INTERNATIONAL MARITIME CONFERENCE. MAY 1, 1912.-Referred to the House Calendar and ordered to be printed. Mr. MOORE of Pennsylvania, from the Committee on Foreign Affairs, submitted the following REPORT. [To accompany H. J. Res. 299.] The Committee on Foreign Affairs, to whom was referred H. J. Res. 299, proposing an international maritime conference, having considered the same in conjunction with H. J. Res. 303, authorizing and directing the Secretary of State to arrange an international conference for the protection of human life at sea, report H. J. Res. 299 to the House with certain amendments, with the recommendation that as amended it do pass. The obvious purpose of both resolutions is to bring about an international conference of the maritime nations so that an agreement with regard to the operation of vessels at sea, for the better protection of life and property, may be effected. The shocking incidents of the Titanic disaster in midocean on the night of April 14 last and the morning following have not only horrified the civilized world, but have revealed an absence of precautionary measures and regulations in ocean transportation that apparently can be corrected only by international agreement. The United States by reason of boundary lines is limited in its jurisdiction, as necessarily is every other nation. The laws and regulations enacted by Congress, or upon its authority, fall short of control over many of the problems presented by the Titanic disaster, and there is reason to believe that some of the other great nations would welcome an international conference to discuss and, if possible, agree upon regulations affecting aids to navigation, life-saving devices, an ocean patrol, wireless telegraphy, the adoption of lane routes, and other measures. Many of these are enumerated in H. J. Res. 299, and to them have been added, by way of amendment, certain other suggestions contained in H. J. Res. 303, so that as now reported H. J. Res. 299 not only specifies a variety of topics for consideration by an international conference, but leaves the field clear for the discussion of such other subjects as may occur to the international conferees because of the Titanic disaster or as a result of modern experience in shipbuilding and navigation. It is believed that the passage of H. J. Res. 299, as amended and now favorably reported to the House, will meet with the approval of foreign maritime nations and will respond to the public demand in the United States for immediate action by Congress to provide, so far as it may have power to do so, the most efficient safeguards to human life on the high seas. The passage of the resolution requesting the President to communicate the result of the preliminary correspondence to the present Congress will do much to allay the public feeling resulting from the Titanic horror in this and other countries. Moreover, it is evident that the increasing size of merchant vessels and the changed conditions in direction and management require early action on the part of the nations if they can be brought to an agreement for the protection of the officers and crews of trans-Atlantic vessels as well as for the cabin and steerage passengers. The prompt passage of the resolution will mean a forward step by the United States in a matter of great international concern. AMENDMENTS. On page 2, line 5, after the word "navigation," insert the following: "the establishment of a patrol system in the region of ice, or elsewhere, or of a system of convoys for ocean-going vessels, or of a relief station at Cape Race or elsewhere, or of lane routes to be followed by trans-Atlantic steamers." In section 2, page 2, line 8, strike out the words "the next session of," and in the same line, after the word "Congress," insert "at the earliest possible time." VALIDITY OF CERTAIN HOMESTEAD ENTRIES. MAY 2, 1912.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union and ordered to be printed. Mr. PRAY, from the Committee on the Public Lands, submitted the following REPORT. [To accompany H. R. 21826.] The Committee on the Public Lands having had under consideration the bill (H. R. 21826) validating certain homestead entries; report the same back with recommendation that it be amended by striking out all after the enacting clause and inserting the following in lieu thereof: That all pending homestead entries made in good faith prior to September first, nineteen hundred and eleven, under the provisions of the enlarged homestead laws, by persons who, before making such enlarged homestead entry, had acquired title to a technical quarter section of land under the homestead law, and therefore were not qualified to make an enlarged homestead entry, be, and the same are hereby, validated, if in all other respects regular, in all cases where the original homestead entry was for less than one hundred and sixty acres of land. The enlarged homestead law extends the benefits of the act to all "qualified homestead entrymen." A qualified homestead entryman is one who has not exhausted his rights under the homestead law; and in administering the enlarged homestead law the General Land Office held that anyone was entitled to the benefits of the act who had not secured an actual 160 acres under the homestead law; and under this construction, as shown by the letter of the Secretary of the Interior appended hereto, a number of entries were made in the Glasgow (Mont.) and other land districts. In a decision rendered July 18, 1911, by the Secretary of the Interior, it was held in substance that one who had secured under the homestead law a technical quarter section; that is, four fortys of land, was not a qualified homestead entryman under the enlarged homestead law, even though the land he had secured was less than 160 acres. This bill proposes to cure the comparatively few cases which are adversely affected by the decision of the department without making any attempt to overturn the decision as to future entries, it being the opinion of the committee that the decision is not antagonistic to the spirit of the enlarged homestead law. