Contingent. Increase of the Navy. Three coast-line battle ships. Cost. officers serving with troops where there are no public quarters belong. ing to the Government, and where there are not sufficient quarters possessed by the United States to accommodate them, four thousand five hundred dollars; for hire of quarters for seven enlisted men employed as clerks and messengers in commandant's, adjutant and inspector's, paymaster's, and quartermaster's offices, Washington, District of Co lumbia, and for the leader of the Marine Band, and assistant quartermaster's offices, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, at twenty one dollars per month each, one thousand seven hundred and sixty-four dollars; for hire of quarters for three enlisted men employed as above, at ten dollars each per month, three hundred and sixty dollars; in all, six thousand six hundred and twenty-four dollars. CONTINGENT, MARINE CORPS: For freight, tolls, cartage, advertising, washing of bed sacks, mattress covers, pillowcases, towels, and sheets, funeral expenses of marines, stationery and other paper, telegraphing, rent of telephones, purchase and repair of typewriters, apprehension of stragglers and deserters, per diem of enlisted men employed on constant labor for a period not less than ten days, repair of gas and water fixtures, office and barracks furniture; mess utensils for enlisted men, such as bowls, plates, spoons, knives, forks; packing boxes, wrapping paper, oilcloth, crash, rope, twine, camphor and carbolized paper, carpenters' tools, tools for police purposes, iron safes, purchase and repair of public wagons, purchase and repair of harness, purchase of public horses, services of veterinary surgeons and medicines for public horses, purchase and repair of hose, repair of fire extinguishers, purchase of fire hand grenades, purchase and repair of carts, wheelbarrows, and lawn mowers; purchase and repair of cooking stoves, ranges, stoves, and furnaces where there are no grates; purchase of ice, towels, and soap for offices; postage stamps for foreign postage; purchase of books, newspapers, and periodicals; improving parade grounds, repair of pumps and wharves, laying drain, water, and gas pipes, water, introducing gas, and for gas, gas oil, and maintenance of electric lights; straw for bedding, mattresses, mattress covers, pillows; wire bunk bottoms for enlisted men at the various posts; furniture for Government houses and repair of same, and for all emergencies and extraordinary expenses arising at home and abroad, but impossible to anticipate or classify, thirty thousand dollars. For iron bedsteads, mattresses, mattress covers, pillows, clothing boxes, and other articles, for five hundred noncommissioned officers, musicians, and privates, to be enlisted in accordance with the provisions of section fifteen hundred and ninety-six, Revised Statutes, three thousand dollars, to be immediately available. INCREASE OF THE NAVY. That for the purpose of further increasing the naval establishment of the United States the President is hereby authorized to have constructed by contract three seagoing coast-line battle ships designed to carry the heaviest armor and most powerful ordnance upon a displacement of about eleven thousand tons, to have the highest practicable speed for vessels of their class, and to cost, exclusive of armament, not exceeding three million seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars each; Three torpedo boats. and three torpedo boats, to have a maximum speed of not less than thirty knots, to cost in all not exceeding eight hundred thousand dol Ten torpedo boats. lars; and not to exceed ten torpedo boats to cost in all not exceeding five hundred thousand dollars, and to have the highest practicable speed for vessels of their class; and not more than two of said battle ships and not more than three of said torpedo boats shall be built in one yard or by one contracting party, and in each case the contract shall be awarded by the Secretary of the Navy to the lowest best responsible bidder; and in the construction of all said vessels all of the provisions of the Act of August third, eighteen hundred and eighty-six, entitled "An Act to increase the naval establishment," as to materials Contracts. Construction. Vol. 24, p. 215. No premiums. tion. Provisos. for said vessels, their engines, boilers, and machinery, the contracts under which they are built, except as to premiums, which are not to be offered, the notice of any proposals for the same, the plans, drawings, and specifications therefor, and the method of executing said contracts, shall be observed and followed, and said vessels shall be built in compliance with the terms of said Act, save that in all their parts said vessels shall be of domestic manufacture; and, subject to the provi-Place of construcsions hereinafter made, one and not more than one seagoing battle ship and three of said torpedo boats shall be built on or near the coast of the Pacific Ocean or in the waters connecting therewith, provided that said battle ship or torpedo boats can be constructed at an additional cost not exceeding four per centum of the lowest accepted bid for the other battle ships or torpedo boats