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OPERATIONS OF THE CHAMBRE DE COMPENSATION DES BANQUIERS DE PARIS.

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Statement of outstanding treasury bonds and imperial treasury bills of Germany.

[Statistisches Jahrbuch für das Deutsche Reich.]

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CONTROL OF WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY.

MESSAGE

FROM THE

PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES,

TRANSMITTING

A LETTER FROM THE SECRETARY OF THE NAVY RECOMMENDING THE ENACTMENT OF LEGISLATION GIVING THE REPRESENTATIVES OF THE GOVERNMENT A CERTAIN CONTROL OF WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY.

FEBRUARY 13, 1908.-Read; referred to the Committee on Naval Affairs and ordered to be printed.

To the Senate and House of Representatives:

I have received the following letter from the Secretary of the Navy: "FEBRUARY 12, 1908.

"SIR: The Navy Department has the honor to invite the attention of the Executive to the necessity for the enactment of legislation whereby the representatives of the Government may have such control of wireless telegraphy as will insure noninterference with official messages.

"The Navy Department has, by order of the President, the control of the Government coast stations, but unofficial messages sent by these stations or by public vessels may be interfered with by other wireless stations operated either by commercial companies with a legitimate object or by irresponsible persons with malicious intent.

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'Frequent occasions have arisen to illustrate the possible consequences of wireless interference; on one occasion an important message to the President of the United States while embarked on a naval vessel was interfered with and held up for a considerable time by the workings of a commercial wireless station; and instances have occurred wherein the naval stations at Newport, Washington, and San Francisco have at different times been interfered with by persons operating with no serious object.

"The recent International Wireless Telegraph Convention at Berlin, to which the United States was a party, deals only with wireless telegraph stations open to public service between the coast and vessels at

sea,' and therefore does not take cognizance of stations operated by private individuals for other than public service. It may be noted, however, that article 8 of the convention requires that: "The working of the wireless telegraph stations shall be organized as far as possible in such manner as not to disturb the service of other wireless telegraph stations.'

"In view of the foregoing the Navy Department recommends that such legislation be enacted as will insure freedom of official messages from interference. To accomplish this the law should make it a punishable offense

“(a) To originate or transmit a false message purporting to be official;

"(b) To break in and interfere with any wireless station while it is transmitting an official message;

"(c) To refuse to cease or fail to cease sending a private wireless message when called upon to do so by an operator having an official message to be sent.

"It will be noted that the enactment of law of the nature proposed would never seriously interfere with the legitimate working of commercial wireless installations. The restrictions suggested are intended to apply particularly to times of peace. During war it is contemplated that much more extensive prohibitions would be exercised to be put into effect in the absence of legislation by executive proclamation as a belligerent right.

"I am, sir, with great respect,

"V. H. METCALF,
"Secretary."

I cordially indorse all that is above stated, and recommend the passage of such legislation as will accomplish the desired end.

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1st Session.

No. 257.

CONDITION OF NATIVES OF ALASKA.

Mr. TELLER presented the following

PAPER CONTAINING THE CHARGE OF JUDGE ROYAL A. GUNNISON, BEFORE THE GRAND JURY, IN THE DISTRICT COURT, AT JUNEAU, IN THE FIRST DIVISION, DISTRICT OF ALASKA.

FEBRUARY 13, 1908.-Referred to the Committee on Indian Affairs and ordered to be printed.

[In the district court for the district of Alaska, division No. 1, at Juneau.]

Special charge to the Juneau, December, 1907, grand jury.

GENTLEMEN OF THE GRAND JURY: There exists to-day in Alaska, and no more in this judicial division than elsewhere, a most deplorable condition of affairs among the natives. That steps toward the amelioration of this condition should be taken at once there can not be the slightest question. The court, as at present constituted, can not, we think, be characterized as pro native, but the state of abject misery in matters physical and social into which this race is rapidly sinking must cause one to consider what can be done not alone for the natives, but for the white people who are brought more or less in constant touch with them. Where and how to initiate a movement along these lines, as here briefly indicated, has furnished the subject of much meditation and numerous conferences with persons familiar with the conditions needing remedy and the causes thereof. While at first blush it may appear to one that the health conditions among the Alaskan natives or the social relations existing between the natives themselves and between the natives and the white men are matters best left alone, or in any event that these conditions are not new and are well enough cared for in the present way, nevertheless when thinking men stop to consider the situation in all its phases they can but realize that something must be done to improve matters, and that, again, to use the language of a well-known author, "The white man's burden" is here waiting to be taken up through definite Government channels.

Lest the attitude of the court toward the various denominational missions among the Indians shall be misconstrued or misunderstood, it seems advisable to say that the action here taken is in no way intended

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