is a difference of only $85,000 between the highest and the lowest bids for the new vessels, while in 1890 the difference was one of $285,000. The successful bidders for the proposed battleships are the Newport News Dry Dock and Shipbuilding Company, the Union Iron Works of San Francisco, and William Cramp & Sons of Philadelphia. The highest bid is $2,674,500; and the lowest, $2,595,000. Each of the proposed vessels will embody the best features of the three classes of ships built heretofore, which are represented respectively by the Indiana, the Iowa, and the Kearsarge. Instead, however, of 8-inch guns, which those vessels carry, the new ones are to have a battery of 6-inch rapid-firing guns. The armor is to be of Harveyized steel. The length is to be 368 feet; extreme beam 72 feet; and displacement 11,325 tons. Trial Trip of the "Brooklyn."-The official test of speed of the new cruiser Brooklyn was made off Cape Ann on August 27. The course was eighty-three knots, and the vessel succeeded in making an average speed of 21.92 knots an hour. This attainment makes her the fastest cruiser in our navy. The boiler pressure during the test was 160 pounds, and the average revolutions a minute 138 with a maximum of 140. So perfectly was the ship constructed that, although the pressure was great and the speed extraordinary, those on board felt no vibrations. Her builders, the Cramps, receive a speed premium of $350,000. The Ram 66 Katahdin.' 1."-This celebrated ram, which was built by the Bath (Me.) Iron Works with the intention of producing an unusually valuable coast defense, is now regarded by experts as possessing less effectiveness than is required of a vessel of this character. That she is well built there can be no question; but, as she does not come up to the required speed of seventeen knots an hour, she is too slow to cope with vessels of the Blake class in the British navy. Moreover, her prow is too high to strike below the armor of the more recent war ships. Rapid Firing at Sea.-In the latter part of September the North Atlantic squadron introduced an innovation, which consisted in each ship steaming past a target at a speed of nine knots an hour and firing as rapidly as was consistent with a good aim. The following figures afford a comparison of the ability of the several ships to fire heavy projectiles rapidly: The New York fired seventeen shots in 20 minutes. The Raleigh, six shots in 10:40 minutes. The Columbia, three shots in 9:17 minutes. This practice showed one thing conclusively, that there is danger, particularly among the fastest of our battleships, that the ammunition would in a battle become quickly exhausted. Space for ammunition has in many cases been sacrificed to appliances for increasing speed. The consequence is that many of the fastest vessels of our navy are capable of a speed which they would have no opportunity to attain in battle, while they could carry too little ammunition to last through a severe naval encounter. LABOR INTERESTS. The Cleveland Strike.-For the past three months. the city of Cleveland, O., has been the scene of a labor conflict attended by many acts of outlawry and by some bloodshed. The history of the origin and progress of this important struggle is summarized as follows: Early in May, the boiler-makers of the Brown Hoisting and Conveying Machine Company, having refused to work over time without receiving the extra pay customary for such work in the city, were discharged. Next, the helpers in the boiler-shop, having refused to do boiler-makers' work while still paid only helpers' wages, were also discharged. Next, Mr. Fergus, machinist, was asked to drive rivets as a boiler-maker. He began to do it, and, his mind troubling him, he consulted four old employés in the machine shop as to his duty. They all advised him to do as he liked, but they for themselves would not do boiler-makers' work while the boiler-makers were discharged for asking the customary half extra pay for over-work. Fergus thereupon told Hess, the foreman, that he would not continue to drive rivets. Hess sent him back to his lathe, and the next day ordered Fergus and Robinson, two machinists, to chip off and trim up and make workman-like some rivets which helper and "scab" boilermakers had botched. Both refused, and were thereupon discharged. A committee of three from the machinists then went to request of Alex. E. Brown, general manager, the reinstatement of Robinson and Fergus, also extra half-pay for over-time, and a Saturday half-holiday. He declined to receive them as a committee. Then, before the committee could report to the men, and just before noon whistle, a lockout order discharging all employés, between 700 and 800, was posted. The men met in a field, and, reading the lockout order, which specified that each individual man might apply for employment, and, if satisfactory, would be re-employed as an individual, resolved unanimously that none would go back unless all could go back on terms satisfactory to all. All stayed out till July 27, except some deserters, who either could not wait for work or who were won over by promises. On the date mentioned, an agreement of settlement was effected through the good offices of the Ohio state board of arbitration and conciliation-by terms of which all the late employés were to be taken back as fast as work could be furnished, and all other things the men had desired were granted, except the one point of right to be heard by shop committee. |