provided for in this Act, and one torpedo boat on the Mississippi River, one torpedo boat on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, and one torpedo boat on the Missouri River: Provided, That if it shall appear to the satisfaction of the President of coast, etc. the United States, from the biddings for such contracts when the same are opened and examined by him, that said vessels can not be constructed at a fair cost on or near the coast of the Pacific Ocean, on the Mississippi or Missouri River or the Gulf of Mexico, he shall authorize the construction of said vessels, or either of them, elsewhere in the United States, subject to the limitations as to cost herein before provided: Provided further, That the contracts for the construction of the vessels herein provided for shall be made within one hundred and twenty days from the passage of this Act: And provided further, That the Secretary of the Navy is hereby directed to examine into the actual cost of armor plate and the price for the same which should be equitably paid and shall report the result of his investigation to Congress at its next session at a date not later than January first, eighteen hundred and ninety-seven, and no contract for armor plate for the vessels authorized by this Act shall be made till after such report is made to Congress for its action. Contracts. Report on armor plate. boats. Proviso. Acceptance of boat. The Secretary of the Navy is hereby authorized to contract for the Two Holland torpedobuilding of two submarine torpedo boats of the Holland type, at a cost not exceeding one hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars each; said boats to be constructed and delivered to the Navy Department within four months from the date of contract: Provided, That the Holland boat now being built for the Department shall be accepted by the being built. Department as fulfilling all the requirements of the contract, and as being satisfactory to the Secretary of the Navy; but no action shall be taken therein until said Holland boat now being built for the Department shall have been fully tested to the satisfaction of the Secretary of the Navy, and thereupon accepted. CONSTRUCTION AND MACHINERY: On account of the hulls and outfits of vessels and steam machinery of vessels heretofore authorized, and of the vessels authorized under this Act, six million eight hundred and seventy thousand six hundred dollars. Construction and machinery. Armor and armament. Vol. 24, p. 215. Vol. 27, p. 250. Vol. 27, p. 731. Vol. 28, p. 140. ARMOR AND ARMAMENT: Toward the armament and armor of domestic manufacture for the vessels authorized by the Act of August third, eighteen hundred and eighty six; of those authorized by the Act of June thirtieth, eighteen hundred and ninety; of those authorized by the Act of July nineteenth, eighteen hundred and ninety-two; and of the vessels authorized by the Act of March third, eighteen hundred and ninety-three; of the three torpedo boats, Act of July twenty-sixth, eighteen hundred and ninety-four; of the vessels authorized under the Act of March second, eighteen hundred and ninety-five, and of the vessels authorized under this Act, four million three hundred and seventy-one thousand four hundred and fifty-four dollars. EQUIPMENT: Toward the completion of the equipment outfit of the Equipment. new vessels heretofore authorized by Congress, two hundred and thirtyseven thousand dollars. Vol. 28, p. 841. action. SEC. 2. That the Secretary of the Navy is hereby directed to examine, Propulsion by direct. through a board composed of line and staff officers, into the merits of tem directed. Examination of sys- any system presented for the propulsion of vessels by direct action against the water without the use of screws, in comparison with the steam engine and the propeller, and into the relative efficiency of the two methods as to displacement, waste of fuel, liability to accidents, and speed endurance, and also into the applicability and special advantages of the direct system in connection with torpedo boats and coast-defense vessels. Approved, June 10, 1896. June 10, 1896. United States peni tentiary. Leavenworth, Kans. Selection of site for new buildings on military reservation. CHAP. 400.-An Act To establish a site for the erection of a penitentiary on the military reservation at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Attorney-General is hereby authorized and directed to select on the military reservation at Leavenworth, Kansas, within limits hereinafter described, a site for the erection of a penitentiary and other buildings, wall, and workshops for the employment of United States prisoners, with such improvements as he may direct in connection with the completion of the several buildings; said penitentiary to be of a capacity to accommodate at least one thousand two hundred convicts, and to be situated on said grounds and within the following boundary lines: Beginning at a point at the northwestern intersection of Grant and Logan avenues, thence north seventytwo degrees west more or less, forty-five hundred feet more or less to a stone in the field north of the Government farm barn, thence due west fifteen hundred feet more or less to