being the expenses incurred by him in consequence of a violation of Article XIII of the treaty of commerce and navigation of 1827 between the United States and Sweden and Norway.
WILLIAM McKINLEY.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, Washington, March 22, 1898.
To the Senate:
In connection with Senate Document No. 39, Fifty-fifth Congress, second session, and in further response to the resolution of the Senate of July 12, 1897, I transmit herewith a report from the Secretary of State, with additional papers, relating to postal telegraphs, telephones, and postal savings banks in Austria.
WILLIAM McKINLEY.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, March 31, 1898.
To the Congress:
I transmit herewith, for the information of Congress, a communication from the Secretary of Agriculture covering a detailed report showing the present condition of the beet-sugar industry in this country and the results of experiments made by the Department of Agriculture in the production of sugar from beets in the United States during the past year.
WILLIAM McKINLEY.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, Washington, April 4, 1898.
To the Senate of the United States:
In response to the resolution of the Senate of January 17, 1898, I transmit a report from the Secretary of State, accompanied by copies of correspondence exchanged between Henry Woodruff, trustee and of counsel for the holders of a majority of the first-mortgage bonds of "The Railway of the East," of Venezuela, et al., and the Department of State, and by a list of claims of citizens of the United States presented after August 1, 1898, and, so far as appears, not settled by Venezuela, nor disposed of by the commission of 1889–90.
WILLIAM McKINLEY.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, April 7, 1898.
To the Senate:
In response to the resolution of the Senate of February 26, 1898, requesting the President "if not incompatible with the public interest, to transmit to the Senate the proceedings of the international commission authorized in the concurrent resolution of Congress of April 29, 1890, and a subsequent international convention between the United States and Mexico of May 6, 1896, and also the correspondence relating thereto with Mexico by the Department of the Interior, Department of War, and Department of Justice, as well as the Department of State, relating to the equitable distribution of the waters of the Rio Grande River, including the draft of an incomplete treaty between said Governments, negotiated between the late Secretary of State, Mr. Olney, on the part of the United States, and Mr. Romero, on the part of Mexico, and all the correspondence between said officials relating thereto," I transmit herewith reports from the Secretary of State, the Secretary of War, the Secretary of the Interior, and the Attorney-General, with accompanying papers.
WILLIAM McKINLEY.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, Washington, April 15, 1898.
To the Senate:
In connection with Senate Document No. 39, Fifty-fifth Congress, second session, and in further response to the resolution of the Senate of July 12, 1897, I transmit herewith a report from the Secretary of State, with accompanying papers relating to postal telegraphs, telephones, and postal savings banks in the colony of Victoria.
WILLIAM McKINLEY.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, Washington, April 27, 1898.
To the Congress:
I transmit herewith a report from the Secretary of State and accompanying papers relating to the claim against the United States of the Russian subject, Gustav Isak Dahlberg, master and principal owner of the Russian bark Hans, based on his wrongful and illegal arrest and imprisonment by officers of the United States district court for the southern district of Mississippi, and in view of the opinion expressed by the Department of Justice that the said arrest and detention of the complainant were wrongful and without authority of law, I recommend the appropriation by Congress of the sum of $5,000 to reimburse the master and owners of the vessel for all losses and damages incurred by reason of his said wrongful and illegal arrest and detention.
WILLIAM McKINLEY.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, May 16, 1898.
To the House of Representatives:
I transmit herewith a communication from the Secretary of State, accompanying the annual reports of the consuls of the United States upon foreign industries and commerce. In view of the value of these reports to the business interests of the country, I indorse the recommendation of the Secretary of State that Congress authorize the printing of a special edition of 10,000 copies of the general summary entitled "Review of the World's Commerce," and 5,000 copies of Commercial Relations (including this summary), to enable the Department of State to meet the demands for such information.
WILLIAM McKINLEY.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, May 16, 1898.
To the House of Representatives:
I return herewith to the House of Representatives, in which it originated, House bill No. 2219, entitled "An act for the relief of the administrators of Isaac P. Tice, deceased, and others," without my approval.
The object of this bill is to confer upon the Court of Claims jurisdiction to retry and determine a case brought by the representatives of Isaac P. Tice against the United States in the Court of Claims in the year 1873 to recover from the Government the sum of $25,000, the alleged value of certain meters invented by Isaac P. Tice for the purpose of measuring the quality and strength of distilled spirits.
It was claimed that this amount, together with the sum of $733.33 for storage of said meters, was due to the claimant under a contract made between Tice and the Commissioner of Internal Revenue in pursuance of section 15 of the act of March 2, 1867 (14 Stats., 481). From the report of the case in 13 Court of Claims Reports, 112, it appears that the matter was fully and deliberately tried and argued both on behalf of the claimant and of the United States, and that at December term, 1877, the Court of Claims rendered a decision adverse to the claimant, expressly stating that the claimants had failed to establish their claim both in law and on the facts. Not satisfied with this conclusion of the Court of Claims, the claimants took an appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States, where the case was again argued and was decided, October term, 1878, the judgment of the Court of Claims being declared to be in accordance with the law and therefore affirmed. In these two decisions the law and the facts pertaining to the claim were fully set forth and discussed.
The bill further confers upon the Court of Claims jurisdiction to try and determine certain alleged claims of said Tice and others for money collected on account of the Tice meters, but not paid over to him or them under the regulations of the Treasury.
The amount of the latter claim, according to the report of the committee of the House of Representatives to which this bill was referred, is $140,000. It does not appear from the report of the committee, nor from any documents to which I have access, who are the other persons by whom this latter sum is claimed. The claim for $140,000 must have accrued prior to July, 1871, and therefore at this time is of at least twenty-seven