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, Hon. CHARLES N. PRAY, House of Representatives. MY DEAR MR. PRAY: I have the honor to acknowledge receipt of your letter of February 27, 1912, inclosing a petition to Congress, signed by Mr. Birt Warren and three other petitioners, of Plentywood, Mont., and argument in support thereof by Mr. J. J. Gunther, an attorney of the same place. * * * Pursuant to Mr. Gunther's request, you ask that this department express its views on the subject of the petition, namely, the validation of certain entries under the enlarged homestead act, heretofore held to be illegal; he also suggests that the department may be induced to revoke its decision on the class of entries referred to. The enlarged homestead acts of February 19, 1909 (35 Stat., 639), and June 17, 1910 (the Idaho act, 36 Stat., 531), provide "That any person who is a qualified entryman under the homestead laws of the United States may enter under the provisions of this act," etc. Under section 6 of the act of March 2, 1889 (25 Stat., 854), a person who has made proof and received the final receiver's receipt, in connection with a homestead entry for less than 160 acres, is entitled to make homestead entry for enough additional land to make up a total of 160 acres. In view of said statutory provision, the General Land Office had, in answer to inquiries, expressed the opinion that a person whose first perfected entry contained less than 160 acres, no matter how small the deficit, was a qualified entryman" within the meaning of the enlarged homestead acts, and was therefore entitled to make an entry for the full area of 320 acres. Under this view of the law, sundry persons in the Glasgow, Mont., district, as well as other districts, were allowed to make entries as indicated. The question of the validity of such entries came before the department in the case of Saavi Storaasli, and on July 18, 1911, it was held (syllabus): "The right to make enlarged homestead entry under section 1 of the act of February 19, 1909, is confined to persons qualified to make entry under the homestead laws of the United States, and one who acquired title under the general homestead law to a technical quarter section, even though containing slightly less than 160 acres, is not entitled to make entry under section 1 of the enlarged homestead act." This department considered the question very fully before rendering the decision on this point and sees no reason at this time for receding from its opinion. However, in view of the fact that quite a number of entries were placed of record under the erroneous ruling of the General Land Office, the department would not offer objec tion to the enactment of legislation validating such entries now pending, allowed prior to notice of the Storaasli decision at the various local land offices (say Sept. 1, 1911), where no other objection is found to the legality of the entries. Your inclosures are returned. Very respectfully, SAMUEL ADAMS, Acting Secretary. о FREE AND EFFICIENT SEAMEN. MAY 2, 1912.-Referred to the House Calendar and ordered to be printed. Mr. WILSON of Pennsylvania, from the Committee on the Merchant Marine and Fisheries, submitted the following REPORT. [To accompany H. R. 23673.] The Committee on the Merchant Marine and Fisheries, to which was referred the bill (H. R. 23673) to abolish the involuntary servitude imposed upon seamen in the merchant marine of the United States while in foreign ports and the involuntary servitude imposed upon the scamen of the merchant marine of foreign countries while in the ports of the United States, to prevent unskilled manning of American vessels, to encourage the training of boys in the American merchant marine, for the further protection of life at sea, and to amend the laws relative to seamen, submits the following report, and recommends that the bill do pass with the following amendments: Page 11, line 1, after the word "master," strike out the word "of" and insert the word "or." Page 17, strike out all of lines 8 and 9 and the words "or of the preceding" in line 11. Page 17, line 17, strike out the figures "16" and insert the figures "15. Page 18, line 13, strike out the figures "17" and insert the figures 16.' The bill as amended will read as follows: A BILL To abolish the involuntary servitude imposed upon seamen in the merchant marine of the United States while in foreign ports and the involuntary servitude imposed upon the seamen of the merchant marine of foreign countries while in ports of the United States, to prevent unskilled manning of American vessels, to encourage the training of boys in the American merchant marine, for the further protection of life at sea, and to amend the laws relative to seamen. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That section forty-five hundred and sixteen of the Revised Statutes of the United States be, and is hereby, amended to read as follows: "SEC. 4516. In case of desertion or casualty resulting in the loss of one or more of the seamen, the master must ship, if obtainable, a number equal to the number of those whose services he has been deprived of by desertion or casualty, who must be of the same or higher grade or rating with those whose places they fill, and report the same to the United States consul at the first port at which he shall arrive, without incurring the penalty prescribed by the two preceding sections. And in all merchant vessels |