the north side of Logan Avenue; thence along said avenue and its prolongation to the western boundary of the Military Reservation; thence south along said line to the southwest corner of said reservation, thence east along the south line of said reservation to the pike leading north from the city of Leavenworth to the post of Fort Leavenworth; thence north along said pike to the point of beginning; and that these grounds thus described shall be, and hereby are, set apart from the contiguous military reservation for United States penitentiary purposes, and assigned to and placed under the care and control of the Attorney-General as a United States penitentiary reservation: Provided, That when the United States Penitenbuildings, etc., to War tiary shall be occupied and applied to the purposes contemplated by Department. this Act, the buildings and grounds within the said Military ReservaVol. 28, p. 957. tion of Fort Leavenworth that were transferred from the Department of War to the Department of Justice, in accordance with the provisions of the Act of Congress approved March second, eighteen hundred and ninety-five, shall be restored to the control of the said Department of War: And provided further, That this prison reservation shall be open for military tactical purposes, when such purposes do not interfere with the discipline of said prison. Provisos. Return of present Plans, etc. Construction by con victs. Use of shops, etc. SEC. 2. That the Attorney-General shall employ an architect skilled in the construction of penitentiary buildings, who, with the warden of the existing penitentiary, shall prepare plans, specifications, and estimates, and submit them to the Attorney-General for approval. SEC. 3. That upon the approval of plans and estimates the AttorneyGeneral is authorized to incur the expense necessary to construct the penitentiary buildings thus approved, and for this purpose shall employ the labor of the convicts in the present United States penitentiary at Fort Leavenworth that can, under proper guards, be used on the neces sary stone, brick, and wood work, in the manufacture of lime on the reservation, until the completion of the same, and shall use all the equipments for carrying on the work that are in the possession of the present United States Penitentiary building, including the sawmill and shops equipped for working in iron, stone, brass, and wood, with the use of the animals and wagons there belonging to the United States for hauling material, and other necessary transportation, and said prison shall have the right to quarry stone for prison purposes in any of the . I. SESS. Proviso. quarries on the Fort Leavenworth Reservation: Provided, That no SEC. 4. That the cost of employing an architect and of building said penitentiary, workshops, and improvements shall not, exclusive of the prison labor, exceed the sum of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, of which no more than fifty thousand dollars, or so much thereof as may be necessary, shall be expended in a fiscal year. Approved, June 10, 1896. Limit of cost. CHAP. 401.-An Act To amend an Act approved August nineteenth, eighteen hundred and ninety, entitled "An Act to adopt regulations for preventing collisions at sea." June 10, 1896. Collisions at sea. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That article fifteen of the Act approved August nineteenth, eighteen hundred and ninety, entitled vent, amended. "An Act to adopt regulations for preventing collisions at sea," be amended to read as follows: “ART. 15. All signals prescribed by this article for vessels under way shall be given: "First. By 'steam vessels' on the whistle or siren. "Second. By 'sailing vessels' and 'vessels towed' on the fog horn. The words 'prolonged blast' used in this article shall mean a blast of from four to six seconds duration. "A steam vessel shall be provided with an efficient whistle or siren, sounded by steam or by some substitute for steam, so placed that the sound may not be intercepted by any obstruction, and with an efficient fog horn, to be sounded by mechanical means, and also with an efficient bell. (In all cases where the rules require a bell to be used a drum may be substituted on board Turkish vessels, or a gong where such articles, are used on board small seagoing vessels.) A sailing vessel of twenty tons gross tonnage or upward shall be provided with a similar fog horn and bell. "In fog, mist, falling snow, or heavy rainstorms, whether by day or night, the signals described in this article shall be used as follows, namely: "(a) A steam vessel having way upon her shall sound, at intervals of not more than two minutes, a prolonged blast. (b) A steam vessel under way, but stopped, and having no way upon her, shall sound, at intervals of not more than two minutes, two prolonged blasts, with an interval of about one second between. (c) A sailing vessel under way shall sound, at intervals of not more than one minute, when on the starboard tack, one blast; when on the port tack, two blasts in succession, and when with the wind abaft the beam, three blasts in succession. "(d) A vessel when at anchor shall, at intervals of not more than one minute, ring the bell rapidly for about five seconds. Vol. 26, p. 325. Fog signals. Steam vessels. Sailing vessels. Meaning of prolonged blast. Instruments to be used by steam vessels. Substitutes on Turk- ish and small vessels. Day and night sig nals. Steamers under way. Steamers stopped. Sailing vessels under way. Vessels at anchor. ing cables, or not un "(e) A vessel when towing, a vessel employed in laying or in pick-Vessels towing, laying up a telegraph cable, and a vessel under way, which is unable der control. to get out of the way of an approaching vessel through being not under command, or unable to maneuver as required by the rules, shall, instead of the signals prescribed in subdivisions (a) and (c) of this article, at intervals of not more than two minutes, sound three blasts in succession, namely: One prolonged blast followed by two short blasts. A vessel towed may give this signal and she shall not give any other. 66 Sailing vessels and boats of less than twenty tons gross tonnage shall not be obliged to give the above-mentioned signals, but, if they do not, they shall make some other efficient sound signal at intervals of not more than one minute." Sound signals by small vessels. Effect when proclaimed. SEC. 2. That said Act of August nineteenth, eighteen hundred and ninety, as amended, shall take effect at a subsequent time to be fixed by the President by proclamation issued for that purpose. Approved, June 10, 1896. June 10, 1896. Preamble. Transmississippi and International Exposi tion. To be held at Omaha, Nebr., 1898. Proviso. Nonliability of United States. Free entry of arti cles for exhibition. Sales. CHAP. 402.-An Act To authorize and encourage the holding of a transmississippi and international exposition at the city of Omaha, in the State of Nebraska, in the year eighteen hundred and ninety-eight. Whereas it is desirable to encourage the holding of a transmississippi and international exposition at the city of Omaha, in the State of Nebraska, in the year eighteen hundred and ninety-eight, for the exhibition of the resources of the United States of America and the progress and civilization of the Western Hemisphere, and for a display of the arts, industries, manufactures, and products of the soil, mine, and sea; and Whereas it is desirable that an exhibition shall be made of the great staples of the transmississippi region which contributes so largely to domestic and international commerce; and Whereas encouragement should be given to an exhibit of the arts, industries, manufactures, and products, illustrative of the progress and development of that and other sections of the country; and Whereas such exhibition should be national as well as international in its character, in which the people of this country, of Mexico, the Central and South American Governments, and other States of the world should participate, and should, therefore, have the sanction of the Congress of the United States; and Whereas it is desirable and will be highly beneficial to bring together at such an exposition, to be held at a central position in the western part of the United States, the people of the United States and other States of this continent; and Whereas the Transmississippi and International Exposition Association has undertaken to hold such exposition, beginning on the first day of June, eighteen hundred and ninety-eight, and closing on the first day of November, eighteen hundred and ninety-eight: Therefore, Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That a transmississippi and international exposition shall be held at the city of Omaha, in the State of Nebraska, in the year eighteen hundred and ninety-eight, under the auspices of the Transmississippi and International Exposition Associa tion: Provided, That the United States shall not be liable for any of the expense attending or incident to such exposition, nor by reason of the same. SEC. 2. That all articles which shall be imported from foreign countries for the sole purpose of exhibition at said exposition upon which there shall be a tariff or customs duty shall be admitted free of payment of duty, customs fees, or charges, under such regulation as the Secretary of the Treasury shall prescribe; but it shall be lawful at any time during the exhibition to sell for delivery at the close thereof any goods or property imported for and actually on exhibition in the exhibition building, or on the grounds, subject to such regulation for the security of the revenue and for the collection of import duties as the Secretary of the Treasury shall prescribe: Provided, That all such articles when Duty on articles sold. sold or withdrawn for consumption in the United States shall be subject to the duty, if any, imposed upon such article by the revenue laws in force at the date of importation, and all penalties prescribed by law shall be applied and enforced against the persons who may be guilty of any illegal sale or withdrawal. Proviso. Government exhibit. SEC. 3. That there shall be exhibited at said exposition by the Government of the United States, from its Executive Departments, the Smithsonian Institution, the United States Fish Commission, and the National Museum, such articles and material as illustrate the function |